Studying Snow...

Lindy and I made snowflakes to get ready for our

snowy study.

We started this last week and I was going to wait to post everything until we were done. But everyday that it snows more we keep doing things so at this rate it could get posted in the spring! We have read some great books on snow and crystals. It has been another great unit study because every age has been able to find something to learn and enjoy.

Writing with icicles.

We started with the first snowfall last week. We put black construction paper in the freezer for about an hour. We took it outside and let snow fall on it. Then with our magnifying glass we were able to look closely at snowflakes and see their six sides and uniqueness, none looked the same!

Some quick fun of Snowball Basketball with Kyle and Ethan and then it was time to start on own crystal snowflakes.

He can really get off the ground!

We started with everyone making their own pipe cleaner form. Lindy made a cross, Erin a snowflake, and Ethan, Kyle, and Paige made different kinds of shapes. We did the Borax and hot water kind and let them sit for 24 hours. They turned out great and the kids loved them. We will be doing more!

Crystallizing started taking place within hours.

The finished products!

After making our own snowflake crystals we compared different type of crystals we had read about in our Crystal, Salt, Sugar Book. We folded a piece of paper into 4 squares and numbered 1-3. In the last square they were to draw their grown crystal result. On a piece of black paper I spooned a sample of the questionable crystal. Using their magnifying glass again, often doubled up with another, they were to draw the shape of the crystal they were observing.

When we were done with the 3 samples we used our book to try and identify what they were. They did really well. They got both sugar and salt correct but missed baking soda identifying it as flour. Not bad!

The samples

Identification begins....

No lesson is complete without Erin's participation.

Here she is drawing the crystal she grew.

Verifying results.

Today we followed up with painting the snow with colored water filled spray bottles. This was great fun for all. Kids wrote messages to each other and there was some color mixing going on which was really cool.

She did need some help writing her name.

Kyle wrote "Awesome Kyle". We like to think so!

We headed in to make snow ice cream. Having not made this before I had low expectations for how it might turn out but I was pleasantly surprised when it was easy and good!

Our collected snow.

Our ingredients; milk, sugar, vanilla.

Mixing

The finished product

What a great week we have had! I know there is more to come as I have more ideas so with the temps where they are the snow will be here for a while and we plan to take advantage of it!