Minnesota students build outdoor classroom out of snow
A group of students in Scandia, Minnesota used the snow to build an outdoor classroom.
SCANDIA, Minn. (FOX 9) - During the pandemic, schools have had to get creative to educate their kids. For some students in Scandia, Minnesota that meant learning in the great outdoors.
For the past two days, the preschoolers through third graders in a homeschool group, called "Miss Bethany's Bees," have spent their recess building a giant outdoor classroom.
"'Cause we get to learn about stuff outside and I like the nature outside," said Sydney Nelson, a third grader. "I just like playing with the snow. We get to make snow men."
They even got a little help from a parent with a tractor, who plowed the snow in the yard into piles, so they could sculpt their school.
"So we had a summer one, a fall one and then we thought with all the snow we could build up an igloo so that we could have an outdoor classroom in the winter," said Wyatt Olson, a third grader.
Now when the weather permits, they plan to spend at least a couple of hours a day in their icy ode to education. In one class, they learned about math by weighing snowballs for a lesson that was pretty chill.
"They are more resilient than I am, so I'm kind of the first one to be like, 'I'm freezing. Let’s go inside and warm up,'" said Bethany Hillen, the teacher.
With the recent warm weather, the students know their outdoor classroom won't last forever, but their teacher hopes their memories of it will always be cool.
"I know it’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life, so can't imagine how it’s going to impact their little lives," said Hillen.