Snow Forts

 After our delayed start on Tuesday from all the snow, the 1-2s took advantage of the snow once again to attempt to build the biggest snow fort they could. House Table groups worked together to brainstorm how they could use their previous snow experience to figure out the best way to build their fort as a team.

Many groups used what they learned about rolling big snowballs from our tallest snow structure activity to start their snow forts and had to determine how to connect the snowballs and stack them to make a fort that would be tall enough and large enough to protect their whole group. Other groups thought about igloos and how those are built first with a circular foundation and then built up from there in order to ensure the structure would be big enough and stable enough to support the tall snow. However, time posed a tricky constraint for these groups, as the shorter, larger base took so long to construct. 

Once all the forts were completed, the students put them to the test with a snowball fight! Each group got to make 3 snowballs and had to form a  human chain with one person always touching their fort and everyone else holding hands or touching feet in order to get as close as possible to the other forts throw their snowballs and see if they could hit a member of another team. Many forts were successful in protecting them from these snowball attacks!

After all the snowballs were thrown, students were asked to reflect on their forts and how their teams worked together compared to our other snow challenges. They all said that their collaboration was much more effective and they were able to work well as a group to come up with a strategy to bring their vision to life!

With all the snow, this activity incorporated lots of fun as well as problem solving and strategy work and interpersonal skill development. Enjoy the pictures of the awesome forts created!