Blog

In many Waldorf grade 3 classrooms, a common impulse of the age - to separate and create a space for one's self - is supported with students' very first project experience: choosing and building a model of a shelter or dwelling. Grade 3 students at RSSAA first learn about shelters and dwellings constructed by indigenous people in North America and around the world, and how these people ingeniously used what they had in their local surroundings to keep warm, safe and dry.

Since the beginning of human existence, building shelters has been a community project. This year our grade 3 students ventured out into the cold together to build a quinzhee. A quinzhee (also spelled “quinzee”) is a snow shelter concept of Native Americans and the First Nations of Canada.  It is well suited to the uncompacted snow found in forests and is different from the more-familiar igloo, which is made from blocks of ice cut from densely packed snow that might be found on a wind swept tundra.

Our Grade 3 teacher, Calisa Tucker, said that the children had so much fun! "The conditions were perfect for building a quinzhee - a shelter carved out of a compacted heap of snow.  The third-graders worked tirelessly and collectively for a couple of hours to make their snow mound.  We then needed to let it sit overnight so that the snow could become compacted.  The next day we hollowed it out."

The process of letting the snow sit is called sintering.  This is the process of compaction through heat and pressure. By mixing the snow in a pile, the energy from the disturbance melts the particles of snow and refreezes it into a cohesive mass. (Wet snow will bond more quickly while colder and dryer snow will take longer).

A home provides shelter and protection, but it is also a place where we nurture ourselves, creating a safe place apart from the world. As the third-grader continues to move through the nine-year change and the experience of separation from the world, an inner need arises in them to build their own sanctuary.  It is also known as a "period of industry". Creating a shelter allows both of these impulses to find an outer expression.  Some students enjoyed building the quinzhee at school so much, they built their own at home!