Play Well With Lego in PE and Beyond

'Play Well' With Lego in PE and Beyond

'Your imagination's the only limit' (ideas.lego.com) - Brian Boyle

Having like so many been a keen Lego 'creator' from a young age, it has always been a source of fascination to me how something so simple has created infinite creative possibilities for children. Exposure to sorting, planning, constructing, de-constructing or re-constructing allowed many the creative mind take their first tentative steps as engineers!

Fast forward to adult years and the satisfaction gleamed from relieving the itch that was researching the background to the invention of lego by Ole Kirk Christiansen. Incidentally 'lego' is adapted from the Danish words 'leg godt' meaning 'play well' while also having the equally appropriate meaning in Latin of 'I put together'.

The story of Lego's evolution is a real lesson in the credo that 'out of adversity comes opportunity'. Ole recovered from near ruin many times (his toy factory burnt to the ground twice) which led to him travelling the country trying to sell his toys to shops while being the sole parent figure to 3 young boys. His wife died while his 3 sons were still young. One would forgive him for cutting corners but he remained steadfast to his premise that "only the best is good enough". He felt that children are role models who embrace discovery and were natural learners, qualities which he felt should be nurtured and stimulated throughout our lives.

So How Can Lego Be Beneficial to My Child's Motor Development?

Playing with lego individually and in small groups is beneficial to children in so many ways. Firstly through the development of communication and language skills, creativity and experimentation, focus and concentration, as well as patience and self confidence it allows them to develop those essential executive function skills that are so critical to their development and crucial for going about their every day lives. The handling and manipulation of the lego pieces is developing pincer grip, motor skills, and enables bi-lateral development opportunities with grabbing and placing of the pieces. The benefits accumulate from the first tentative grasps at the big lego pieces by an infant who proceeds to explore it through touch and taste and then uses it to meander their way through their developmental schemas: grasping, transporting, connecting, rotating and transforming. Fine motor skills become more refined as they use the pieces to explore object manipulation, attaching and detaching.

What Is the Relevance to PE?

All these skills are vital foundational skills for life and PE and thus key building blocks for exploration of more gross motor skills such as manipulation of a ball or developing balance, to name but two. Therefore it could be argued that lego can help shape how our child interacts with the world. As Carla Rinaldi, President of Reggio children said "Play and Learning are like 2 wings of a butterfly - one cannot exist without the other".

The Lego Foundation (www.legofoundation.com) - Lego's research centre in their white paper define the 5 characteristics of play as being joyful, actively engaging and meaningful, iterative and socially interactive. These are characteristics that one could argue lend themselves to effective exploration of the PE curriculum and implementation of any PE activity.

The Future?

Lego has continued to evolve over the years and with it the influence it brings to our children's play experiences. Robotics now take centre stage as children have the chance to program their constructions to move through immersive programming experiences challenging conventional thinking and enhancing problem solving skills. However original Lego has not been forgotten and programmes like the 6 Bricks programme (https://sixbrickseducation.com/) have shown that the original concepts of play well are still central to the overall lego philosophy. CPD College offer a fantastic summer course option in the 6 bricks programme which originated in South Africa, for anyone who wants to bring a new lego experience to their classrooms while remembering the characteristics of play first dreamed of by Ole Kirk Christiansen all those years ago and turned into reality by the many 'imagineers' at Lego since!

"Play and Learning are like 2 wings of a butterfly - one cannot exist without the other". - Carla Rinaldi

Some Lego-themed PE Ideas

- Lego piece relay race - Lego colour sorting relay - Lego target throw - Lego juggle (1 piece at a time) - Pop goes the lego - Tic-Tac-Toe Lego relay - 4 in a row - Tallest Tower Challenge - Build a playground/obstacle course - Transporting games balancing lego