As a parent, I know how valuable it is to teach your children enthusiasm for learning, especially STEM subjects.
However, if your kids are anything like mine, then you know they’d rather spend their days watching TV or playing (and honestly, who can blame them?
I also love watching reruns of my favorite shows instead of doing chores…)
However, I want to encourage a balance of work and play in my household, and that’s when I came up with Lego STEM activities.
My children love to play with Legos, and so I came up with and found some activities that I can try with them that will encourage them to learn while playing!
So, if you’re also interested in teaching your kids STEM through play, keep reading for 15 of the best Lego STEM activities to try today! (see also ‘15 Best Stem Math Activities to Try Today‘)
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15 Best Lego Stem Activities to Try Today
Here are 15 of the best Lego STEM activities you can try with your children today (see also ‘15 Best STEM Activities For Preschoolers To Try Today‘) !
1. Build a Lego Volcano
Honestly? As soon as I told my children we were going to make exploding Lego volcanoes they immediately got excited and switched off the TV.
It was like magic, and luckily, it was also a real-life success that they couldn’t wait to do again!
First, you need to encourage your children to build their Lego volcano shapes.
Then, place the volcanos on a baking sheet. With your kids, take a measuring cup and fill it with red food coloring and vinegar.
Into a second cup, pour 1/4 cup of baking soda and then pour that onto the Lego tower. Now, pour the vinegar and watch the volcano erupt!
2. Build a Lego Fidget Spinner
Get your kids started on physics lessons by making a Lego fidget spinner (see also ‘What Are Sensory Toys?‘)! You’ll need a variety of Lego shapes, including squares, rectangles, and circles.
Here’s a Youtube tutorial on how to make it! These fidget spinners are great because they encourage your children to learn and fine-tune their fine motor skills.
Be warned – your kids will love these so much they’ll want to use them all the time!
3. Build Lego Shadow Towers
Lego shadow towers are the perfect science experiment for the summer. With these towers, you can teach your children all about light and shadows.
With this STEM activity, all you need to do is encourage your children to build any Lego shape using any Lego they like.
Once they are finished, take them outside and shine the Lego in the sun to see what shape they make!
Now, take some chalk and let your child trace the Lego shadows for a beautiful sidewalk mural!
4. Build a Lego Planter
You will need the Miracle-Gro seed pods for this experiment. This is a STEM activity perfect for children of all ages (see also ‘What Does STEM Stand For?’). First, you and your children will need to build bases using Lego.
I would recommend using two square flat Lego pieces that have holes. Then, use other rectangular pieces to make the walls that are taller than the seed pods.
Once you have done this, let your kids pick out some seeds they can plant and teach them about the seeds and how science is going to make them grow.
Then, all of you can add some potting mix to the Lego planter, plant your seeds, and through the power of water and sunlight, your seeds are sure to grow!
5. Build a Lego Water Dam
Explore the flow of water with your little engineers by building Lego water dams! The first thing you need to do is set up your incline plate on a tray to stop water from overflowing.
Then, encourage children to build the dam! They can design this in any way that they like, and it is a good idea to design it in a variety of different ways to see how well the designs stop the water.
6. Build a Lego Duplo Paint Machine
Not only will this allow your children to become more interested in STEM, but it will also encourage them to be interested in art!
To build this machine, you’ll need a Duplo turntable brick. Let your kids build the paint machine with the turntable brick, plates, and Duplo bricks, and then attach a paintbrush.
Let your children dip the brush into the paint and spin the machine with the paintbrush over the paper and watch the colors it makes.
You can use a variety of different colored paints and take the opportunity to teach your children all about color theory!
7. Build Lego Balloon Cars
Lego balloon cars are very easy to make! Encourage your children to fine-tune their fine motor and design skills by making a Lego car.
You should make one for yourself, too. Then, attach a balloon to the cars and let them go.
We had so much fun racing with these Lego balloon cars, using a tape measure to see who went the furthest!
8. Make A Lego Zip Line
All you need for this activity is some Lego bricks, a little Lego Minifigure, and some string or a cord. First, as a parent, you will need to tie the string from one point to another so it makes the zip line.
Then, encourage your children to make the Lego contraption, place the Minifigure inside, and watch them fly!
This is a fun science experiment exploring what slopes make for the best cords. It takes a lot of trial and error and is the perfect opportunity to teach your child about gravity.
9. Make a Marble Maze
This STEM activity can be made as simple or as complex as you want. All you need to do is take a Lego base and build a maze with Lego bricks.
Take a marble and place it inside. Then, encourage your child to get the marble out of the maze. This helps to develop your child’s problem-solving skills.
10. Play With Lego Challenge Cards
I recently found some Lego challenge cards for my kids and we love them for Saturday night game nights!
They can be found online and contain small challenges such as “build a Pizza from Lego.” This again encourages independent thinking and will develop your child’s fine motor skills.
We like to use these Lego challenge cards.
11. Paint A Lego City
This one combines STEM with art to make STEAM. Here, all you need is some large paper and paints.
Encourage your child to dip various Lego cards into the paint and then onto the paper to try and make houses and buildings in a city. It’s great fun and makes for fantastic refrigerator artwork!
It is also a good idea to talk to your kids about construction and how buildings are actually made while doing this.
12. Flat Lego Artwork
For this STEM activity, you will need to use flat Lego pieces and a Lego base.
Let your children pick designs that they like and encourage them to use the flat Lego pieces to make them. You get some seriously beautiful pictures.
Ask your child questions about their process to see what they’re thinking. Not only does this develop their problem-solving skills and independence, but it also develops their creativity skills, too!
13. Make A Lego Gravity Roller
Your kids will have a lot of fun making a gravity roller out of Lego! Here is a great Youtube tutorial that we followed to make ours.
This is a great opportunity to teach your children the basics of gravity by using Lego.
You can also ask them questions about various weights and items and what impact they have on the gravity roller, and why. It’s so educational and so fun, kids won’t realize they’re learning!
14. Build Lego Objects From All Four Seasons
Using these wonderful STEM Challenge Cards: Seasons Of Building, you can teach your children all about the four seasons, how they change, and what to expect.
It’s a great way to get your preschoolers excited about the world around them and they will have excellent knowledge going into kindergarten.
To play this game, you pick a card from whatever season you like and ask your child to build the object on the card with Lego.
Every object is related to a season. It’s so much fun and we’ve spent so much time playing with them!
15. Learn Addition!
You can begin to teach your preschoolers very basic math with lego, too. We use these Math fact game cards. I mainly focus on teaching them how to identify numbers.
There are cards with very simple equations, (3 red legos + 2 blue Legos =) that I encourage them to complete.
Not only does this teach them the basics of numbers, but it also teaches them how to identify colors, and fine motor skills as they pick up and place down the Legos.
Final Thoughts
If your children are anything like mine, then they want to spend a lot of their time playing games or re-watching their favorite movies, and they have little time for STEM and learning.
However, by using Lego, you can make learning as fun as play, and they won’t even realize they’re doing it!
