Our unit on Igloo's started in January, and the children's interest has waxed and waned according to the weather. When the first big snow hit we brought in lots of snow for the children to explore. We also printed several pictures of igloos for them to view. They looked at how igloos were designed. Some of the pictures showed igloos that had satellite dishes and indoor lights. They were amazed.
The children started trying to form bricks out of the snow using different types of containers. They talked about compacting the snow and packing the snow down tightly so it doesn't fall apart when the bricks are stacked on top of each other.
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| The children did not want to stop working in the snow, but their hands became very cold. They used their problem solving skills and went and got their gloves and mittens out of their cubbies and put them on. They continued to work for almost an hour building igloos and making towers. |
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| It took some practice but the children became very good at compacting the snow into the cups and creating their "bricks" for their towers and igloos. Children need the time and opportunity to practice new skills several times. We brought snow in every day that week and placed out the cups and containers so the children could "play". As they played they became more confident and their skills improved. |
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| A teachers job is to guide a child's learning. Ms. Sarah is helping but only after the child asked for help building her igloo. Ms. Sarah asked open ended questions such as "how can we make the bricks stick together?", "how tall should be make the igloo?" and other questions to help the child expand her vocabulary and problem solve. They worked together, Ms. Sarah as the child's guide and the child as the leader, the inventor and the creator. This is when authentic learning takes place. The teacher and or parent must take a quiet role and let the child discover through trial and error. |
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| This child is building his own igloo. This is his first attempt and is learning what is working and what is not working when trying to stack the snow blocks on top of each other. |
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| Sometimes the most fun thing about building a structure is knocking it down. |
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| Some of the children wanted to take their snow blocks outside and try to build a real igloo. Ms. Nancy acted as their guide helping them find a place where other people would not knock down their structure. |
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| The children did research by studying the pictures of igloos and looking on the Internet to see how the blocks were stacked together. They tried to recreate what they learned by looking at the igloo pictures. |
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| Here is the very start of their igloo adventure. They also started a milk jug indoor igloo also because they know this igloo might melt before it ever gets build. Unfortunately, a big slab of snow fell off of the roof of the building and crushed our igloo before we could get much more done, but the children still enjoyed the adventure! |
