What are some magical things you remember about your childhood; playing football, hide and seek, flashlight tag, building forts? I worry that many children today never experience the childhood that I once took-for-granted.
Last week at school, we were reading the book, Hatchet. Hatchet is story about a boy who survives a plane crash in the north woods. To enrich their reading experience, I had my students work outside in groups building debris huts. It was the happiest that I have seen
Debris Hut
some of my students all year. They had to work together, and create something out of a pile of sticks and leaves. I figured that it was the first time many had built a fort. But two of my students told me that they had built a fort out of sticks and garbage bags, and had eaten their lunch inside. Two others said they had built a fort, and it was so special that they had gone back repeatedly during the summer.
What is the big attraction of fort building? My daughter, Laurel gives an insight into this question. “I remember when I was in elementary school, the boys and girls built different forts. You had to be “invited” to enter someone’s fort. It was “tween” drama in action, all taking place in a house made of sticks! We built forts at home too. For some reason I remember having a cracker jack box out there, and sitting in the fort looking at the prize in the box.”
Laurel, also adds, “Forts were amazing for a number of reasons:
- Just the physical aspect of building something and having the satisfaction when it was done.
- Building forts taught me to work with others and to compromise on our ideas.
- I could always improve/change my fort (A work in progress – just like life!).
- Hanging out in a fort breeds imagination.”
If you have no sticks, pitching a tent in the backyard is another form of a “fort building” that can be just as much fun.
In winter, building a quinzee hut is a great way to spend time outdoors. To make a quinzee, you pile up a bunch of snow, leave it for a few hours and then when the snow has compacted, you dig out a hole for yourself to hang-out in.
Rules of fort Building
- Don’t build a fort on someone else’s property, unless you get permission.
- When you are done using the fort, take it apart, and make it look like it was never there.
- Make sure the fort is safe. Don’t pile three feet of soil on top of it, and get suffocated when it collapses.
- If it is a ground fort, make sure that no creature moved in during the night (like a skunk or rattlesnake).
- Don’t put nails in trees, when building tree houses
Why build a fort? Just ask my students, “It’s fun, and you get to be outside”.
Share your fort building experiences.
