Snowflakes Lesson Plan: Earth’s Systems
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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Snowflakes, and supports the standard of understanding how snowflakes are formed as part of Earth’s weather systems. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.
Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Display images of a snowflake and ice, like these:
Ask students:
- What do you notice about ice?
- How does ice compare to a snowflake?
Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE
- Read aloud the description on the Snowflakes topic page.
- Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
- Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Flora and Fauna” or “Personalities”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS
Assign Snowflakes Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.
Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND
Students express what they learned about snowflakes while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.
- Make-a-Movie: Create a mini-documentary from the point of view of a snowflake. Describe your journey from forming in a cloud to falling to the earth.
- Make-a-Map: Make a concept map comparing and contrasting snowflakes formed in humid and dry weather.
- Creative Coding: Code a meme expressing the uniqueness of snowflakes.
- Primary Source Activity: Analyze the snowflake photographs and cite evidence to answer the accompanying questions.
More to Explore
Weather Unit: Continue to build understanding around Earth’s systems by exploring more BrainPOP topics.
Teacher Support Resources:
- Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
- Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.
