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Dump out your LEGOs and grab your history books

January 22, 2020 Ticia 9 Comments

In our homeschool history lessons we pull out a lot of LEGOs to create LEGO history. LEGOs have a wide variety of uses in your history and geography lessons:

  • provide visual aid of how history unfolded
  • build famous monuments
  • re-enact famous scenes in history

I’m sure there’s even more that I haven’t thought of yet, but it’ll come to me later on.  Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for your own LEGO history lessons, or some amusement as you read my oh so serious history lessons.

teaching history with LEGOs

{This post contains affiliate links marked with an *, for more information see my disclosure page}

What do you need for LEGO history lessons?

The discovery of Iceland as told by LEGOS

Honestly, you can use the LEGOs you already have.  If you look at my lessons, most of them unfold in this manner.  That’s why the discovery of Greenland is being told with Ninjago figures.

BUT……  If you want your history lessons to be a bit more “authentic” let me point you to a few sets that will get you going.

LEGO Pirates Chess Set*– this gives you a large number of blue-coated soldiers and pirates.  The blue-coated soldiers work wonderfully for early American soldiers.  The pirates can be used for all sorts of figures that you need, barbarians, random people, they’re great for that.

LEGO Kingdoms Set Chess Set *– this set gives you massive numbers of knights and two different types of armor (in role-playing parlance these two sets would be called army builder sets, large numbers of figures for little investment).

LEGO Juniors Pirate Treasure Hunt Set*– Buy this set to get yourself a rowboat.  There are dozens of lessons you can do with a rowboat, a map, and a few guys.  This is the most cost-effective way to get a boat.  Bonus you also get a shark, which could be fun to play around with.

Brick Forge– I keep an eye on their 30 under 30 or 1/2 price steals. They have some amazing historical specialty figures and accessories.

lego history lessons to illustrate history

LEGO history gives visual aids of how history unfolded

This is the primary way we use LEGO history lessons.  The kids find me the figure I need, and then we sit down with a giant map of the relevant countryside, a few notes or our textbook, and we start telling the tale.

Ancient LEGO history lessons

Ancient Sumerian activities
Sumeria
Battle of Jericho why are they marching
Battle of Jericho
hands on minoan lessons for elementary
Minoans
Lego Hanging gardens of Babylon
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
breaking news Jerusalem undersiege
Siege of Jerusalem
Wanted a man who will stand up for what is right, even when everyone is saying he's wrong
Nehemiah
catapult changed world history
History of the Catapult
The Lego history of the Maccabean revolt
History of Hanukkah
Paul's first missionary journey
Paul's third missionary trip as told by Legos
Paul’s Third Missionary Journey
Pompeii activity
Pompeii
  • Ancient Sumerian lessons
  • Battle of Jericho
  • Minoans
  • Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  • Siege of Jerusalem
  • History of the Catapult
  • History of Hanukkah
  • Paul’s first missionary journey
  • Paul’s third missionary journey
  • City of Pompeii

 

This is anything from the start of the world all the way through the Roman Empire (I know generally ancient history is split off around the life of Christ, but I like to get the whole Roman empire together, rather than split in two).

 

 

Middle Ages LEGO history lessons

This will run you from about the mid-400s up to the invention of the printing press.  Once the written word is more freely available and doesn’t become an expensive luxury, the world changes fast.

Joan of Arc history lesson with legos
Saint Boniface LEGO history lesson
history of saint patricks day
Saint Patrick
Leif Ericson lego history lesson
Leif Ericson
The discovery of Iceland as told by LEGOS feature
  • Joan of Arc
  • Saint Boniface
  • Saint Patrick’s Day
  • Voyages of Leif Ericson
  • Discovery of Greenland

 

Renaissance and Reformation LEGO history lessons

It’s amazing how much the world changes in just a few hundred years.

Henry Hudson who is he exploring for
Henry Hudson
Fountain of Youth history lesson for early elementary
Magellan lesson Elcano takes over
Magellan
Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope maybe
Bartolomue Dias
Thirty years war history lesson
Discovery of Australia
Vasco de Gama sick at cape
Vasco de Gama
Prince Henry the Navigator global domination
Prince Henry the Navigator
The first Thanksgiving lesson told in Legos
First Thanksgiving
  • Bartholomeu Dias
  • Prince Henry the Navigator
  • Henry Hudson
  • First Thanksgiving
  • Magellan
  • discovery of Australia
  • Vasco de Gama
  • Ponce de Leon
  • Thirty Years War history lesson

 

Modern LEGO history lessons

If the pace of change seemed fast during the Renaissance, my head spins with how much is crammed into such very short time periods.

Seven years war history lesson
Seven Years War
results of the Seven Years War
Boston Massacre Paul Revere Lexington and Concord
Battle of Lexington and Concord
American revolution about to start
start of World War 2 report
Start of World War 2
start of World War 1 news report
Start of World War 1
create a Native American diorama with legos and creativity
  • Seven Years War
  • Treaty of Paris
  • Battles of Lexington and Concord
  • Steps to the American Revolution
  • Start of World War 1
  • Start of World War 2

Originally published December 28, 2017, updated today

history lego history

Comments

  1. Kirsty says

    December 28, 2017 at 8:39 am

    Also for historical armour etc try https://www.brickwarriors.com/

    Ancient his tory is really good – you can get Philistines! (listed under Greek) Accurate bronze age weapons, bows & arrows, slings, scrolls, baby swaddling, rams horn trumpets… I really want to buy some of this stuff for Sunday School.

    And they do more recent history too.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      December 28, 2017 at 9:45 am

      Oooohhhh, I haven’t heard of them, I’ll go check it out.

  2. Susan Evans says

    January 2, 2018 at 6:14 pm

    Wow, that’s a lot of LEGO history lessons! I’m impressed…

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 6, 2018 at 12:19 pm

      Thanks! I was amused to see how many I had.

  3. maryanne says

    January 3, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    I love your LEGO history lessons!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 6, 2018 at 12:20 pm

      I need to get back into them. It’s been a bit since I did one.

  4. Claire says

    January 6, 2018 at 5:14 am

    I love your lego lessons. It is such a simple way to bring history alive and I imagine not too parent intensive? I may have to start taking a leaf out of your book and use them. We seem to be focusing more on maths and science with the little ones, but using Legos might be a simple way to enjoy history.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 6, 2018 at 12:21 pm

      Not too much, it just takes doing a bit of research ahead of time, so you know where you want the figures to go and the story you want to tell. I did one this fall with the conquistadors that didn’t turn out at all well because I hadn’t reread the lesson well enough beforehand.

  5. Natalie says

    January 22, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    I always enjoyed your history series – you certainly have a gift for making it both fun and relevant!

    Reply

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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