by Janet Smart
Happy New Year everyone! Have any of you made a New Year’s resolution yet? A resolution is a promise or decision to do something. Many people make them on New Year’s Day. Sometimes I don’t make any because they are too hard to keep.
What Am I?
I am icy cold
And fall from the sky.
I am with you for a short time,
So don’t blink your eye.
None of us are the same
Now tell me my name.
I am a Snowflake!
Snowflakes are beautiful! They begin as tiny crystals that are too tiny to be seen by the human eye. They combine in different ways and have six sides. Some people believe that no two are alike.
Some snowflakes are wet and sticky and some are light, dry and fluffy. Which snow makes the best snowballs? The wet and sticky snow does. Colder temperatures produce the light, dry and fluffy snow and it tends to slide out of your gloves. It has less moisture content and won’t pack.
Scientists have been studying snowflakes for over 400 years. Billions of snowflakes can fall during a snowstorm. Have you ever held out your hand for a snowflake or looked up into the sky and stuck out your tongue for one to land on? They are cold and frosty, but your body temperature melts them as soon as they land.
William Bentley was a farmer in Vermont. He was born in 1865 in the heart of Vermont’s “snowbelt.” He loved snow. When he was fifteen, his mother gave him a microscope to look at the snowflakes. He loved how beautiful and delicate they were. In 1885 he was the first person to photograph a snowflake. He attached a microscope to his camera and he eventually took more than 5000 pictures of snow crystals. Everyone called him “Snowflake” Bentley.
You can be like William Bentley and study snowflakes, too. One way you can look at snowflakes is to provide a place for them to land without melting. Glue a sheet of black or red felt onto a piece of cardboard. Allow it to dry. Go outside and catch falling flakes and look at them with a magnifying glass. Be careful not to get too close and breathe on them or the heat from your breath will cause them to melt. Take a tablet and pencil with you and draw pictures of your captured snowflakes. See if any two are ever alike.
It’s a Winter Day
by Janet F. Smart
It’s a winter day
When the snowflakes fall
And the sky is gray.
It’s a winter day
When the snowflakes tumble
And you come out to play.
It’s a winter day
When the snowflakes blow
And the tree limbs sway.
It’s a winter day
Will you come out and play
In your big red sleigh?
Janet Smart is the mother of 3 sons. She loves picking blackberries in the summer, crafting in the fall and writing children’s stories all year long. Janet and her family live in Jackson County. You can visit her blog at www.janetsmart.blogspot.com.
