Journaling with LEGO

Encourage creative writing skills through journaling with your elementary aged child by using Lego.  Whether your child is a reluctant writer or the next journalist, using his/her Lego creations as a story starter is a fun way further develop writing skills, grammar, and spelling!

My son falls into the "reluctant writer" camp.

I think it is because he lacks confidence in what he is doing and simply telling a child "start writing" can be quite intimidating for a visual learner.  To make the process fun and open-ended, I paired creative writing with something he loves to do-- build with Legos! 

Journaling with Legos taps into many different creative processes.

Creating our Lego Journal begins with building a scene or object out of Legos.  We have gathered quite a Lego stash from birthday and Christmas gifts.  Have you?  My son is most interested in creating sports scenes and/or new vehicles as you will see in the Lego creations he built. 

Creative Writing for Kids with Legos

To prepare for the actual writing process, I took a picture and printed out my son's Lego creations.  I taped them into a blank art journal with some colorful tape.

For his first creation, we journaled together.  I started the story and then my son came up with the next sentence, and we continued until he was satisfied with his story.

For the next story, I encouraged him to tell me about he pieces he used to get his creative juices flowing by asking him questions pertaining to the elements of a story:

• 
  What did he build?
  
  


• 
  Who is in the scene? 
  
  


• 
  What is happening? 
  
  


• 
  Why?
  
  


• 
  Where is this taking place?
  
  

I am proud to say that he wrote the story himself and he had a great time coming up with a story about the World Series! 

If you have a child who loves to build but is still to young to write, you could easily have him/her tell you the story and write it out for them.  This is a great way to get kids excited about the writing process!

Keeping a journal is a great keepsake and reminder of progress in your child's imagination and writing skills.  Happy building and writing!

More Ideas:

• 
  500+ pages of FREE Creative Writing Prompts
  
  


• 
  Thankful Journal Writing Prompt
  
  


• 
  Roll & Write Journaling Activity
  
  


• 
  Build a Lego Figure Spelling Game
  
  

• Lego Spelling Tests

Kristina once thought of going into education, but changed her mind a few years in to her degree.  Ironically, she now has her hands full as a homeschooling mother of four (infant to 7).  She shares a variety of educational and play activities for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary aged children on her blog, School Time Snippets.  Follow along on Facebook and Pinterest.

<