Sawyer Students Learn at Reiman Gardens that Building with Legos is a Job

On a cold, rainy Friday like this one, third graders would probably spend recess indoors --- and building with Lego bricks would be their activity of choice.

Today about 25 children in Glenn Sibbel's third-grade class met Sean Kenney, a New York artist, who's made a career out of sculpting with the child's toy.

Kenney led the students on a tour of his exhibit “Nature Connects” 27 sculptures made from Lego bricks found throughout . It fits the gardens' 2012 theme: “Some Assembly Required.”

Kenney told students that he was lucky.

“I have the coolest job in the world. I play with Lego toys all day long,” he told the class.

Sawyer students felt pretty lucky too. They were the only third grade class in Story County who took the tour. All students were asked to write essays on what meeting Kenney meant to them and Ellen Wanamaker, Reimain Gardens Event Coordinator, said Sibbel's essay was the most compelling.

“They were over the moon excited,” Wanamaker said.

Kenney took the students on the tour describing how he made each sculpture. He stopped at a single Lego rose and told students that he stood on a ladder to make it. It's the largest Lego flower on record, he said. Students oohed and ahhed and wondered if the sculpture of more than 41,000 bricks, was in the book of Guinness World Records.

“No you are the first people to ever see it,” Kenney said.

Kenney will be at the  from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to meet others who would like to be among the first to see his sculptures.

An estimated half million Lego bricks were used in the making of the sculptures arranged in 14 displays. Kenney is one of only 11 Lego Certified Builders in the world and works out of Sean Kenney Design, a New York City commercial art studio.