“Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated.” — Wilson Bentley, 1925
Last week in school, Virgil and his second-grade classmates read Snowflake Bentley. Virgil’s teacher, Mrs. Martin, described the book this way in her weekly report to parents: “The story is about an enterprising Vermonter who in the late 1800s perfected the art of photographing ice crystals using a special camera that could magnify the images.” Mrs. Martin had Virgil and his classmates fold and cut eight-sided (octagonal) snowflakes, even though Wilson Bentley’s photographs were the first to show that snowflake crystals are six-sided (hexagonal).
People made fun of Wilson Bentley for his snowflake obsession, but he eventually became known as the world’s expert on snowflakes. Over nearly 50 years he took 5000 photomicrographs of snow crystals — an unequalled collection that continues to be studied and admired around the world. Thanks to “Snowflake” Bentley and that collection, we learned what every second-grader now knows: that no two snowflakes are alike.
More snowflake science:• One snowflake can consist of many ice crystals. The six-pointed structure of ice crystals gives snow what scientists call an “ice skeleton” — a loose scaffolding of crystals around a relatively large volume of air. When snow falls to the ground, the air in those spaces becomes trapped beneath other layers. Newly fallen snow can be 90 to 95 percent trapped air.
• A fun and easy way to demonstrate the ratio of air to snow in a fresh snowfall is to squish a loaf of light bread down as far as possible. (Wonder Bread works great for this — it has about the ratio.) If you work hard at it, you should be able to compress the loaf into a two-inch cube.
• When we walk on new snow, it makes a crunching sound. Our weight compresses the snow, which pushes the air out of the crystals. The sound we hear is the sound of breaking crystal .... snow crystals.
Learn more
Snowflake Bentley won a Caldecott Medal for its woodcut illustrations, which were created by another famous Vermonter, Mary Azarian. The book’s website includes many links to curriculum suggestions and activities for teachers and parents.
“Great Kids, Great Outdoors” is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
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4 comments:
I love that book--read it a few weeks ago to the first grade class. Mary Azarian is a great Vermont illustrator.
The friend who gave us our copy enclosed a piece of black construction paper with it, and told us to keep the paper in the freezer. When it snows, take the paper out of the freezer and then hold it out to collect snowflakes. The crystals show up nicely against the black--this will work even with unfrozen paper, but the colder paper keeps the crystals intact a little longer.
Dear Susan,
What a wonderful idea! Wilson Bentley did something very similar when he photographed snowflakes, although he used black velvet instead of black construction paper. We will try collected snowflakes on pre-chilled black construction paper the next time it snows.
Thanks, too, for sharing your love of Snowflake Bentley. It's one of our favorite books, as well.
Kristen
http://amcoutdoorskids.blogspot.com
Have you all read Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel? Also illustrated by Azarian, and also illustrative of New England stick-to-it-ive-ness (although nothing to do with snow!). The illustration similarities always remind me one of the other....although I don't mean to pull the conversation here away from the wonders of snow! This winter I hope to get out to Jerico to the Bentley museum.
Dear Susan,
I'm not familiar with Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel, but it sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out. Your description makes me think of another book in the great Yankee tradition of stick-to-it-iveness, Eilen Christelow's The Five-Dog Night.
Kristen
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