Use LEGOs to Build Landmarks from Around the World

August 20, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

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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Book Review: Borders

My brother went through a phase where he was obsessed with maps. He loved to look at maps and he would draw maps of places real and imagined. He even drew maps that followed our route when we’d go to visit our grandparents in another state!

I assume there are still kids who go through map phases, and kids with an interest in history and how things got to be the way they are. Both kinds of kids will enjoy the book Borders: Understanding the Lines that Unite and Separate Us by Karim Ressouni-Demigneux, with illustrations by Karine Maincent.

The book describes how the original borders were natural, such as oceans, rivers, mountains and deserts, and while some of those borders are still in use today, many borders are human made, decided by treaties or carved out by colonizers. It covers the history of people congregating in one place and how city-states evolved into empires, how maps are drawn and how human conflicts can reshape borders.

There are stories about walls that reinforce borders, how borders work in the air and at sea, how people cross borders with passports or as refugees and how climate change is altering the borders of some countries.

You’ll also learn some fun border facts like the fact that if you stand in the middle of the bridge over the Zambezi River you can be in four countries at once because that’s where the borders of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe meet. Or how there is only one border crossing between India and Pakistan that’s closed each night in an elaborate ceremony.

The book talks about time zones, border towns and places where countries and parts of countries are inside other countries and places where borders are less important such as the European Union.

While there are serious subjects in the book, it’s still a fun read that’s sure to interest those kids around ages 8-12 who like travel, maps and weird but true facts.

About the book: 72 pages, hardcover, published 2026 by Blue Dot Kids Press. Suggested retail price $21.95.

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