Welcome to the third year of Learning through Literature’s Homeschool Co-op Curriculum. If this is your first time here, this book: Snowflake Bentley, is the ninth of 13 books that will be covered as part of our homeschool co-op year, Learning through Literature: Exploring the United States. The class has been created for 2nd – 4th graders and is the culmination of three years of Learning through Literature together. If this is your first time looking around, please check out our first year, Learning the ABC’s through Literature. Or the second year, Learning Snippets of History through Literature for Homeschool Co-op.
Each year was inspired by Jane Lambert’s Five in a Row Curriculum and uses many of the same books, but with lessons, discussion questions, and printables reworked to be more useful for a homeschool co-op.
For this third year, Learning through Literature: Exploring the United States, we will take TWO classes to cover each book. If you are using this for a co-op, you will find “Class One” and further down the page, “Class Two”.
Thanks for stopping by!
Snowflake Bentley
by Jeanette Briggs Martin
Class 1
Things I Need:
- The Snowflake Bentley Book
- Snow Crystals by W. Bentley, if you can find a copy. If not, bring your laptop to show one of the many YouTube Videos of his snowflake pictures.
- Map of the USA, especially showing the Northeast States
- Learning the USA through Lit Journal – Snowflake Bentley Add-In Pages 1st Class
- Scissors, Gluesticks, Pencils
Before the class: set out the new journal pages and the Snowflake Bentley copywork page on their desk as you are setting up the class. Have your class helper(s) help the kids punch their new journal pages and add them to their binders.
Homework:
- Snowflake Bentley tried many times before successfully photographing a snowflake. Using their new journal pages, chose something new to try, and try it each day over the course of the next week. Record your results and be prepared to come and talk about it next week. If appropriate, bring a prop or a sample of what you have been working on.
- Begin learning the 11 States of the Northeast and come up with a mnemonic device to help you remember them. Write your mnemonic device in your co-op journal.
If you’ve never read Snowflake Bentley, and would like a preview of the book, there are several read-aloud versions on YouTube.
As the Class is Arriving:
Encourage the students to complete the copywork on their desks. Those who are more proficient can trace and copy. Beginners, just trace. Usually, I give the class about 5 minutes (during which we play the quiet game), and just see how much they can get done. This is also a great time to prep any last-minutes notes and review your plans for the class.
Review:
For us, this class marked a return to our map of the USA after our long winter break. We took a few moments to go through the West, the Southwest, and the Midwest States.
Introduce the Story
While you’re still in front of the map, tell the class that today, we have a new story that takes place in a new region: the Northeast
You can tell them the name of the story: Snowflake Bentley, and that it takes place in the Northeast (Vermont) …. but ask:
- What else do we associate with the Northeast? Let them answer, and feel free to add in any of these that they may have left out
- Maple Trees which give us ….
- Especially beautiful forests / leaves / fall foliage)
- And … Maple Syrup
- Apples
- White Mountains
- Lobster (lots of coast line)
- Cold (northeast, lots of cold currents)
- History – LOTS of USA History
- Pilgrims – landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620
- Early Colonies – all 11 states were a part of the original colonies (though Maine was known as Massachusetts)
- Earliest Wars and lots of war landmarks
- Big Cities (DC, NYC)
- Maple Trees which give us ….
Go through the Northeast States as a Class
Say them outloud together, at least twice since this is the first time. One silly saying I came up with to remember all the names was:
Dear Miss Patty Never Never Carries Really Messy Visitors Near Maine
If they chide you because it’s silly, ask them …
- Can they think of a mneumonic device or acronym to memorize the 11 states of the Northeast?
Read the Story Together
Tell the class this is a TRUE story, called a BIOGRAPHY.
- What is a biography?
- How does it differ from an auto-biography?
There are a lot of neat facts in the margins, but it is too distracting to read all of them. I did pause several times though as I was reading to bring out a few of the facts. One notewothy fact for homeschoolers is that he learned from his mom for most of his education.
After the story …
Have the class find the picture of the book, Snowflake Bentley, from the back of their journal. Then find the large map of the United States, and glue the paper book on the state of Vermont.
When you finish the story, bring out Snow Crystals, or you could show one of these videos below to show the pictures he took. Some are quite amazing. But the book Snow Crystals shows many many pictures, including his earliest ones where the snow melted a little too quickly. This was very helpful to point out leading into the homework.
- Bentley tried a whole season without success
- When he finally did have success, it was just one photograph
- There were many many failures.
- But his failures were not in vain… with each failure he actually learned something
- needed a metal surface, couldn’t work inside, couldn’t use fingers, etc
If you can’t get a copy of Bentley’s book, Snow Crystals, this is a neat video showing some of Bentley’s work.
Review the Copywork, Discuss the Homework:
Have one of the students read the copywork outloud. Discuss Bentley’s failures and successes. Did he succeed right away?
Continuing with this concept, the class also is going to try something new.
It could be something simple. Baking, make a sandwich, draw a picture, hold a handstand, braid hair, do a cartwheel, create something out of legos, etc.
Their homework is to: Do something 5 minutes a day, 5 days in a row, and record results.
The sheet below gives them a spot to record what they are doing, write the date out (which my kiddos still needed practice with), and a small spot for the results. If they choose to draw something, they can just draw the same thing in that spot, for 5 days in a row.
Results should vary, some kids will see improvement, some may not. But this should make for an interesting discussion as they come back next week. The point to emphasize is that even in our failure, we are always learning and improving. Many scientists failed many many times before succeeding with their best inventions.
Review Last Week’s Homework:
If you haven’t done it already, have the class take out last week’s Brainstorming and Writing assignment from Hanna’s Cold Winter.
Discuss:
- Did brainstorming help?
- If they completed the brainstorming sheet, how did they decide which story to write out?
Let the class share their stories out loud, encourage them to share loudly and clearly. Give encouragement and praise for descriptive writing, setting the scene, and any other things you may have talked about last class.
Homework:
- Come up with a mnemonic device to memorize the 11 Northeast States
- Choose something new to try 5 times, record your results.
No worries about filling in the state map for their homework this time, you can add the Northeast States to that section another time in class.
The bottom section (that starts “There are 11 States in the Northeast Region”) is where they write out their mnemonic device or helpful saying to memorize the states.
If you have extra time, …
Review the States together or play a Review the States Game
Class 2
Things I Need:
- The Snowflake Bentley Book
- Map of the USA, especially showing the Northeast States
- Learning the USA through Lit Journal – Snowflake Bentley Add-In Pages 2nd Class
- Scissors, Gluesticks, Pencils
Before the class: set out the new journal pages and the Snowflake Bentley Lessons from the Lord in Literature copywork page on their desk as you are setting up the class. Have your class helper(s) help the kids punch their new journal pages and add them to their binders.
Homework:
- Complete the New Journal Add-In Pages.
- Continue to Memorize the Northeast States
- Bonus: Memorize Proverbs 24:6
- Bonus: Continue working on the new thing you started last week, and come back and give a small report as to how it went during week two.
- Bonus: Find someone who did something noteworthy who didn’t succeed right away, but only through multiple failures.
As the Class is Arriving:
Encourage the students to complete the copywork on their desks. Those who are more proficient can trace and copy. Beginners, just trace.
As they are copying,
- Review any last notes about the class
- Write a few brief notes to yourself on the board about the order of the class.
- Make sure the map is hung up
Review:
- Take a moment to quickly recite the Midwest, West, Southwest, and Northeast. You may want to go through the Northeast twice.
- Ask the students if anyone came up with a mnemonic device or story to help them remember the states?
- Can anyone name all 11?
- Ask a few questions to review last week’s story and get the class talking …
- Who was Snowflake Bentley? (Wilson Bentley, lived 1865-1931, first one to photography snowflakes)
- Where did Snowflake Bentley take place? (Vermont)
- Why was Vermont a good place for Bentley to do his experiments? (cold, lived in the snow belt where they got 120 inches of snow per year)
from The Smithsonian Archives::
Wilson A. Bentley was born in 1865 in Jericho, Vermont. Taught by his mother, he lived and worked on his family farm located in the “Snowbelt,” where the annual snow fall was about 120 inches. From the time he was a small boy, Bentley was fascinated by the natural world around him. He loved to study butterflies, leaves, and spider webs. He kept a record of the weather conditions every day and was fascinated by raindrops. Bentley developed an interest in snow crystals after he received a microscope for his fifteenth birthday. Four year later, in 1885, equipped with both his microscope and a camera, Bentley made the first successful photograph of a snowflake.
Review the Copywork:
After you finish review, have the class take out the copywork they just completed. Have one or two students read the verse out loud to the class. This verse, Proverbs 24:16 was chosen because of the encouragement to not give up when we try something new. After the verse is read out loud, discuss together:
- Why do you think this verse was chosen?
- What is this verse telling us?
- Why might it say “the wicked stumble in time of calamity?”
- Does this remind you of another Bible story (the man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7)). Depending on how much discussion you want to have, Proverbs also talks a lot about the characters of diligence versus laziness.
- When you try something over and over, what quality are you showing? (Diligence)
- When you give up right away, what quality are you showing? (Laziness)
- Homework BONUS: Find someone who did something of value, but didn’t succeed right away
- When you tried your “new” challenge this past week, were you ever frustrated? Did you ever want to give up? Did you succeed right away?
Show and Share / Oral Sharing / Homework review:
Now … time for them to share what they did / learned / practiced since last week.
Go around the class one by one. If they practiced a handstand, let them demonstrate. If they practiced knitting, let them show the class what they’ve done. As they go around and share, continue the discussion on diligence, trying again and again, learning through failure, etc.
Introduce the Homework:
The homework is to complete the journal pages, and research / write about one landmark or special thing that symbolizes the Northeast to you.
Remind the class of some of the things we discussed before (maple syrup, maple trees, lots of history, cold weather, etc)
Have them open to their journal pages. Point out some of the landmarks on the first page, below.
- Page one: The assignment is to work with their parents to find out where all these places are.
- Page two: Choose one of these places (or something else that reminds you of the Northeast) draw it, and write a few sentences about it.
In addition to this:
- Continue to Memorize the Northeast States
- Bonus: Memorize Proverbs 24:6
- Bonus: Continue working on the new thing you started last week, and come back and give a small report as to how it went during week two.
- Bonus: Find someone who did something noteworthy and didn’t succeed right away, but only through multiple failures.
That’s it for Snowflake Bentley! If you still have time in the class, take out the Buzzers and Lazer Pointers and practice the states.
