Upon arrival on Tuesday January 9, the children were so excited to see the snow fall. This was the talk of the morning. Questions being asked; if we are going outside, will we get to play in the snow, can they make snow angels and many more. This excitement gave the educators the idea to clean up earlier and get outside as fast as we could.
As the children and educators walked around the playground, Nina asked Jess to build a snowman, and Lincoln asked Mary to build one too. As the groups started to form, Jess and Mary noticed they both had a small group of children gathering working alongside of them, to build a snowman but on opposite sides of the playground. Jack said, “Hey, it can be a race,” and Alex added “Yeah, we can make two snowmen.” Mary and Jess laughed and said, “Okay, good luck. The race is on.”
Theo noticed that Jess’s group was moving fast and said, “hurry, hurry, hurry." Lincoln reminded Theo that we don’t have to go fast and that we can take our time. Alex said, “Jack and I will fill our sled and bring you snow."
Our group seemed to relax a bit leading to a discussion on how we should make our snowman. As we waited for our first bit of snow to be delivered, our group sat and talked where Stéphane shared, “You have to pat it like a castle.”
As the boys brought in our first snow and dumped it, my group had no interest in making a ball and rolling it like Jess’s group. They just all got to work and started patting it down with their hands, just like Stéphane stated. As more snow was dumped the patting began and there was no interest in shaping our snowman, it was a dump and pat. As our snowman seemed to be about the same height as the other group, Theo said, “ok now we need arms and a nose.” Stéphane said, “And teeth." Lincoln and Oscar stayed close to Mary to make sure it did not get broken.
Theo broke a twig off the tree and stuck it into the side of our snowman and Jack brought a small one. Oscar found the pinecone and we used it for a nose. We did not find anything for teeth but Mary’s group was so excited to finally have their snowman finished. Even if others thought our snowman looked like ET, we made him with love.
When Nina said she wanted to make a snowman, Jess suggested that we find somewhere in the playground that had lots of snow. Leena said, “Over here!” Nina, Jess, Finley and Frankie followed Leena to the one end of the playground. Jess picked up a small amount of snow and explained how it was packing snow and the perfect snow to make a snowman! Nina helped Jess roll the snow ball into the snow. The children's excitement grew as they watched the snowball get bigger and bigger. “That it’s bum!” Nina explained, pointing to the large ball she had made with Jess.
As Frankie rolled the next snowball with Jess, they talked about how it could be the snowman’s body. Jess then asked, “What’s our snowman missing?” Frankie shouted, “A head!” The children jumped with excitement when the last snowball was placed at the top of their snowman. Nina said, “It needs arms”. The children then started looking around the playground to see what they could use for the snowman’s arms. Nina found a large branch that she then stuck in the top of the snowman, while Frankie and Finley found more branches to stick in the sides. Frankie and Eliya made eyes and a nose using pieces of snow and Frankie added a smiling mouth using a pine needle. The children were very excited to show their snowman to their peers.
Through this activity, the children in both groups demonstrated excellent teamwork, as they shared their ideas and worked together to create their snowman. They also used their creativity and imaginations to create two snowmen that looked very different from the other and came about in two very different ways.
