LEGO Club from May 6, 2010

Our theme for this week's LEGO Club was "LEGO Endor" from Star Wars. A couple of the kids weren't familiar with Star Wars, so they built their own projects instead. Here are our cool creations!

The Cute House


Ewok Tree House


Beaver Field (the beaver's name is Pat)


Battle of Endor

Earth Day at our LEGO Club

Here are a few photos from our LEGO Club from Thursday, April 22nd (Earth Day). The theme was "Making our world a better place". Here are our creations:

The Observatory
Discovering new things about the space around us to help us discover new ways to help the Earth around us.


The Back Yard
The way it helps the Earth is having lots of trees and plants to take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen for us to breathe.


Disneyland Playground
Kids love Disneyland. That's why I made Disneyland, because it helps kids know that Disneyland is fun!

LEGO Club Creations from April 15th

Our theme for today's LEGO Club was "My Own Creation" or MOC. We decided to make group projects. They were truly inspired (and very cool)! Here they are:

The LEGO house
"I love it. It has a bed for the girl and the boy. And the puppy is only allowed inside the house."


Suburban meadow with waterfall
There's a waterfall that falls down into a river with an island in the middle of it, and goes out to the sea over the edge of the board. There are two houses, some telephone poles, some citizens of the meadow, and a marshmallow tree in the middle.


The LEGO house near a volcano
The left side is the front of the house with a tree house in the front yard. The right side is the backyard, a garden with carrots, a bridge over a river of lava, and the garage at the back. There's also a chimney on the house with smoke coming out of it.

Theme for Thursday's LEGO Club

After our inspiring visit to the "Bricks by the Bay" LEGO Convention last Sunday, the theme for tomorrow's LEGO Club will be My Own Creation (or MOC).

The idea is that you build something creative, based on your own favorite theme (like Star Wars, Pokemon, race cars, etc.)

Then we'll set up our own show and take lots of photos!

See you tomorrow (April 15th) from 3-4 PM at our house.

How to set up a LEGO Club at home

As you may know, my son is a huge LEGO fan! So when he asked me if we could set up our own LEGO Club last year, I thought it was a great idea. Here's what we did:

RESEARCH
I looked around on the Web to see if anyone else had set up a LEGO Club. I found some great tips on the LEGO.com Website about "Starting a LEGO Club in Your Community".

BRAINSTORMING
My son and I discussed setting up the LEGO Club with his school friends in our home:
- We could handle around 8 kids in our living room. Luckily, we had enough large and small LEGO blocks for 8 kids to use.
- We chose the day (Wednesdays after school for one hour) and how often (weekly) to have the LEGO Club.
- We thought it might be fun to have a weekly theme (like space, vehicles, or Santa's Workshop).
- We wanted to provide snacks, since the kids would be hungry right after school.

SETTING IT UP
- We made 6 invitations to give to my son's friends (6 friends + my own 2 kids = 8 kids total.)
- I ordered LEGO party supplies, including cups, napkins, and plates for the snacks (just for the first few meetings).
- I picked up a few LEGO Club magazines from our local LEGO store to hand out to our club members.
- I bought a few extra green LEGO base plates for building on, and an extra tub of small LEGO blocks (you can never have too many LEGO blocks).
- We decided which of our LEGO models (with instructions) could be shared and built easily within an hour
- My kids made a few posters to put up around the house, and I wrote up the list of rules for our LEGO Club (from the LEGO.com Website):

RULES
1. No taking LEGOs from others
2. Respect the creations of others
3. Put blocks away when done
4. HAVE FUN!

LEGO CLUB TODAY!
After confirming who was coming to LEGO Club, I made space in our living room, put out the buckets of LEGO blocks, put up our posters (and the rules), and set the snacks out on the kitchen table. My son also set out a display of his LEGO projects to show his friends. For snacks, I offered milk, juice, or water to drink, and crackers, fruit, and popcorn to eat. The popcorn was a very popular treat!

When everyone arrived at our home, we reviewed the LEGO Club rules, announced the theme of the day (and the contest, if we had one), then started building. The kids built for a while, then took a break for snacks, then went back to building. If we had a contest (like the tallest tower, or the fastest race car), we'd try to complete the contest before the parents came to pick up their kids. I took pictures of the kids' creations before we put away the blocks.

By the way, some kids were dropped off at LEGO Club by their parents, and some kids got rides with us in our van. Some days we had lots of kids, and some days we had just one or two. It was fun either way.

I changed up the snacks each week, and sometimes the parents helped provide snacks, which was really nice!

When kids wanted to make models with instructions, we provided a few small models (like the Star Wars battle packs) that could be completed within an hour.

Last year, we ended LEGO Club when the school year ended, and took a break over summer vacation.

This year, we waited until after Christmas to start LEGO Club again. We decided to have a smaller group on Thursdays after school, so we invited just a few kids to join. We also created our own LEGO Club blog, so we could display and share our cool creations online.

Note: It was harder to schedule LEGO Club part-way through the year, because the kids were already busy with after-school clubs and sports. It's much easier to schedule a LEGO Club at the start of the school year.

My son loves having a LEGO Club, and his friends seem to really enjoy it, too. I love being a part of it, although it can be a lot of work running it on my own! A few parents have come out to play, but most of the time, it's just me and the kids.

GOING ONLINE
Each week after LEGO Club, we post our cool LEGO creations online. We also try to announce our upcoming themes and activities. If you'd like to participate with our LEGO Club online, you're welcome to send us your cool LEGO creations, too!

If you'd like more information about our LEGO Club, email me or post your comment below.

LEGO Spring Party on Thursday, April 1st

Last Thursday, we didn't have LEGO Club because I wasn't feeling well. But I'm feeling much better now, and looking forward to our next LEGO Club on Thursday, April 1st.

In case you didn't know, April 1st is April Fools Day, and also our last day of school before Easter (or Spring) Break. So it's the perfect day to have a...

LEGO SPRING PARTY!



Where: Our House
When: Thursday, April 1st, 3-4 PM
Details: games, prizes, snacks, cool LEGO models, and more!

See you on Thursday...

LEGO Club and LEGO Pirate Code Review

LEGO Club
In LEGO Club yesterday, we made up our own LEGO games. Here are the games we created and played:

Get the Gold


Kill or be Killed


Lost Treasure


Race to the Treasure


Around the Track


LEGO Pirate Code Review
At LEGO Club, we also played the new game, LEGO Pirate Code. Here is my son's review of this game:

"I rate it 4 out of 5 stars, because the pieces around the edge kept falling off.

Unfortunately, the other kids didn't understand how to play at first, and when they finally figured it out, it was time to go home!"

Tomorrow's LEGO Club Theme and MOC

LEGO Pirate Code


Our next LEGO Club is tomorrow, Thursday, March 18th, from 3-4 PM at our house.

The theme for LEGO Club this week is the new LEGO Games. We bought our first LEGO game called "Pirate Code." We'll be playing this game, as well as designing our own version of a LEGO game. There will be prizes for everyone who designs their own LEGO game.

LEGO Outdoor Mobile Restaurant


This is my son's own LEGO creation (called an "MOC"):

"The outdoor restaurant has a bunch of tables and can turn into a beach and a swimming pool. It has five and a half stars, and the LEGO figures really like it."

LEGO Club + What's New?

From my son:

"In LEGO Club today, we built LEGO toys out of gears and wheels.

Helicopter Pulling a Carriage:


The Magic Gear Bullet:


The Breakdown Car:


The Dead Car Race:


Car Conflict:


LEGO Clone Airship:


Food Maker:


Eye Car:


LEGO Project of the Month (Leprechaun and his pot of gold):


WHAT'S NEW
I found out about a new kind of LEGO called LEGO Games. So far, there are 5 games of their planned 10 on their Web site. My favorite one is the Pirate Code game because first, it has lots of LEGO blocks to build, and second, it happens to look like it has a great idea of a game.

Plus, there's another kind of LEGO toy called Prince of Persia coming in April 2010. I'll talk about it tomorrow."

Theme for LEGO Club this week

LEGO Club meets again this Thursday, March 3rd at 3 pm at our home.

The theme this week is "LEGO wheels and gears." I will provide a demo of how to use LEGO wheels and gears to help you build a cool creation. Then we'll take photos of our creations and post them up to this blog!

Note: Due to the early dismissals at school next week, we won't have LEGO Club next Thursday, March 10th.

LEGO Club will resume on Thursday, March 18th. Keep building!

LEGO Brickworld 2010 and other events

We just found out that LEGO Brickworld 2010 will be held June 17-20 at the Westin Hotel in Wheeling, Illinois. If you're going to be in the area around that time, here's the link to their Web site:

Brickworld 2010

Their theme this year is "Bricks in Space." It looks like most of the LEGO Clubs involved are from out east. We probably won't attend the event this year because it's too far away, but we'll follow their news to see what it's all about for next year.

There's a LEGO event closer to home called "Bricks by the Bay" in Fremont in April. They have an expo that's open to the public on Sunday, April 11th that we might go to. Here's the link to get more details:

Bricks by the Bay Public Expo


For those of us who live in the Bay Area, our local LEGO store holds its own Club events every month. The next Club events at the LEGO store will be held on March 13th, 20th, and 27th. The theme will be "LEGO Games." Here's the link for more information:

LEGO Store Events

If you're interested in attending a March event at our local LEGO store, please let us know and we can all register together. If there's enough interest in going to this event, we can make this a LEGO Club field trip!

Please click on the "comments" link at the end of this post if you'd like to post a comment. Thanks!

What happened at LEGO Club today

From my son:

"This is a review from my LEGO Club today. There were 6 of us altogether. The theme was "scenes from Star Wars and other movies." LEGO Club was really fun and we created some cool designs. We had popcorn and CapriSun juice for snacks and we each had one Girl Scout cookie, too.

I built "Destroyer versus Falcon."



Two kids built "Burning Lava" together.



One kid built "Astro Mech Base" and connected his creation to another kid's "Deadly Jail."



My mom made "Award Ceremony."



My sister built 3 creations, "Space Rocket,"



"Home Base,"



and "Big City Meeting."

LEGO Club Update

Our next LEGO Club will be this Thursday, February 25th from 3-4 PM (right after school.) This week's theme will be "scenes from your favorite Star Wars movie." Everyone who builds a scene will win a prize.

We'll also bring out a few small Star Wars kits for those who want to use instructions to build. If you need a ride to LEGO Club, please let me know. See you on Thursday!

Hello and Welcome...

Hello, this is my LEGO Club blog that I'm sharing with my son. We want to share all the cool things we do with LEGO bricks, including running a LEGO Club from our house, and also showing some of the cool stuff we like to design and build.

This is an intro from my son (I'll get him up and running soon so he can post his own content:)

"I'll show you some of my favorite LEGO toys (like Architecture, Atlantis, Castle, City, Creator, Duplo, Ferrari, Holiday, Indiana Jones, monthly projects, Soccer, my Lego Club, Pirates, self-built (MOC), Star Wars, and Technic) and I'll discuss them with you here.

Architecture
These are my four different LEGO Architecture toys. They are the John Hancock Center, the Sears Tower, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Empire State Building. I'd like to get the Guggenheim Museum but I'm still saving up for it.

John Hancock Tower, Sears Tower, Seattle Space Needle, Empire State Building

LEGO Soccer
This is the oldest LEGO toy that I own. I like to play it with my friends.

You can actually play soccer with this!

My LEGO Club
I have a LEGO club with some of my friends and we build Legos together to have fun. Next week's theme is "Your Favorite Scene From Star Wars."