Mr Woolley's Lego Challenge Page

Lego is amazing! I know most of you have got Lego and enjoy building with it so this page is to give you some ideas of things to make. Each week I will put a new challenge up to have a go at, if you would like to. I will try and post this on a Friday so it's ready for the weekend. If you want to share what you have made, email me a picture at adminoffice@upham.hants.sch.uk 

Friday 5 March - The Last Challenge: Anything you want BUT IN MINIATURE!

The last challenge is to make anything you want - the challenge is to try to do it in miniature. This means as small as you can with only a few pieces. 

I have had a go at a few things to get you thinking, an elephant, a helicopter, an aeroplane and a robot. If you want to, you could have a go at building what I have made. I have also added photographs which show all the pieces I used and I have arranged them to show how they fit together. You might not have the same pieces so you might need to swap some.

Building Tip - Building in miniature is really hard. Really useful pieces are those that have studs on lots of sides (I pointed to two with blue arrows). These are good to start your build from.

Friday 26 February - Challenge 7: An Amazing Vehicle

This week I thought we could make a vehicle - but not just any old vehicle, an amazing, imaginary one. Think of a vehicle and try to combine the best elements of another. It could be a fire engine but with some wings added on, a racing car that also has train wheels, a lorry that has rocket boosters to blast into space! The stranger and more amazing, the better!

Can you guess which two vehicles I have 'joined together'? I've made an ice-cream van but given it some tank tracks so it can go anywhere! I think the lolly sign on the roof worked really well!

Building Tip: Think about which vehicle is the best place to start - my 'main' vehicle was the ice cream van so I built that first and then added the tracks.

Friday 12 February - Challenge 6: A Heart for Valentines Day

With Valentines day coming up at the weekend, I talked about St Valentine this week in assembly. I thought that this would be the ideal thing to make from Lego. Have a go at making a Lego heart (or any other shape) - you could make it out of one colour or lots of different ones. It could be big or small, made of blocks or flat plates.

I made a multi-coloured one and one that is just the outline. I then had a go at making one using just one colour - red. I didn't have many slope pieces in red so I had to keep it as blocks. I then decorated with some flowers - what could you decorate yours with? Something nice to do would be to take a picture of your finished heart and send it to someone to show them that you love them - maybe someone in your family who you haven't seen in a while?

Building Tip: To make you heart stand up more easily, using a long block as a stand (see the last picture).

Friday 5 February - Challenge 5: Make a Lego Bird

Lots of classes have been mentioning the Big Garden Bird Watch this week and I kept thinking about garden birds - so thought that might be a good challenge for this week. You could make any sort of bird - you could try and recreate a garden bird you have seen but how about a penguin, ostrich, flamingo or parrot? You could even make a fantasy bird, like the owls or phoenix in Harry Potter.

Building Tip: Birds are quite tricky for lego - the wings in particular, so you might need to try a few ideas out - try to find the pieces you could use for the wing first then you know how big or small to make your bird.

During the week I saw a red-spotted woodpecker at school so I thought I'd try to recreate that. I really enjoyed this challenge so I ended up putting quite a bit of detail in. I used flat plates mostly to keep the shape. Once I started, I made the bird bigger and more complicated. The key pieces for me were the angled and triangular shapes which helped create the rounded body shape. I decided the wings would be easier just as flat triangle-like shapes. I might try and make a tree now for it to cling to.

Friday 29 January - Challenge 4: Make Your Dream Bed or Bedroom

Everyone would like a better bedroom so now is your chance - make a bed or bedroom with the most amazing things in it you dream of having. You could just make the bed itself - how about a fairy-tail 4-poster bed or a jungle-animal one. Or you could make a whole bedroom, with a bed (otherwise it wouldn't be a bedroom) and anything else you would like - a football area, a gaming zone, a horse stable, a library, a bakery - in fact anything you can dream of.

I had a go so you can see what I mean. I made bedroom walls using white bricks (a bit boring but I had lots of them). I built a bed first. I then made a pizza oven in the corner - because I love pizza! I put a baked one on the bed. I then added some plants, because I like them, and a huge TV on the wall and an R2D2 (why wouldn't you want one?). I left lots of cups lying around too because I tend to do that. I hid 7 of them - can you spot them all!

I am sure you can think of more imaginative ideas than mine though.

Building tip: Build the things inside you room before the walls, then you know they will fit!

Friday 22 January - Challenge 3: Make a Lego Picture

Lego fits together so well it is most often used to make 3D objects but it can be used to create flat pictures just as easily. I actually stole this idea from something Louie McDonald in Class 3 built in an earlier challenge! Use Flat pieces of Lego to create a picture or anything you want - an animal, superhero, character, a portrait, your house or a made up idea or even just fancy patterns! Start with a base - try to use a square if you can. If you have a bit flat base you could use that or just fit lots of flat plates together. Choose a colour that works as a background. Then use other coloured plates on top to make your picture!

I tried to make a picture of my cat - she is a tabby with tortoiseshell colours and white belly. I tried to keep it flat, like a picture but the whisker pieces had to go on the top. The background colour was difficult, I chose blue first which didn't work, it looked like the grey, the red is a better contrast.

Please send in pictures of you builds. I asked for squares so that I can try and fit the pictures together to create a giant 'patchwork quilt' Lego picture!

Building tip: The flat smooth pieces make great border pieces to show off your picture!

Friday 15 January - Challenge 2: A Cable Car or Zip Wire!

The challenge this week is to try to create a moving toy – a cable car or zip line. This could be an amazing one, like a space one or perhaps with a theme – how about an ice-cream van cable car? The idea is to build some sort of hook or wheel that sits on a string and then add a ‘cabin’ or ‘seat’ that a minifigure could sit in or on. If you have ever been on a cable care, a ski-lift or a zip line, have a go at that. Then set up the longest string you can – either in the house or the garden and see if you can make it work!

The first step is to work out what part to choose for the bit that sits on the string. Start here. My first picture shows some of the parts that might work – the centre bits of wheels (pull off the rubber tyre) are quite useful. Then attach this to your cabin or seat, or fix straight to the minifigure. I wanted to use lots of bright colours but I had some window pieces in white so decided to use them. I chose a star wars figure – an ewok! He is inside, enjoying the view. I added a fence at the front so he wouldn’t fall out.

Building tip: If you create a wheel that sits on top of the string, like I have , in needs to run easily – don’t have things too tight, make sure it spins freely.

Here is my cable car in action – some children in school help me work it, we set it up from the top of the challenge trail to one of the apple trees!

Playing Tip: Pull the string quite tight but experiment with how steep it needs to be so it works – I was surprised how steep mine had to be.

Friday 8 January - Challenge 1: An Animal Mash-Up!

The first challenge is to try to create an animal mash-up, which means trying to join two different animals together. It will look very strange and funny when you are done. You could make a dog and give it wings of a dragon or make the front half one animal, eg a crocodile and the back a different one, like a horse. Your animal could be big, or small. Lots of mythical animals are already mash-ups, such as the griffin which has the head and wings of an eagle on the body of a lion, you could copy one of these. Why not do a google image search of 'Lego animals' to get some ideas.

Building Tip 1: To show the different animals off, try to choose things which are different colours and shapes. For example a front half elephant and back half rhino, wouldn't worked as they are both big, grey, legged animals.

Building Tip 2: You may have animal-body-part pieces that you could use like teeth, spikes, eys, legs or wings. These might really help you get started.

I had a go at making one - here is my half shark - half snake. I used both heads as I thought that was more interesting. I chose a hammer-head shark, partly because I couldn't get the head right - I thought of a shark when I found the paddle pieces I knew I could use as fins. I solved the head problem by turning it into a hammer head. What do you think?