Thematic Units - Ice & Snow Fun

Ice & Snow Fun

You will find various Web Sites on the top portion of this page.
Further down, you will find Lesson Plans & Activities.
At the bottom of the page, you will find Books that you can order directly from Amazon.com!

Web Sites

Be sure to visit our Winter Activities page for more great resources!

Dave's Snowflake Page
Site contains images of over 100 paper snowflakes created by D.C. Stredulinsky and images of Christmas trees decorated with snowflakes. Gives instructions, patterns for making paper snowflakes.

Ice and Snow
Click on the Words and Pictures to Explore Ice and Snow.

Introduction to Snow Castles
Here you can find everything about snow including snow castles, snowball fight, snow art etc.

Snow Activities Grades Various
Winter activities for Canadian elementary school teachers to use to teach about snow. Includes crystal balls, snowflakes, a snow globe and snow slush.

SnowSchool
SnowSchool is a non-commercial, science based education program.

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Lesson Plans & Activities

A Blizzard of Winter Lesson Plans Grades Various
Brrr! Winter is in the air! To help you celebrate the start of the winter season, we have shoveled up more than 50 cross-curricular activities! Included: Lessons about winter folklore, snowmen, the winter solstice, and more!

Antarctica Grades 6-8
An exciting virtual field trip to Antarctica that takes place on the Internet. Part of Discovery Channel School’s lesson plans.

Avalanche! Grades 6-8
Students will learn about the physical science aspect of this event.

Basic Aspects of Winter Grade 1
This activity is a great way for young students to begin to grasp the difference in weather and seasons. To help them better understand Winter, this lesson includes two great books for the first grade reading level.

Dream Snow Grades 2-4
The students will add more details and adjectives to their writing.

Expanding on Ice Grades 6-8
Find out what happens to solids and liquids when they change from one form to the other. Especially look for what happens to liquid water as it changes from a liquid to a solid and from a solid to a liquid.

Ice Cream in a Bag Grades 8-9
The concepts of matter can be at times too "scientific". This activity enables the students to observe the changes of matter in a fun way.

Ice Cream Science Grades K-4
In the depths of winter, it helps to be reminded that cold can be good. What better reminder is there than ice cream? In this project, students have fun learning how ice cream is made, and master important science concepts in the process.

Ice Energy Grades Elementary
To prepare some of our favorite foods, such as ice cream, birthday cakes, and even barbecued steaks, we rely on chemical reactions. Some of these reactions occur when food ingredients combine, while others result from cooking or cooling processes. When we understand how science affects foods, we can create tasty new recipes.

Ice Surfing - How do ice surfers go so fast? Grades Middle School
Grab your board and hit the beach-it's surfing time again. But instead of baggies and a tank top, you might want to put on a parka and thermal socks, because the kind of surfing we're talking about only happens on solid water. That's right, the topic is ice surfing, and it's the hottest sport on frozen lakes around the world.

Let it Snow! Grades K-3
Concepts: How snow affects us our lives; what we wear in the snow, activities we can enjoy in the snow.

Making Ice Cream Grades Any
Your class can explore the history of ice cream and dairy products, the chemistry of ice, salt and exothermic reactions, or use it an exercise in the scientific method: what if you make the following recipe without salt?

No Flakes Like Snowflakes! Grades Elementary
Few things are as awe-inspiring as snowflakes, those miniature masterpieces of symmetry. This activity invites students to explore snowflakes from the inside by making their own.

Properties of Matter Grades 4-5
The students will be manipulating 3 states of matter to determine that solids maintain shape and volume, liquids maintain volume but not shape, and gases do not maintain their shape or volume. The students will participate in three activities: Funnel Activity, Manipulative Activity, Ziploc/Icecube Activity.

Seasons for Kindergartners Grade K
It is hard for most of us to remember how confusing time was for us when we were young. Why is it snowing now? Why is it sunny today? It's not even dark yet, why do I have to go to bed? Why is the tree in my front yard always changing? These are just a few questions that run through a kindergartener's head. This activity can be used throughout the year in many subjects, Art, Science, Reading/Language Arts, and Music.

Snow Journals Grades 3-12
Students will observe the natural world and come to conclusions about those observations.

Snow Science Art Grades K-8
Students will enjoy making snow crystals that really stand out on dark construction paper.

Snowball Family Grades K-1
Read the book "Snowballs" to the children. Talk about the different kinds of snow families in the book.

Water and Ice Grades 4-6
This is a PDF document! Students will understand what happens to solids and liquids when they change from one form to another.

The Water Cycle Grades 2-4
The water cycle explains the sun heating the earth's surface water so that it evaporates. This vapor gathers in clouds which rise to the cold air. When those clouds become too heavy to float, they release their moisture as precipitation. The precipitation collects in lakes or oceans after siphoning through soil or running down rivers. It then evaporates and repeats the cycle once again.

What Will Keep Ice Cold? Grades 2-4
Students conduct an experiment with three different types of cups to determine which material insulates an ice cube the best.

Winter and Snow Lesson Ideas Grades Various
A list of books on the theme of snow, as well as related activities, lessons and crafts in a variety of subject areas.

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Books

A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder
by Walter Wick

All You Need for a Snowman
by Alice Schertle

Blizzard: The Storm That Changed America
by Jim Murphy

Blizzard's Wake
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Dream Snow
by Eric Carle

The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! (Everything Kids Series)
by Tom Mark Robinson

Field Guide to Snow Crystals
by Edward R. Lachapelle

Flakes and Flurries: A Book About Snow (Amazing Science: Weather)
by Josepha Sherman

Hooray For Antarctica!
by April Pulley Sayre

I Am Snow (Hello Reader! Science. Level 1)
by Jean Marzollo