ABout
Introduction:
My name is Daniël (Dan) Ponsen, from The Netherlands in the city of Haarlem. I'm a teacher on a Primary School (as it's called in they Dutch system). My students are around 11/12 years old and are always surprised when they see my classroom for the first time. It is filled with a huge amount of LEGO® bricks and minifigures.
Already as a child I loved LEGO® (especially the Castle Theme) and I was fascinated by history.
I have a Bachelor of Education and during college I found out that LEGO and education are a perfect fit. Even my thesis was about LEGO combined with math and is titled:
My name is Daniël (Dan) Ponsen, from The Netherlands in the city of Haarlem. I'm a teacher on a Primary School (as it's called in they Dutch system). My students are around 11/12 years old and are always surprised when they see my classroom for the first time. It is filled with a huge amount of LEGO® bricks and minifigures.
Already as a child I loved LEGO® (especially the Castle Theme) and I was fascinated by history.
I have a Bachelor of Education and during college I found out that LEGO and education are a perfect fit. Even my thesis was about LEGO combined with math and is titled:
BUILD ON SPATIAL ABILITY:
LEGO as means of intervention in the 6th grade in case of learning difficulties within geometry.
How it all started:
At one point during an internship I had an assignment to prepare a history class with a unique perspective. My plan was to teach a class about the Roman Empire and decided to use a Roman legionaire Collectible Minifigure from LEGO as an introduction.
This really caught on with the students and I started thinking...: "How can I engage my students even more with history by using LEGO?"
So I bought more historical Collectible Minfigures and started to create my own historically accurate minifigures. Every time I had finished a minfigure, I took it with me to school and told a (hopefully) fascinating story about this figure in history.
This led to building a huge timeline (2.30 meters or 7.5 feet) with 72 minifigures, divided over 10 periods in time, in my classroom.
At one point during an internship I had an assignment to prepare a history class with a unique perspective. My plan was to teach a class about the Roman Empire and decided to use a Roman legionaire Collectible Minifigure from LEGO as an introduction.
This really caught on with the students and I started thinking...: "How can I engage my students even more with history by using LEGO?"
So I bought more historical Collectible Minfigures and started to create my own historically accurate minifigures. Every time I had finished a minfigure, I took it with me to school and told a (hopefully) fascinating story about this figure in history.
This led to building a huge timeline (2.30 meters or 7.5 feet) with 72 minifigures, divided over 10 periods in time, in my classroom.
The minifigures:
All historical figures on this website are chosen out of a personal interest. Because I think there are beautiful, fascinating, scary or inspiring stories to tell about them and I was able to find or create a (as accurate as possible) LEGO minfigure. Some of them are Collectible Minifgures but lots of the minfigures are created by combining different LEGO pieces bought all over the world. All pieces are original LEGO bricks or custom-made.
Although my father and grandfather are both historians and that's the reason I have an enormous love for history, I am not a historian.
So if there are any factual errors on the website please send me a message with a trustworthy source and I will correct my mistakes as soon as possible.
All historical figures on this website are chosen out of a personal interest. Because I think there are beautiful, fascinating, scary or inspiring stories to tell about them and I was able to find or create a (as accurate as possible) LEGO minfigure. Some of them are Collectible Minifgures but lots of the minfigures are created by combining different LEGO pieces bought all over the world. All pieces are original LEGO bricks or custom-made.
Although my father and grandfather are both historians and that's the reason I have an enormous love for history, I am not a historian.
So if there are any factual errors on the website please send me a message with a trustworthy source and I will correct my mistakes as soon as possible.
The website:
Students love the minfigures combined with the stories and I wanted a way for them to learn more about them themselves. This led to building the Dutch version of this website www.geschiedenisinminifiguren.nl .
After some time this website was shared on social media by some key figures in the Dutch education community and it soon became a well-known website around te country and nowadays many schools use it on almost a daily basis. As an introduction to a history class, a source of information during projects or just as a way for students to relax and read and learn about history. A bunch of people asked me to create a English website for international students all over the world. So here it is! There are also a lot of lesson plans on the Dutch version and a couple of them are on it's way to this website as well.
I know my English is not perfect, so if there are there are any misspellings, mistakes in grammar or any other oversights, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Students love the minfigures combined with the stories and I wanted a way for them to learn more about them themselves. This led to building the Dutch version of this website www.geschiedenisinminifiguren.nl .
After some time this website was shared on social media by some key figures in the Dutch education community and it soon became a well-known website around te country and nowadays many schools use it on almost a daily basis. As an introduction to a history class, a source of information during projects or just as a way for students to relax and read and learn about history. A bunch of people asked me to create a English website for international students all over the world. So here it is! There are also a lot of lesson plans on the Dutch version and a couple of them are on it's way to this website as well.
I know my English is not perfect, so if there are there are any misspellings, mistakes in grammar or any other oversights, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Note:
This website is created to spread the love for LEGO and history. It is created primarily for students between the ages of 10 - 14 years, teachers and schools, but of course for everyone with a passion for LEGO®, history or both!
It has no commercial goals in any way. That's why this website is also ad-free. Feel free to share this website among your students, friends or share on (social)media. Mentioning the website as a source, or tagging me on (social)media is highly appreciated. Do not copy any of the images or texts without asking me for approval.
This website is created to spread the love for LEGO and history. It is created primarily for students between the ages of 10 - 14 years, teachers and schools, but of course for everyone with a passion for LEGO®, history or both!
It has no commercial goals in any way. That's why this website is also ad-free. Feel free to share this website among your students, friends or share on (social)media. Mentioning the website as a source, or tagging me on (social)media is highly appreciated. Do not copy any of the images or texts without asking me for approval.
Thank you so much for visiting!
- Daniël Ponsen, 2021
- Daniël Ponsen, 2021
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