MILWAUKEE– Legos have been one of the most popular toys in the past decade where children and adults alike enjoy building complex structures with nothing more than the iconic interlocking plastic bricks.
But that passion for building and creatity is found in both Milwaukee Public School students at MacDowell Montessori School and with Milwaukee Bucks Center, Myles Turner, who is an avid Lego collector. In a community support event held December 2 at MacDowell, Turner paid a visit to the students to help build a custom lego that was created with the help of Bricks & Minifigs North Shore MKE located in Fox Point.
Turner says he began his enjoyment of building Legos when he was young and still loves the creativty kids can find in building different types of things with the bricks.
“During my first year in the league, I was trying to find my way out of trouble and Legos really helped me stay focused during my time off the court,” said Turner. “I’ve always been a fan of creative expression and I think one of the ways to best show that is through Lego builds. Of course there are sets and instructions that you can follow, but I am more of a freebuild kind of guy. At this young age your imagination runs wild and these kids can build whatever they want and I love that these kids can express themselves in such a way.”
To help instruct in the building of the Lego set, MacDowell Montessori Lego club instructor Nealita Nelson is a professional Lego builder herself who worked alongside her brother in the season four finale of the FOX Television show, ‘LEGO Masters’.
“All the kids that are here are a part of a Lego club that I run here at the school,” said MacDowell. “It’s great that such an experience is something that myself, MPS and the Bucks can give to these kids for the holidays. I want my kids to learn the names of the pieces and what they do as a whole. They should also learn new skills out of playing with Legos such as elements of science and math.”
Students such as Abby Wright and Beckham Myer say they’ve enjoyed the club and have embraced how it teaches them to think outside the box to create all sorts of different Lego models.
“We’ll usually learn a topic and then we’ll get a chance to build something that relates to what we learn,” said Wright. “Last week we learned about the New York Thanksgiving Day Parade and our task was to build a Thanksgiving parade float with Legos.”
Turner says when it comes to furthering education with the use of Legos, it’s important to always think creatively.
“Don’t be afraid to mess up. There really is no such thing. You know, when you get into it you continue to have fun with the process and no one can tell you how to make what you build. Share your passion in what you want to do,” said Turner.
In terms of building Lego sets during the regular season, Turner has said that he’s built somewhere between 30 to 50 separate sets.
