SB - Six Bricks International
An innovative play pedagogy that builds pupil skills
This definitive international online Six Bricks course is delivered by well known Irish teacher & TV presenter, Mr. John Sharpson.
This is the only 20-hour course approved, inspected and accredited by the Department of Education & Skills Ireland; hosted and supported by the professional development team at CPD College Ireland, all in association with Care for Education South Africa and The LEGO® Foundation.
All participants who fully complete the 20-hour online course will receive a Level 4 – Six Bricks Professional Practitioner Award, the highest available. A high-quality certificate will be available for download and printing once the tutor has signed off on your course completion, sample to view on home page link.
Additionally, once you enrol, you will receive a Six Bricks materials pack delivered to wherever you live, anywhere in the world.
Once enrolled, you are in full control of your learning. You log in and out of the course as you wish. You work through the modules in your own time and at your own pace. You submit your forum postings as you progress and are free to join in all the ongoing and developing discussions.
Six Bricks is the new ‘wonder resource’ in education. Click 'play' below for a brief course overview from John.
Through participating in this online Six Bricks Training Course, you will:
- Acquire an in-depth understanding of the pedagogy, principles, practices and innovative suite of materials that underpin the Six Bricks approach to curriculum and building skills
- Engage with the 70+ perceptual skills building activities, 60+ numeracy activities, 50+ literacy activities, 25+ physical skills activities, 20+ social emotional skills and the 30+ groups & games activities. That’s 255+ ready-to-go activities.
- Gain full & FREE ongoing access to the brand new Six Bricks Interactive Whiteboard Software for all course participants.
- Assess the Six Bricks class kits, materials, manuals and resources against your own needs.
- Discover the ‘Cognition Ignition®’ approach to daily curriculum tasks and transform how your students engage your in-class questions.
- Deploy daily mental arithmetic activities at all class levels by using the unique and amazing Six Bricks SBAC (Six Bricks Answer Code®). Be the first to bring this revolutionary technique into your own school.
- Problem-solve with Six Bricks by utilising the Six Bricks 'Problem Solving Circle' across number, measures, shape & space, data and algebra, and at every class level.
- In support of literacy and utilising the Six Bricks Activity Mats, help children master the letter sound code, blending, tricky words, dictionary skills, comprehension skills and more.
- Apply the Six Bricks SBAC® approach in every language lesson to drive engagement, language processing and response, regardless of theme or topic or class level. Applies to English language learning, Gaelic or any world language children are learning.
- Crack all 48 sets of tables with Six Bricks. Knowledge of, and rapid accurate recall of tables facts are a central underpinning of so many areas of mathematics.
- Assess across all subjects and most topics with Six Bricks SBAC approach, to include literacy, mathematics, geography, history, science etc.
- Build perceptual, mathematical, literacy, physical and social-emotional skills using a Six Bricks approach. We have 255+ ready-to-go within the course.
- Learn how to use the hundreds of skills based ‘Crossing the B-Line’ activities.
- Embrace the concept and methodology of ‘Write a book with GROBBY Six Bricks®’ - every class, every year. Grobby® is a super hero / heroine, packing a backpack of Six Bricks, instead of a cape. Grobby Six Bricks is the main character of every story the children write, illustrate and book bind. Like any great story plot, there is a problem needing a resolution. The back pack of Six Bricks must form part of the resolution. All story titles begin 'Grobby Six Bricks & ______________. Our exemplar, professionally illustrated story is 'Grobby Six Bricks – Farmyard Adventure'. That's a synopsis - join the course for the full version and project explanation.
- Utilise the master template format to innovate and create curriculum specific Six Bricks activities for whatever class or grouping you teach.
- Be inspired to tap your inner creative self to craft Six Bricks into the diverse activities that comprise your week to week curriculum learner outcomes. We reveal and model the techniques which you then take and apply to your own lessons.
- Reap a rich educational dividend from Six Bricks in terms of lesson engagement, skills development and the achievement of curriculum learning outcomes.
Other Six Bricks materials include: the many kits, teaching manuals, activity mats, crossing B-line movement mat, plus the answer coding mats that have huge application across curriculum and across classes. There are too many resources to checklist them all here.
It is not just the varied and diverse activities that we present but the inspiration we instil for every teacher to go forth, innovate and create activities that incorporate Six bricks for their own class, in all subjects. All these activities are collated and shared within the discussion forums for the maximum benefit of all.
Once you successfully complete your course, you will receive your certificate, a ‘Level 4 – Six Bricks Professional Practitioner Award’ – the highest available.
Has there ever been such a singular and affordable resource with such widespread application to curriculum? We contend, NOT.
Enrol onto and begin your Six Bricks professional development course today.
To summarise:
- All teachers receive a FREE Six Bricks Pack once enrolled, delivered to wherever you are in the world
- All teachers receive FREE access to the exclusive Six Bricks software portal for IWBs
- Discover the principles, practices and all the resources that comprise Six Bricks
- Become a ‘Six Bricks-Level 4 Certified Practitioner’ in 2023
Watch the video below to see John give a brief overview of the FREE IWB Six Bricks software that comes with this Six Bricks training course.
Enrol today and discover why the world is talking about ‘Six Bricks’. Join in the conversation and become a Level 4 Certified Practitioner.
NOTE:
The on-line format of this course enables you to study at a time and place that best suits your own needs.
You can access your course anytime and you have 3 months to complete it.
Within this highly interactive web based course, a dynamic learning experience awaits, where you can interact with your fellow course participants through the in-course chat forums and communication tools provided by the CPD College learning system.
Our friendly and knowledgeable tutors actively support each course, providing expert interaction, guidance and feedback for all participants on chat questions and assignments which call for critical reflection, self-analysis and a reasoned response.
On successful completion of your course, you can download and print off your CPD record. Additionally, a high-quality certificate will be available for download and printing once the tutor has signed off on your course completion.
We look forward to welcoming you to your course.
- To improve and sustain teaching and learning through play-based learning
- To ensure teachers understand, appreciate and deploy a ‘Learning through Play’ methodology to classroom activities
- To grow and cement concepts, skills and dispositions through play & Six Bricks (sets of LEGO® DUPLO® bricks in Six bright colours)
- To build key skills and confidence in the use of manipulatives for playful facilitation of curriculum e.g. Six Bricks & the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach to Mathematics
- To motivate, support and grow teachers to learn, understand and apply new approaches and methods across the broader integrated, skills curriculum (We have mapped all Six Bricks activities in the course to the outcomes of the primary school curriculum)
- To provide teachers with the tools and support to confidently innovate and implement new approaches to learning in their classrooms
- To have a positive influence on learner academic achievement by enhancing lifelong learning skills for all learners using the Six Bricks principles, practices and pedagogy
- To provide teachers with the skills to enhance children's physical, social, emotional, literacy and mathematical development
- To develop the required skills of the future through practicing working collaboratively and creatively, whilst communicating clearly and thinking critically with Six Bricks
| 01 - Introduction to Six Bricks: We begin with the evolution of Six Bricks as a manipulative in re-imagining learning, whereby we can utilise Six Bricks as a key learning through play pedagogy in early learning. A selection of effective and engaging Six Bricks approaches and activities are detailed e.g. mathematics and the problem solving circle, mathematics and the CPA approach with Six Bricks, the Six Bricks interactive whiteboard software etc. We introduce, develop and apply ‘Ignition Cognition'® across the classes and detail how teachers can create their own daily ‘ignition cognition’ ® exercises to reinforce and test content knowledge, be that in infants or sixth class. We conclude with 46 skill building activities across perceptual skills, mathematical skills, literacy skills, social-emotional skills, physical skills and games. |
| 02 - Six Bricks and the PLC language curriculum: We continue to explore key elements and messages of the learning through play pedagogy in primary school. We proceed to look at Six Bricks and their application within the infant mathematics curriculum, followed by literacy, where Six Bricks support learning across the 42-letter sound code, blending and learning of the 70+ tricky words. Not only that, but Six Bricks can support a range of second language learning concepts across ‘Gaeilge’. Our exciting ‘Write a Book Project’ with 'Grobby Six Bricks'® is for every class across the school and pulls together oral language, writing, reading, book binding and illustration skills. We conclude with 45 further skill building activities across perceptual skills, mathematical skills, literacy skills, social-emotional skills, physical skills and games. |
| 03 - Applying Six Bricks to Maths concepts and other skills: We continue to explore key elements and messages of the learning through play pedagogy in primary school. Our primary focus is on the development of perceptual skills and the use of manipulatives & the CPA approach to better achieve learner outcomes in mathematics. We look at the first 24 sets of tables facts, the Six bricks tables software and how Six Bricks can be used to reinforce and test tables knowledge. Participants get the opportunity to create their own Six Bricks maths activity for next year’s class and submit it to the ‘Share Central’ resource within the forums. We conclude with 47 further skill building activities across perceptual skills, mathematical skills, literacy skills, social-emotional skills, physical skills and games. |
| 04 - Six Bricks to support and develop physical and language skills: Continuing our exploration of Six Bricks as a playful pedagogy and approach to curriculum, we contend that a moving child is a learning child, before looking at Six Bricks and language learning opportunities. We explore further Six Bricks mathematical activities before moving onto a narration through each of 6 ‘Movement Mats’ to build spatial, memory and maths skills. We conclude with 44 further skill building activities across perceptual skills, mathematical skills, literacy skills, social-emotional skills, physical skills and games. |
| 05 - Reasoning and problem solving with Six Bricks: We continue to look at play as a pedagogy and its place in active learning, guided discovery learning, experiential learning, problem and project-based learning etc. In mathematics, we contextualise Six Bricks into the multiplication & division tables, into fractions and other concepts, before giving everyone the opportunity to create a further Six Bricks activity to support the achievement of a curriculum learning outcome in any subject. We explore six further ‘movement mats’ and detail the playing of some Six Bricks board games. Next, we suggest ways for schools to introduce Six Bricks to parents and to benefit from their input within SEN settings. We conclude with 42 further skill building activities across perceptual skills, mathematical skills, literacy skills, social-emotional skills, physical skills and games. |
"This was an exceptional course, so many new ideas and approaches. I know I can rely on CPD College for my professional development every year." - Siobhan, 2020
Check out our dedicated Six Bricks site at https://sixbrickseducation.com/ From here you can access the Six Bricks Interactive Whiteboard Software and the Six Bricks Shop.