Sunday, February 27, 2011

Igloo's and a snowman with a pot on his head


After a false spring (we really did love the 60 and 70 degree weather!) winter came back.  Did we get sad?  NO.  Did we pout?  OK, maybe the adults did a little bit, but after we were done pouting we went outside to learn more about what the winter weather can teach our students.


We learned that this snow was wet and heavy and good for sticking together.  It was perfect snowman making snow!



The students dressed our snowman.  Look closely, can you tell what his arms are made out of?  How do you like his pot hat?  Very cute!

 

This type of snow created the perfect opportunity to talk about how others live where it snows almost all year.  There are types of homes called igloos and we decided to try to build one ourselves.


We worked hard to create our blocks of snow and stack them together just like bricks.  Our snow walls got higher and higher.  We had to work together to pack and stack the snow blocks.


This is our snow igloo.  It would take a lot more snow to build a complete igloo but we were very proud of what we accomplished working together as a team.


Ms. Debbie and Ms. Debbie wrote down our questions about igloos on paper and taped them next to our igloo as we worked.  We answered our questions as we worked on the igloo.  We left the igloo and the questions outside so other classrooms could learn from and enjoy our work.


Here is a close up picture of our questions and of the curriculum goals for you to read so you can learn more about how this activity which may seem like just playing in the snow, was really a very in depth learning opportunity for the students.  We hope you enjoy this post as much as we enjoyed doing the project.