This week couldn't have been more fitting for us to finish up our snow studies!  By this afternoon we are forecasted to have around 10 inches of snow.  We already have about 5 inches on the ground now, sealed off with a thick layer of sparkly ice deposited over last night.  The rest of the snow will be coming any minute now.  The kids played outside on two occasions yesterday, but not for too long because the temps were still quite cold.  But it did provide for a few great sled rides down the hill and a walk on the slippery frozen creek.

Ok, on to our snow studies.  Here are a some more things we did to finish up our formal study this week.

Blizzards - When Snow Turns Deadly

We talked about and defined what a blizzard is - sustained or gusty winds of 35 mph or more, and falling or blowing snow creating visibilities at or below 1/4 mile. These conditions should persist for 3 hours.

We also watched a YouTube video on The Great Blizzard of 1977.  Do any of you remember that?  It seemed it affected quite a large area of the eastern US.  I remember being 6 years old and while playing outside I stepped into a low lying area and had snow up to my chin and was so scared!

Notebooking Page - Snowflakes and Snowflake Bentley

We completed a notebooking page for our nature journals on snowflakes and Snowflake Bentley, where we drew and labeled a few different kinds of snowflakes and pasted in a picture of and a quote from "The Snowflake Man".

 

The Science of Snow

We watched a free online video on Brain Pop on the science behind Snowflakes.  And took the quiz at the end.

As the snow is currently falling outside, we are keeping measurements of it.

Experiment - Dew and Frost

We also did an experiment showing how dew and frost are formed.  First we gathered two tin cans (old fruit cans that I had peeled the labels off of), a spoon, table salt, crushed ice, and water.

First I explained to the kids that we would be putting ice and water in one can, and ice and salt in the other.  And one can would form frost on the outside, and the other dew.  Then I had them make predictions on their science journals as to which can would do what and why.   We labeled our cans "Can 1" (salt) and "Can 2" (water).  Both of the kids predicted that Can 1 would form frost and Can 2 would form dew. 

Next I gave one child the crushed ice and salt, and the other crushed ice and water.  They filled their cans half way with the crushed ice, then Can 1 was sprinkled with salt, and Can 2 was filled with water just until it reached above the ice.

We used the spoon to stir the salt and ice for 30 seconds.  Then we sat and waited just a few moments and found that Can 1 (salt) formed frost, and Can 2 (water) formed dew.

Can 1

After that we talked about the science behind why both reactions happened, and then they finished their science journals.

We also looked at a few photos online of frost. Have you ever noticed how beautiful it is?

Bible Study - Salt of the Earth, Whiter Than Snow

During the above experiment when we we're learning about the effects of salt on not only the ice but also other things like food, I tied in the following verse from Matthew 5:13:  "You are the salt of the earth..."

Also we listened to the hymn I Shall Be Whiter Than Snow by James L. Nicholson, and talked about it's meaning to us.

I also found a wonderful Bible study on snow.

OK!  Well, that's a wrap!  And I can't leave you without one of my latest snowflake photos!  I really am beginning to understand Mr. Bentley's passion.

Some of the best ice crystals can be observed early in the morning on the simpliest of places.  These photos we're taken on the edge of the window of my husband's car yesterday morning.  He had left it out of the garage the night before.

 

 

My husband saw these, and he commented, "and to think I usually just get in my car and go to work."  Doesn't that just sum up our too busy unobservant lives sometimes?!

It snowed more yesterday, again just a heavy dusting.  But tonight, we're under a Winter Storm Advisory, could get up to 4 inches.  Looks like we'll get some snow playtime in perhaps tomorrow.  I got  some neat photos at the bird feeder too over the weekend, hopefully I can share those soon.  Today, in school, we're zero-ing in on finally wrapping up a few snow studies, and then we'll move onto new things!

"To watch the growth of a crystal is to witness a miracle; involuntarily we stand in awe before it, as a proof that of all truths mathematics is the most Divine and the most inherent in the universe.  The teacher will fail to make the best use of this lesson if she does not reveal to the child through it something of the marval of crystal growth....shows us a law of growth so exquisitely exemplified as to again make us glad to be part of a universe so perfectly governed." ~ Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 751

 by W.A. Bentley

I was overjoyed to find information on crystals/snowflakes in the Handbook of Nature Study.  Oh please, read this section in her book (pgs. 751-752, 809)!  After reading through it I was so educated and inspired!  Just as with anything we have found in nature, mathematics and order can be found.

"Moreover, when crystals show a variation in numbers of angles and planes it is merely a matter of division or multiplication....Why should water freezing freely in the air so demonstrate geometry by forming, as it does, a star with six rays, each set to another, at an angle of 60 degrees?  And as if to prove geometry Divine beyond cavil, sometimes the rays are only three in number - a factor of six - and include angles of twice 60 degrees." ~ pg. 809

Most places we have read inform you that snowflakes are six-sided, there isn't any mention of some of them having three.  It was a odd thing then when a few days ago, before I read this, I took a macro photo of a snowflake that appeared to only have three.  A day later my older daughter and I both exclaimed "sometimes it has three rays" at the same time when we read the above and below passages.

"A snow crystal is a six-rayed star, yet sometimes it has three." ~  pg. 751

My 3-rayed snowflake photo

Here is another amazing sampling of what we read (in the section on how water forms):

"But the story of the water magic is only half told.  The cold brings back the invisible water vapor, forming it into visible drops; but if it is cold enough to freeze, then we behold another miracle, for the drops are changed to crystals.  The cool windowpane at evening may be dimmed with mist caught from the air of the room; if we examine the mist with a lens we find it composed of tiny drops of water.  But if the night be very cold, we find next morning upon the windowpane exquisite ferns, or stars, or trees, all formed of the crystals grown from the mist which was there the night before." ~  pg. 809

Remember this photo I took of our patio table?  Very cool stuff.

"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,'and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.' So that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man from his labor." ~ Job 35:5-7

It is flurrying outside as I type this entry, we are forecasted to get up to three inches this evening.  Looks like I'm going to grab my camera and dark felt and get outside for a couple photos before it gets too dark.  Maybe I'll catch another 3-rayed snowflake.

With her permission, I'll leave you with a poem that my older daughter recently wrote after we read the above passages from the Handbook:

There are so many fun things to do in the snow.  Build snowmen, go sledding, make snow angels, have a snowball fight to name a few.  And now we have another activity to do in the snow.  While we were playing in the snow a few days ago, my daughters introduced me to what they call "snowflake dancing".  Oh yes, how could I have forgotten that from my childhood.  It seems so magical to whirl and twirl around in the falling snowflakes.

We could hear the beautiful, magical music floating through the woods.  Can you?  Shall we snow dance?

When All the World is Full of Snow

 

I never know just where to go,

when all the world is full of snow.

 I do not want to make a track,

not even to the shed and back.

 

I only want to watch and wait,

while snow moths settle on the gate,

 and swarming frost flakes fill the trees

with billions of albino bees

 

I only want myself to be

as silent as a winter tree,

to hear the swirling stillness grow;

when all the world is full of snow.

~ N.M. Bodecker

 

Oh my, there is so much that I want to blog about, seriously I have a long list...but I must refrain from being on this computer for hours!  It just has to be a bit a day.  So today, I'd like to share with you part one of our art snow studies.  But first I just have to share, as you can see from the photo above, we got snow today!  It hasn't amounted to more than a heavy dusting, but it was enough to get out and have loads of fun in it.  I got some amazing macro photos of the snowflakes!  But all about that will be one of my other posts!  Ok, back to art.

After all the fun being outside, we settled in to get a few of our regular studies done, and then we turned our focus to art.  First about Artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, or more affectionately known as Grandma Moses.

If you've never read about her before, oh please spend some time doing so; after I read about her I just wanted so much to have been able to know her in person.  Here is an amazing woman who dedicated all of her young and middle aged adulthood to others, and only started painting in her 70's, after arthritis made it impossible for her to do embroidery anymore.  She painted through her 70's, 80's, and 90's, and lived to be 101 years old!  Here are two books that we have read:

Grandma Moses, by Mike Venezia

Grandma Moses, by Alexandra Wallner

We also viewed the slideshow of her works of art HERE.  Since we have been studying snow, we paid particular attention to all of her snow scenes.  The painting below is entitled January from 1956.

After learning about Grandma Moses, we did a quite messy but fun art project using "snow-like" materials we found around the house, such as marshmallows, sugar, cotton balls, and glitter glue.

 

 

For the second half of our art study, we will be finishing up the last season from Nature's Paintbox which will feature the medium pen and ink.  AND finish up listening to Antonio Vivaldi ,The Four Seasons - Winter.

Ok, before I go, I just have to share one macro photo that I took today of some snowflakes!

Today we continued on with our study of snow by revisiting a wonderful book, Snowflake Bentley, which is about a man with whom I can well relate, Wilson A. Bently, a.k.a. The Snowflake Man.

 

If you've been reading my writings about nature for long, you gotta know that this man speaks to my heart.  He had a passion for the beauty in nature, and specifically he found snowflakes to be extremely fascinating.

After reading the book, we spent some time admiring some of Bentley's photographs on the internet (you can click on each one of those photographs individually to see it up close).  We also looked at the photograph that I had taken on our Christmas tree hunt.  Mr. Bentley would have been very pleased with the flakes that were falling that day!

We also looked at the photographs from another post I did, Snow and Ice Crystals.

We also talked at bit more on how a snowflake is formed, which I had discussed back in my post, Whiter Than Snow.

AND, the blue ribbon for lots of fun today goes to when gave the kids the challenge to make snowflakes out of Magnetix and Legos.

We also watched an excellent quick video from a news report on Wilson Bently which I first found the link to from Candace at His Mercy is New, but then found it again on YouTube.  Please visit Candace's post too, she's got some more great resources.

Here are some other applicable websites and books I found at our library:

Snowflake Bentley

Vermont Snowflakes - a shop for Snowflake Bentley items

Snowflakes in Photographs, Wilson A. Bentley

Snow Crystals, Wilson A. Bentley

The Snowflake, by Kenneth G. Libbrecht

 My Brother Loved Snowflakes, by Mary Bahr

I have some great Poetry, Art, and Music things planned for our snow study that we will be doing tomorrow and Wednesday.  Also today, we got reacquainted with our feeder birds by making a acorn squash suet bird feeder and spending some time just observing our feathered friends.  I will post about that soon too!

The first snowman snowwoman of the year. I think she's quite stylish!

 

Late this morning, a glance outside once again showed beautiful and grand snowflakes falling heavy from the sky.  And it wasn't long before everything started getting covered into a winter wonderland.  Yes indeed, winter's come.

A few days ago, we had lots of ice crystals form from the previous night's dew.  They were so magnificent, I had to take some Macro photos to try and capture their beauty.  Click on any of the following photos, and choose full size to zoom in.

Ice on the Windshield (it's like weaving on a basket)

 

 

Ice on Deck (do you see some hexagons?)

 

 Ice on Deck (do you see more hexagons?)

 

Ice on Deck (reflecting sunshine, looked like little diamonds)

 

Ice on Patio Table (amazingly froze in snowflake patterns, so beautiful)