I absolutely love snow! I grew up in northwestern PA where our winters (sometimes fall and spring too) were always white!
After college, I took a teaching job in Virginia. I have to admit, I really love having four distinct seasons here, but I sure miss the Pennsylvania snowfalls!
A few weeks, ago I had a small taste of my childhood winters when we unexpectedly got almost a foot of snow! Can you imagine how excited I was?
Well, my excitement was stomped on pretty quickly when our district announced that our “snow days” this year would now be “at home learning days.”
Can I hear a big fat boo????
Snow Day Science
I know I’m biased with my love of snow, but I really think that every child deserves the joy of a snow day. Sleeping in, sledding, snow angels, and hot chocolate……. and I’m just getting started!
Well, when life gives you snow, it’s time to make snowballs….. 🙂
I had no choice but to get creative to get my students outside. Hey, it’s for the love of science!
Snow Science Activity
I met with each class on Google Meets to set the stage for our snow science activity.
Imagine a heavy summer rain storm. We might get up to two inches of rain in a single storm. Now, imagine that SAME storm came when the temperature was below freezing. How much snow would it bring? More than 2 inches? Less? The same?
Let’s investigate!
I walked students through some simple math they would need to find the relationship between rain and snow. Then I told them to raid their kitchen for materials.
Kids needed only three items complete the activity:
- medium bowl
- liquid measuring cup
- snow!
Rain to Snow Ratio Results
According to NOAA, in the United States, one inch of rainfall is equal to approximately 13 inches of snow.
It was fun to see how close the kids were able to get to the average results. There are so many variables to consider. But this led to some pretty good discussions about the relationship between rain and snow.
Snow Day Memories
More than anything, I am hoping that each student was able to make a new snow day memory (that didn’t involve sitting in front of the computer) as they went outside to collect their data!
If you are looking for a ready-to-use snow day science activity for your students, look no further!
The project is no-prep and comes in PDF and Google Slides for fun and easy snow day learning!
Take a peek at the preview below for a closer look!
