Melissa Edmonds didn’t usually follow the directions provided by Lego when she played with the popular building blocks as a child. Little did she know that early creativity would prove valuable in her role as a gifted resource teacher at Prince William’s Kyle R. Wilson Elementary. Now, Edmonds is part of the inaugural Lego Education Masters Educator program, using Legos to teach a range of subjects to students.
When did you start using Legos in your classroom?
I would say it’s probably been a good 10 years that I’ve had Legos for kids to use in my gifted education classroom. I started with using them as sort of a way for kids to learn engineering type concepts, but now that I’ve been using them for so long I expanded into language arts and some math ideas.
What advantages do you find using Legos?
The best thing about the Legos is there’s really no limit to what the kids can do with it. Any idea they have in their head, from simple to complex, they can find a way to represent it with Legos.
Favorite lessons?
This past year I had a group of students who really enjoyed creative writing, so I would give them the beginning of a story and ask them to build a set that they would imagine in their minds and build some characters as well. Then they were able to write their story, acting it out with Legos as kind of a physical way to represent their idea.
Quick Hits
Neighborhood: Winding Creek, Woodbridge
Best field trip in the area: Udvar-Hazy Center, particularly the space hangar.
Favorite NoVA activity: Walking in Prince William Forest Park or picking apples in Markham.
