Over the past month, the children in the School Age 2 program have been immersed in a rich outdoor learning journey sparked by the heavy snowfall and the excitement of our newly updated outdoor cart. With sleds, shovels, buckets, and other snow tools available, the children transformed their daily outdoor time into a collaborative world of creativity, exploration, and shared responsibility. The children experimented with the new snow tools - packing snow into buckets, digging caves through big piles of snow, and learning how to take turns using the shovels and sleds that quickly became favourites. As they grew more confident, the children began to push the limits of their imagination by discovering and creating large “snow boulders”. Working together, they rolled, lifted, dug, and slid these heavy chunks of snow onto sleds, using teamwork and problem-solving to transport them across the play area.
This sparked a new, ongoing project: the creation of massive snow “kingdoms.” Each afternoon, the children worked together to add new sections, additions to their towers, or walls to their icy structures using the new snow boulders they had collected. They planned together, discussed where each piece should go, and celebrated when their ideas came to life. The sleds became both transportation tools and essential building materials, helping them haul snow with greater efficiency and excitement.
Throughout this month-long journey, their play also became a beautiful display of cooperation and self-regulation. The sledding hill has remained a favourite spot, where the children show impressive patience by taking turns, maintaining the line, and following sledding and snow safety rules to keep everyone safe. They reminded one another to wait for a clear path, to use the designated walking trail back up the hill, and to give friends space at the bottom.
By mid-December, the children had not only mastered the use of the new outdoor tools but had also built a strong sense of community through their shared creations and responsibilities. Their evolving snow kingdoms, teamwork in moving giant snow boulders, and thoughtful turn-taking at the sledding hill all reflected a month of growth, creativity, and collaborative joy during their winter outdoor adventures.
