Lego Challenge–Tree Forts

Such an easy concept, but this one can get a little complicated fast.  I came up with this idea while looking out at my yard.  We have to take some trees out, and I instantly thought of tree forts.  I thought it would be really simple to build, but once I got started building my example, I realized it’s not that easy, because what you’re going to be doing is building multiple layers on top of skinny “tree trunk” bases that can easily break.

So in this challenge, I instructed my kiddos to just start with a tree base and place a small Lego plate on top.  From there you can branch out with branches on the sides to build horizontally, or build more trunk on top your plate to create height and build vertically.

It gets REALLY tricky, because the higher or wider you build, the more stress your tree base is going to have, and potentially topple everything over.  Mine fell over a BUNCH of times.  It’s a surprisingly complicated challenge!!

 

But of course, you can have a tree fort without some cool stuff, so encourage your kids to build crazy things inside their fort.  I built a zipline, a tire swing, and a rock climbing wall, as ways to get up into the various levels of the tree, and to make it more fun!

I tried to do this one virtually, and I got a lot of good responses. They were mostly small, with just one story added, but that’s okay!  I feel this one can easily translate into the library program room for a traditional Lego Club.

Anyway, here’s the video I made explaining the challenge to my kiddos:

UPDATE:
I was finally able to do this one in-person.  Like I said I originally did this one over quarantine.  Kids loved it–here’s what some of them built!

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