Billund - The Home of LEGO

Last week, I participated in a geography fair with my homeschool group.  This year we had to choose a city to learn about.  My homeschool friends were not surprised when I chose Billund, the home of LEGO Group.

This turned out to be a very fun project.  I learned a lot of interesting things.  Here are some of the highlights to my study.

Billund is located in Denmark in the continent of Europe.  It has a smaller population of a little more than 6,000 people.  The town is known for LEGOLAND and the Billund Airport.  The airport was originally started by LEGO and was LEGO's private airport.  It is now independently operated and is the second largest airport in Denmark.  Sun Air of Scandinavia also has its corporate offices located in Billund.
Ole Kirk Christiansen was the founder of LEGO.  In 1930, he started making toys from left over scrap from making ironing boards and stepladders. The official toy production started in 1932. The toy factory received the name LEGO in 1934. Which is short for the Danish word, “Leg GOdt” which means “Play Well”.   I thought it was neat that In Latin, it means, “I put together”.

A waterworks, city hall, and a gym was built in the late 1930’s. In 1942 the old LEGO factory was burnt down, but a new one was built immediately. The railroad was extended to the Lego factory in 1946. Lego stared selling plastic bricks in 1949.  

A large park with a playground, toboggan hill, and lake was created by LEGO in 1959. The Billund airport was opened in 1962 as LEGO’s private airport. In 1968, LEGOLAND opened. Thanks to LEGO’s growth Billund experienced a growing population.
Geography Fair - Billund, Denmark, Home of LEGO
My geography board display of Billund, Denmark


This is the display board I made.  I brought some of my LEGO creations to display, served LEGO brick chocolates, and played the LEGO Story on my laptop.  Check out The LEGO story here.


I like how LEGO found a way to keep the bricks connected to each other.  I also really like, the honest character that Ole Kirk Christiansen demanded for his products.  "Only the best is good enough," were Ole's words.  I like that when I purchase LEGO sets that all the pieces are always there and LEGO even adds a few extra pieces to each set.  When I can't find a piece in a set, I am confident that it is there, I just need to look a little harder.  It's nice to be able to be confident in a product that you buy.   I like that Ole Kirk Christiansen did not give up on his ideas, that he worked hard, and that he persevered through hard times.

I would like to say a special thank you to Tereza over at LEGO for providing me with links for my project and being so helpful. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a little about Billund and LEGO.

God bless,
CJ

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