' I may be some time'

... I announced as I left this morning to join a team that was attempting to build Antarctica in the school yard. The fact that is is half term and it was actually snowing confirmed what I'd already suspected. I'm mad.

Antarctica is a theme shared by the speech therapy department at our special school, and the play department (that's me). The aim is to have a wheelchair-accessible outdoor version of an ice shelf that the children can visit during their speech lessons, and as part of lunchtime break, when the weather warms up a little. When finished, the shelf will be sprayed with indestructible paper snow (as seen in the sacks, top left; made in Stroud and donated by Snow Business) and the 'pond' will have frozen, we hope. The shelf will be dotted with smaller penguins than this cardboard one, and seals, and some antarctic birds, if we can make some. These can be removed when Antarctica is not open to the public, so they don't get wet! Wheelchairs will be able to drive or be pushed right into a lip in the shelf, close to the animals, for viewing purposes.

We have only spent £17 so far ( by accident) and I recruited two friends to get us going today. They were the fabulous Fred and Di ( you can just about see Fred in the picture, bottom left) and, given that we only had two hours, we didn't do badly at all. Some of the children can help to 'apply' the snow. I hope to blip the finished version.

My motive for doing this, in case you are wondering, is to promote and encourage outdoor play among the more robust children. The yard is adjacent to the hall where we have our play sessions, so it won't be difficult to get there. I'm even going to lend my sledge!