In celebration of the first snowfall of the season, students in Corey Borden's Grade 2 class enjoyed a fun-filled, productive day celebrating all things snow! They began the day with a snowman-themed coloring contest, enjoyed listening to relaxing music in front of a screen projecting images of a snowfall, and ended the day with a cool experiment utilizing the “Steve Spangler Science Kit” to make their own snow!
The young learners incorporated mathematical skills, utilizing ratios and measurements to slowly add correct amounts of water to the super-absorbent polymer fibers in the kit to “watch snow grow,” and watch it grow, they did!
During their “Turn and Talk” time, lots of interesting conversation could be heard. “Imagine if I kept adding water? I could fill up my whole room!” and “Heyyy, if we kept making this snow, we could even get a snow day!” the scientists-in-training concluded.
But the learning didn’t end there. Students took their baggies of snow home, with ideas of experimenting with it even more. Many tried continuing to add water, to see just how absorbent the polymer was and just how much snow they could make before it turned to slush. One student, Alphonsina Nunez-Galindo, added food coloring and brought her snow back purple!
"I was surprised that it actually turned purple when I added food coloring,” Alphonsina said. “When I added more water to see what would happen, it got squishy and looked like a purple slushie!"
Student Logan Morales also enjoyed the activity. "I really never got to do a science experiment like that before. It was really cool!” he said. “When I got home I added more water and it got bigger, then I threw it outside in the snow and it blended right in."
"This was really fun and cool,” said Noemi Martinez. “It felt like real snow. Doing this was exciting!"
In addition, Ms. Borden’s class engaged in a few more winter activities, including following both written or visual directions on how to draw a snowflake, drawing themselves in a winter scene, and writing an explanatory paragraph about it. Many skills of Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) were practiced during this exploration of the season.
“Snow” much fun!!