Rabbits, 21 Feb

Hooray...Snow! So much wonderful snow today made for glorious fun. We built a snow mountain and tunneled through it. We built snow seats to rest and relax (and snack) in and investigated the insulated warmth of snow. With snow shovels and a wheelbarrow these construction projects were an exercise in teamwork and collaborative creativity, with leadership opportunities arising and effective group communication development.

The visceral nature of the snow captured each child at different moments, whether lying back in the soft snow, making snow angels, slashing at the snow as if using a machete, wrestling and rolling in the snow, throwing shovel loads up in the air to make it snow or leaping into it and creating mini avalanches of snow... the sheer joy of playing in the snow was a delight for us all. We were in snow heaven!

Long jump competitions in the snow lead to some rich conversations about fairness, going first and taking turns. There was acknowledgement that being first doesn't always matter to everyone and that everyone having a turn is not always what it means to be fair. These types of organic conversations about social concepts are always interesting to watch the children unpack and express their ideas upon and an ideal space for these concepts to be developed.

We concluded our class with interviewing each other through a debrief activity where children roll a dice to ask specific questions of their partner. We asked questions about our trip to Silver Springs last week for those that went or general questions for those that were not there. This allowed space for the kids to reflect, access their memories to verbalise their unique experiences and hear about the different perspectives of others. This exercise stimulates conversation and gives children a chance to get to know each other more through conversation, to form varied and deeper friendships and develop their confidence and skill in conversation.