Children love the thrill of building, and creating their own little worlds, and they can spend hours engrossed in such an activity. Their imaginations will be stretched during this time of creativity, and their teamwork skills also have an opportunity to grow as they play with their peers and discover how to compromise with each other and still enjoy themselves! They learn to support each other and offer suggestions and ideas. They also have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, to learn how to fail if their idea doesn’t work the first time. Their character will have the chance to grow as they learn all these little things, things that will help them cope with the bigger wider world.
Building with bricks, Lego, or the like, is also an opportunity for children to hone their fine motor skills, or their gross motor skills depending on the size of the ‘bricks’, building up strong muscles in their hands and bodies which will help them to accomplish other skills such as writing, scissor work, etc
There is also a profound sense of accomplishment in building something yourself – working out how to put things together to create the world that they have thought up in their head. Finding the exact little piece you need, and fitting it into the 10 or so other little pieces – it’s like putting together a puzzle of their own creation. Bringing order to the Lego bucket of Chaos!
Persistence also comes into play here, as they try their ideas, and maybe need to find a better way – to build an arch, or a working drawbridge – whatever it might be!
There are many skills that can be learnt and enhanced, just by playing with bricks….. who’d have thought fun time could be learning time eh?!
Fireflies After School Club 