The children have been engaging with snow in many different ways over the past few weeks. Some children dig up the snow and make tunnels, while other children have made a home for animals in which they pretend to be a cat or dog, then use this home in their play. We've also seen the children make tall structures that they can slide down from. Overall, we've observed the children playing with snow in many unique ways.
To expand on this, we gathered all the materials needed for an activity with the snow, such as shovels, pompoms, and popsicle sticks, and used the snow when we got outside. As the children lined up to go outside, Educator Rita explained to them that they had the option of making a snowman with her, or engaging in an activity of their choice. Some children got excited and shouted “YEAH!” for making a snowman. The children that wanted to make a snowman helped to carry some of the materials to take outside. Together we successfully brought out all the equipment necessary for making a snowman.
Aubrey, Arianna, Leila, and Rita dug out some snow so we had a pile of snow ready for when we needed to start building the snowman. We found that the snow was so hard because it was packed to the ground and had to dig, but we managed to pack snow together to make a snowman. During the snowman building, we discussed how hard it was to dig and pack snow together and how it is easier to build a snowman on the day it starts snowing as it is softer. Rita explained to the children that the snowman does not have to be perfectly circular and they said ok. Together, we managed to stick all the pieces together to create the snowman. After the snow was done getting packed, Rita handed out Q-tips, popsicle sticks, and pompoms to create the face, and added a hat and scarf to put on the snowman's body. Aubrey, Arianna, and Leila worked together with these materials to create the final product.
With this activity children learn skills such as team work and collaboration as we all helped to make a snowman together and talked about ways of making it, as well as building skills as we packed the snow together. We explored stacking skills when we rolled the snow and stacked it together to make a body. Finally, we fostered our creativity and imagination by providing loose parts and offering creative freedom when it came to how they wanted to make the face and body.
As educators, we would like to try this activity again when snow is freshly fallen as it is softer and easier to mold and use. Overall, the activity went very well as we managed to make a snowman out of hardened snow and had a blast, smiling as we did so.