Over winter break, we hosted a very popular event at my library: Lego Day! After our successful Elephant and Piggie Day last summer, we wanted to do a similar passive-ish program for winter break and we decided to take the plunge and start Lego programming.
What we did:
Lego Day was held Friday, January 4 (the last Friday of winter break) from 10am-4pm. It was a drop-in event, no registration required, and we had various stations set up around our Children’s Room. Our activities included:
A Lego creation room (of course!). We set up tables in our programming room and left out Legos for kids and families to build with. We included Legos, Duplos, and Mega Bloks for the very youngest.
Craft stations. We had a table where kids could make a Lego mask and a table where kids could make a Lego stick puppet. For each of these tables, we put out the templates, crayons, glue, and craft sticks and let families go to town.
When Miss T ran off the templates, she printed the instructions right on the papers, which was a great idea!
Lego Ski-ball. We set out a basket of Lego Duplos for the kids to throw.
A Lego matching memory game. We put this out on one of our tables for families to play with.
And a couple others I don’t have pictures of: Lego coloring sheets and a dress-up station (ostensibly “Dress up like a Lego character!” but really the kids just love to dress up!).
Lego Day was a really fun day and families had a great time at the library. Many kids and parents were very excited to see something related to Legos on our library calendar and we also had a nice turnout for our Saturday Lego Club (we had the inaugural meeting in January and plan to offer it every month!). We had over 50 people show up, which is HUGE for a Saturday program here.
Resources:
You can find the templates for the Lego minifigure masks on the Lego website.
You can find a template for Lego minifigure stick puppets on the blog Homegrown Learners. Mary’s post has many ideas for playing and learning with Legos!
The blog Walking by the Way has some great printable Learning with Lego resources that would be fun for stations or for a take-home packet.
Lego Duplo has partnered with ALSC to offer a program called Read, Build, Play. You will find resources on their website including activities for young children and information for parents (and librarians!) on the importance of play and reading.
Amy Koester, The Show Me Librarian, shared a post about her Lego Club with great tips and a play-by-play of what she did in her program.
Sara Bryce of Bryce Don’t Play shared a post about her Ninjago Library Party with lots of great activity ideas!
Read this School Library Journal article about the Radnor Memorial Library’s Lego Club: Block Party: Legos in the Library.
You can find TONS more ideas for crafts, activities, and decorations by Googling “Lego birthday party” or by searching for “Lego crafts” boards on Pinterest.
Where did we get the Legos?
We provided the Legos for our creation room and now we’re using them for a monthly Lego Club that’s bringing many families into the library. To start our collection, we used points from the Campbell Soup Labels for Education program. We have a volunteer who maintains our donated labels and we hadn’t used any points in quite awhile, so we were able to get a good start. We also purchased additional basic Lego, Duplo, and Mega Blok sets with some of our programming money. We plan to put out the call for donations now that we’ve got our Lego Club established and I’m hoping that many of our patrons have Lego sets collecting dust in attics and basements!
Have you hosted a Lego Club or Lego programming at your library? How did it go?
— Abby Johnson, Children’s Manager
New Albany-Floyd County Public Library
New Albany, IN
http://www.abbythelibrarian.com
Sharon McClintock
Sounds like a great program, with lots of ways for the kids to extend the play–with the masks, the dressing up, etc. Playmobiles are also very fun and have endless possibilities for imaginative play. Thanks for sharing all the resources, Abby!
Michelle M.
I always thought a Lego program would be fun. Thanks for posting!
Jen (LostintheLibrary/StorytimewithJen)
Lego programs have been incredibly successful at our branch. We do a 4 week program, once a week in the evening. We register 25 children from ages 6-12 and there is always a waiting list. Aside from building with the Lego, we offer weekly challenges, Lego Bingo, and the craft activities listed above.
It’s one of our most popular and requested programs for school-agers. Getting Lego has been a challenge,(so pricey) it always seems like we could use more:)
Shannon
Be careful using “lego” in the description, etc. At our library we have had to change them to building bricks parties, because apparently Lego is cracking down on people using their name on programs that they have not sponsered or specifically endorsed. That being said, it looks like a great program!!! 🙂
Shelley Black Holley
We did a lego program last summer called Builders of the Future. It was so much fun and we had infants to middle schoolers attend. Parents brought the whole family which was nice. We plan to do it again this summer. I love the ideas you posted and may add a few! Thanks!
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