Snowflake Bentley
Last week we read a snowy story for a snowy week: Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. This is the true story of Wilson A. Bentley, a farmer/scientist from Vermont. He discovered much of the knowledge we take for granted about snowflakes today. Like... every snowflake is unique. He also published his own book containing his photographs of snow crystals entitled, Snow crystals. We are excited to look through his book and have requested it from our library.
This week for math, I read Jane Brockett's book Circles, Stars and Squares. We focused on the hexagon with it's six sides and also introduced the idea of circumference, measuring the line around a circle.
For art, we cut paper snowflakes! I have included a photograph of how to fold a square piece of paper. After folded, the triangle pieces sticking off the top need to be cut square and then when you cut little snippets out and open the paper up, you have a hexagonal paper snowflake. We also painted white on black construction paper, trying to paint snowflakes and also using recycled circular items to stamp paint snowmen, of course, we measured the circumference of the item first!
For science, I got out my microscope and we looked at some prepared slides. The kids really enjoyed this and we had some fun conversations about what we saw through the lens. We did not attempt to look at snow.
For geography we located the place in Vermont where Wilson Bentley lived and talked a little about the weather patterns on earth. The further north of the equator, in general, the colder our planet is, and the closer to the equator, the warmer.
Language was a bit lacking this week.
Additional resources we enjoyed this week: Here is the Arctic Winter, by Madeline Dunphy. (Her habitat series is awesome! Mixed reviews in our home, some of us think Here is the African Savannah far superior to this one, and others of us like this one just as much.) The kids made a cute polar bear paper plate craft to accompany this day. Idea from Hands on as we Grow.
Super Snowflake Seek and Find, by Michael Garland. We are becoming big fans of his work, and this one is super fun. We practiced tallying and list making as we worked through each page of this book together. The kids enjoyed looking at the pictures on their own as well.
This week for math, I read Jane Brockett's book Circles, Stars and Squares. We focused on the hexagon with it's six sides and also introduced the idea of circumference, measuring the line around a circle.
For art, we cut paper snowflakes! I have included a photograph of how to fold a square piece of paper. After folded, the triangle pieces sticking off the top need to be cut square and then when you cut little snippets out and open the paper up, you have a hexagonal paper snowflake. We also painted white on black construction paper, trying to paint snowflakes and also using recycled circular items to stamp paint snowmen, of course, we measured the circumference of the item first!
For science, I got out my microscope and we looked at some prepared slides. The kids really enjoyed this and we had some fun conversations about what we saw through the lens. We did not attempt to look at snow.
For geography we located the place in Vermont where Wilson Bentley lived and talked a little about the weather patterns on earth. The further north of the equator, in general, the colder our planet is, and the closer to the equator, the warmer.
Language was a bit lacking this week.
Additional resources we enjoyed this week: Here is the Arctic Winter, by Madeline Dunphy. (Her habitat series is awesome! Mixed reviews in our home, some of us think Here is the African Savannah far superior to this one, and others of us like this one just as much.) The kids made a cute polar bear paper plate craft to accompany this day. Idea from Hands on as we Grow.
Super Snowflake Seek and Find, by Michael Garland. We are becoming big fans of his work, and this one is super fun. We practiced tallying and list making as we worked through each page of this book together. The kids enjoyed looking at the pictures on their own as well.
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