I am a K-3 teacher at a small private school and have been given a rather enviable shopping assignment: buy more Lego for the school. We run a club every term for each grade level, and we were overwhelmed by the turnout for the Lego Club. We had to borrow every Lego bin in the school, and some of them were in a pretty sad state.

We have an annual grant from the parent association for each teacher, and it MUST be used that year, or it is lost. I suggested that since I had not used my whole allocation, I could refresh the Lego bins in each classroom. This was met with an enthusiastic response, and I was told that another teacher is not planning to use his, so I could buy pretty much whatever I think is best and money is no object (!) Of course, I do want to keep costs reasonable and maximize what I get for what I spend :)

I am aiming for more open-play stuff as much as possible; we have had specific kits before and it has been pretty much impossible to police their use so that pieces don't get lost, mixed with other stuff and so on. Also, while the Lego does get heavy use as a free play activity, we are hoping to do some more learning-oriented stuff with it. I have seen some great printables on using Lego to teach math, for example.

So, with that said, here are the classrooms I am buying for, what they have now and what I plan to buy. Can you suggest any tweaks or additions to my plan?

1) Pre-K. Nothing. A parent donated several vats of Duplo some time ago and we got so much, we had to have some get donated away because we didn't have space for it. The Littles are good.

2) Junior Kindergarten. This is a shared room used by two classes. They presently have a large bin of Duplo that they love and use, but they also have some kids who are ready for the regular Lego. One of the teachers expressed an interest in the starter kit for girls in the pink box. The boys will play with it too, don't worry!

3) Senior Kindergarten. This is another shared room with much the same setup. They want the girl box too, and also 'some of the people' so I will throw a handful of minifig bags into their stuff unless there is a cheaper way to get a lot of people.

4) Grades 1-3. Each of these three classrooms has a bin of mixed pieces. I was thinking I would buy a large set like the Builders of Tomorrow box and split it between them. I also am going to get a few Pick a Brick containers (1-3 depending on what pieces interest me) with stuff like wheels, the printed computer pieces, doors, windows, flowers etc. and share those between the classes too. The Grade 3 is a special class (the oldest class at school generally has some special privileges) and I was thinking I might get them a Mixels set too, to use as a special (supervised) activity. As I said, we have not had great luck with things requiring special pieces and structured directions, but I understood that the goal of the Mixels series was to get them to mix and match the pieces to build their own creatures once they are done, and I like that concept.

I am also thinking of making some inspiration booklets for each class, with pictures of things the children could simply make with just the basic pieces. A lot of the children have Lego collections at home, some of which are very expensive and well-stocked. But they are used to following instructions. When they use the Lego at school, our goal is to break them out of the rut and get them to play creatively.

What do you guys think of my plan?

One comment on getting more people - the swamp police starter set has 4 minifigs for $10 and is probably the best bang for the buck in that department: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Swamp-Police-Starter-Set-60066 Series 12 minifigs are also marked down to $3 so those are a good deal. If you can get to a target you could grab some of the police and friends polybags in the valentine's day section. There you are getting a figure and some useful pieces for $3.50 or $4 so not much more than a collectible minifigure bag. Also this is probably the cheapest way to get multiple Friends girl figures. Lastly there are the police and fire accessory sets, you get 4 figures for $15 which is a little more than other options but still a nice option: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-City-Fire-Accessory-Set-850618?fromListing=listing http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-City-Police-Accessory-Set-850617

Amazon has something that might be a good option.

http://www.amazon.co...=lego education

http://brickset.com/...ity-Starter-Set

We have a bunch of Lego where I work and the biggest thing I've learned is that no matter what we do, we will slowly but steadily lose pieces, so you either need to start out with more than you plan to end with or else you need to plan to add more at various points during the year. It might be worth it to keep an extra bin of restocking bricks somewhere.

Classic is coming soon or may even be out. Boxes of bricks in lots of colours is a great start.

As a school you might have access to LEGO Education too.

There are some sets with plenty of minifigs out there, but build-a-figure is a good idea to quickly make a collection.

Mixels are perfect. I bought the lot of one red group and there is a lot you can do with them.

EXCELLENT ideas all.

My kids are 3 (girl) and 7/2nd grade (boy)

I got my daughter the pink Juniors Suitcase for her third birthday -- She's a bit young but LOVES putting the pieces together and carrying around the minifig. (She lost one of the heads and has put a yellow 1x1 brick on top, with a pink flower on top for a "hat" instead). She also loves the purse, cat, and the bicycle (though the wheels can come off the bicycle with her play, I've discovered. Had NO IDEA that they came off at all!) The pieces also go missing kind of easily :( And the suitcase has NOT stood up to her opening and closing it. The yellow clasps come off regularly and over time (since August) have already gotten to the point where they don't stay on. I'd not plan to keep the Legos stored in the suitcase in a classroom.

My 2nd grader's favorite sets are the Mixels. Fast, easy builds and the first time he actually tries to get away from the instructions and make something else. I'd get several Mixels sets and keep them separate in a container. They can have a "booklet" of instructions or mix and match from the pieces still left and available. Mixels don't exactly "look like" anything so it isn't as big a deal if one piece goes missing, we've discovered. Just another opportunity to figure it out for yourself.

Edited January 23, 201510 yr by Fugazi
Removed long quote

I'm so jealous of your job! :D

Good suggestions so far, but I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the Classic range - just boxes of bricks, with minimal instructions. My favourite is this one though:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-10681-Creative-Building-Cube/dp/B00GWG763U/ref=sr_1_24?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1422093922&sr=1-24&keywords=lego+classic (don't know whether you can get it where you live though)

For minifigs, if you can find it a bit cheaper somewhere - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lego-9348-Community-Minifigures-set/dp/B0085Y3MTO/ref=pd_sim_k_h_b_cs_9?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MQP78PRNB4B9DES4WW2

tuskel,

sincerely

Classic is lovely, I have seen them in the shops now. I helped set up a LEGO club in a local library so I had a look through the e-mail exchange with the librarian:

One bit of advice, if you are going to get baseplates for any of the club, you have to have enough for everyone attending. They all want one!

If groups are seperated in different classrooms then you can get away with providing different things to each (of course you probably already know that from working in the school).

Also, as you have a budget but as you are a school group, do the local supermarkets have any sort of community engagement? ASDA is part of Walmart, it is the UK branch these days, and they have some provision for local community 'outreach' which meant the LEGO club in the library had vouchers and cupons to use in-store to get supplies. Plenty of national chains will engage with School, Community and Charity groups for a bit of good press and good feeling.

You can also look into LEGO Education!

http://education.lego.com/en-us/

Lots of specialized kits with lesson plans, individual student packs, bulk brick sets, activity packs, etc.

Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions. The Lego Education process seems a little complicated. You have to call, get a rep and work through them. The principal told me to just go ahead and buy myself. The Lego retail store I spoke to told me there is a limit of 32 minifigs per transaction, so I am going to do that, two boxes of basic bricks to share, two starter sets for the K classes, and some pick a brick containers. Should be a fun shopping day!

Your plan is amazing, and I wish I had something of strategic value to add to it, sadly though I don't. Perhaps when shopping aim to buy a couple of those new CLASSIC kits? That would probably be to everyone's benefit rather than have a bunch of 6-year-olds fighting over Laval or Batman or someone.

Update: Here was my haul:

Lego for School! by ficbot, on Flickr

Tub 1: JK classroom

Tub 2: JK classroom

Box 1: Grade 2 class

Box 2: Grade 3 class

Pick-a-Brick: To be divided up into each of the above

Minifigs: To be divided up

Mixels: For Grade 3 Class

I was very impressed with those two new tubs. They had a large assortment of pieces including wheels, slopes, propellors and other goodies. I wish it had come with a few people, though. Those minifigs were a lot of work to open up, distribute etc. and when it was all done, each class only got a few. The store would not let me buy more than 32 minifigs in one purchase...

Anyway, my total was only in the high 300s and I was told I could spend up to $500, so I may go to Toys R Us and get some baseplates too. And I may go back and get something for the Grade 1 class. Their teacher declined to request any (she says they never play with it and are obsessed with MagnaTiles instead) but when she sees everyone else's stuff, she may get jealous and change her mind :)

Good choices. The big new "classic" sets are quite good - with wheels and printed tiles, basically everything you really need for playing in school, IMO.... if you are getting more, I don't think you can go wrong with that.

If you want more Minifigures, Series 12 is currently on sale on Lego.com for $2 each

Does your Lego store have a 'build-a-figure' assembly point, where you can assemble and buy your own minifigures from parts? In my Lego store, I could buy three such figures for the price of two collectible minifigures. These accessory packs (available online, at least) may also provide some good figures.

Edited January 27, 201510 yr by Bornin1980something

^^ The two previous posts above mine are both right, but if you can get the $2 CMFs there's no comparison; they will be gone FAST (if not already).

are you looking for bulk random bricks with some ideas for building or complete sets with instructions? if it is the first then you can get good deals on ebay ect...

All good choices that you made. I am running a club for junior high students. They love regular sets but really get into Mindstorms, unfortunately we only have one set due to the price but they go crazy with it!