By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — A foot of snow provided plenty of construction material for an unusual winter structure in Washington Square Park on Friday.
There were about a dozen snowmen dotted throughout the park, but a pair of public school kids took the ambitious step of building an igloo.
Eva Jacobs and Katya Ghosh, both fifth graders at the NEST+m school for gifted and talented students in the East Village, would have made Schools Chancellor Joel Klein proud after he encouraged kids to take advantage of the snow day to a "little extra homework this weekend."
"We have been studying the Inuit in class," Katya said as she stood next to the 3-foot wall they'd constructed by 1 p.m. "We decided it was the perfect day for an igloo so that is why we are building this."
The girls rolled big snow balls and packed them tightly together to make the dome-like structure. In an ideal igloo-making world, the girls said ice blocks would be used instead of snow.
"They would cut out blocks and put them together so it leans in," said Eva.
Katya's father, Tony Ghosh, was on hand to help out with the igloo-making effort. Igloo building isn't new for Ghosh, who grew up in Canada before moving to Manhattan.
"Growing up in a northern climate, Canada, we used to make igloos at their age," he said. "We would put a fire inside and it would melt the inside and give it a glazing."