                    Igloos
Igloo is the Inuit word for shelter.  Igloos are shaped like a dome with a tunnel entrance to trap cold air.  Igloos are often made of hard blocks of snow.  Igloos never really lasted long.  They don't need to, because the Inuit travel a lot and igloos are easy to build. 
Here's how Inuits make an igloo. 
     1. Inuits often find ledges or cliffs to form a windbreak. 
     2. When they find a suitible place,the Inuits cut the shape of the base of the igloo in the snow. 
    3.  They cut a wegde-shaped block at what would be the front of the entrance.  This block is not used. 
   4.  Then the building blocks are cut from that.  The blocks are 2 to 3 feet wide. 
    5.  The blocks  are set in a spiral pattern.  The blocks diagonally to start the spiral pattern. 
   6.  After the dome is finished, a hole is poked in the top, the entance is cut, and sometimes a window is made from a clear slab of ice. 
  7.   Then it is time to make the tunnel entrance. 
  8.   Inside a platform is made to sleep and eat on. 
Life in an igloo could be fun or hard.  I do not know, because I have never lived in one!  Here is an idea of  what it would be like though. 
It was probably hard to live in an igloo.  Eskimos used seal oil lamps for heat and light.  Another thing that kept the igloo warm was the tunnel entrance for trapping cold air.  There were shelves cut into the wall and sealskins covered the inside.  The raised platform was used for eating and sleeping.  The ''kitchen'' was a square hole with hot coals or fire with a rack and net above the hole.  The net is for drying clothes and the rack is for cooking food. 
The future Eskimos probably won't have igloos.  Already, prefabricated houses have replaced most igloos. 

Bibliography 
"Igloo."  World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia (CD-rom) Chicago:  World Book , 1998. 
Steltzer, Ulli .  Building an Igloo.  New York:  Henry Holt & Co. 1981. 
Yue, Charlotte & David . The Igloo.  Boston:  Houghton Muflin Co. 1988. 

	Brittany is in the fourth grade at PGE.  She is a straight-A student and loves animals and soccer.	
