I love Science, and I'll bring it into the classroom any chance I get. Desperate for a way to incorporate science into our Community Helpers unit, I decided to bring in our local meteorologist who talked about the recent snowstorms we’ve been getting. We talked about how snowflakes are formed, how they fall, and how they are all different from each other – exactly like people! I came up with several ideas to bring the science of snow into the classroom.
We began by sorting snowflakes in several ways. First, we used the Snowflake Jewel Assortment to sort the different kinds and sizes of snowflakes. It was easy for my students to see the similarities and differences in the snowflakes and for them to engage in conversation with each other, sharing their ideas for the sort. My students sorted the Snowflake Jewel Assortment for a pretty long time, using our hand lenses to discover the tiny details to help them to decide which group each snowflake belonged in.
Next, we sorted the White Chipboard Snowflakes. We all loved how sturdy these are and lots of little hands were able to sort them and they still looked great! My students were given 8-10 different snowflakes and I asked them to sort them by looking at how each of them were alike. They had some pretty great explanations to describe how they sorted the White Chipboard Snowflakes. "These have just six branches." "The branches on these snowflakes have circles on the end." "I think these snowflakes look like the ones we saw in our snowflake books." "I put these snowflakes together because they have more than six branches." After we sorted the snowflakes, I wanted my students to be able to create their own unique snowflakes. We first created the Beaded Snowflake Christmas Ornaments. I helped my students twist the pipe cleaners into a snowflake shape and then they decorated them with the large assortment of included beads. My students were SO proud of their creations and they loved how each one was unique – just like them!
My students were fascinated with the idea that no 2 snowflakes are alike, so we created these Thumbprint Snowflake Christmas Ornaments. They helped illustrate just how unique we each are! We were able to make these snowflakes in under 10 minutes and the ink washed right off their thumbs. We ended up creating many more shapes and pictures with our thumbprints after we created our ornaments. These handmade ornaments make great parent gifts as well!
