This week's warm weather melted the snow enough to make it sticky and fun to form. It was perfect for using our "brick makers" to build a fort outside!
The unusually warm weather allowed us to stay outside for quite sometime, but also prompted a fresh set of clothes when we did come in! Melting Snow = Water!
Of course, we couldn't come inside until we were happy with the progress of our fort.
I anticipate that the children will continue to work on this project as the weather permits. However today we are expecting "FLASH FREEZING" which could put a damper on building for some time, but at least we were able to form our structure in plenty of time for dropping temperatures to firm it up for us!When "fort day" was declared, we first opted to cover the entire playroom with flat sheets making tunnels and rooms through the first floor of the house. (Unfortunately, I was having way too much fun that I forgot to grab the camera before we cleaned it all up!)
This week's forts have been make primarily with our new "blocks." They aren't blocks, exactly, but that is what we have deemed them to be. They are mini-crates. We have about 70 of them. They were a bonus when I opted to buy locker sized crates for our cubbies and to help with some of the toy storage. Each locker sized crate came with 2 mini crates inside. I had all kinds of ideas on how to use them for storage, but Dane and the rest of the children had other ideas......
The crates have been used to make toy steps too!
Apparently, my storage ideas and re-organization can wait, as we now have a great new set of blocks!
Here is what our new cubby bins look like:
Did I mention that I'm a sucker for deal? These locker totes were on clearance for $1 each (for the 3 pc set!) So, I bought enough to make a cubby wall for some toy storage too:
Here's to lots of Fun "Every day is Friday" Forts!
8 comments:
Oh gosh Amy, I want to come and build forts with you guys!
Those are cool. What holds them together?
Cool forts! (And much more fun use than organization - at least for now!)
Where did you get the crates? I'd love some of those for my classroom! We're looking into getting milk crates but those are harder to come by and a little more expensive I think...
I love that you had the chance to explore the snow like that. I've done similar explorations with rain, but unfortunately in southern california, playing with snow isn't really an option. I actually cited this blog post in one of my blogs about different types of sensory play with weather!
-Ryan
www.yikedat.com
@Jenny - you can come and play making forts with us anytime!
@jwg - The crates has small knobs on the edges that interlock. They don't exactly "click" in place, but they to help to keep them together and more stable than if there were not the knobs. For the bigger crates I used some zip ties to help stabilize them.
@Scott, I have a feeling that I am not going to be using crates for storage for quite some time! It is like anything else in this field... You go in with a plan, the children have an entirely different idea... and you let them run with it!
@Ryan They are called locker crates and I found ours at Walmart, but I know I have seen them at a variety of other places. They were originally $5 a set (1 large and 2 small), but they were on clearance for $1. Thanks for citing us. We definitely have different types of weather to be playing in around here of late!
Oh! What a MARVELOUS Igloo!! How cool! I remember trying to make one one year (in fact, I think we succeeded, but my brother "owned it"... and it didn't last long!
Love all the Den building too! Brilliant!
Thank you so much for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!! FABULOUS to see yo there!
Maggy
You're very welcome amy. Thanks for the "snow" tips, and for the info on the crates. I'll look into getting some.
Feel free to cite back to YikeDat! Thanks for your creative posts and teaching!
-Ryan
We *love* forts (or dens as we call them). Your brick maker looks fab - adding it to our wish list. Thanks for joining in with our Play Academy idea swap . Hope you have a great week with the kids.
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