A Closer Look at Snowflakes

We always kick off the first week of Winter with a snowflake study and this year was no different.  We decided to give the classic paper snowflake a twist when we used small cupcake liners to create these beauties.  The ripple texture, pre-made perfect circle and “easy-for-little-hands-to-fold” size of the liners were a win-win!

Imagine with shimmering silver or snowflake patterned liners?!  Too cute!

Cupcake Liner by Oasis Supply

Next, the girls created more snowflakes with toothpicks and various sizes of marshmallows.  This activity was a huge hit and really opened the way for discussion on the shape and sizes of real snowflakes and how exactly they form.

We used our much-loved Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman to answer those early questions and to inspire these snowflake models. 

And you know what they say “if you give a kid a marshmallow…she is just going to ask for hot chocolate”…and she did, they both did.  So this is the direction our study took next…

The perfect time to cover a few snowflake anatomy books and read-alouds!

White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin

Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean E. Pendziwol and Isabelle Arsenault

Curious about Snow by Gina Shaw

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian

This book contains pictures of actual snowflakes and they are simply stunning!

We also put together a “Build-a-Snowflake” mini-playdough kit for the week and I seriously wanted to keep this one for myself!  Please see our full playdough post HERE for the recipe we used this week. We also included blue sprinkles, blue gems, cotton swabs, mini marshmallows and mini pom poms.

The results were these adorable, guys!  Please try this one!

We even went with a snowflake theme for Miss 4’s number review and mathematics for the week.  We used our mancala board as a ten frame and added tongs to work on fine motor skills.  We then set up a little game with gloves and “snowballs“…she rolled the dice to determine which numbers to add and used the snowballs as manipulatives to find the answer.

We ended the week with a little musical celebration with the help of this fantastic book!  Each double page features a musical note to press and a short sound clip from the original score of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  Miss 7 and Miss 4 pretended to be snowflakes blowing around to the music  with their dancing ribbons and adding in their own…very distinct…sound, with the help of a few small instruments.  

Winter is here, might as well embrace its beauty!  

 The Story Orchestra by Jessica Courtney-Tickle

 

What are your favorite snowflake activities or books?  Please share!

 

Sue

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