LEGO bricks-Fun for all ages

 

 

 

From an early age, LEGO bricks provide a foundation for creative building and engineering skills. Children of all ages enjoy the many different possibilities that LEGO brings.

As a brand new 8th Grade homeroom teacher, I wanted to bring the option of LEGO bricks to my student’s unstructured time, but space became a limitation with 30 middle school bodies in my somewhat cramped classroom. Earlier in the year I met a teacher at an EdCamp who talked about building a LEGO wall in her room and I decided to look into that as a possibility.  After exploring the available options in my classroom, I decided to turn one of my little-used bulletin boards into a LEGO board where my students could build and design. Once that was determined, I quickly moved forward with my project!

 

Materials:

  • 16 LEGO (10 inch by 10) inch Green Base plates
  • ¾-inch thick plywood, 44 inches wide and 44 inches long
  • Liquid nails and dispensing gun
  • Tapcon 3/16 x 1-¼ inch concrete anchors
  • Ruler
  • Power drill
  • Lego
  1. Measure the area available for the board (in my case, 44 inches x 44 inches)
  2. Purchased ¾-inch thick plywood, cut to size at Home Depot.
  3. Ordered 16 LEGO green base plates (10 inches X 10 inches) from LEGO. Back in October I paid $4.99 directly from LEGO, their price appears to have gone up http://shop.lego.com/en-CA/Green-Baseplate-10700. Amazon and eBay could be alternative options.
  4. Measured, placed and marked baseplate locations on the board.  I allowed for a two-inch margin along all four edges of the board.  I also made sure all of the tiny LEGO words were oriented in the same direction!
  5. I used Liquid Nails to glue each base plate to the board.
  6. I applied glue along the perimeter and an “X” in the middle of each plate. 
  7. As I glued down each base plate, I used a LEGO piece to connect the new plate with an old one to be sure the spacing and alignment were correct.
  8. I allowed the glue to dry overnight.
  9. Because the wall behind my old bulletin board is concrete, we used Tapcon concrete screws to secure the board assembly to the wall.
  10.  My son Brooks drilled along the edge of the plywood and also placed a screw at the center of the board.   
  11. After confirming the strength of the installation, the LEGO board was ready for my student’s creative enjoyment!