My youngest daughter is in Kindergarten and she is learning how to read. Her teacher sends home lists of sight words that she has to learn and although we use flash cards to help her learn them, using Legos / Duplo Blocks  sounds a lot more fun to her. I saw someone else online use Legos to make sight words fun and I just loved the idea. Legos are also great for alphabet letters. The child can snap the Legos together to form and sound out words.

My daughter was getting bored with playing with these ‘little kid’ blocks as she now only wants to play with the little Lego blocks that older kids use. So this is a great way to recycle these Duplo / Lego blocks.

Crafts Materials Needed

Legos / Duplo Blocks

Labels (These are the ones I used   … Avery Removable Rectangular Labels, 0.5 x 0.75 Inches, White, Pack of 525  -6737  )

Step 1

If you want to use the Legos to practice sight words and making sentences, then write sight words on the labels. If you want your child to practice creating words and sounding out letter combinations, then write alphabet letters on labels. I repeated consonants a few times and I repeated vowels many times.

Step 2

I used the 4 peg Duplo squares for the Alphabet letter blocks. I put a letter on each side, so then the child can spin the blocks to make different words. My child loved forming words with the letters. I used blank squares to for spaces.

Step 3

Then I put sight words on bigger Duplo blocks. They would fit on the square blocks but I didn’t have any more left. I put a label on 2 sides of the blocks, but you can definitely put them on all 4 sides if you want to. I also added other words that my child knows. I also made several blocks with words such as ‘I’, ‘and’, ‘my’, ‘too’, and ‘the’. I also added labels for people and animals that she knows so that she can talk about specific people. She LOVES playing with these blocks now.

admin · Alphabet Letters Crafts, Alphabet Letters Games, Educational Learning Crafts, Featured Crafts, Legos, Preschool and Kindergarten Crafts, Recycling and Upcycling Crafts · 1 Comment

This is a craft idea that my 14 year old son, Ben, came up with. He actually made a Lego pinball machine when he was about 11 and I was so impressed with it that I asked if he could build one for the site. I hope that you enjoy it.

You Might Also Like VCR Tape Pinball Machines and Making Simple Pinball Machines Craft

NOTE ABOUT THIS CRAFT: This craft is meant to push you into creatively thinking for yourself. As you probably won’t have the same Lego pieces that we have, you should push yourself to think outside the box and use trial and error to make the best Lego pinball machine for yourself from the Lego pieces that you have available. Have fun.

Step 1

Make a tall stack of one block-wide blocks. Make sure that you put a lot of blocks in that have the circle holes within them. You don’t need to exactly copy what is in this picture…you can use your creativity.

 Step 2a

Now make a few rows of double width blocks (as seen in the pic below). One of these blocks should be a hinge block (circled in the pic). Soon we will place them on top of the single width blocks (from the last step).

 Step 2b

Now put this type of block on the hinge block (as seen in pic above).

 Step 2b

Now use this hinge Lego as the stand in the back of the Pinball Machine. This will give the Pinball Machine its downward slant.

 Step 3a

Find a long Technic Beam (as seen in pic above)…ours has 15 holes, but whatever you decide to use will be fine. Then connect the legos shown above to the Technic Beam.

 Step 3b

Now stick a Lego connector in the other end, as seen above.

 Step 3c

Now we will stick this one one side of the Pinball Machine base. Make one of these for the other side too.

Step 4a

Now we will finally stick the double width blocks (from step 2a) on top of the single width blocks.

 Step 4b

Now connect the tower (#1) to the Legos that are connected to the Technic Beam (#2) with a 4 length block (#3).

 Step 4c

Now it Looks Like This.

 Step 5

Now use connector pegs to attach Technic Beams to the bottom of the Pin Ball machine base.

 Step 6

Now use connector pegs to put barriers in the way…be creative and use trial and error to create best pinball machine for you.

 More Trial and Error

I like to add spinners and other barriers.

 Change it Up Some More

Or just change things around to make your older brother mad. My older son made this pinball machine and wasn’t too happy that his younger brother was adding to it. 🙂

To play with the Pinball machine…find a bead that is the right size and use the levers at the bottom to make the ball go. Have fun.

You Might Also Like VCR Tape Pinball Machines and Making Simple Pinball Machines Craft

Technorati Tags: pinball machine crafts, pinball machines, diy pinball machines, make your own toys, lego pinball machines, lego toys, diy lego toys, how to make a pinball machine, how to make your own games, game crafts, how to make games

admin · Legos, Make Your Own Games, Make Your Own Toys · 2 Comments