After several snow days, we returned to school today to learn all about snow. Last Thursday, as we began our second trimester topic of weather, first graders read all about blizzards. Working in pairs, they identified the following key features of nonfiction texts: table of contents, glossary, titles, headings, bold faced words and captions. Focusing on vocabulary, students discussed the meaning of billion, blizzard, contains Fahrenheit, predict, snowdrift, and whiteout. Then, practicing reading comprehension skills, first graders completed a chart indicating what to do before and after a blizzard.
Today, we began by reading aloud Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. In the story, scientist Wilson Bentley used a special camera to photograph snowflakes. Through his photographs he discovered that most all of the crystals had six branches and that no two were alike. After sharing and discussing the story, first graders created their own book about snowflakes, learning that they can be shaped like hexagonal plates, tubes or needles. The best part of all was trying out our very own snow crystal experiment creating a suspension out of borax and water. We can’t wait until tomorrow to see what happens!
