Building with Bricks

"Every wall tells a story of shapes, patterns, and careful arrangement."

1. What You Will Learn

• How bricks are made and used
• Different brick PATTERNS used in walls
• Understanding 2D and 3D shapes through bricks
• Introduction to symmetry and tessellation

2. The Shape of a Brick

A brick is a CUBOID — a 3D shape with:

• 6 faces (all rectangular)
• 12 edges
• 8 corners (vertices)

Look at a brick. How many faces can you see? Which faces are hidden?

Different Views of a Brick

A brick looks different from different sides — but it's the SAME brick!

3. Brick Patterns on Walls

Bricklayers arrange bricks in different PATTERNS. The most common:

• Stretcher Bond: All bricks laid lengthwise. Each brick overlaps the one below by half.
• Header Bond: Bricks laid with the short end facing out.

Look at a wall near your home or school. Can you spot the PATTERN?

Why Patterns Matter

• Patterns make the wall STRONGER
• Patterns are BEAUTIFUL to look at
• Patterns in bricks use GEOMETRY — the mathematics of shapes and space

4. Practice Questions

1. How many faces does a brick have? (Answer: 6)
2. How many corners (vertices) does a brick have? (Answer: 8)
3. If a brick costs ₹5, how much will 20 bricks cost? (Answer: ₹100)
4. If a bricklayer uses 500 bricks in one day, how many bricks will he use in 3 days? (Answer: 1,500)

5. Fun Activity

Build Your Own Brick Pattern:

• Take rectangular pieces of paper (pretend they're bricks)
• Arrange them in a 'stretcher bond' pattern (overlapping)
• Draw the pattern in your notebook

Find the Bricks:

• Count how many bricks are used in ONE wall of your classroom
• Multiply: number of bricks in one row × number of rows

6. Key Vocabulary