The children in Mr. Hanna's and Mrs. McGirr's classes started their Beyond Bricks journey.
Beyond Bricks is a legacy programme that equips schools to deliver a series of interactive workshops aimed at increasing the emotional health and wellbeing of Children through Lego® Based Play.
MindWise works with schools to support the pupils recover and discover new skills to enable them to overcome challenges in their lives, by focusing on these five key aspects of emotional wellbeing.
- Coping
- Self-awareness
- Motivation
- Social resilience
- Self-control
Each week the children are introduced to new elements of these key aspects, before engaging in timed Lego play. During this they undertake three different roles within their group. They have an opportunity to be the engineer, the supplier and the builder. The rules bring communication to the fore and the children have to work together as a team to ensure their group can achieve the ultimate goal of completing the set.
After each play session the children must evaluate how their build is going and reflect on how they felt or feel.
The children are then introduced to a coping strategy that may help them and could become a part of their Mental Health and Wellbeing Toolkit.
The children in both classes really enjoyed the first week and are looking forward to the next session.
Thank you to Helen Quinn for co-delivering these sessions and to Beyond Bricks for providing both classes with so many Lego sets and resources to deliver the program.
