How to build a snow fort

2024 Author: Aaron Duncan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 03:30

Many children consider winter to be the most magical time of the year, because it is the embodiment of a real New Year's fairy tale. To make this fairy tale even more real, you can build a snow fort, the games in which will appeal not only to children, but also to adults.

Building a snow fort is a very exciting and creative activity in which you can realize all your childhood dreams and ideas. How to build a snow fort and where to start?

Tools and materials

1. Lots of snow.
2. Warm clothes, several pairs of gloves.
3. Shovel.
4. A scoop to clean the inside of the fortress.
5. Water and spray bottle.
6. Food coloring (optional).

Helpful tips

For the construction of a snow fortress, you can choose a large space in the yard, a nearby parkor square. If you are a happy owner of a winter cottage, you can build a fortress on your site. How much joy children will have if they spend New Year's Eve in their own snow castle.

The height of the fortress depends on the age of your child. If the baby is only two or three years old, the snow fortress should be low and simple, with small slides and low turrets. For an older child, you can build a taller structure on several levels with towers, large slides and ice stairs.

Purchase quality waterproof gloves. You can buy them at a sporting goods store. Then your hands will always be warm. Or you can use several pairs of woolen mittens. When the first pair gets wet, you need to put on the second one, and dry the first one on the radiator. No one wants to get sick during the New Year holidays.

Warnings

1. To keep the top of the fort from sinking, don't build it too heavy.
2. While building the castle, always leave a watchman near them, do not step on it, do not go inside if there is no one around. There is a risk that the snow town will collapse and you will need help.
3. For the safety of your children, the castle should be built as far as possible from the road and parking.

4. In order for the snow fortress to stand longer and not settle, it is better to choose a place for construction in the shade so that direct sunlight does not fall on the castle.

Step 1. Preparing for construction

1. Design the structure of a snow fort. It can be one wall with a tower and a complex fortification with four or five walls, a roof, towers and slides. Calculate how much snow it will take to build a fort, taking into account the height, width and length of the walls.
2. Mark the dimensions of the castle in the snow with a branch or shovel.
3. Find or make your own good snowdrift.

4. Check if the snow is sticky enough. To do this, make a snowball out of it. If the snowball is falling apart, you can use ice bricks for construction. To make them, place the snow in plastic trays and wait for them to harden. You can also use snow fort molds, which are sold in stores, to create bricks. Then your castle will be even more even and beautiful. For greater strength, cold water can be poured over the snow.

   

5. Wait until the water is completely frozen and remove the blanks from the molds. Be prepared that a lot of bricks will be required to build a fort. Molds can be purchased in medium sizes so that they do not harden too long and the construction goes faster.

Step 2. Building a snow fort

1. Build walls. If you use bricks, you need to work like a real bricklayer: a layer of bricks is laid, then a layer of snow for hitching, another layer of bricks so that the bricks go between the junction of the previous row. If you are building a snowdrift fortress, dig withshovels the entrance and clean the fort inside with a shovel.

   

2. To strengthen the outside, line the walls, fill the cracks with snow. Outside, make the walls as sloping as possible so that the snow town will last longer.

3. To protect the fortress from melting and damage, pour water on the walls. The protective ice layer will increase the hardness of the building. It should be poured starting from the bottom, so that too much ice forms on top, and the snow fortress does not collapse under the weight of the roof. The temperature outside should be low enough for the water to freeze as quickly as possible.

Step 3. Decorating the fortress

1. There are several ways to decorate the fortress. You can color the ice bricks by adding colored water to the mold, or spray the walls with colored water from a spray bottle. Or add dye to the water in the previous step, when the walls are strengthened.
2. To illuminate the fortress, you can use low-power LED lamps. They almost do not heat up, so their use will not lead to the melting of the building. For your safety, only purchase lamps that can be used for street lighting.
3. Decorate your snow fort with snowmen, snow figures and flags. You can fashion snowmen-guards who will guard the entrance to the fort, make slides and watchtowers.

4. Inside the castle you can arrange a real festive banquet, make furniture out of snow, insulate the seatscardboard and blankets. A child will remember such a holiday for a lifetime and will proudly tell his comrades about his own ice castle.

   

Now you know how to make your own snow fort. How it turns out depends only on you and your imagination. Build it with your kids, compete for the highest tower or the most beautiful holiday fort. Do not forget that it is in your power to turn every ordinary day of the child into a real holiday!