Frosty Fun

Frosty Fun is one of those Junior Girl Scout Badges you have to do whenever you have a chance around here -- the snowfall is too spotty to guarantee how much fun you'll be able to have, and for how long.

So, since today is snowy, we're working on the badge.

Task #4 -- Snow Painting. "Use plastic squeeze bottles or spray bottles along with food coloring and paint the snow."





Task #6 -- Snow Detective. "Find three different animal tracks in the snow."


Deer:


Birds:


The photo of the cat tracks looks like blobs, and our personal cats are refusing to cooperate by making more tracks. Trust me, we saw cat tracks.

Task #3 -- Flaky Fun. " Are all snowflakes different? Collect some and find out, then make snowflakes by drawing or cutting."

Our snowflake catch melted upon touching our black cloth. But we found spectacular photos online:

Information about "Snowflake" Bentley and his photographs

A Snow Crystal Photo Gallery

Even more detail available when you look through an electron microscope (somewhere along the line we read exactly how they control the environment in regard to temperature and pressure as they take these photos, but I didn't bookmark that).

And the sort of geeky fun I can't resist: Stereo Images of Precipitating Snow.

And when it's time to cut out or draw snowflakes, if you're like us, don't just use paper and scissors, try an online flash program

Task #8 -- Discuss Ice Safety. We've read through this page on ice skating on frozen ponds and this page on driving on frozen lakes (not that we do either of those sorts of things in St. Louis, but maybe someday we'll return to New Hampshire -- who knows).

Task #2 -- Snow Sculptures. Unfortunately it's just a bit too cold here for the snow to pack very well. I think it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow.

And, task #10 will be to do a demonstration of how blubber keeps animals warm. But right now it's time for hot chocolate and cookies, since we also inserted sledding (task #6 in the Winter Sports badge, as a matter of fact) in the day. So task #10 might wait until tomorrow. I've been saving a stick of Crisco for the occasion (heaven forbid any of us ever eat the stuff -- bleck -- AnnaBeth was appalled that we even owned it).

Of course, being homeschoolers always on the prowl to learn MORE (the same impetus that has so many of us using 2 math programs and 2 writing programs -- MORE is BETTER, right?), this is a great page, plus check out the links to snow activities on the left. As I was shoveling the snow off the driveway I was pondering replacing some of the Frosty Fun official tasks with an experiment on sublimation (although I was thinking more in terms of letting plain ice cubes sublimate in the freezer -- I suppose dry ice has more instant gratification and is a bit more obviously turning to a gas).

Seize the (snowy) day!