Chilly greetings from Free Rangers! Another cold week, and one that has brought disruption to roads and transport, but on the other one that has brought a chance to enjoy the crisp white snow falls with the ride on a sledge or the toss of a snow ball! The original Forest School planning was quickly scrapped to revolve around Snow activities, making the very most of it whilst it was with us. The main activity this week was the creation of an Igloo made by packing snow into plastic tubs to make snow bricks which we layered up to make the walls. This was really interesting to do with the children as they were constantly testing the differences between the soft malleable loose snow as a building medium and how it felt, its limits and its shape after it had been compacted. Unfortunately, the children often tested that rigidity whilst pushing down on the walls or dropping them on the floor. Despite that the walls looked really good, and even though it wasn’t finished the children liked using it as a hiding place and wind block from the icy blasts. Those very same icy blasts and very cold hands meant the children’s staying power was pretty low, so quite often the work force went on strike, leaving both Vince (who conveniently happened to be a bricklayer in another life!) and myself to carry on whilst the children went off to make snow faces, snow angels or throw a few snowballs.

Of all the snow themed activities the children participated in, I think the sledging was easily the most popular. Although we didn’t have a sledge, we adopted a plastic water trough which worked amazingly well! Attaching some paracord around it, so that the children could hoist the sledge back up again (sometimes with the children still in it) was great at keeping the children warm, but also was a very good example of how the children display co-operation through their play.

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I hope you managed to get out in the snow and it wasn’t too much of a disruption for you all. Share your snow activities in the comments below and let us know how you enjoyed yourselves in the beautiful white landscapes.

Until next time.

R. Fox

p.s. Have you cleaned your bird feeders out? Keeping them regularly scrubbed prevents the spread of bacteria, mould and infections for birds.