Lego Club

Did you know that the Honey Brook Library has a Lego Club for kids K-5th grade?  Here is how we got started.
To start the Lego Club, we put up signs "looking for lonely Legos" at the library.  With donations, grants, and lucky staff yard sale finds, we had enough to start the program in the Fall of 2011.  Here came the tough part,  how to make it work?

I asked asked several Mom friends who had been to Lego Clubs at other libraries what they did, and I also went online to read other library blogs about the clubs.  Here are the basic things that I learned. 
1. Limit the class number
2. Make sure the people who sign up, actually show up or they forfeit coming to the next session
3. Give them a theme
4. Put what the kids make on display

So I had these grand plans of setting down ground rules and going over acceptable behavior and stuff like that during our very first session.  What I forgot is that this age range of kids go to school.  They are not the toddlers and preschoolers that I have for Story Times, who wander around the room and talk whenever the mood hits them.  These are kids who sit down and know how to complete an assignment.  Yay for me!

I set up the work tables for 10 children with an individual building board at each spot. I split the Legos into two tubs and put in the tubs in middle of the two tables.  I explained to them, we would have a theme each time and then free play.  At each spot, I folded an index card in half and stood them up like a tent.  After each child finished, I had them write a title or description of what they made, along with their first name and grade.  Then I had them follow me to a different spot in the library, and put their creations on a display I made.   The display is towards the front of the library so that people coming and going can view them.

After the structured time, the kids had free play time with the Legos.  Their choice was to keep building at the tables or they could sit on the floor with more Lego tubs that had boats and dragons in them.  The Lego dragons were a big hit.  A great yard sale find! The dragons got their imaginations flowing.  Of course, dragons need to fly and I permitted them to fly as long as they were walking with them in our small library.

The clubs have been a great success and I have had a lot of great positive feedback from the parents.  Our Lego Club will be taking a break in this summer, and be starting up again in September 2012.