Spontaneous Building Inquiry in the Snow!

      Living in Tokyo we don't get snow too often, and when we do its not much more than a dusting.

I am not the biggest fan of the cold but do love snow!

      So, one lucky day in February we got about 15-20cm of snow. A lot of kids have only played in snow once or twice, if at all. I emailed the parents the night before asking them to bring extra clothes and any snow wear they may have.

They had recently just read a book about igloos and decided we wanted to go build one.

So Wa La! We went full throttle for an exciting teachable moment (or day!)

      We got out the book and realized they used bricks to build the igloos. We took a quick trip to the library to find some more books, and got out the smartboard to look at more pictures and video clips.

      We realized we would need something to put the snow in to make a brick shape. Luckily we had a few plastic bins that would work perfect. Once it was snack recess time we all went outside and had some fun playing in the snow. We had gotten permission to stay outside till lunchtime building our igloo.

      I let them go first and they all just started building in random places and realized not much was happening, and also the bricks were falling apart from not being packed in well. We decided to have a quick meeting and discuss what we could do to make the bricks stronger, and if we want to use our communicator and cooperating skills. They decided they wanted to build a big igloo together, and I lead a few questions for them to realize how important it is to pack in the snow hard.

      Over an hour later we had a two-room igloo that was over 3mx1.5m and that was almost as high as their faces! Once the walls started to grow (and the sun was coming out) we realized we had to reinforce the walls with some sticks and wider bases.

      It was amazing to see their planning skills and working through these problems. It has got to be one of my favorite teachable moments!