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Posted by Susan Hyde Jan 14, 2008 |
We're having yet another blustery Nor'easter today in New England, so the kids have a day off from school. When the school doors open later in the week, teachers would be wise to use the snowy opportunity to get their kids interested in learning.
Snowy Day Science and Math
- Go on a snow flake hunt. On day with gentle flurries, send your students outside with a magnifying glass and a laminated (waterproof) handout that shows different types of snowflakes. Ask them to record the types of snowflakes that land on the arms of their coats. Use this lesson as a jumping off point for older students to learn about crystal formation. In math, younger students can use their data to create bar graphs.
- Although ice cream is usually a summertime treat, your students aren't likely to complain if you make it on a wintry day. Use snow from the schoolyard in place of the ice that you would usually use for this activity.
- How does color effect temperature? Ben Franklin's famous experiment can only be carried out when there is snow on the ground!
Frosty Art
Younger students never tire of making cut-out snowflakes, and you never even have to tell them that it is a perfect fine motor activity that strengthens little hands, encourages the use of fingertips (folding) provides scissor practice.
Social Studies on Icy Days
Ask your students to research in order to find answers great questions:
- What ingenious ways have people from different cultures used to keep warm?
- What mythological stories have different cultures used to explain winter?
- What challenges face arctic and antarctic explorers? How have explorers met these challenges?
- How might certain winter events in history -- George Washington's Crossing the Delaware, for instance -- have been different had they occured in another season?