With the arrival of some winter weather, the Toddlers became excited to play in the snow.
"I build a snow man?" Quinn asked while we were digging in the snow. "Toddlers, Quinn wants to build a snowman!" Debbie announced. "Who wants to help?" The children were eager to help make a snowman and started to gather snow into a pile. "The snow is cold," said Amaira, as she helped pack the snow pile high. "Is the snowman big enough?" asked Educator Lucy. "Yeah," said Quinn. Vanessa brought out a snowman kit and the children started to add the eyes, nose, mouth, and hat to their snowman. "It has a Santa hat," said Quinn. "Ho-ho-ho," said Austeja. When asked what we should call our snowman, the children all agreed that Snowman was the best name. The next morning Snowman had melted. "Did anyone see the snowman we built yesterday?" Debbie asked.
"It melted," Quinn said. "The snowman was sad." "Today we can make another snowman inside. Does anyone remember what we need to make a snowman?" Debbie asked as she brought out a melting snowman kit. "Snow ball," said Callum. "Big one." Kayden gestured with his arms open wide as he excitedly said "Big, big ball." Debbie showed the children how we roll the snow into a big ball for the body and a little one for the head. "Now what does our snowman need?" she asked. "A hat, “said Callum. "That’s not a Santa hat," Quinn remarked, remembering the Santa hat from yesterdays snowman. The children began to call out what was needed for the snowman- eyes, mouth, and nose. The children took turns adding the body parts; Amaira added the nose in the centre of the face. "It's not cold," she observed when she touched the snow ball, remembering that the snow yesterday was cold. Then Quinn added the eyes above the nose, Callum added the hat on top of his head, Oscar and Liliana added arms on either side of the body. When they were finished, Dante clapped his hands and said "Happy, Happy," as he pointed to the snowman. Once the snowman was complete, we put him on a tray and he immediately started to melt, just like our snowman outside! "Oh no. What's happening to the snowman?" Debbie asked.
"He's melting," Oscar said. "He's falling down. He's not happy anymore. Our snowman outside melting too,” Quinn remembered. We used this opportunity to repeat the snowman building activity which helped us understand how children are learning and what information they are retaining. Amaira compared the temperature of the snow outside, to the fake snow inside. Callum realized the difference between the hats the snowmen we're wearing-one was black and one was like Santa's hat. Quinn remarked on the similarities of the two snowmen- they both melted and looked sad. These early experiences help the children to learn classification, comparisons and contrast, all of which are important math skills that they will continue to develop as they grow.
