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Field Trip – Pittsburgh Glass Center

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Yesterday we went to Tacoma, WA. Today we’re crossing the country to Pittsburgh, PA. Check out the Pittsburgh Glass Center. It’s all you could possibly want in a glass facility. Classes with well known guest instructors, special events, a couple of galleries and look at their flickr stream to see some of the fun you could have had at these past events.

Also, download their class catalogs to see if there’s anything that interests your glass fancy. Maybe you’ve got a trip planned for the east coast and you can fit in a visit or maybe you live out there and had just never really thought about it as a vacation destination. Well think again. I know I’m putting it on my list of places to visit when I head east. And the family thinks I’d be going out there to see them…

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Use LEGOs to Build Landmarks from Around the World

I love using LEGOs and other blocks in educational ways, because it’s a way to build on something that most kids already love and sneak in a bit of learning about another topic. Building is a great STEM lesson because it teaches creative thinking and problem solving, and it’s also just fun. 

123 Homeschool 4 Me brings blocks to your social studies or history lessons with a set of LEGO challenge cards involving landmarks of the world. The cards don’t call for any particular blocks, they just show a picture of the landmark and kids can use what they have to try to re-create the design. 

The cards included in the set are: 

  • Taj Mahal, India
  • Windmills, Holland
  • Brandenburg Gate, Germany
  • Eiffel Tower, France
  • Notre Dame, France
  • Arc de Triumphe, France
  • Sagrada Familia, Spain
  • Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
  • Colosseum, Italy
  • Stonehenge, United Kingdom
  • Big Ben, Great Britain
  • Blue Domed Church, Greece
  • Acropolis, Greece
  • St Basil’s Cathedral, Russia
  • Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
  • The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
  • Statue of Liberty, United States of America
  • Golden Gate Bridge, USA
  • Capital Hill, USA
  • Mount Rushmore, United States
  • Great Wall of China, China
  • Sydney Opera House, Australia
  • Machu Picchu, Peru
  • Chichen Itza, Mexico

You can use these challenge cards in lots of different ways. Of course you can just tuck them in the block are and see if kids want to play with them. You can also add them to a unit where you are learning about that country or a particular time period where the landmark makes sense to include. Have kids do a little research on the landmark, build their own version and present their findings. 

I would love to try some of these challenges, and I’ll bet your kids will, too. You can grab the free printable landmarks LEGO challenge cards from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. I’d love to hear how you use them!

[Photo: 123 Homeschool 4 Me]

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