Lego Clubs

[MaryPlain59]

I would like to start up a Lego Club at my Primary school this year and wondered if anybody here already runs one at their school either at lunchtime or after school who could give me any advice on running the club and tell me what would be best in terms of numbers of children attending and what would be the best Lego to buy to start off with and any other helpful tips please.

Watching.
What age children?

Thanks so much for replying, I work with KS2 children so will be starting with them from Y3 to Y6 but would also like to offer it to KS1 at a later date if it is popular and I have got it well established.

Baseboards! Lots of baseboard

My ds goes to lego club there massive quantitys of classic lego with an entire box of accessories(Windows,trees ect)

The club had 28 kids...

There's one baseboard.
It's a huge source of strife, I bought the school two instead of an end of year gift for the teacher.

She was very grateful.

That is a brilliant suggestion thanks so much. Does your ds just make what he likes each week or is there any kind of direction or suggestions from the adults? Something I have wanted to know is do they have to break up what they make at the end of each session or do they tide over to the next session and continue working on the same masterpiece the next week? I wasn't sure if there is enough Lego to be able to this but thought that if they were engrossed in making something it would seem a shame to say they have to have it broken up, there will only be half an hour for the lunchtime club so not very satisfying timewise if they are enjoying making something more elaborate.

My children go to Lego club at their school. It's an after school club and open to children from reception to year 6. They get to make what ever they want but break it up at the end of the session. They say that there are not enough base boards!

You can buy comparable base boards for approx £4 from
Wilkinsons.

£3.50
www.wilko.com/construction/wilko-play-blox-baseplate/invt/0335884

www.bricks4kidz.co.uk/

This company runs the after school Lego clubs in our area. They also run holiday play schemes with different themes. The website might give you some ideas. The kids all seem to really enjoy the sessions.

We went to a lego build day at the Architecture Centre in Bristol and they had children building to a theme.
They had a guy from lego who creates the wildlife sets - they just had big boxes of random pieces and we rummaged to build wildlife themed creations, he said this was how he created the sets by rummaging and building on ideas. The Lego Ideas book might be a good thing to give inspiration to those who get a bit stuck.
So perhaps setting a broad theme each week and then taking photos of their creations before they get broken up for the next week.

I had a different challenge each week, alongside free building - so things like 'longest bridge', the letters in your name etc

That is a great idea about taking photos and getting the Wilko baseboards, thank you so much to all the posters I really appreciate your advice and information and will look on the bricks4kids website now.

All such helpful posts, thank you all.

Our school enters this competition. There were a few primary schools there last time :)

www.first-lego-league.org/en/general/participation.html#3

Thank you Fourarms that competition looks amazing.

Could I just ask one more question, just thinking about which room I could ask to use for the club, do the children build the Lego sitting on the floor in your/dc clubs or is it better for it to be put out on tables?

Just an idea but can you ask parents to
donate old Lego to help build up the club? We have tonnes (and I do mean tonnes) of the stuff. I have no idea what I'll do with it once kids go past the Lego stage - i would be delighted to pass it on to a school!
Some parents might have set siblings or the leavers may be happy to help out.

That is a great idea, I will ask our Head to put a request for any donations out to the parents in the newsletter on Friday.

My son goes to s Saturday Lego club, there are about 12 kids and runs for an hour & quarter. Lego is colour sorted and there are loads of base boards.
They are given a brief or short story scenario and build something based on that ie an underwater sea monster, a vehicle for seeking treasure etc.
At the end of the session all the models are displayed on a table so you can take a few minutes to look at what others have made.
I normally take a photo of his creation. They get broken up after we have gone home.

Dare I ask... how do you stop the children from taking bits home with them?
My DS would love something like this, but he is such a magpie!

There is more than one of these companies running these clubs in different areas. You might be better off getting 9ne of them in one day a week and spreading the cost over 5 schools rather than investing all that money in bricks that only get used once a week. Lego is expensive if purchased new but you can get good deals on ebay buying second hand by the kg. I would aim for at least 500g per child.

Thank you for the recent replies. Unfortunately using an outside firm wouldn't be viable at the moment as we lost quite a large amount out of the school budget this year so money is tight for anything extra, the Head has agreed to buy some start up Lego though and we will also ask parents to donate any unwanted Lego to the school so hope to have enough to run a small group at least.
Regarding the taking of the Lego, after years of running lunchtime groups with all sorts of games and resources I have never been aware of anyone stealing anything so far although lots of children do ask if they can take things home to play with over the weekend/holidays but seem to accept it well when you explain that the things need to stay at school for everyone to use. It is very hard to say no though when you know that a particular child doesn't have much or anything at all to plat with at home and loves a particular thing, sometimes I buy the identical thing on ebay and tell the mum that a family friend passed it on to my children but they didn't need it.
Thank you all for all the information, tips and ideas from your own children's Lego clubs, I appreciate it more than I can say and am really looking forward to getting started now.

I bought 3 kilos of assorted/used Lego for about £30 + pp from eBay. When it arrived, there was a ridiculous amount, so much that I gave lots away. Is used Lego an option for you? (I chucked it all in a bucket of disinfectant).
There are lots of sites/blogs with ideas/themes/printouts for Lego.
Lego themselves do teaching packs, based on story telling, but they are v. expensive. I sent away for a free sample, which had some useful bits in, as well as the promo material for their expensive sets!
Hope some of this is useful. My son would LOVE a Lego club, btw. I might look in to it.

Also you can put it in a net bag and wash in the dishwasher. This info was very useful when DS was sick into his lego box.

Thank you both, used Lego would be absolutely fine and could just put it in dishwasher as suggested. Will have a look on ebay now.