Walk  along a street and look  for clues that tell you about the way the houses were built:

1. Choose a brick building and sketch the arrangement of the bricks?


a)  are they in a continuous row of headers (the end of the brick)?
b)  are they in a continuous row of stretchers (the long part of the brick)?
c)  or a combination?


Look in the rows immediately above and below the row you sketched.  How would you describe those rows in comparison with the one you sketched?




2.  Use Lego blocks, Styrofoam, or  blocks of other materials to illustrate the different patterns of brickwork. 


3.  In each of the different patterns, calculate the number of bricks that would be required to complete a garden wall 4 feet tall and 20 feet long.  Use as measurements for the bricks, 6" for a stretcher and 2.5" for a header.

Flemish bond
Common bond
English bond
Stretcher bond


What would be the width of each of these walls?
Why might builders have constructed brick  buildings in one or another of these different ways?


4.  When were bricks first used?

5.  The job of brick mason is one of civilization's oldest occupations, and one learned by oral tradition and apprenticeship.  It  is a skilled craft of importance.  Interview a brick mason to learn more about brick building techniques.