WonderWorks: A LEGO building game with sneaky math

Got a big stash of LEGO at your house? Got some dice? Try this fun game!

Today's Project: 
Supplies:
LEGO bricks
dice
small bowls/buckets or a divided container with 6 segments

Prep work: 
sort the LEGO into 6 different piles and label them with the numbers 1-6.  I chose to sort mine like this:
1) bricks with one or three bumps (there's not a lot of three's)
2) bricks with two bumps
3) bricks with eight bumps (I know, it's confusing....)
4) bricks with 4 bumps
5) mini-figs
6) bricks with 6 bumps

Book: 
  Raise the roof! / Suen, Anastasia

Where the inspiration came from: No Time for Flashcards -- LEGO Game: Roll, Build & Create!

 What Kids Do: 
 practice rolling a die

Build stuff

 

 

Collect LEGOs

 

count the pips (black dots) on the die

count the bumps on the LEGO

some of the kids were really bothered by the fact that the 3-bucket had LEGO with 8 bumps until they realized what the BOTTOM of an 8-bump LEGO looked like (THREE holes!):

roll a die around inside a bowl

Hindsight Tip:  Sorting is also a math skill, so I asked the kids to take apart their creations at the end of class and sort their pieces back into the buckets.  I could have started class off like this too, but I wanted to get to the game faster, so I pre-sorted the pieces myself.