Snowflake Bentley
Goals:
- Read about the life of Wilson Bentley.
- Compare and contrast a fiction and nonfiction piece about Wilson Bentley.
- Research snowflakes
Click the links below to listen to the story, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Then click on the link and read the nonfiction piece about his life and compare and contrast the information. How are the two selections alike and different? After you have finished with both pieces create a list of important facts about Mr. Bentley. Include only information that you would consider important to understand his life.
For more information about Wilson Bentley click the link below to listen to an audio of a biography about his life. Add any other important information you learned about Mr. Bentley from this clip and add it to what you discovered when you read about his life.
Science of a SNOWFLAKE
Use the handout below as you watch the video.
handout link |
Create a Crystal
What You Need:
- Jar
- Water
- Oven mitts
- Scissors
- Pen
- String
- Pipe cleaners
- 4 Tablespoons Borax
- Tell students to use the pipe cleaners to form the shapesof snowflakes, ensuring that they can fit into the jar opening. Meanwhile, get a pot of boiling water.
- Tie a piece of string around a pipe cleaner shape and the other end of the string around a pen.
- Slowly add the hot water into the jar until it is about three-quarters full.
- Place the borax into the jar, stirring after each tablespoon has been adding. Look at the bottom of the jar to see whether some of the borax has started to accumulate. If it has, then move onto the next step. Otherwise, add more borax until a pile has formed.
- Use the pen and the string to lower the shape into the jar, and place the pen across the top of the jar. The shape should hang inside the char without touching the bottom and be completely covered in the mixture.
- Pick up the jar with the oven mitts and move it to a spot where it is out of the way.
- Leave the jar alone for one day. As the water cools, some of the borax will start to become removed from the water and the crystals will start to grow on the pipe cleaner. - Discuss how the crystals are changing and growing several times throughout the day. -Explain that the borax molecules are attracted to each other and will start to form bigger crystals as they latch onto the pipe cleaner.
- When a day has passed, remove the pipe cleaner from the mixture. It should be filled with crystals! Now you can put it on display and admire your crystal formations
Snowflake ART
Here's what you'll need...
•Blue construction paper or cardstock (or whatever color of background you'd like)
•Q-Tips
•Glue
•Scissors (optional)
Here's how to make it...
1. Cut your Q-Tips in various sizes.
2. Create three of your own unique patterns of snowflake.
3. Glue them onto the blue paper
•Blue construction paper or cardstock (or whatever color of background you'd like)
•Q-Tips
•Glue
•Scissors (optional)
Here's how to make it...
1. Cut your Q-Tips in various sizes.
2. Create three of your own unique patterns of snowflake.
3. Glue them onto the blue paper