Reimagining Learning with Six Bricks: A Day at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
By Xiao He｜Mother of Success Education Special Edition
Yesterday, I attended a Six Bricks training session at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The program was originally created by South African educator Brent Hutcheson and his organization Care for Education. Our instructor, Linda, with over twenty years of hands-on educational experience ranging from early childhood to high school, has been promoting this method around the world for over a decade.
Six Bricks is an educational initiative launched with the LEGO Foundation, rooted in South Africa’s nonprofit education system, and officially became a core foundation project in 2009. Its central philosophy is Learning through Play — engaging the body, senses, and mind together to make learning a joyful exploration.
From the LEGO Foundation to “Six Bricks”
The LEGO Foundation, based in Billund, Denmark — home of the famous LEGO House: Home of the Brick — has, since 2009, been advancing an educational philosophy of “Re-imagining Learning”: bringing play back into the classroom.
Linda’s team in South Africa has spent more than ten years working in schools, NGOs, and underserved communities, using six brightly colored DUPLO bricks to help children understand math, language, social, and emotional concepts through building, breaking apart, and rebuilding.
She shared: “Children don’t start learning by listening — they start by touching, moving, expressing, and collaborating.”
The Science Behind the Bricks: Body and Brain Connection
Linda emphasized that Six Bricks is not just a toy, but a tool for children to move, think, and use their bodies actively.
Each action in the activities aligns with key elements of cognitive science:
Spatial Awareness – Children learn about their body in space through actions like reaching up, high-fiving, stepping back, and turning.
Visual Attention – Colors and positions are used to guide focus.
Hand–Eye Coordination and Sequential Memory – A chain of actions, such as clapping, touching shoulders, or snapping fingers, trains working memory.
Verbalization – Teachers encourage children to “say what you just did,” helping them translate motion into language.
Social and Emotional Learning – Activities like “tower building,” “passing,” and “taking turns” teach cooperation and empathy.
Linda reminded us:
“What matters is not what children learn, but in what order they learn it.”
“We live in an age of instant information, but physical, rhythmic, and cooperative learning cannot be replaced by screens.”
The Size of the Bricks and the Child’s Body
Holding up a set of DUPLO bricks, Linda explained why the program uses large-sized blocks.
Children under age four haven’t yet fully developed fine motor control; they need larger brushes and bigger bricks suited to their stage.
She shared an interesting fact:
“Four bricks stacked together measure about 23 centimeters — roughly the width of an adult’s field of vision. A tablet screen is about the same size.”
That’s why many children’s “visual fields” are shrinking due to screen time, she said. Six Bricks activities deliberately expand their sight range and encourage crossing the body’s midline, which is essential for reading and writing development.
The Infinite Possibilities of Six Bricks
The charm of Six Bricks lies in its simplicity and infinity.
With 2 bricks, you can make 24 combinations.
With 6 bricks, there are 915,103,764 (over 900 million) possible combinations!
Each activity is short and rhythmic — no more than five steps — or the child’s attention drifts.
Linda asked as we built:
“When a child’s tower falls, that’s part of the process. How do you help them try again?”
We played the “Tower Challenge”: build forward, then backward; build with eyes closed; add patterns. Every time the tower fell, we started over — and Linda smiled:
“Frustration itself is a form of learning.”
From Collaboration to Communication
My favorite part was the “Back-to-Back Build.”
Two people sit back-to-back — one describes, the other builds — no questions allowed.
Suddenly, we realized how vague our words could be and how much patience listening requires.
Linda said this exercise helps children understand the importance of shared language and helps teachers give clearer instructions.
Another version, “Blind Build,” has one person blindfolded and guided only by verbal cues — a test of trust, spatial awareness, and communication.
Sometimes the goal of education is not about right or wrong, but about listening and co-creating along the way.
Strengthening Executive Function and Learning Power
The goal of Six Bricks isn’t just knowledge transmission, but to cultivate executive functions — the brain’s learning control system:
Inhibitory Control – regulating impulses;
Working Memory – remembering and executing instructions;
Cognitive Flexibility – adapting strategies after mistakes.
Linda demonstrated:
“We ask kids to count ‘3, 2, 1,’ flash a sequence of colors, and then reproduce it. It trains memory, attention, and reaction.”
Repetition supports learning, but association makes it stick.
For instance, showing red, yellow, and blue bricks, teachers can have students tell stories or make poems — creating emotional links that deepen memory.
Colors Can “Speak”: Emotional Expression
Linda also talked about emotional regulation.
Holding up a red and green brick, she asked:
“Who feels red today? Who feels green?”
Color becomes a bridge to express feelings. Teachers can guide children to understand emotions and empathy through color metaphors.
In her class, colors are both math tools and emotional languages.
Children might use bricks to tell stories like “I’m angry today” or “I’m happy today,” or use red for “false” and green for “true” in activities.
Finding Myself Through Play
As I joined these games, I rediscovered parts of myself.
I noticed I was natural and intuitive in spatial or cooperative tasks, but uneasy in rhythmic or competitive ones.
I’ve never liked competition or winning games — and that realization struck deeply. I also wonder: what if I had realized this earlier on? Perhaps I would have given myself more training or opportunities to try and to grow those muscles of rhythm, patience, and play.
The Two Learning Curves of Life
Linda shared a chart showing that humans have two peaks of learning: ages 4–6 and around 24.
The first marks the transition from play to formal schooling.
The second, from school to the responsibilities of adult life.
“Some adapt quickly to the second curve,” she said, “while others struggle.”
I realized I’m right in that second curve — relearning how to play, collaborate, and learn with both body and heart.
From Bricks to Life: The Warmth of Education
Six Bricks, though simple, embodies profound educational philosophy:
Education is not about control, but about awakening curiosity.
Play is not the opposite of learning; it is the beginning of learning.
The best growth happens through cycles of building, breaking, and rebuilding.
Six Bricks is not only a classroom tool — it’s a metaphor for life.
It reminds us that no matter our age, we can always learn again — with our hands, our bodies, and our hearts.
About Six Bricks
Six Bricks is a global educational initiative launched by the LEGO Foundation in 2009, based on educational practices from South Africa. It offers low-cost, hands-on activities that enhance children’s focus, memory, social skills, and emotional awareness.
Each kit includes six large, brightly colored DUPLO bricks designed for children aged 4 and up. Teachers can create hundreds of short, playful exercises that help children learn through play to develop cognition, cooperation, and confidence.
About Mother of Success: Education Edition
Mother of Success continues to spotlight educators and initiatives worldwide who are reimagining education through creativity — whether in art, science, or the humanities.
We believe the future of education lies not only in knowledge transfer, but in awakening humanity and expanding creativity.
Special Thanks
Heartfelt thanks to John Balash from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (CMU ETC) for making this experience possible and connecting me to this wonderful opportunity to learn through play.