A snowy hill, ready for our St. Nicholas Afterschool children to explore. “Can we go sledding? Catherine asked. “Yes, let’s go to the hill,” Cheered Braya. You could hear the excitement in the children’s voices upon hearing we would be using the school hill to go sledding. “But we only have three sleds,” Harper noticed, Educators Graziella and Janeth, encouraged the children to share and problem solve how we would all get to use the sleds.
Negotiations began as we walked toward the hill. “I can go first, then Braya, then Harper,” said Lincoln, as he carried one of the sleds. Cari decided to have friends that wanted the sled put up their hand. Then she used a rhyme to choose who would go first.
We stood back as educators and allowed the children to problem solve the challenge of the three sleds, and it was great to see the cooperation that the children engaged in with their peers.
“Look Janeth, I’m going down without a sled while I wait,” said Braya as she slid down. “Wooooah!” shouted Moyosola as she rolled quickly down the hill. “You should try Janeth,” Moyosola and Braya encouraged. Educator Janeth then tried rolling down the snowy hill just like the children, and she was cheered on by many of the them, and laughed with the children as they rolled together down the hill.
“How can I get to the top of the hill? I am having trouble getting up and I want to go on the sled?” Catherine asked sounding a little frustrated. Madison suggested “Why don’t you try to use the side where the hill isn’t as steep for you to go up, or just crawl up.” Catherine thought for a minute, then listened to the advice, and with great determination, made her way up the hill to enjoy the ride down.
Climbing uphill can be a real challenge to little bodies, but they will be motivated by the promise of a fun glide down to the bottom of the hill, just like Catherine was.
The children engaged in the process of going up and down for a long period of time, and explored different ways to slide down with; on their backs, knees, you name it, they tried it.
Sledding works the children’s endurance, their cardiovascular abilities, full body movement and strength as they pull peers on the sled, or go up and down with various speeds and experiencing the tumble in the snow or down the hill without the sled. It helps increase core stability, and using observation to support the control of the direction the sled will go in.
The children engaged in cooperative problem solving in order to ensure their peers had turns with the sleds, and practiced creative ways to slide or roll down the hill while waiting for their turn. The sledding days were filled with positive interactions, building upon belonging and friendships. We wonder when more snow will return so we can continue our exploration and building our skills.
