Serious LEGO PLAY - UNLEASHING creativity of a 5 year old

I had an opportunity to attend a Serious Play Lego workshop at Campus UWCSEA East. As much as the name is misleading , it was purely a democratic and active engagement session. 

I have a Lego fan at home, my son and have always been awed by his inquistiveness to make a model, break it and transform into something completely new with his imagination and influences of choices he makes on a daily basis. The workshop just allowed me to bridge the gap of ideas to expression, allowing for enhanced metacognitive skills and deeper desire of using this in my classroom.

One of the key take away from the workshop was building models using LEGO blocks and sharing stories and insights using metaphors. One of the questions I had in cue card was to use 5 brick model to represent 'The symbol of success?'. Here is what I did in the process.




With a 40 minute experience, I thought of giving this process the very first try at home with my son.

As the LEGO serious play open guide states,

"The LEGO bricks are the tool. The play is what happens in the heads of the participants."

The aim of this trial was purely to assess my instructions and output of the process so I could tap into the power of imagination and employ it in my teaching learning process to unlock new pathways of constructing ideas and experiences. 

I started with a tower exercise and asked my son to build a tower of his imagination in 2 minutes of time. I also told him he will need to explain his model after construction.

Here are the results :  POLICE TOWER ON WHEELS








What were my learnings ?

1. Lego Serious Play is in no way a serious play method. It offers freedom to experience fun and calls for active engagement amongst participants. It allows for meaningful thinking and execution of ideas.

2. It is an inclusive process offering diverse ways of thinking and representation of ideas. No idea is good or bad.

3. It provides opportunity on meta cognitive level, focusses on thinking and rethinking.

4. Language is no barrier in expressing creativity.

5. Listening skills were enhanced and paraphrasing later allowed for connection with the concepts.


What are my Challenges ?

1. Time constraints in the time tables in schools and pace at which curriculum needs to be delivered calls for specific questions to be built to harness the learning objectives that can positively impact learning.

2. Being thorough with the framework of LEGO Seriousplay to employed at various levels in the classroom.

3. How to build Clear Objectives in alignment with the subjects being taught and what to expect as an outcome.

4. Resources to be used and Creation of more resources to build a powerful learning Community.

As I still try to navigate around a playful Serious method, it will be great to hear your thoughts on this . Feel free to comment to this post.























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