How Legos Might Turn Your Kid Into A Math Lover

Legos are for learning, too.

It turns out Legos aren't just toys for kids (or the worst nightmares for barefoot parents). In Alycia Zimmerman's classroom, they are important tools for learning.

Zimmerman, who teaches third grade at Chelsea Prep in New York, uses Legos to help her students learn math. "In the classroom, the tiny bricks are now my favorite possibility-packed math manipulative!" she wrote in a blog for Scholastic in 2013.

Her use of the classic toy recently picked up speed, thanks to Bored Panda. On Dec. 8, the site shared Zimmerman's ideas in a post on Facebook that has been liked more than 40,000 times in two days.

Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic

Zimmerman uses the building bricks to explain math concepts like fractions, multiplication and division. She wrote on her blog that if parents take Legos beyond the playroom, they can make a big impact.

"Find some LEGO bricks in a storage closet or basement, and take some time exploring how they work," she wrote. "Count the studs, explore the dimensions, build some towers. And I guarantee, you’ll now be thinking… MATH!"

Check out the way Zimmerman illustrates important math concepts with Legos below and head over to her blog on Scholastic for more information and resources.

Fractions

Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic

Part vs. Total

Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic

Square numbers

Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic

Multiplication and division

Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic
Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic
Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic
Alycia Zimmerman/Scholastic

Also on HuffPost:

Kingston, Kindergarten

First Day of School Pictures

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE