SALT LAKE HOME EDUCATORS

This month we had a great discussion of "Snow School."  Everyone brought their favorite suggestions for outdoor winter fun, like making a huge pile of snow and then turning it into a snow sculpture or making a slide out of snow.  Snow shoeing and cross country skiing are great inexpensive alternatives to downhill skiing.  Like hiking, you can decide how hard you want to work by choosing your terrain. 

It's also great to look at and learn about snowflakes in the summer.  Under the right conditions, you can see large flakes complete with hexagonal symmetry (I've saw 5mm flakes last year).  It's best to take something dark outside to catch snowflakes with, such as a piece of fabric or cardboard.  Great flakes occur only when the conditions are right, so if you don't find something after a few minutes of looking, try again another time.

Snowflake Bentley is a scientist who studied and produced amazing snowflake photographs.  There's a Caldecott Medal winning children's book called Snowflake  Bentley that you can get from the library.  Or you may be interested in the detailed information and incredible photographs you can get from books by Kenneth Libbrecht.  His images were recently used for a postage stamp. Check out www.snowcrystals.com, and vermontsnowflakes.com for more info on both of these scientists.