Mud Bricks
For thousands of years people have been using mud for building. Here are wonderful examples from around the world of mud buildings still standing today to share with your children as a way to get them excited about mud brick making! You can even build your own little mud home if you prove to be a mud building marvel!
Making Mud Bricks
Making mud bricks is easy! Simply find containers you don’t mind getting dirty (old recyclables like plastic take-out containers work great!) and fill them with mud (dirt + water) and then leave them in the sun until the mud is dry and hard.
Voila you have mud bricks!
Try containers of different sizes and shapes to have a variety of building blocks at your disposal
Here are examples of different dry mud bricks.
Mud brick creating and building allows for countless learning opportunities. Children can experiment with different dirt and water combinations (notice some bricks above are brown dirt based and others are red clay based) to create the bricks. In the creation of the bricks children will be practicing their shapes and counting in a very hands-on way.
Once the blocks are created the children can use their imagination for building or undergo different STEM based building challenges. (Subscribe for access to all our free downloadable PDFs like this STEM activities with mud brick building) Children will use their fine motor control to build and balance their blocks.
