Once the date arrived the first class that was scheduled, planned the layout of the ice castle.  The students measured the size of the blocks and estimated how many blocks it would take to make the foundation of the castle.  After the estimation the students used string to create a guide for their building. 

First the students started to “glue” the blocks together by misting the blocks with water and that didn’t work.

Next the students poured water on the blocks and the ice blocks still slid off.

Then they discovered that if they packed a lot of snow on top of a block and then covered it with water to make a slush that it made great ”glue”.

The first class shared their information with the next class and told them what worked and what didn’t, and so on. 

The classes would work together everyone contributing; some children were making a slush, some were opening cartons, some were packing snow in between and some were filling up the water buckets. 

The children all worked together as a school community using:

Planning

Trial and error

Sharing information

Collaboration

Encouragement

Teamwork