Skills Development: delivering a strenuous aerobic workout + exercising perceptual, short-term memory and problem solving skills whilst working cooperatively and collaboratively.

Age: 3 years to adult.

Materials: teams of 2 or 3, 2 base markers per team, plus 2 sets of Six Bricks.

Procedure: in the P.E. hall or out on the grass, for each team, place their Base A and Base B markers 50 metres apart. On Base B, place 6 bricks in a sequenced stack and 6 loose bricks beside the stack. Keep all teams at Base A while you place the stacks at Base B. Do not let the teams see the stack sequences.

Objective: on the whistle, each relay team, one runner at a time, will run to Base B, observe the stack, grab a single loose brick and bring it back to Base A, tag a member to go get the next brick etc. until all 6 loose bricks are on Base A, hopefully assembled to match the stack on Base B i.e. the Base A bricks should be stacked to match those on Base B.

Scoring: primarily teams work together and simply challenge themselves to get it right for the team. Alternatively, teams can compete against each other.

When all teams are back, they can retrieve the 6 bricks stack from Base B and compare with the stack on Base A - both should match.

Extensions 1: introduce obstacles to be negotiated on the return journey between the chairs. This has the effect of interfering with memory as they go under or over the obstacle, as a result some will mix up the brick sequence on Base B.

Extension 2: increase the complexity of the 6 bricks stack on Base B to match the cognitive load for the target audience.

This activity can be used in every setting from pre-school to corporate.

Feel free to offer adaptations and extensions.

Enjoy.

Organisation: Children work in pairs

Teacher explains the following:

Children then compare and check models

Q: Did the first child explain well?

Q: Did the second child listen well?

Q: Were you able to interpret your friend’s instructions?

Q: Did you succeed in building the same model? If not, can you see where you went wrong?

Children swop roles – second child builds and explains – first child listens and builds.

Teaching Point: always start these activities by limiting the number of bricks to be used, so that all can more likely achieve success.  In time and with practice, allow activities to grow to 4, then 5 and ultimately 6 bricks.

Learning Outcomes: 

In groups, build a big patterned wall with your bricks.
Draw Humpty Dumpty & Grobby Six Bricks up on a wall and colour the wall in the Six Bricks colours.

Six Bricks is such a resource. My initial reaction, all these bricks can’t be good!

Then we had the light bulb moment, well, after a lot of consideration really.

GROBBY was born!

The team here at Six Bricks Education invented the acronym GROBBY, and the children now stack their six bricks into a GROBBY at the end of an activity or working session, before one of the children goes around and gathers them up into the box which is placed back on the shelf, until the next time.

A box measuring 36cm x 24cm comfortably stores 30 X GROBBY stacks.

No bricks missing, all GROBBYs present and clearly accounted for.

Introduce your children to GROBBY and see the difference it makes to ease of classroom management. When I see Six Bricks now, I see GROBBY.

Classroom management of Six Bricks is clicked!

Grobby and the gang are trying to develop Ostrich’s fine motor, concentration & coordination skills. Let’s just say, it’ll take a little time and lots of practice. (Note the way the chick chicks are keeping count, the goat is somewhat sulking that he’s not doing it, Grobby is encouraging, doggy is teaching froggy to extend jumping skills, and the alpaca is just happy for all!) 

In the same way, we as teachers strap on our Six Bricks backpack every day and instruct our pupils well as we build out their skill sets on a daily basis.

Can your pupils build faster than Ostrich?

Extension 1: compete against a partner, who can do it fastest?

Extension 2: combine 2 sets of bricks. How tall can you build your tower now? Who can build the tallest tower?

Extension 3: repeat this same exercise, building a 6 brick tower using your non-dominant hand or alternate hands.

Extension 4: can you do this exercise by using your thumb and forefinger only to pick up and place the bricks?

Extension 5: first children build their 6 brick towers. Now, using alternate right and left hands, can they remove each brick one at a time, without knocking all the bricks over?

 

The software is full of great ways to use Six Bricks in curriculum.

 

Tip 1: when you access the software and the 35+ tools, be sure to check out the ‘Teacher Notes’ above each toolbar to get an idea of how to operate and apply the software in curriculum.

 

Tip 2: for each of the software tools, there is a matching physical A3 Activity Mat that can be purchased in the Six Bricks Shop, also at the above link e.g. if you were an infants teacher using the ‘Counting Objects 1 to 10’ software tool, you could consider purchasing a set of A3 activity mats for ‘Counting Objects 1 to 10’ that the children will use in conjunction with you guiding with the software on the IWB.

 

This is an amazing software support to all Six Bricks Enthusiasts & Practitioners + it’s FREE!

Enjoy.

Link to software: www.sixbrickseducation.com 

 

The ‘Grobby Six Bricks - Farmyard Adventure’ is available as a beautifully illustrated hardback A4 book and is available from the Six Bricks Education Shop. Also linked in a performance reading by John Sharpson below.

Children participating in Six Bricks activities should know the Farmyard Adventure story.

Once you have read or listened to the story with the children, there are 40 questions in the back of the book that you can pose the children, just 10 itemised below.

Have the children write a narrative / adventure text, generating their own Grobby Six Bricks story. Here are suggested titles to choose from:

When the stories are finished through the ‘Writing Process Approach’, have the children illustrate and share them with classmates, friends, family …….. & here!

A new twist on the ‘Hanging Around’ activity.

Notice the giant bricks, on the giant table with a giant yellow door into the giant’s room? And the Giant’s three pets! Just like Jack, poor Grobby needs to get to the ground and run away. Can you help Grobby?

This activity is all about playful fun and experimenting ……. trying out different ways to discover how many bricks you can get to over-hang the edge of the table without touching the floor. Often – so much of the work of the classroom has little challenge and mostly pre-determined processes and right or wrong answers. Then there’s activities like this one!

Resources: plenty of bricks per group

Children can work alone, better in groups. They place one brick close to the edge of a table. The task is to see how many bricks can hang off the table. There will be plenty of trial and error, paying attention to ‘cause and effect’, noticing what happens when you do ‘x’, adjusting the approach and building on learning.

Ask guiding questions, probing questions as you circulate the groups

Challenge: how many bricks can you get to hang off the edge of your table to help Grobby escape?

Attempt 1: Bricks overhanging minus bricks on table = ?

Attempt 2: Bricks overhanging minus bricks on table = ?

Attempt 3: Bricks overhanging minus bricks on table = ?

It is important to chart progress and record attempts. The above approach will help the children determine the winning group, i.e. take the number overhanging, subtract the number counterbalancing on the table = total value of the overhang.

Literacy: tell, write & illustrate a story - "Grobby and The Giant'.

Lesson plenary: discuss the science within the activity: forces, pivot points, balancing, counter balancing etc

Learning Outcomes: children will challenge, practice and strengthen working memory skills. 

Why: this skill allows us to hold information in our minds and to mentally work with it. We use it for tasks like remembering steps in a plan, connecting two ideas or combining words into whole sentences while we read.

Teaching Point: in infants, teacher will combine 2 and 3 bricks together in simple sequences e.g. in a straight stack. In higher classes, teacher will combine more bricks into more complex sequences.

Everybody benefits from good memory workouts.

Note three ways of working: teacher + whole class; in groups or in pairs.

Well - you can clap, snap, tap, stomp, click and I’m sure you can discover, list and practice many many more.

When doing a repetitive body percussion sequence, you can use your Six Bricks (or more) to help the class keep with the beat and the pattern.

Skills practised: you will challenge your sensory-motor skills, using your eyes and hands to coordinate movements. 

Why: physically, this helps us to balance, walk and run, but also refreshes our energy and thinking while we enjoy being active.

This activity additionally makes for a great class ‘Brain Break’ at any time of the day!

 Extension 1: Can you spice up the sequence with other brick positions and sounds?

Extension 2: Allow the children in groups to create and perform their own body percussion sequences.

Resources: 6 bricks, items to measure

Record sheet: teachers can create sheets with 5 picture tasks to measure and a blank box to record the number of bricks. Once 5 objects are measured and recorded, discuss the data e.g. which was the longest object? Which was the shortest? The _________ was longer than the __________. The _________ was shorter than the _____________.

Link to Interactive Whiteboard Software

Children learn to: 

Extension: play as above but clap every time you must hand over a red brick, knuckle knock on the table 3 times if you have to hand over a green brick.  Repeat the activity with different moves and different colours. 

Use your professional training, understanding, creativity and confidence to create your very own playful, skill building Six Bricks activities for your pupils.

Think of a singular area and consider what skills you want your children to practice?  We know that when they are engaged and challenged in playful ways, children practice skills for learning, for example.: 

Use the following template to create and sequence an activity.

My Activity Title: _________________

My children will learn to:
1.
2.
3.

 
My instructions are as follows:
1.
2.
3.

Extension Activity:

It contains more than 30+ tools to use that include:

……………… and more.

TOP TIP 1: read the ‘Teacher Notes’ in the bar at the top of each tool to understand how to use it in the classroom.

Top Tip 2: Physical A3 Mats are available to purchase in the Six Bricks Education shop which match the interactive software mat. 

Take this for example: a previous activity involved separating the six bricks into warm and cold colours. All agree that the warm bricks are the red, orange and yellow; while the cold trio are comprised of the dark blue, light blue and green. Once children are agreed on the division of colours, all sorts of mental problem solving can be engaged.

In the following, we assign fractional values to the bricks, but this could just as easily be whole numbers, decimals, money values etc. Adapt the idea to the age and stage of your own students.

Aim: practice mental arithmetic - adding and subtracting halves and quarters.

Procedure:

Gather all students into a circle on the floor and you the teacher enter the ring as ring-master. Add energy and panache to the throwing down of bricks and the flair filled questioning!

Let the hot colour bricks each have the value of ¼, the cold colour bricks the value of 1/2 . Then ask questions.

1.    What is the value of the hot bricks? 

2.    What is the value of the cold bricks? 

3.    Throw 4 random bricks onto the table. What is the total value of the bricks?

4.    Throw 6 random bricks onto the table. What is the total value of the bricks? Now remove 2 bricks, what is the new total?

5.    Throw 5 bricks onto the table. Then move 1 brick to the side. Ask: what was the value of the pile, before I removed this brick?

Extension: What alternative values could you assign both groups of bricks and what problems could you have them consider, discuss and solve.

Definition: a position is the point where something is located, as on a map, or the posture it's arranged in, such as an "upright position." Position is also relative e.g. red brick in front of green. Position has many meanings but here we practice the language of spatial relationships.

Vocabulary development: top left, bottom right, centred, in front of, to the left of, upright, flipped, on it’s side, above, under, touching, beneath etc. 

The activity can also be used when learning a new language, to practice colours and positioning in the new language.

Extension 1: introduce an object to the table e.g. a pencil case. This opens up further possibilities.

Keep the vocab and requests appropriate to age and stage of pupils.

We can sort collections on the basis of things that roll or not roll, things that are hot or cold, things that are alive or were never alive, hard things versus soft things, things that are magnetic or non-magnetic etc.

Aim: to sort a collection according to one attribute such as colour.

Procedure:

Extension 1: have various quantities of each colour in the box e.g. 1 light blue, 2 yellows, 3 greens, 4 oranges, 5 reds, 6 dark blues. Sort the collection according to colour and then arrange / order the piles from smallest to largest collection. Once sorted, ask them questions: 

Extension 2: repeat the activity, with the emphasis on second language learning i.e. learning colours in Irish or French or Welsh etc.

This is no ordinary ruler. This is a very colourful Six Bricks ruler and you can even see the GROBBY sequence of Green Red Orange Blue Blue Yellow along the measuring edge.

Of course the units are non-standard, in this case the ruler is ‘six brick units long’.

Aim: 

Now make 4 comparative statements e.g.:

The __________ is longer than the _________.

The __________ is longer than the _________ but shorter than the _________.

In what other ways could you use your ‘Six Bricks Ruler’?

Are there other rulers you could make?

Aim: to practice, improve and strengthen the fine motor skills that help with pencil grip, coordination and handwriting. (or just for a brain break, a bit of time out and a little fun!)

Task: How many bricks can you place into a tub using just a clothes peg, before the rocket explodes?

This super exploding rocket is available to access for FREE on the toolkit4maths.com site, in the ‘Classroom Timer’ section. It is wonderful to put it up on the IWB and turn up the volume. (can also be accessed and used on tablet devices at their tables).

Extension: use the less dominant hand to do the activity.

Again, subitising can be practiced with all sorts of materials, but six bricks is certainly one great starting point.

Aim: to accurately say the number of objects in a set without counting.

Extension 1: Child A drops the bricks and the other 2 children immediately write their answer on a drywipe marker board and hold it up. First up wins.

Extension 2: best of 5 goes is winner. Child A drops out lots of 1 to 6 for 5 goes and the others write the number. Check and confirm each time. 

(Tip on keeping score: if you have lots of spare bricks, then give a brick to the winner each time. First to accumulate 6 bricks wins)

Arrangement: Groups of 4 or 5

Procedure:

Extension 1: start at a different number and add a different number e.g. start at 9 and add 7

Extension 2: start at a number and add a 2 digit number on each time e.g. +12

Extension 3: start at a higher number and subtract a single digit number e.g. start at 101 and subtract 3 each time

Extension 4: start at a higher number and subtract a 2 digit number e.g. start at 101 and subtract 12 each time

Extension 5:  introduce higher numbers or even fractions or money tasks - be creative.

Differentiation: students can be grouped according to number ability and all groups can be assigned an ability appropriate task

True is represented by the GREEN brick and RED signifies FALSE.

If the student thinks the statement is TRUE, hold the GREEN brick up high, if FALSE then hold aloft the RED brick.

For me the teacher, this is a very quick way of determining if the children are correct. It’s a test of knowledge & recall, requires concentration and quick thinking, is active and fun. All centred on just two little Lego brickies!

I like to have the children keep both bricks on the table in parallel, in front of themselves. They focus on the two bricks. I make a statement and they must rapidly decide, True or False, grab and hold aloft the chosen brick response.

This is a snappy way for a teacher to assess knowledge and understanding or to revise & embed content.

Here is a few sample statements that indicate the range and quality of possible statements in an educational setting that you could make; keep them to the age, stage and work ceiling of the class. There are millions of statements possible, actually there is an infinite number, so thinking caps on for your students.

1. True or False: 7+6 equals 12

2. True or False If today is Monday. Two days ago, it was Friday.

3. True or False Glass is magnetic.

4. True or False A bird is higher up the food chain than a cat.

5. True or False Shop comes before ship in the dictionary

6. True or False 7x6 …….+8 = 50

7. True or False Summer comes immediately after Winter

8. True or False Vienna is the capital of Switzerland

9. True or False There are 36 counties in Ireland

10. True or False The Vikings came to Ireland in 1169

Note 1: CRUCIAL – once children have indicated a brick response, ask a follow on clarifying question e.g. in Q1 above: Michael – what does 7+6 equal? Q2 – Mary – what day was it 2 days ago? etc .etc.

Note 2: often when you ask a question of the class, only a fraction of the class engage, less still volunteer an answer and you ask one child for the answer. However, with just a GREEN & RED brick, everyone engages, everyone answers and you see all answers! That’s the 100% I’m looking for in my room!

Extension 1: do a quick round of 10 questions as a fun assessment exercise. Children can keep their scores by marking a ‘tick’ or an ‘x’ on their drywipe marker board.

Extension 2: do a series of true / false statements on a specific subject, topic or topics that are being studied.

Extension 3: do a series of true / false statements to practice vocabulary and verbs as part of second language learning.

Any thoughts, comments, extensions come to mind for this activity?

Patterns are all around us: in nature, in our clothes, in wall paper, in our routines, in time etc. Patterns are about seeing connections and making links. We must help our students to do both. By exploring and understanding patterns, children learn to make predictions, to work out and understand what comes next, they come to make logical connections and to use reasoning skills, for example, they come to know the pattern of the morning routine: out of bed, dress, have breakfast, wash teeth, put on coat, grab school bag and leave for school. Patterns lead to prediction and predictable behaviour. There are patterns in time: the days of the week, months of the year, night follows day, spring follows winter, Wednesday always precedes Thursday etc.  Really, pattern is about seeing connections and making links.  It is the systematic arrangement of numbers or shapes which follow a given rule. 

Question:
What is the error in the pattern above?
Which brick comes next?

When children understand what makes a pattern, how to copy patterns and how to make their own, this not only enhances their understanding of maths in other areas but also their experiences of art, music and physical movement.

For our young children, identifying and creating patterns is just the beginning of the mastery of life-long mathematical skills. Once children are aware of patterns they will begin to see them in everything. 

Aim: to practice building patterns using sets of Six Bricks.

Children love poems and rhymes. Six Bricks can be used to inspire a poetry appreciation and writing session. Here, we began by reading a number of young childrens’ rhymes and poems. We talked about themes, rhymes and common features. We dreamed of possible illustrations and then looked at what the illustrator drew. There were all sorts of whimsical topics, themes and characters. Our task was to write and illustrate a rhyme that featured one or all of our Six Bricks. Just like in the rhyme ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’, the bricks become animate in the childrens’ imaginations.

Here I share one rhyme written about a little yellow Lego brick.

A little yellow brick went out one day,

Over the meadow, far far away.

Met a daffodil, I say how do you do?

You and me, we now make two.

Off they went beneath a sky so blue,

Hand in hand, shoe by shoe.

Met a little chick and what did they agree,

Two plus one, we always make three.

Three new friends went skipping along,

Met a yellow hammer singing her song.

She sang and sang, and sang some more,

Yep, three pus one, sure, that makes four

The sun it rose and cheered up the sky,

While four yellow friends slept, bye and bye.

©sixbrickseducation.com

As we like to say: “Worksheets don’t grow dendrites, but Six Bricks most certainly do!”

Using 6 six bricks or even 12 six bricks (another seeming contradiction!), children use the bricks to make their thinking more visible and to provide a platform for mathematical conversations as they set out, manipulate and solve the problem.

Aim: to explore, build, and record how many 8s make 40.

Procedure:

Extension: you can pose any number of multiplication problems in the format of - How many ____ make _____? e.g. how may 8s make 48 etc.

Once children have a strong understanding of a concept in one context, they can generalise and transfer that conceptual understanding to all instances of _____ X ______ = Y

These simple activities can be used in P.E. or as brain breaks. Young children begin to develop carrying, balancing and coordination skills e.g. carrying a brick on different body parts (e.g. palm of hand, back of hand, head).

Extension 1: carrying a Lego brick on a small bat in different positions while moving slowly or quickly.

Extension 2: children move in different ways, at different speeds, in different directions whilst balancing a brick on head, hand palm or a bat.

Could you be the fastest clothes pegger in the class?

Perhaps with practice you just might!

This is a super fun game when 2 children or adults go head-to-head in competition.

Learning Outcomes: children will challenge their fine motor skills, especially the muscles used for “pinching” pencils in a steady grip. Additionally, they will practice and strengthen their hand-eye-coordination skills in a fun game setting.

The Challenge: who is fastest at putting the Six Bricks into the tub using only a clothes peg

Materials: 2 tubs, 2 lots of 6 bricks and 2 clothes pegs.

(works best if you the winner is the best of 3 or 5 games as this values skill over luck)

Extension 1: Repeat the challenge, but this time both players do it using their less dominant hand?

Extension 2: Repeat, but now each child can use 2 pegs, a peg in each hand, and use both sides of their brain! Try it - super fun.

Note: have you ever longed for immersive games for those wet days when children have to remain in classrooms at break time? This is one. Assemble a collection of plastic tubs, bricks and clothes pegs and the children will happily play away while you relax with a coffee in the staffroom!

Various problem-solving activities can be practised daily using this Six Bricks CPA approach.

Imagine if every number had its own symbol. What would the symbol for 87 or 145 or 62 million be? Sure, we would never be able to count if every number had its own unique symbol. It is the fact that every number is derived from a combination of ten symbols that is key. We can represent every number with just a combination of any of 10 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) – the base 10 system.

It is the concept of Place value that is the basis of our entire number system. Place value is the system in which the position of a digit in a number determines its value. ... 

In the standard system, called the base ten number system (or decimal system), each place represents ten times the value of the place to its right.

We use structured materials such as Dienes Blocks to teach place value in the classroom.

However, Six Bricks can certainly be used in the middle to senior primary to play with numbers and further interrogate, render, discuss and arrive at a fuller conceptual understanding of place value.

Just like the numeration system, each brick represents a number. Here we have numbers 1 to 6. We could easily have 10 coloured bricks and represent the infinite set of numbers.

Questions:

How quickly can you say each of the numbers from A to F?

Question for you: as you studied and readied to say each number, did you find yourself considering the PLACE of each number in order to assign and call its VALUE? For example, in ‘D’, were you looking at ‘Light Blue’ and thinking 4 ….. 4 what…….. looking at place and working out ….. oh …… 4 thousand.

Children will also engage in ‘mathematical thinking’ in this way.

Isn’t it powerful how Six Bricks can be used to get children thinking about numbers in new conceptual ways.

Teaching Point: This is just a flavour of the potential and possibility of Six Bricks to build ‘flexible thinking’ in relation to place value.

Task: get your students making, saying, drawing, writing and recording small and large numbers using their Six Bricks

Aim:
to talk about and measure temperature

to talk about time and time sequences

to equate each of the Six Bricks to degrees of temperature and time events

Procedure

Task 1: draw a summer picture and colour in warm colours. Draw a winter picture and colour in cold colours.

Task 2: combine sets of bricks together. Construct a warm creature from the warm colours, a cold creature from the cold colours. Use other materials to embellish. Give each a name. Give each a special power. What happens when they meet?

The story of 6 is just one story to be told. Give each group an extra 4 bricks and sure they could tell the story of 10. For now, stick with the story of 6.

Teacher models and records. Children work their own set of Six Bricks.

Start with a stack of 6 bricks in one hand. 

I have 6 in one hand and none in the other, so:

6+0=6

Now take off 1. I have 5 in one hand and 1 in the other, so:

5+1=6

Put the stack back together: Now take off 2. I have 4 in one hand and 2 in the other, so:

4+2=6

Put the stack back together: Now take off 3. I have 3 in one hand and 3 in the other, so:

3+3=6

Putting the stack back together each time emphasises that we always have the full complement of 6. Continue in this vein, recording the story on the large classroom drywipe marker board.

6+0=6

5+1=6

4+2=6

3+3=6

2+4=6

1+5=6

0+6=6

Now let the children repeat the story of 6 on their own and this time they record the facts as they go in their copybooks.

Teaching Point: repeat for other number stories up to 10.

Question: what form of transport do you use to get to school?

We are now ready to analyse and make statements, for example:

Reflection Point: Six Bricks is a very practical way to create bar graphs. Children can identify with the data e.g Anne can tell that she is represented by the orange bricks because that is where she placed her brick, as she comes to school on her bike. The bricks connect children in a concrete way to the data. This is yet another perfect example of the CONCRETE / PICTIRIAL / ABSTRACT approach to mathematics.

Can you carry out a pet survey or a favourite sport survey using Six Bricks to represent the data sets?

Six Bricks is one of the LEGO Foundation’s tools to introduce learning through play into different settings. Through fun, short and playful activities with sets of LEGO® DUPLO® bricks in six bright colours, children practice a range of skills.

Learning Outcomes:  children will challenge your fine motor skills, and especially the muscles used for “pinching” pencils in a steady grip. We use fine motor skills every day for tasks like handwriting, typing, crafts and playing instruments.

Extension 1: Can you do this with your other hand?

Extension 2: What other ways might you ask the children to stack the bricks?

Let’s call it ‘Tricky Perspectives in 3D Builds’.

All teachers have phone cameras. Why not build some models of ever increasing difficulty, photograph them, save into a folder on your computer and then project them onto the Interactive Whiteboard as building tasks for the students in pairs. You’ll get great milage out of them over time.

 

It’s the classic example of ‘TEACH ME TO FISH’ and you feed me for a lifetime. Let me teach you to fish, using just 3 examples and then I ask you to contribute your own example in a reply that demonstrates to me that you now know how to fish!

 

I am going to provide three examples and once you understand the mechanics of the exemplar activities, you will use this technique daily in curriculum with Six Bricks. There's no end to the possibilities with SBAC application. SBAC drives learning deeper, raises standards.

 

 

VERY IMPORTANT: before going further, get your own set of Six Bricks and answer the question just like a child, and compare your own answer to my answer which is contained in the image.

 

Requirements: 

 

 

TASK 1: Students, from left to right on your desks, place your bricks in the brick order that these days of the week follow on from Sunday.

They must now sequence their 6 bricks from left to right, in the order that answers the question correctly.

(when they are ready, you place a colour sequence of bricks underneath the question that answers it. Children compare, discuss and correct own answers)

 

TASK 2: NO PEEKING AT ANSWER – look at Task 2 in the image: can you place the words in the order in which they would appear in the dictionary? To answer: sequence your bricks in a colour order from left to right to answer the question.

 

TASK 3: NO PEEKING AT ANSWER – look at the question: can you put the numbers in order from smallest to largest? To answer: sequence your bricks in a colour order from left to right to answer the question.

 

NOTE: Six Bricks Activity Code can be used daily to drive engagement by ALL students, with ALL SBAC tasks and ALL students must answer the question. No hiding place, and leaving it to the usual few to answer.

 

Thank you for reading and do give it a go.

 

Up on my wall, I have a very large poster and the letters and matching colours are viewable and discernible from any seat in the classroom, that’s how your posters should be.

When I say a sound, you must hold up the brick colour that you think matches that sound e.g. if I say /i/ then you should be holding up an ORANGE brick.

Say the vowels as discrete sounds

Say the vowels as discrete sounds and add sample words

What is the middle sound in each of these words

Using the bricks and the chart on the wall, you can do reams of regular practice around the five vowels, building and refining childrens’ ability to discriminate and identify them rapidly.

Short, diverse and rapid active phonics sessions, for 5 minutes here and there drives strong acquisition of and facility with all parts of the letter sound code.

Make Six Bricks a key part of your phonics approach.

(check out the Six Bricks Education Shop for any bricks or supporting materials you may need)

The best teachers use a ‘Lesson Hook’ to start a lesson in a memorable, engaging way from the get go.

It’s approaching Spring in Ireland and the daffodil bulbs occupying a sheltered sunny spot are in full bloom.

Ms. Pender, a second-level biology teacher, is beginning a chapter on ‘Evolution, Natural Selection & Adaptation’. In a moment of teacher inspiration, she sees a way in which she can use Six Bricks to launch into the unit.

Earlier, she slipped outside to the daffodils and shrubbery and placed Six Bricks into the vegetation, in a very pre-determined way. The bricks have now transformed, and for the purpose of the learning unit, they are now 6 coloured insects!

To begin, the lesson, she is going to bring the class out, position them with their backs to the daffodils and say:

Look at me, do not turn until I say so. There are colourful insects in the vegetation today. 

I want you to tell me, if you were a hungry bird:

Which insect would you have eaten first?

This lesson hook will have grabbed the attention of the students. Back in the classroom, Ms. Pender can reference their experience in the garden as she traverses and explains the concepts of Evolution, Natural Selection & Adaptation, as she shows images of adaptation in the animal, bird and insect kingdoms.

Who would have thought that Six Bricks could be so central to such a lesson.

Wherever in the world English reading skills are being taught, we can effectively use Six Bricks as part of the mix of approaches to teach blending, the core skill at the heart of learning to read. In this case we have SET 1 sounds represented by bricks in the side on position and SET 2 sounds in the face on position. The ‘s’ is a side-on Green, while ‘d’ is a face on GREEN.

Aim: children work out unknown words through sounding out & blending.

Requirements: a large chart on the wall that the class can see and 2 X sets of bricks per pair.

Note: are you beginning to see the massive application of Six Bricks as an approach and strategy to building letter / sound code knowledge and the skills of blending in order to work out unknown words?

Using Six Bricks to harness the attention, active participation and the engagement of all is simply a better, more effective approach.

(check out the Six Bricks Education Shop for brick packs and other phonics / reading materials)

As you know, here in Ireland 91% of schools use the world-renowned Jolly Phonics Programme with our bricks. It is impossible for each child to have 42 letter sounds on the table across the day, but all can certainly have 6 bricks at all times. I recommend using those Six Bricks at various times across the school day for short snappy revision and reinforcement sessions on phonics. It will drive knowledge and acquistion of the letter / sound code on which independent reading skills are based. I follow the ‘little and often principle’!

There are 42 sounds in the Jolly Phonics ‘Reading Code’ and children must be able to recognise and identify each sound on the ear. They learn them one by one following the Jolly Phonics Programme

TOP TIP: make a supersize wall chart of the 42 letter-sound code and assign a brick colour to each letter sound in each of the 7 groups. Number the groups. In this way you can direct children to the particular group you are working on. Place your poster up on the wall in every classroom and support room where children are learning to read.

I say to the children, look at group 2, what sound is this – “/r/ as in rat” and they should hold up an ORANGE brick. Which sound is this – “/d/ as in dog” and they should hold up GREEN etc.

You can say the sound discretely or add a word that begins with the sound.

Look at row 3: “/f/ as in five fat fish.” What colour should the children be holding up?

The brick poster is a fun, active, participatory way to revise and cement the letter sounds with the children. All children must listen, engage, identify and hold up a coloured brick. You can instantly see, reinforce and correct.

In Part 3 I will look at the essential skill of blending and how Six bricks can be an essential and valuable part of the approach.

It is my view, a classroom using Six Bricks as part of an active / interactive phonics approach is simply a better classroom, a faster progressing classroom, than a room without the Six Bricks mix. Wouldn’t that make a great little piece of research! Any takers?

For greater success and faster, more effective whole class progression in phonics, incorporate Six Bricks into your approach.

The circle and bricks provide a strong visual over which they will lay and attach their thinking and problem solving strategies.

The circles can be on pupil desks or perhaps all gather round one on the floor.

This is just 4 examples. Application is unlimited in scope and number ceiling.

Remember: you can have less bricks or more bricks in the circle, take out, add in, do whatever to exercise their mental arithmetic and problem-solving skill. The bricks can be small or large numbers, fractions, decimals or even percentages. They can represent goats and sheep, money or any other values. You say what’s in the circle, pose the problem, they manipulate and solve.

FREE Problem Solving Circle in software tool: https://sixbrickssoftware.com/v3/#/problemsolvingcircle

Problem Solving Circle in shop: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/crack-the-code-tools-problem-solving-circle.html

Will you use the Six Bricks ‘Problem Solving circle’ approach?

In these classrooms, Six Bricks can be combined in clever ways with existing materials to increase the learning opportunities.

In the picture below, I have combined and set out a particular set of objects and we are going to use our positional language to say where things are relative to others.

Teacher asks: “Mary, where is the orange teddy?”

Now, there is not just one answer here. There are many many correct answers here, and probing will elicit them.

You get the idea – set up the scenario for the language functions on which you want to work.

Where is the yellow spider? ( what are all the possible answers?)

Why is there nothing on the light blue brick? (young children will speculate wildly: it's too hot to sit on OR a dragon came by and ate the pink teddy and ladybird OR .........)

Extension: place insects under bricks; place bears behind, beside and in front of bricks; sandwich a fly between two bricks, ..... above all, have fun, fun, fun.

Allow the children in groups to set out pictures with 6B & objects, and ask & answer questions.

However, you can plug Six Bricks into any reading programme, I plug mine into the best.

As you know, to read and write successfully, effectively and independently, children must learn to ‘decode’ for reading and ‘encode’ for writing. There are 42 letter sounds in the code for 4 & 5 year olds to master, and amazingly, most of them do. Instead of learning words, we learn to decode.

The road to reading begins with the first six letter sounds – s, a, t, i, p and n. Hmmm – I’m seeing a connection already, Six Sounds ……… and I have Six Bricks. Whatever could I do? Well, quite a lot it seems.

In addition to what you normally do, you can add a great Six Bricks element.

Once they know their six sounds, the next thing to do is to read some words.

Task: Using the letter sound code, can you decode and read the three words in the red boxes in the image?

What other words could you create with your bricks and hold up for the child to decode / read aloud?

Decoding is reading.

We can also write words i.e. encode.

We can do it with bricks too. Studs always face right, emphasising the directionality of blending and reading English.

Can you make the word /pin/ with your bricks?

So – that is a green, followed by a red, followed by dark blue?

Can you make the words in black in the image below?

NOTE: children will enjoy blending, working out and reading the ‘brick words’ you hold up. They will enjoy practising skills in making words themselves using the bricks. All the while they are acquiring, practising and cementing a suite of skills and understandings that will unlock reading i.e. how to work out words rather than trying to remember them all, remembering whole words. That is neither efficient or possible.

Know the 42 letter sound code. Use & apply the code. That’s reading! And that’s just the beginning.

Take this approach, adapt it, expand exponentially on it, make it part of your regular phonics practice and enjoy greater success and progression by all.

(check out the Six Bricks Education Shop if you need sets of bricks or other reading related materials)

This Six Bricks approach can be used to support mental arithmetic in every class from Reception to Year 6 and beyond.

It is crucially important to get your students doing mental arithmetic at every age and stage across the primary school.

Six Bricks can be a very productive strategy to employ and here is the approach.

The key point is: ALL students must engage and show a solution. Very often, there will be more than one solution.

The numbers you assign to the bricks will vary according to the class you teach and the ceiling of their number experience e.g. a Year 3 could have 6 numbers assigned as follows: 1, 9, 10, 100, 1000, 300 – see all the fun and challenge in these 6 numbers.

A Year 6 might have 6 numbers as follows: ¼, ½, 1/3, 3/6, 2/3, 2/8 with a question like, build a stack with a value of 1.5 etc.

What other ways can you expand on this idea?

Is this a worthwhile activity for your class?

Is your school adopting Six Bricks into their curriculum approach?

Lots more ideas and materials on www.sixbrickseducation.com 

Here is a quick example:

1. Place a red brick on the green rectangle

2. Place a yellow brick on 7

3. Place a light blue brick on an orange shape

4. Place a green brick on a 10-sided shape

5. Place an orange on the number you get when you add 4+4

6. Place a dark blue on the number that comes between 4 and 6 on the number line

Perhaps you might focus call outs on a singular activity, such as calling out 2 addends and children mark totals e.g. red on 3+2, green on 2+4, yellow on 6+3, orange on 5+2 etc.

There are just so many ways that you can make call outs which require the children to listen carefully, process the information and demonstrate understanding by correctly placing the required brick onto the mat.

Aim: to explore decomposing 6 into two and three sets, before reconstituting back to 6 through addition.

Materials: 6 bricks, crayons and a blank page.

Procedure

First, we explored Six Bricks as a class (CONCRETE): counted them as we stuck them together 1,2,3,4,5,6 – the whole stack represented 6.

I asked the children to break their stacks into two parts and tell me how many bricks in each, lots of different combinations offered e.g. “teacher, I have a 2 lot and a 4 lot” – kids express in all kinds of language.

Next, we pulled the 6 stack into three parts and again we talked through combinations e.g. “teacher I have a 4, a 1 and a 1”. If you combine 4 and 1 and 1, what do you get Alice?” – “6 teacher.” etc. Anyone get any other combinations? (there’ll be lots)

After that we drew some pictures on a big floor page (PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION) to represent the ‘sets’ e.g. a set of four bricks and a set of two bricks.

Finally we added the symbols (ABSTRACT) i.e. 4+2=6

This exploration of the set of 6 followed the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract Approach to mathematics.

Six Bricks supports a CPA approach in the early years.

In pairs - I set the children the task of drawing three different ways that you can break up a six brick stack and still have 6 when you put them back together.

Observation Point: children were doing, talking and problem-solving maths rather than just filling in box answers on worksheets.

Use Six Bricks or even two lots of 6 bricks to explore, construct and record number bonds from 2 to 12 and beyond, be that, two addends or three addends.

Six Bricks – a simple, affordable, structured resource that supports great mathematical exploration and problem-solving.

Question: What other ways can your Six Bricks support a CPA approach to building children’s mathematical understanding?

This is the mat as conceived and designed by Brent Hutcheson. There are up to 300 activities for this Crossing the B-Line movement mat. The 2 manuals are available in the shop on Six Bricks Education.

This mat is used to build countless skills, from perceptual and spatial awareness skills, to carefully listening and following instructions, to the vocabulary of movement and key number skills.

Let us do just one activity as an example of how the mat works. For this activity, the bottom line is 1, second is 2, mid-line is 3, next is 4 and top line is 5.

Begin with all 6 bricks on the B-line (The red line).

Ideally, you would call the moves and have a child move their bricks. In this exercise they would be working on exercising their listening skills, number, colour and spatial awareness skills etc.

For example, here are the moves 19 moves that a teacher would call out for this exercise.

01. Move Yellow to 4

02. Move Light Blue to 1

03. Move Green to 5

04. Move Orange to 2

05. Move Dark Blue to 5

06. Move Red to 2

07. Move Green to 2

08. Move Light Blue to 4

09. Move Dark Blue to 1

10. Move Red to 5

11. Move Yellow to 3

12. Move Orange to 5

13. Move Red to 3

14. Move Green to 4

15. Move Light Blue to 1

16. Move Orange to 3

17. Move Dark Blue to 5

18. Move Green to 3

19. Finally - Move Dark Blue to 1”

If you have followed the instructions correctly, then your mat will have:

There are 100’s of exercises that use the Crossing the B-Line mat to build perceptual, spatial reasoning, mathematical and literacy skills.

Six Bricks can be used for carrying out surveys, capturing and graphing data, followed by interpretation, in a hands-on, engaging and connected way.

Ask the children one question and give each possible answer a colour. For example, how did you get to school today?

Each child answers the question by finding the right colour of the brick and placing it on his/her mode of transport to school.

You can also translate the brick bar graph into a bar graph on paper as an introduction to statistics.

This survey could be adapted to favourite fruits, T.V. programmes, sports, foods, animals etc.

Be sure to make a simple task sheet to guide their work , with tasks written out in the level of language of the children. Add illustrations or little drawings beside key words e.g. a drawing of a pencil or ruler etc.

Insert a blank box on the task sheet where they will record their findings.

Once they have carried out the task, made their recordings and gathered the data, then it is time for a discussion. You can ask all sorts of questions, for example:

What a wonderful hands-on exercise in mathematics and a super use of Six Bricks to facilitate it i.e. all children using the same non-standard unit.

Along with learning the 42 letter sound code, they will need to automatically recognise and be able to recall 72 tricky words. You cannot work them out using sounds alone, that is why we call them ‘tricky’!

There is an A3 gloss laminated mat with 36 words on one side and 36 on the other, 72 altogether.

Link to mat with first set of 36 : https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/tricky-word-bricks-1...

Link to mat with second set of 36 : https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/tricky-word-bricks-3...

Link to the supporting software: https://sixbrickssoftware.com/v3/#/trickywords2

I say to the children: look at the 'red arrow' row -

1. Place the orange brick on ‘all’

2. Place the red brick on ‘to’

3. Place the light blue brick on ‘was’

4. Place the green brick on ‘are’

5. Place the yellow brick on ‘be’

6. Place the dark blue brick on ‘do’

As you make the calls, you mark your own board. Keep an eye on the students that find it challenging as you circulate.

To correct – call the colour code and children can see if they have them all correct.

In this instance: Yellow, Light Blue, Red, Dark Blue, Green and Orange.

I can also correct and reinforce by using the FREE IWB software.

Such possibility in the hands of a skilled teacher.

Guaranteed: in my class, using the bricks, A3 mat cards and the IWB software, the children will out perform next door if they are not implementing this hands-on measure for learning the ‘Tricky Words’!

That’s Six Bricks delivering for curriculum and for student learning.

Are you using any of these materials?

We can use Six Bricks at every class age and stage for fun engaging active mental arithmetic problem solving. I have just 5 of a million possible examples below.

I want you to work out and write down the answers to the following 5 questions. Use your 6 bricks GROBBY to help you. You will come to appreciate how the bricks support thinking, mathematical reasoning and problem solving.

Please work out the following little problems for yourself and write down your answers, before checking.

Don’t look yet, but I have inserted the answers below to support self-correction.

1. If each brick is worth one more than the previous, yellow is 6, what is the value of green?

2. If each brick is worth 3 more than the previous, red is 21, what is the value of dark blue?

3. If Y is 5 and G is 25, and the same value separates each brick, what is the value of each brick in the sequence?

4. If Orange is 1000 and the difference between each adjoining brick colour is 110, what is the value of each brick?

5. If light blue is10 and each brick is 2 more than the previous, what is the total value of the brick stack?

How did you do?

Is this a good way to do maths? Why? 

Answers: 1 (11), 2 (12), 3 (5,9,13,17,21,25), 4 (1220, 1110, 1000, 890, 780, 670), 5 (66))

Whereas it is difficult to have coins for everybody, the bricks are always there on the tables ready to take on any role!

The problems can be for Year 7+ or reduced to numbers from 1 to 10 for R/Yr1.

In this instance, I am creating a shopping challenge for children who can add and subtract to 100. (Yr2)

Questions: click bricks together and hold up to show:

Do you appreciate how active and interactive this exercise is? Everybody is engaging and working out the problems and holding up the answer. There are manipulatives to support visualisation and working out. It is way more engaging, meaningful and productive than a low-level worksheet!

How will you adapt and use this approach in your classroom, with your unique students and at their level of functioning?

This is Grobby Six Bricks who is off on an adventurous spring walk here in Ireland.

These are just some of the many questions the students will ponder as they ‘Think, Draw & Write’. (Think/Draw/Write is an approach that works very well with R/Yr1/Yr2/Yr3)

The format for this writing workshop is to think about Grobby hiking around the garden / countryside, draw the picture / vision or set of pictures.  Next, they write a little story, their writing feeding off the story drawings.

Can you and your students write a Grobby Six Bricks story?

Here, three girls from the senior class are helping out and singing along with Gayle, showing some actions to the song ‘Five Little Ducks’.

In an R/Yr 1 class this song would be supporting such maths concepts as: the number count sequence to 5, the story of 5, one less each time, counting down / back etc.

What other songs could children sing and add Six Bricks actions to?

Can you match the country to it’s capital city?

Put your six brick colours in order in a stack from top to bottom, so that the capital colour matches the countries 1 to 6.

How did you do?

How else can you use this technique in curriculum, using Excel sheets and an interactive whiteboard?

Here’s another such task inspired by Six Bricks!

This is Groblet, who likes to dress in natural seasonal colours, usually selected from the great outdoors. Groblet and friends are all around us, often hiding in plain sight. 

Because they choose seasonal colours, they often blend into the background of open fields and small gardens, into wild hedges, trees, bushes and flower beds. There could be a Groblet watching you right now, can you not see him? You will have to look more closely!

The mission of every Groblet is to help clean up the environment of the trash that is carelessly discarded by mindless humans; paper and plastics and all sorts of wrappers and wrapping! They do a lot of unseen work, but we must help too.

Groblet’s mantra for all kids out there regarding the great outdoors and nature: ‘see it – pick it – bin it’.

Leave no trace!

After a day of picking, Groblet likes nothing better than to lie in a warm sunny spot on the banks of a cool crystal clear stream and soak in the surrounding sounds of nature.

Note: kids will come up with hundreds of alternative characters and missions. Just give them the chance to surprise you.

Link to A3 laminated Game Board which contains 'TRAP' on one side and 'LAST BRICK STANDING' on the reverse - just €0.95: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/last-brick-standing-trap.html 

Objective: To sequence the 6 bricks colours to support a recall of a poem by reading or recitation.

Little jolly Robin went hunting one day,

Down amongst the daffodils, still blooming in May!

Hopping along the riverbank, so dark and so cold,

Out popped blackbird, oh so big and so bold!

Both chirped and chatted about trees to explore,

As a hungry buzzard circled, still looking for more!

OK - won't be shortlisted for the Nobel prize for poetry, but sure it's all about having a go and having some fun. That's what I tell the kids. Do it for yourself and do it for fun.

Each of the Six Bricks can be used to represent a line or an image in the poem. As the poem is read or recited or performed, children choose a brick to represent key points in the telling, which will help recall the plot.

We can also use the visual colours of bricks to recall the plot of stories etc. In our minds we associate images to the bricks and lay them out in a sequence as we listen to the story or poem. We then recall the story or poem by ‘reading the brick sequence’.

In the poem above, as per image, I have chosen a red for robin, yellow for daffodils, dark blue for the cold river, the orange beak of blackbird, green trees and the clear blue sky with the buzzard circling on the thermal up currents.

Go on – can you or your students write a six-line six bricks inspired rhyme?

In these classrooms, Six Bricks can be combined in clever ways with existing materials to increase the learning opportunities.

In the picture below, I have combined and set out a particular set of objects and we are going to use our positional language to say where things are relative to others.

Teacher asks: “Mary, where is the orange teddy?”

Now, there is not just one answer here. There are many many correct answers here, and probing will elicit them.

You get the idea – set up the scenario for the language functions on which you want to work.

Where is the yellow spider? ( what are all the possible answers?)

Why is there nothing on the light blue brick? (young children will speculate wildly: it's too hot to sit on OR a dragon came by and ate the pink teddy and ladybird OR .........)

Extension: place insects under bricks; place bears behind, beside and in front of bricks; sandwich a fly between two bricks, ..... above all, have fun, fun, fun.

Allow the children in groups to set out pictures with 6B & objects, and ask & answer questions.

There are hundreds of mental arithmetic maths activities that you can do with Six Bricks and the ‘Crossing the B-Line Mat’ from simple addition to multiplication, division and so much more.

Here I outline a simple addition / subtraction activity.

See image of mat here: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/crossing-the-b-line...

Start with the 6 Bricks located in the 6 blank boxes, located off the lines.

Imagine a vertical line down the centre of the mat – lines 1 to 5 are on the left and lines 6 to 10 are to the right (and you thought you could only see 5 lines!)

As you call a sum, the children work it out and move the required brick to that line e.g. if yellow is to 4+3, then the child should place yellow on 7, which is the second line up on the right.

OK - mats out, bricks in holding blank boxes, ARE YOU READY? - let's go.........

Dark blue to 9-5

Red to 2+3

Light Blue to 7+1

Dark Blue to 9-7

Red to 5+4

Orange to 8-7

Yellow to 4+6

Orange to 6-3

Light Blue to 7+3

Green to 2+6

Orange to 7-3

Yellow to 4+2

Orange to 10-3

Red to 1+1

Green to 3+7

Light Blue to 8-4

Yellow to 5+2

Green to 5-3

Light Blue to 10-3

What you did above is just 1 of the 300+ activities from the 2 books.

Book 1 https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/crossing-the-b-line...

Book 2 https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/crossing-the-b-line...

Call a number and students must build that total using their choice of numbers.

Always ask questions to elicit if answers are correct and the child’s thinking:

Teacher says - Give me 9:

Teacher: “John, what colours have you?”

John: “I have a yellow and an orange.”

Teacher: “Why yellow + orange?”

John: “Teacher, because 6+3 make 9.”

Teacher says - Give me 5

Teacher: “Jacinta, how did you make 5?”

Jacinta: “Orange and Red.

Teacher: “Correct, has anyone a different combination that makes 5 altogether?” etc.

Teacher says - Give me 14

Teacher: “Mary, Jacinta has a yellow, red, dark blue and green. Is she correct?”

Extension 1: let a child ask the questions for a change.

Extension 2: let them play ‘GIVE ME’ in groups of 4, rotating the role of teacher / caller.

Extension 3: children could be asked to stick 3 random bricks together, draw them, colour them and record the total beside the stack. Draw and record 5 different stacks of 3.

Extension 4: scale the ceiling of the numbers according to the number experience of the children e.g. the 6 numbers could be 30, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90

As teachers, we are tasked to develop childrens’ oral language skills i.e. listening, speaking and communication skills.

Here’s a little Six Bricks activity that does all 3 at the same time! This activity can be differentiated to match the level of the children you teach. Keep the construction simple for R/Year 1, and increasingly more challenging the older they are. Find their 'zone of proximal development'.

The group should try to build according to the instructions, and the communicator is not allowed to build and has to keep his/her hands behind his/her back.

Ask the groups:

Tip: If you want to challenge the groups further, ask them to swap communicator after half the time has passed.

Challenge Extension: keep count of how many times the communicator had to return to the model for a look? The group whose communicator makes the fewest trips is the winner.

Plenary Discussion: what does great communication require?

Scenario: in the classroom, we call out a mental artithmetic question. How many of the 25 students will engage the question? Fewer still will volunteer to answer? BUT, at the end you only hear ONE answer from ONE student! What were the others thinking? .. or were they thinking?

HELLO the Six Bricks approach where ALL can Excel @ Mental Arithmetic.

The Mental Arithmetic Questions:

The trick is to create an Excel or Chart for the wall or just do it on a drywipe marker board and add magnetised colour paper squares to your six answers. 

The sky is the limit in applications, keep changing those numbers.

In picture B, we are working on multiplication X 5 with Year 3.

You get the idea. The sky is the limit!

I mean, look at B, Year 8:

2X + 2 = 62, what is ‘x’? (did you get ………….dark blue?)

2y – 10 = 100, what is ‘y’? (........... are you holding up yellow?)

Teachers around the globe, if you want to engage ALL your students, have ALL students work out ALL problems and ALL show their answer/thinking, then use the “Six Bricks – Excel @ Mental Arithmetic” approach.

Note: if you have an IWB in your classroom, then use Excel spreadsheets to create and store your files, as they are easily created and retrieved.

If you need my Excel just drop me an email to mpender@cpdcollege.com and I’ll send it back. (you can also just use the drywipemarker board or charts on walls)

(if you need bricks & books: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/30-sets-of-6-bricks.html)

It is ideal for all number work in classes R / Year 1 / Infants.

Designed for hands on learning using the Concrete Pictorial Abstract approach. Children can count forward and back while inserting bricks, add 2 sets or 3 sets together, count on, count back, find missing parts of set, work on ordinal position etc. see link for ideas.

(There are sets of addition bonds on the mat itself for the children to write down, carry out and record answers)

A must for all junior classrooms where doing maths well counts!

These number lines measure 670mm X 240mm, are printed on durable gloss laminate card and fold in the middle.

Ideal for individual, pair or group work.

Read all about it and order your number lines here: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/my-first-number-line...

For sure, Six Bricks has a role to play here. The bricks become part of the visualisation and working-out process. They support group mathematical discussions / maths talk, while injecting an element of fun into the problem-solving and calculation activities.

The problems cannot be solved without the bricks, as you need to extrapolate some numbers using small amounts of bricks before using that information to calculate the answer, the big number!

Here are some examples for incorporating Six Bricks into calculating with length, area, weight, time, capacity/volume and money.

You can adjust the number ceiling and level of challenge to fit your class.

Can you work these out?

Length: From my front door to the door of the post office in the village is 2.246km. How many bricks, end to end would that be?

Area: My kitchen measures 4m X 3.5m. How many bricks will it take to tile it?

Weight: If John who is 45kg sat on one side of the seesaw, how many bricks would be in the brick cube on the other side to balance him?

Time: How many bricks could you pick 1-by-1 off a floor and put in a bin in 1 hour?

Volume: How many bricks would fit in a trailer measuring 2.4m Long X 1.2m Wide X 1m High

Money: Bricks can be bought in the following quantities and prices: 1 for €0.10, 10 for €0.90, 100 for €8.00, 1000 for €60.00. How much will 129,365 bricks cost me?

We have developed the Six Bricks approach, whereby students can test and self-correct themselves on all 576 tables facts.

Ideal for school or home.

Students take an A3 Table Facts card, select a table, code the rocket with the brick answer sequence and then correct by comparing their sequence to the Master Correction Sheet.

Watch the video to see a demonstration.

Packs of 25 A3 Addition, 25 A3 Subtraction and 25 A3 Correction Cards are available for €69 from Six Bricks Education Shop (75 A3 Gloss laminated cards in pack)

Packs of 25 A3 Multiplication, 25 A3 Division and 25 A3 Correction Cards are available for €69 from Six Bricks Education Shop (75 A3 Gloss laminated cards in pack)

If your class are learning tables facts, then equip them to self-practice, self-correct and to aim for & build mastery.

Visual memory is the ability to remember things seen visually.

Where visual memory is weak, difficulties may include:

Activity ideas to promote visual memory and visual closure:

Extension: once the children have done this a few times, let them play in pairs, one taking on the role of the teacher and the other, the student.

Additionally, the Six Bricks Perceptual Skills Manual contains exercises that help exercise visual memory skills.

Further, make up your own activities for to exercise and strengthen their visual memory skills.

This Six Bricks themed pack of cards for just €2.49 enables your students to play 16+ different card games as they play, socialise, have fun and learn together.

The cards come on two A3 gloss laminated 350 gm cards ready for you to cut out, as seen in the image below.

There are just so many ways these cards can be used in every early years / Reception / Learning Support Room.

To READ all about how to use the cards, or to purchase, click HERE: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/the-matching-pairs...

Task sheets are ideal for extending Six Bricks into the formal mathematics school curriculum, as we are doing here in Ireland.

After hands-on, playful, teacher-directed activities with sets of Six Bricks, the children would be presented with a photocopied worksheet to complete individually or in pairs.

This worksheet is available as a PDF, just email me at mpender@cpdcollege.com and I’ll email the PDF version back to you, it’s only an image below.

Learning Objectives of the Lesson: the children will be able to -

Start with hands-on concrete exploration activity.

Have 6 flashcards with a single numeral 1 to 6 on each. Shuffle the cards. Select and hold up the flashcard. Children must set out that number of bricks on their table and say the number.

Repeat a number of times.

In groups of 4, let children take the role of the teacher in groups and call out numbers, with the group counting out the equivalent sets.

Task: photocopy and give each child a copy of the worksheet. Read the instructions with the children. Do an example on the board (model). Now let the children complete their own task sheet.

Task is to:

The children will have to draw the correct number of bricks in each box according to the number indicated. This will require number recognition, drawing, counting, checking and matching equivalent sets to equivalent numbers. They will also practice copying and writing the number.

What a rich little mathematics learning activity, all centred around Six Bricks.

The crossing the B-Line Mat can be used to practice, revise and embed the tables facts, which are the bedrock on which so many mathematical skills are built.

Accurate, speedy recall of tables facts is not just important, it is crucial.

The Crossing B-Line mat can be used every day when working on Tables Facts to drive MASTERY.

NOTE to all not familiar with the B-Line Mat

Interpreting the lines: On the mat we have 5 lines, starting on the bottom which is 1, then 2, the red line is 3, then 4 and the top line is 5.

How it works for these activities: In this instance, you place the brick on the ‘units’ part of the answer e.g. if I say red to 8x9, then the answer is 72, you place the red brick on 2 (the units part). If I say orange to (4x9) – 2, the you place the orange on 4, because 4x9=36 – 2 = 34 (4 is units).

If you haven’t got a B-Line A3 Mat, then grab a sheet of paper and draw 5 lines on it, about 4cm apart and make the centre one red.

So – if my students are working on three, six and nine times tables, then I will prepare some B-Line Mat activities to work on these facts, tagging a subtraction onto some so that I keep all units in the 1 to 5 range.

Start with all 6 bricks off the mat.

Green to 4x3

Red to 5x3

Orange to 4x6

Dark Blue to 5x9

Light Blue to (6x6) – 2

Yellow (1x9) – 8

Green to (4x9) -3

Red to (8x6) -5

Orange to (9x6) – 1

Light Blue to (2x6) -11

Dark Blue to (10X9) -7

Green to (9x9)

If you have worked out all the answers, and moved the bricks accordingly, the answer is as follows:

ANSWER: Orange, Red and Dark Blue are on the RED Middle Line, with Green, Yellow and Light Blue on Line 1. (see image attached)

I did this earlier today and to quote a teacher:

Six Bricks can play an important supporting resource role in a large number of mathematics lessons; helping children to structure, manipulate, reason, make visible and verbalise their mathematical thoughts and thinking processes.

Now that’s what I call quality mathematics teaching and what I would look for as an inspector to a school.

The following is a Six Bricks inspired poetry session.

Jack, when you went to the funfair, tell me what did you do?

I drank an ice cold, slime green, refreshing slime juice!

Ann, when you went to the fun fair, tell me what did you do?

I rode the Red Thunderbird rollercoaster so high!

Enky, when you went to the fun fair, tell me what did you do?

I caught seven orange goldfish, but one of them died!

Mathilda, when you went to the fun fair, tell me what did you do?

I bought a huge helium dark blue looney balloon!

Mary, when you went to the fun fair, tell me what did you do?

I lay in the sunshine under a light blue sky!

Roberto, when you went to the fun fair, tell me what did you do?

I fished a yellow duckie from the duckie water rapids!

Oh, there’s lots to do at a funfair!

Olivia, ………………

I ………………………

Tom, ………………………..

I …………………………………………..

Jacinta, …………………………

I ……………………………………..

Joshua, ………………………

I ……………………………………………..

Immelda, ………………………………

Donald, ………………………………

Oh, there’s lots to do at a funfair!

Can this be called a poem? What are the identifiable features? Is there repetition? Is there technique? Is there colour in the verses? Can you see the colours of the SIX BRICKS in the verses? Is there fun with language? Is there imagination? Etc. etc.

As you can see, this poem could go on forever ………… because ……. THERE’S LOTS TO DO AT A FUNFAIR!”

Activity steps:

Ask the children:

Tips and ideas

Once the children are familiar with the activity, they can do it in pairs, with one child describing the model and the other building.

Activity steps:

After finishing building, let the children look at the model from all angles and then ask them:

Tips and ideas

Grobby Six Bricks loves to go on adventures, with a pack of Six Bricks strapped onto his back.

Get your students to engage their imaginations and to think of all the places he likes to go, things he likes to do and the fun he has?

Grobby always has his six bricks with him. Sometimes he even uses them to solve problems, like the time when Henrietta Hen fell into Wild River and was rescued by Grobby, who made a raft out of his Six Bricks, paddled out and safely brought her back to the river bank.

Task: can your students write and illustrate their own Grobby stories e.g. Grobby Goes Fishing or Grobby Rescues Robin or Grobby & The Storm or Grobby Saves Sport’s Day at School or make up your own titles.

Use Six Bricks to springboard your students into oral language, imaginative response, writing and illustration.

Share: to inspire them in their journey, why not share the Grobby story here: https://youtu.be/VEpa7dAVpc8

To make it real: tell them that there is a Six Bricks audience here on Facebook with whom you are going to share some of the finished writing and illustrations.

Happy adventuring!

This is a simple game that can be played in pairs or threes. The focus is on second language learning of colours, in this case we are teaching the colours ‘as gaeilge’ – gaelic language here in Ireland.

Green = glas

Red = dearg

Orange = oráiste

Light Blue = gorm éadrom

Dark Blue = dúghorm

Yellow = buí

Objective:

Materials:

NOTE: you decide what the second language is in your country and customise the game accordingly.

Learning Objective: the Six Bricks could be the stimulus to a lesson where students will be able to practice mindfulness of emotions and breathing techniques to promote calmness.

Extension: Teacher holds up any one brick in turn and the children have to show that expression or feeling in their body language.

Conclusion: all lie down on the carpet and teacher guides them through a mindfulness breathing exercise to calm and relax the body.

The absolute complete kit for just €299

Includes:

• 32 Packs of Bricks 

• 32 x Crossing the B-Line Mats 

• 32 x A4 Answer Coding Rockets 

• 8 x Teaching Manuals (500+ Activities)

• 1 x FREE IWB Software 

• 23 x Curriculum Activity Mats 

• Plus many other items

VISIT Sixbrickseducation.com to order your kit  OR CALL the office in Ireland on 00 353 53 92 30344

Direct Link: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/the-ultimate-class-kit-for-six-bricks.html

Bring Six Bricks to your school today!

It's the big day! Grobby Six Bricks goes to visit Granny. As per usual she has made a six bricks layered chocolate birthday cake for Grobby ............

QUESTION: How many differences can you spot between the two pictures?

NOTE: The 'spot the differences' is one of the activities from the 'Grobby Six Bricks - Farmyard Adventure' story book which can be read and ordered from here, with distribution worldwide https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/grobby-six-bricks-farmyard-adventure.html

Fact: Six Bricks drives mathematical achievement.

In Ireland children spend 8 years in primary school, on average between the ages of 4.5 years to 12.5 years.

In the first year of school, which we call junior infants, their mathematics curriculum is made up of 6 STRANDS, 17 STRAND UNITS and 39 LEARNING OUTCOMES.

Six Bricks can be used to support the achievement of learning outcomes for most of the Reception Year strand units. Here’s an example for the strand NUMBER and the STRAND UNIT COUNTING with it’s 4 learning outcomes in Junior Infants / Reception.

Look how we use Six Bricks, and let me say, it is highly effective teaching and consequent learning when you utilise the CPA approach.

The child should be enabled to count the number of objects in a set, 1-10 (In pairs, my students combine their 2 sets of six bricks to make 12. Now we use bricks to make all sorts of set sizes, count them, draw the collections and write the cardinal number for each set)

The child should be enabled to count objects, pushing them aside while counting (My children Count bricks – set of 5 or 6 or set of 10 or 12. They throw a random collection out on the table and then count them, pushing each brick aside while counting)

The child should be enabled to count regular arrays or rows before random groups (My children achieve this using six bricks or 12 bricks. The line up 5 bricks for example, and count by pushing each out in turn i.e. touch, say next number in the count, push aside….)

The child should be enabled to use number rhymes and stories (Six in the bed and the little one said……… in this case line up six bricks as teddies and each time they roll over, one falls over the edge of the table….. OR 6 green bottles sitting on the wall……. Again, combine sets of bricks to build a brick wall, pretend the bricks are bottles, stand six on the wall and sing the song together. Every time they sing ‘if one little bottle should accidentally fall, there’d be….’ – knock off a bottle. Children love this.)

Every Reception / Year 1 Class in every school in the world should be plugging the structured learning materials that are Six Bricks, into their mathematics curriculums.

Make Six Bricks part of how you and your school do mathematics.

Join the learning revolution!

Note: if you need 30 sets of bricks, check this out, we fly them out to you with DHL: https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/30-sets-of-6-bricks.html

 

There is simply an infinite number of ways that Six Bricks can be used in curriculum. There is not a singular, more had-working resource out there!

Here I am using it in Geography to drive engagement and to test knowledge of the capital cities, mountains, rivers, flags and well-known tourism landmarks of six countries.

When I say a country, they should hold up the matching colour brick. When I say a river, they hold up the brick for the country in which it is found. The same for mountains and well-known landmarks, perhaps even foods associated with a country. It can be anything!

In this case you can use an overhead projector to project the image on which you have inserted bricks. You can draw a chart and draw in or stick on 6 coloured brick rectangles etc. Whatever works!

Have you got your Six Bricks to hand? Go on – participate -

Here goes: we are focusing on RECTANGLES

1. Paris

2. Dublin

3. The Thames River

4. The Louvre

5. Flag is red and yellow

6. You will find Berlin here

7. The Apennine Mountain Range

8. This country’s flag is black, red and yellow.

9. Bull fighting is a national sport here

10. Vatican City

11. The Shannon River

12. The Sierra Nevada Mountains

13. This country’s flag is a trio of green, white and red

14. The Blackstairs Mountains

15. Madrid is the capital city

This is a very active, interactive and participatory activity. There is no hiding or disappearing below the radar for any student. All must sit up and answer by selecting and holding aloft the colour of brick that indicates the correct answer.

You see – children always have their Six Bricks on their tables at all times across the school day, ready to engage in activities such as these.

You can brick colour code ANY picture and get the children engaging e.g. it could be a skeleton of the human body in Science, a bricked timeline in History etc.

Extension: add circles in six colours and diamonds in six colours, as per image. Then say: oval Oslo, diamond Athens etc. Students hold up corresponding brick colours to show answers. Extension: When you say: 'Little Mermaid', children should be holding up light blue for Denmark. Teacher says, Jack, which shape is your light blue. Jack says: diamond teacher, because the 'Little Mermaid' is in Copenhagen harbour, the capital of Denmark' etc. Can you see how the incorporation of coding with Six Bricks drives 100% engagement by all. No such thing as asking a question here, a few hands going up, you asking one child for the answer, not really knowing what the other 29 were thinking! No - now when you ask a question, 30 bricks are held aloft and you can 'visibly see' the thought processes of ALL

What are your ideas for extending the concept into curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment?

Six Bricks are playful,

Six Bricks are fun,

Six Bricks are colourful,

Six Bricks are hands-on,

Six Bricks are exponential possibility,

Six Bricks are ever present,

Six Bricks are open-ended,

Six Bricks are never ending,

Six Bricks are visual,

Six Bricks are sociable,

Six Bricks are cognitively challenging,

Six Bricks are immersive,

Six Bricks are games,

Six Bricks are skills building,

Six Bricks are story,

Six Bricks are curriculum enabling,

Six Bricks are for all ages,

Six Bricks are inspiring,

Six Bricks are current,

Six Bricks are shape-shifters,

Six Bricks are perception,

Six Bricks are emotional,

Six Bricks are language skills,

Six Bricks are communication,

Six Bricks are dendrite fodder,

Six Bricks are mathematics,

Six Bricks are creative,

Six Bricks are colourful creatures,

Six Bricks are pattern,

Six Bricks are education,

Six Bricks are cooperative,

Six Bricks are physical,

Six Bricks are builders,

Six Bricks are worldwide,

Six Bricks are timeless,

Six Bricks are inclusive,

Six Bricks are loved,

Six Bricks are whatever you see.

Martin Pender @ Six Bricks Education

Every day we get even more excited about the potential of Six Bricks in school & classroom curriculums! Six Bricks support student -

I am going to present just 4 examples covering ‘Vocabulary Development’, ‘Dictionary Skills’, ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Geography’ so that you can appreciate the power and flexibility of Six Bricks.

Look at the attached image and use your Six Bricks to answer each question in turn by sequencing your bricks into the correct order as required:

1. Place these parts of the body in the order they appear from the top of your head to your ankle (Vocabulary Development)

2. Place these words in the order they would appear in a dictionary. (Dictionary Skills)

3. Place these shapes in order from the smallest to greatest number of sides. (Mathematics)

4. Place the planets in order from nearest to furthest from the sun. (Geography)

Now just think about it – if your students were presented these or similar questions, wouldn’t they too be more fully participating, engaging and processing the information, concepts and ideas at hand.

If there was a teaching and learning resource that you could place into the hands of your students and that together you would use it every day, would you adopt it into your school?

Well, Ireland’s primary schools are piling into Six Bricks, placing them on the tables of their students and plugging them into curriculum daily.

Come on, join the movement and bring the excitement and power of Six Bricks to your school!

Here, there are 75+ Ideas to get you going, there are 500+ more in the manuals in the kit.

Six Bricks are an amazing resource for all classrooms and can be used in the most creative and amazing ways.

Within the range there are:

For all your Six Bricks materials, just check out the shop at this link https://shop.sixbrickseducation.com/sixbricks.html  and we ship worldwide daily, supplying you with your tracking number once order is placed and dispatched.

If you have any questions, just email the team at support@sixbrickseducation.com 

Enjoy browsing the many Six Bricks activities here in the idea centre.