Don’t miss the $100 LEGO® Education gift certificate giveaway at the end of this review! Perfect for Christmas presents!
LEGO® Education StoryStarter set is very easy to use for all our ages and a wonderful introduction to story building, language arts and creativity. Our older middle and high school children also folded into the learning. The goal is for students to create stories – both written and oral. The children can also create stories with the LEGO StoryVisualizer software, which is included. Build and create with a LEGO Education set and the computer? We knew we’d like it. And the more we experimented, the more we learned, the more we enjoyed!
What’s inside the LEGO StoryStarter Curriculum Pack?
LEGO® StoryStarter set curriculum has many exciting project activities. It contains all of the pieces required to perform the activities–including regular bricks, characters, props (tools, food, fire, etc.), settings (trees, flowers, arches), details (specialty bricks that can be used for a variety of things), and a printed teacher’s guide. The LEGO StoryStarter software is available online via your web browser.
The activities in the curriculum are divided into four sections: Getting Started, Day-toDay Storytelling, Building and Telling Stories, and Retelling and Analyzing Stories. The four activity types form a library of learning and can be either used sequentially or randomly depending on the preferences of the teacher.
Getting Started - Focus on getting students familiar with the materials and software.
Day-to-Day Storytelling - These activities get the teacher and students talking about real-life events, such as: birthday parties, field trips, community events, and book reviews.
Building and Telling Stories – Students explore the basic elements of story structure (often referred to as “story arc”). The story arc is made up of different scenes representing a part of the whole story.
Retelling and Analyzing Stories – Allows students to adapt well-known stories to their ability levels. Students can also change story elements–substituting their own beginning or ending to the story, or changing the feelings or motivations of the characters.
What Are The System Requirements?
The LEGO Education StoryVisualizer software will run on most computers made within the last 2-3 years. The system requirements are:
PC:
2.33GHz or faster x86-compatible processor;
512 MB of RAM available;
128 MB of graphics memory;
Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32-bit) or Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 8 (running in desktop mode);
Internet Explorer 7.0 or above (Internet Explorer 9 is recommended), Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or above, Google Chrome, Safari 5.0 or above, Opera 11;
Adobe Flash Player 11.4 or above;
Broadband Internet connection;
Minimum screen resolution 1024 x 768 pixels.
Mac:
Intel Core Duo 1.33GHz or faster processor;
512 MB of RAM available;
128 MB of graphics memory;
Mac OS 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8;
Safari 5.0 or above, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or above, Google Chrome, Opera 11;
Adobe Flash Player 11.4 or above;
Broadband Internet connection;
Minimum screen resolution 1024 x 768 pixels.
Pictured here are our sixth and second grade girls working on a story. They put together a scene with the LEGO bricks and next took pictures of the elements. They pulled the photos into a story.
It has every LEGO building part possibly available! It’s so much fun to make stories! ~ Littlest Girl, 2nd grade
Next, they wrote the story script – complete with action. Above is an excerpt. The StoryStarter set comes with a variety scenes and backgrounds for your learners to choose from. Or they can completely create everything on their own.
The program elements are pictorial and can be dragged and dropped into the program window to change the program.
Now it is always fun to reenact a favorite story. Especially the popular show, Duck Dynasty. The StoryStarter set has all the pieces needed to gather the family around the table and give the Lord thanks for a meal. Middle Girl said she had to use girl hair for the Robertson men and male hair for Ms. Kay’s short hair style. Uncle Si even has his cup of iced tea!
All ages were able to make changes to the program, cut and paste characters, create stories. The creativity is endless! The children are all excited about future lessons.
Where Can You Get the LEGO Education StoryStarter Curriculum Pack?
You can get your LEGO® Education StoryStarter curriculum set at the LEGO Education website. Homeschool StoryStarter Pack Product ID: W992056
The LEGO Education Bonuses
As a bonus, LEGO Education sends additional free activities to you via email. These “challenges” allow the LEGO Education StoryStarter curriculum to continue to have fresh, new activities to explore.
There is a homeschool section of the LEGO Education website full of educational ideas, prompts and products for home education.
View a video of the StoryStarter Visualizer to get even more of an idea of how it works.
We love LEGO learning so much that we’ve gathered a Pinterest board full of resources. You might like to explore these too. You’ll notice many LEGO writing prompts from our friend Mary Prather at Homegrown Learners!
~We received the LEGO StoryStarters Curriculum Pack in exchange for an honest review. We are very pleased to be a part of the LEGO Educator Official Blogging Team. All opinions are our own and the children continue to beg for LEGO Education time. We see many more LEGO learning hours in our future! Please see our disclosure policy.
Now for the Giveaway!
LEGO® Education is giving away one (1) gift certificate valued at $100.00 redeemable only on the legoeducation.us website for online purchases. Simply follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below to enter to win!
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Did YOU know there is a LEGO Education homeschool section/community?
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