Building Shelters for Survival

For quite some time now, we have noticed that the children in Cohort A have been exploring what survival skills would be needed within different scenarios. 

If you were to hatch from an egg as a dinosaur how would you survive? This is some of the ideas we had in mind.
Would you grow gills if you hatched at the bottom of the lake?
Would you be able to grow wings if you hatched at the top of a mountain?
Would you be able to grow spikes if a predator was coming to eat you?

To expand on the idea of adapting to the environment and problem solving how we would be able to survive. One morning I presented the children with a provocation that showcased some different shelters that one might build to survive, and set up an area of loose parts so that they could create on of their own. The children had various kinds of blocks, rocks, marbles, shells and other loose parts to use to build their structure.
As the children were building, they discussed different things that they would add to their shelters such as a swimming pool, a lake, a fire pit and of course every shelter needs a diving board on the roof of the house!!

In the afternoon we decided to take it one step further and try building life size shelters outside! We used sheets, rope, tarps, rugs, sticks and clips to create shelters within the forest. Some of the shelters had some extra perks such as a hammock bed and even a bakery that sold snow bread! 

The children used their imagination and creative minds to build blue prints in their head with a plan of action. Through problem solving and communication they were able to work together as a team to create their shelters.

Everyone Survived!! Up next, we are going to make up some unique experiences and have the children create their own survival pamphlet! 

- Raelien