Another Snow Day? Seriously! What to do with all this snow if you are home with kids? Make it fun!

The Snowpocolypse is starting to get people down.... don't drown in the snow, have fun with it.  

There is no reason to stay inside...bundle up and learn about snowflakes!  I know its cold, I wore two pairs of pants the other day... 2!  I wasn't even sure that was possible.  But throw on 3/4 of your wardrobe and try just a few things that we did the other day with the First Grade at Kennebunkport Consolidated School... you can even bring nature indoors with you.

On Friday when we met with the First grade, we taught about snow flakes and how snow forms.  Kids find it fascinating that snowflakes much like our fingerprints are never the same...  they all have 6 sides and are formed by ice-crystals forming around a piece of dust.   This means that the there is a potential for 10 feet of snow inside my house if I had clouds in there!  They found that fact rather amazing.  Here are some ideas so that you too can learn, teach and have fun with nature, and those 5 foot piles reaching your window sills!

Grab their interest with these fun tidbits:

In the Guinness World Records the largest snowflake ever measured was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick!  It was observed in 1887 at Fort Keogh, Montana. It is said that ranch owner Matt Coleman took the measurement and he later described the snowflake as being "larger than milk pans" in the journal Monthly Weather Review journal.

AND

The largest snow woman built in the world, named Olympia, was made in Bethel, Maine.  It was named after Maine senator Olympia Snowe. It was 122 feet, one inch high, she is dressed in a 100 foot scarf, has 27 foot evergreen trees for arms, eyelashes made from old skis, and car tires are her buttons!

Once you have their attention on snow, maybe try a few things... you can bring snow it or even better head outside to have some fun.
TRY:

Catching snowflakes
Place a black sheet of paper into a freezer until cold. Take outdoors and use a magnifying glass to view snowflakes that land on the paper.
 
Saving snowflakes
Materials:

• clean microscope slide or small piece of thin Plexiglas
• clean, empty plastic container
• spray can of clear lacquer
• magnifying glass

Allow all materials to be outside for a while to get to outside temperature, this way snowflakes won’t melt when landing on the slide. Spray thin coat of lacquer on slide and tilt so any extra spray runs off. Allow lacquer to set for a few minutes. Catch several snowflakes on slide and then set back into container and cover with lid. Leave slide outside to harden for three to four hours. View with magnifying glass. 

If this seems to be a little much for you...  Just check out Snowflake Bentley.    Wilson Bentley from Jericho Vermont, took hundreds of pictures of snowflakes in the late 1800's to early 1900's.  You can even search for images of these snowflake pictures and see how amazing they are.

A good read:  Flakes and Flurries  This book will teach you all about how snow forms, and the way snow flakes are formed.  Did you know that there are different forms that snow flakes take?  

Make your own snowflakes:    It can be tricky, but if Trust in our Children can get a whole room of first graders to make one, we have faith that you can too!  They are fun and pretty...  if you choose to use glitter to decorate them... good for you...just have a broom handy!

Here are the instructions that we use at the Trust:

These directions were compiled from the Martha Stewart Website

Have fun, and get outside or just learn a little about nature today on this snow day.  Then you can have some hot cocoa and huddle up in your PJ's before you have to go shovel some more!