We read Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.
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In writing class, we were working on descriptive words and vivid language, so we wrote Cinquain Poetry. We wrote our poems in the classroom using dictionaries and a thesaurus to find new words. We went on the computers to type our poetry. We learned about using the keyboard and how to align and justify our work. It was fun choosing different fancy fonts and changing the colors. | |
Snowflake |
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Snowflakes
Pretty, rare Falling, dropping, blowing I really like them. Beautiful |
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Snowflakes
Sticky, fluffy Frosting, icing, snowing He loved the snow. White |
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Snowflake Bentley Caring, sharing Helping, writing, trying He loved studying snowflakes. Wilson Bentley |
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Snowflake
Bentley |
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Wilson Bentley Nice, agreeable Photographing, caring, working He collected snowflake pictures. Sharing |
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We worked together in small groups to retell the important information. Using the acrostic poetry form, we shared our work with the class | |
Sparkling No two are alike Only fall in winter White Frosted berries Lay gently on the ground A snowstorm Kindly falls Easily breaks |
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Snow
in Vermont was as common as dirt. (That means they weren't interested.) Neat patterns appeared to be easy, but no two were alike. Other people didn't care about Snowflakes like Willie did. Willie saw a camera in a magazine with its own microscope. (He was excited.) Flake by flake, he counted the snow. Later he got the camera that he wanted. After turning the first page of his book he walked home in a terrible blizzard. Knitted hats kept Willie warm. Everyone laughed at the idea of photographing snowflakes. Beginning each morning he would work. Everyone had fun. No one thought snowflakes were as wonderful as Willie. Terrible blizzards roamed threw the air as Willie worked in them. Later his book was published. Every day he worked like crazy. Yet he was patient. |
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Some people said snow was as common as dirt in Vermont. No one cared about snowflakes. Other kids pelted snowballs at roosting crows while Snowflake Bentley studied snowflakes. When he was 66, he published his first book called Snowflakes. Father and mother bought a camera that was as big as a newborn calf and cost as much as his father’s herd of 10 cows. Lots of people liked him after he published his book. After walking home in a blizzard, he got pneumonia and died. Kind and caring to people, although they all laughed at him. Every snowflake was a special gift from the sky. Bentley’s snowflakes were his gifts to the world. Everybody laughed at the idea of photographing snowflakes. No one knew the beauty of snowflakes like Bentley. The neighbors laughed at him. Laughter went on through the years. Every snowflake either melted or broke before he knew how to photograph them. Yucky! I can’t believe he tied grasshoppers to leaves and came back and photographed them covered with dew. |
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Our
class did a snowflake sorting activity from Activities Integrating Math
and Science. We worked in pairs of two to sort 24 snowflakes into groups.
Every group did it their own way. One group sorted the snowflakes by seasons
and holidays. They had nine different groups. The snowflakes that looked
like flowers were called summer. |
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Another group named their groups by the way the snowflakes looked. They had titles like wood, bark, and branches. Here is the graph that shows the groupings we used. The group that divided them into two groups titled them "real" and "not real." Four and five groupings were used the most. | |
The snowflake drawings in this activity were made from Wilson Bentley's book about snowflakes. We checked out the real snowflakes falling outside very carefully after we did this activity. Some of us didn't believe they were all real snowflakes at first. | |
District Learning Standards Mathematics Patterns, Relations, and
Fundamentals Measurement Geometry Language Arts Reading Writing Listening/Viewing Speaking Technology |
© Patricia Knox & Susan Silverman - Frosty Readers
2002 - All Rights Reserved