Six Bricks is a concept designed to excite and motivate young children in the classroom to attain the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for success in later life. To help the formation of a young learner’s brain, developmentally appropriate early experiences and relationships are vital. In order to grasp concepts, children must be given time to manipulate concrete tools. They need opportunities to use their whole body to explore and aid their development of ideas, curiosity and imagination.
The Six Bricks activities are short, simple exercises or games designed to wake up the brain and get the child moving, thinking and remembering. They are not intended to be a curriculum, but they do support all areas of development in the curriculum.
Every child has a set of six 2x4 stud bricks, one of each colour, on his / her desk or readily available throughout each school day. The teacher can then easily facilitate any activity at any time. Repetition brings about better organization of the brain and the secret of the success of these activities lies in their regular repetition which will enable children to consolidate new knowledge.
In play, children develop their most important basic brain function - the ability to control their own behaviour in order to reach a goal. The Six Bricks activities give plenty of opportunity for the child to practise and improve self-control, which is fundamental to all other learning in life. Look for Six Bricks activities on this site to develop sensory, speech & language, cognitive, motor, social and emotional skills in the young child.
With Six Bricks, an attempt has been made to include activities which are:
• open-ended
• will allow the child to create
• will provide an opportunity for the child to co-operate with others, whilst keeping a sense of self
• the teacher can scale up or down, according to the level of the child
• will be fun and inspire laughter and a love of learning