-From Forest Hills Elementary
A continued post of our 1st year reflections on our snowshoeing experiences….
Weather
Our policy at school was if the temperature was below 20 degrees we did not go outside (this does not include wind chill). This policy may or may not work for you depending on your location and climate. Our winters in January and February can typically past a rather nasty wind chill and even though we did our best to enforce a hat, winter coat, boots, and glove policy we always had students try to minimize what they needed to truly be warm outside and many students (being in a low income area) in our district do not have proper winter clothing.
Snowshoeing is a great outlet to introduce a health or multi-disciplinary lesson on proper winter dress to all your students. We made sure to spell out our winter dress code requirements to parents in all our communications that were sent home. We also had the luxury of having 2 physical educators always on site. One conducted an outdoor lesson and the other conducted and indoor “traditional class”.
We missed out this year on the several 6-8” or more snowstorms that we usually get. Our recommendation, especially in the first year of your program would be to get out the shoes and do what you can. Most of your activities can be done on the shoes even in grass. If you take this approach you’ll be able to see how students handle simple thing like: (a) the time it takes to put on their shoes, (b) how to store shoes without dragging snow and mud into the building, (c) how long it takes the students to get in and out of their winter clothes. These are all minor things that can truly affect how much activity time you have with your students in a school setting.
Attitude
Our students were anxious and excited to get outside every time they put on the shoes. We were able to see how snowshoes and the winter landscape transforms even the simplest activities like taking a walk into something new. Simple tag games, relays and other low level games also take on new shapes and challenges when paired with shoes and the winter landscape. It might be a great way to re-introduce or re-visit some primary grade favorites with your middle and upper grades.