The six colourful LEGO bricks in front of you beckon to your inner child, who is longing to come out and play.
This might very well have been the experience of the foundation phase teachers of the Stilfontein Primary School and key staff from the North West Department of Basic Education when NWU staff introduced them to the 6BRICKS initiative.
6BRICKS is a simple game that can, through fun and short activities involving only six LEGO bricks, provide the freedom for children to train their memory and practise movement and creativity – in short, to just play.
The various activities – which can be structured and adapted to match the children’s skill and interests – hone their language development and problem-solving skills, and teach them how to work together.
The NWU’s involvement in this initiative underlines our belief that the greatest impact anyone can make, is through education and empowering people who, in turn, will empower and teach others.
Putting the first blocks in place
Before training the provincial department’s staff, the Faculty of Education launched a trial run on 24 August 2021 with the support of Stilfontein Primary School.
After this successful event, it was the provincial department’s turn.
The 6BRICKS initiative has already been rolled out in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and the Free State. When North West was put on the backburner, the NWU took up the challenge and moved our province into fourth place on the national roll-out agenda. This is a first for South Africa, as no other South African university has ever been involved in a roll-out programme of this kind.
The NWU officially introduced the initiative to the North West foundation phase subject coordinators at a trainng session held in Potchefstroom on 1 September 2021.
The attendees were encouraged to experience the fun of playing again. They participated in many practical exercises such as building puzzles, juggling blocks and doing movement exercises – all with the six simple LEGO blocks.
Paving the road ahead
The plan is to start the 6BRICKS programme in the various districts in North West. Facilitating this initiative is the NGO Care for Education, which will assist logistically with the donations of LEGO blocks from the Lego Foundation.
The Educational Psychology subject group and the research project WILWORKS have established a community engagement project in North West called “6-Sess”.
This project forms part of the national Department of Basic Education’s countrywide roll-out of the 6BRICKS initiative.
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“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”
- Chinese proverb
“Play is the work of the child.”
-Maria Montessori
Dr Elize Küng and Prof Lloyd Conley at the official launch of the training session for North West Department of Basic Education staff members.
EDUCATION,
one LEGO brick at a time
Paving the way for
Being old building buddies
6BRICKS is not foreign to the NWU. This tool was introduced in 2019 and has since been included in the curriculum of all first-year students.
The initiative was further developed in 2020 and incorporated as a therapeutic tool in the BEd Honours Educational Psychology programme. As this initiative evolves, there will be further innovative additions.
From 2022, every first-year student will receive a set of 6BRICKS as part of the Work-Integrated Learning/teaching (WIL) programme. In this way, by the time the NWU students are professional educators, they will already be familiar with the internationally known 6BRICKS initiative.
