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SB - Six Bricks

A Six Bricks skills-building approach to curriculum, up to 4th class. 

About the Course

This is course is presented by children's TV host John Sharpson, in association with the creative education team here at CPD College, Care for Education and The LEGO® Foundation.

Avail of this exciting opportunity to become a ‘Six Bricks-Level 4 Certified Practitioner’ in summer 2024. All participants will also receive a FREE Six Bricks Pack by post (See details below). 

Six Bricks is the new ‘wonder resource’ in education. Click 'play' below for a brief course overview from John. 

Besides a wealth of great materials, pedagogy, principles and practices, there are more than 500 skill-building activities that you can do with the Six LEGO® DUPLO® Bricks and their supporting resources.

Through participating in this online Six Bricks Training Course, you will:

  • Gain an in-depth understanding of the pedagogy, principles, practices and innovative suite of materials that underpin the approach to curriculum and skills building
  • Access the brand new Six Bricks IWB Software
  • Review the class kits, numerous materials, manuals and resources  
  • Get to grips with ‘Cognition Ignition®’ daily tasks approach at all class levels
  • Deploy daily mental arithmetic activities at all class levels by using the Six Bricks SBAC (Six Bricks Answer Code®)
  • Problem-solve with Six Bricks by utilising the 'Problem Solving Circle' across number, measures, shape & space, data and algebra, and at every class level. 
  • Master the letter sound code, blending, tricky words, dictionary skills, comprehension skills and more.
  • Apply the Six Bricks SBAC® approach in every 'Gaeilge' lesson to drive engagement, language processing and response, regardless of theme or topic or class level
  • Crack all 48 Sets of Tables with Six Bricks 
  • Get the Map for Maths! Six Bricks activities been mapped to the mathematics curriculum for all 8 class levels
  • Assess across all subjects and most topics with Six Bricks SBAC approach
  • Build perceptual, mathematical, literacy and social-emotional skills 
  • Learn how to use the hundreds of skills based 'Movement Mats'
  • 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 & The Birthday Surprise'. 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 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: Manuals, skills driven board games, spatial movement A3 mats, plus the answer coding mats that have a huge application across the curriculum and across classes. There are too many resources to checklist them all here.

It is not just the varied and diverse activities 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.

Has there ever been such a singular and affordable resource with such widespread application to the curriculum? We contend, NOT.

FREE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS - Incredible Six Bricks Pack (Worth €40) - Sent by Post

You will receive one set of Six Bricks, two books, one A4 mat and eight double-sided A3 activity mats, in the post. See details below.

  • 1 x Set of Six LEGO® DUPLO® Bricks
  • 1 x A4 Answer Coding Rocket (Mat 44)
  • 1 x Book 2 for Crossing the B-Line Mat & Move, Jump and Follow Mat (54 Pages / 165 Activities)
  • 1 x Teacher Guide for Activity Mats (52 Pages / 44 Activities)
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 19&20: Brick Addition Tables 1 - 12
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 23&24: Addition & Subtraction Master Correction Mat
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 25&26: Brick Multiplication Tables 1-12
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 29&30: Multiplication & Division Master Correction Sheet
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 31&32: Crack the Code Tools & Problem-Solving Circle
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 37&38: Crossing the B-Line Mat Side A / Move, Jump & Follow Mat Side B
  • 2 x Sets of Six Bricks Cut-Outs for drywipe marker board
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 50&51: My Six Bricks Hundred Grid (1)
  • 1 x A3 Activity Mats 52&53: My Six Bricks Hundred Grid (2)

FREE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS - Six Bricks software for your IWB 

36 Fantastic tools. Click on the image above to try out the software. 

Watch the video below to see John give a brief overview of the FREE IWB Six Bricks software that comes with the course.

To summarise: 

  • All teachers receive a FREE Six Bricks Pack once enrolled 
  • 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 summer 2024
  • All teachers qualify for 3 EPV days

Enrol today and discover why the world is talking about ‘Six Bricks’. 

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 until March 31st 2025.

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 and certificate of completion.

We look forward to welcoming you to your course.

Learning outcomes
In this course, we aim to:
  • Improve and sustain teaching and learning through play-based learning
  • Ensure teachers understand, appreciate and deploy a ‘Learning through Play’ methodology to classroom activities
  • Grow and cement concepts, skills and dispositions through play & Six Bricks (sets of LEGO® DUPLO® bricks in Six bright colours)
  • 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
  • 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)
  • Provide teachers with the tools and support to confidently innovate and implement new approaches to learning in their classrooms
  • Have a positive influence on learner academic achievement by enhancing lifelong learning skills for all learners using the Six Bricks principles, practices and pedagogy
  • Provide teachers with the skills to enhance children's physical, social, emotional, literacy and mathematical development
  • Develop the required skills of the future through practising working collaboratively and creatively, whilst communicating clearly and thinking critically with Six Bricks
 
Modules
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.
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We are delighted to bring you this course in collaboration with Brent Hutcheson and his organisation Care for Education, who have developed the Six Bricks pedagogy with the support of the LEGO® Foundation. 
 
 
 

 

"WOW - What a superb course - definitely one of the best I've ever done. John presented in a very informative, structured, clear and relevant way. I absolutely loved all the ideas, tips and videos which explained everything so well. Also, loved the pack of resources received in the post - Thank you."  Lisa, 2023

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.