Ask Ollie
Snow Brick Fort Wall
Here's one to try together!
Pack, flip and stack real snow bricks into a sturdy little fort wall, just like a tiny builder in the snow!
Reviewed by our team.
Safety first
- Cold: dress warmly, and come inside as soon as fingers start to feel cold
- Snow walls can fall: keep them knee high or lower, with no roof
- Never dig into a snowbank: it can fall in on a child
- Snowballs are for the target only: never throw at people
What you need
- Plastic food containers, small buckets or loaf pans, 1 or more
- Lots of wet packing snow
- Warm clothes for everyone
- Mittens, 1 pair per child
- Pillows and cushions, shoe boxes or cushions for an indoor no-snow wall (optional)
How to do it
Grown-up prep: Bundle everyone up, grab a container or two for brick molds, and head out on a day with wet, sticky snow. Agree on two rules first: walls stay knee high with no roof, and everyone heads inside as soon as fingers start to feel cold.
- Squeeze a mittenful of snow to test if it sticks together.
- Draw a curved line in the snow with your boot.
- Press snow hard into your container until it's packed full.
- Flip it over, tap the top, and lift it off. Ask: Will your brick keep its shape or crumble? What do you think?
- Make more bricks and line them up side by side.
- Stack the next row so each brick sits over a crack. Ask: Why do you think real builders put bricks over the cracks like this?
- Pack loose snow into the gaps like glue.
- Stop at knee height and count every brick.
- Crouch behind your wall and toss snowballs at a target.
- Warm up inside, then bring a friend to build more! How long can your next wall be? Ask: What would you change to make your wall even stronger next time?
Play it again
- Indoor wall: build a low staggered wall from shoe boxes or cushions on a no-snow day.
- Brick race: see how many solid bricks you can make in 5 minutes.
- Mold mix-up: use two different containers and figure out how to stagger big and small bricks.
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