Isenberg-Second Grade Class

Nedra Isenberg's
Second Grade Class
Holland Patent
New York
Snowflake Bentley

When I started Snowflake Bentley with my second graders we were certainly experiencing frosty weather. I started out by reading the book to the class two times. During the second reading we practiced taking notes on important information from the story. I also read My Brother Loved Snowflakes by Mary Bahr and I brought in the book Snow Crystals by Wilson Bentley. The class enjoyed looking at his actual photographs.

One snowy morning we went outside with a piece of black paper and a handheld magnifying glass and looked at the snowflakes. When we came back inside we tried drawing what we saw and found out it's not as easy as it seems. Then we got started on our computer projects. First we wrote a cinquain poem about snow. In the computer lab we typed the poem in Microsoft Word. Next, we went into the Paint program and drew snowflakes and saved them. Finally, we went back to our poem and inserted the snowflake picture and printed them out.

Crystal

Cold, Sparkly

Flying, whirling, twirling

Snowflakes fly around town

Snowflake

By Cody

Snowflakes

Sparkly, fluffy

Melting, swirling, twirling

Snowflakes are very cold

Crystal

By Ashton

A second computer project was filling in a simple time line about Wilson Bentley. We took out our notes from the book and used them to come up with five important events from his life. Since this was our first time doing a time line we all did the same events. We wrote each event on a small piece of paper along with the date. Then we went into Kidspiration 2 where I had prepared a time line. The children put the events in order on the time line and then inserted appropriate pictures.

For our last project we once again used our notes and the children wrote about Wilson Bentley. They had a choice to either do a 5 W poem, a cinquain poem or use the pattern from The Important Book. The writing was done in Microsoft Word.

Wilson Bentley

He took pictures of snowflakes.

A long time ago

In Jericho, Vermont

He wanted people to see the beauty of a snowflake.

By Elijah

Picture used with permission from www.snowflakebentley.com.

Snowflake Bentley

Photographed more than 100 snowflakes

Feb. 14, 1928

Jericho, Vermont

He loved snowflakes.

By Maddy

Picture used with permission from www.snowflakebentley.com.

The most important thing about Wilson Bentley is that he loved snow. Wilson Bentley was born in Jericho, Vermont. Colleges bought his pictures. He loved nature. He made special pictures for birthdays. He died from walking home six miles in a snowstorm. But the most important thing about Wilson Bentley is that he loved snow.

By Stephen

Picture used with permission from www.snowflakebentley.com

Wilson Bentley

Cold, patient

Loved, walked, discovered

He died from pneumonia

Scientist

By Nick

Picture used with permission from www.snowflakebentley.com

Then we went on the web to http://www.snowflakebentley.com and learned how to right click the mouse to save a picture of Wilson Bentley and then insert it into our writing. I also talked to the class about the importance of getting permission to use pictures and shared the email communication I had with someone from the site granting us permission. Our wonderful work is hanging in our classroom and hallways. When it comes down it will be put into a class book so everyone has a chance to take it home and share it with their families.