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Handy materials

As long as people having been building houses, they have used the materials close at hand.

Think of castles made of stone, log cabins made of wood, cottages made of brick or tents made from animal hides.

Modern buildings are made of steel and glass and can be very complex. But when you are surrounded by snow, what do you build? The answer is of course, an igloo!

'Igloo' is an Inuit word for 'snow house', and 'Inuit' is the word that describes the people who live in the frozen lands of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland.

Hunting to survive

The Inuit people are perhaps one of the toughest communities in the world.

They have survived one of the harshest climates on Earth for thousands of years.

They adapted long ago to Arctic conditions and because plants can't grow where they live, they rely heavily on animals for food.

The Inuit have to hunt animals to survive.

This means travelling away from their homes, often to much colder areas near sea ice.

They use dogsleds to travel across snow and ice.

Once they get to sea ice, they can hunt seals.

For shelter when they are hunting, they build igloos where they stay for weeks or months at a time.

Igloos can be used to create large structures. These are made by joining many single igloos together by attaching corridors and walls. This is how the Inuit turn a house for one family into a compound of many rooms to shelter 20 people!

Warm inside

You are probably wondering how a house made of snow can protect people from freezing. We all know that snow is cold!

Imagine yourself in a well constructed igloo. With the the help of a very small oil lamp and your own body heat, the inside can warm up to 40 degrees above whatever the temperature is outside.

How does this work?

Firstly, the thick walls block the wind. This is often so bitter that it can make freezing temperatures feel many degrees colder.

Secondly, the snow and ice trap body heat inside the igloo so its occupants become like little furnaces. Body heat and sun cause the inner walls of the igloo to melt ever so slightly. The snow turns to ice and makes the igloo stronger and even cosier.

Just remember that you need the right type of snow. The soft, powdery stuff that you might be used to is not hard or packed tightly enough to build a reliable igloo.

Don't forget your parka

Inuit children learn to fish and hunt just like their parents. They also learn how to construct igloos.

As you might imagine, because they live in such a cold climate they wear very different clothes to ours.

The most important piece of clothing is a parka. This is a hooded coat, lined with animal fur to keep the wearer really warm.

The fur is taken from the caribou, a type of reindeer hunted by the Inuit.

The caribou is a very special animal for the Inuit people as they use it to feed and clothe their families.

Snow forever

So, the next time it snows heavily, imagine if it was always like that.

You'd have to change what you wore, and you'd go about your daily life in a completely different way.

Imagine if there were no supermarkets and you had to hunt or fish for your food.

If there were no houses, you'd have to build an igloo to keep yourself warm.

What would be the best thing about being an Inuit child?

Would it be the cosiness of the parka?

And what would be the worst? Eating caribou?

Who knows, you might even get to like it!