Snow fun for little ones at Ramsgate Arts Primary

Snow day!

When it comes to the wintery cold snap, children at Ramsgate Arts Primary School know exactly what to do – go outside and enjoy the snow.

For many of the Reception class boys and girls it was the first big snowfall that they could recall, the last major fall being when they were babies.

So it was on with the warm winter-proof coats, hats, scarves, gloves and boots – and out into the snowy world outside their windows.

Sophie Spurrier, Early Years Lead at RAPS, said the staff made the most of the wintery conditions by adjusting their planning so children could enjoy their rare learning opportunity in the snow.

She said: “We explored freezing and melting (changing states) as both of our water trays completely froze over and the children had to use tools to break out the plastic sea creatures that were in the water and subsequently encased in ice.

“We discussed changes to the environment from what we normally experience to what a snow-day creates.

“Building snowmen enabled us to focus on creating with different materials and decide what we could use for their hats, buttons and features.

“We invited our children to paint in the snow to see what happens and what colours they could make – it is a perfect canvas for creativity.  They became more interested in the process art, rather than the finished product with splatting, large brush strokes, flicking paint and how far can it go, colour mixing and much more.”

The youngsters also had Maths lessons outside, learning about capacity by filling different containers with snow instead of water.

Miss Spurrier added: “This has been great fun and has been a brilliant way for children to use the language of full, half full, container, capacity and so on – and then we turned the shapes into snow castles.

“The opportunities for learning outside have been endless and we have taken a lead on the children’s interests and gone from there. “