Make a Snowflake

Submitted by: Dedra Davis
Art Teacher Andrews Elementary School
Grade Level: Kindergarten, ages 4-6
Goals / Objectives: Students will correctly identify pattern blocks and use them to build snowflakes using a template.

Materials Needed:

• Pattern Blocks

• Snowflake pattern templates (or have them make their own by folding and cutting)

• Interactive board

• Projector

• Bentley's Snowflakes CD-ROM and Book

Procedures:
Students arrive to find a bin of pattern blocks on their tables. As an informal pre-assessment, the teacher calls the name of a shape and asks students to find one in the bin and hold it in the air. Notice which students seem to have difficulty and which shapes are the most difficult for the majority of the class to identify.

Ask students if they recognize the images on the papers at their tables. A majority if not all students answers should be "snowflakes." Explain that they will lay the pattern blocks onto the correct shapes on their paper template to build their own snowflake. (Give simpler templates to those who showed difficulty in identification activity and more complex snowflake in front of students with a stronger understanding of the shapes.) Point out that some of theirs will look very similar, but no two will be exactly alike, just like in nature.

 

Questioning for understanding- as teacher is walking among tables, ask "what shape is in the center of your snowflake? Triangles? How many? Trapezoids? How many. Hexagon are in your snowflake? Raise your hand if you can tell me how to make a hexagon with trapezoids? How about with triangles?

 

When they complete one ask them to raise hand to have you look at their work. Allow them to swap templates with a neighbor or get a new one from you.

 

After successfully completing two snowflake templates, students will move to their seats in front of the Promethean Board.

 

Slide show of the photographs of Wilson ”Snowflake “ Bentley’s snowflakes as well as modern digital photographs are shown to students. Let’s see how many shapes you can identify in these photographs of snowflakes. Can you show me a hexagon? A triangle?

 

Show video of Snowflake Bentley story. Ask “how is a real snowflake made? How might an artist make a snowflake? Was Snowflake Bentley an artist? What kind of artist? If needed, explain how photography is an art form.

 

Group Activity: Create a flake online. (Link will not work on the Google Chrome browser and needs Flash to work) By table, allow each group to “cut” out an organic or geometric shape from the online snowflake generator.

Lesson Description:

Students will verbally point out and name an example of each of the pattern block shapes in a snowflake template and in snowflake photos. A rubric will help you to measure student success. For example: Students who can name one example of all elements of art have excellent understanding. Students who can find examples of 3–4 of the elements have sufficient understanding. Students who can only find 1 or 2 examples need more practice!

 

Lesson Resources:

Snowflake Bentley - From the time he was a small boy in Vermont, Wilson Bentley saw snowflakes as small miracles. And he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal. His story is gracefully told and brought to life in lovely woodcuts, giving children insight into a soul who had not only a scientist's vision and perseverance but a clear desire for the wonders of nature.

 

Snowflake Bentley Video Slide Show

 

• Slide show from Scientific American
• The Chemistry of Snowflakes video
• TES Teach Snowflake Resource page
• How to Draw Beautiful Snowflakes video
• Word Document version of this lesson
• Vocabulary Card

Vocabulary:

Identify, photograph, microscope, plates branches, needles triangle, square, rhombus, thin rhombus, trapezoid, and hexagon

Assessment(s):

NC Visual Art Standards
FA.K.V.3.2 Use a variety of media to create art.
NC Math Standards
K.G.1 Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.
K.G.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.
K.G.6 Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, "Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?"