Snow
Thanks for joining us!
This episode was written by Jean and voiced by Kara and T.
Episode art was drawn by Jean.
It was originally released in January 2025.
— We love these books about the snow —
Click on each photo for a link to the book on our Bookshop.org account
Giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao exploring the snow at the Smithsonian's National Zoo after a snowfall in Washington DC in early January 2025.
Pandas in the Snow!
Snowflake Bentley’s legacy
You can learn more about
Wilson Alwyn Bentley and his work on the Snowflake Bentley website.
Some of Wilson Bentley’s incredible photographs of snowflakes
Reprint of the 1931 book that includes over 2400 plates of snowflakes, frost, and dew.
Caldecott Award-winning picture book about the true story of Wilson Bentley and his fascination with snowflakes
One of many snowflake prints available for purchase on their website
— Make your own snowflake! —
Materials
White paper
Scissors
Glitter or whatever decorative items bring you joy
Your paper is now one large triangle (it would unfold into a square)
Trim off those little bottom triangles
Unfold and admire your 6-pointed snowflake!
Get a piece of white paper
Fold it in half to make a smaller triangle
Now you have a nice trim triangle, ready to cut design in
Decorate with whatever you like. Of course we involved glitter.
Fold one corner to meet the other side
Fold THAT small triangle into thirds
Cut any design into your piece
Admire your creation and winter joy.
Trim off the bottom rectangle
Your new skinny triangle will have two little triangles at the bottom
You can do swirls, small cuts, bigger areas
— Snow Episode Summary —
Snow falls from the clouds in the sky, but only when it’s cold —
We use the word “blanket” when talking about snow, because it covers up everything outside. But it’s not cozy and warm, it’s cold! And a blanket of snow is made up of a countless number of individual snowflakes all stuck together.
Snow comes from the clouds in the sky, but the air needs to be very cold for it to happen. Clouds are made up of water vapor, which is a gas, not a liquid or solid.
Water droplets fall from the clouds and freeze on their trip from the cloud to the ground.
A snowflake starts with a speck. A speck of ash from a fire, a speck of salt from the ocean water that evaporated, or a speck of soil that blew up into the sky.
When the speck gets cold, water vapor sticks to the speck, making a drop of water.
As the droplet takes its trip to the ground, more water vapor drops stick to the ball of ice and it grows into a crystal.
Snowflakes are actually ice crystals —
So a snowflake is actually an ice crystal!
Scientists have found that the ice crystals have six sides or points or arms.
What’s the name of the shape with 6 sides? Hexagon.
And it is said that every snowflake has its own special design.
As the snow crystal falls to the ground, it might pass through more clouds, or it might pass through dry air. And the shape it takes depends upon how wet and cold it is on its journey through the sky.
Snow crystals can be many shapes, but they all have 6 points. They can take the shape of a star, with six arms reaching out. Or snow crystals can be in the shape of a column, like the shape of a pencil. Or they can be like a plate with six sides.
“Snowflake” Bentley helped us understand that every snowflake has its own unique design —
A long time ago there lived a man named Wilson Bentley. His nickname was “Snowflake” Bentley. He lived in a place called Vermont and it got very cold there and so a lot of snow fell in the winter. Wilson had fun playing in the snow as a boy, and as he got older he wondered about where all that snow came from.
He did something no one had ever done before – he took photographs of snowflakes! But they are so small. So he attached a microscope to a camera. (A microscope is a tool with a magnifying glass inside it that makes very small things look bigger.) So then he had a camera which could magnify a snowflake.
He used a piece of black cloth to catch a snowflake, and when a white snowflake landed on the black cloth it was easier to see. He took a photograph of it quickly, because otherwise it’d melt!
Because the microscope and the camera were used together, the tiny snowflake looked much bigger in a photograph.
After taking many, many photographs of snowflakes, Wilson was the first person to see that every one is different.
He said, “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated.”
His special name for snowflakes was “ice flowers”.
What can we do in the snow and cold weather? —
Snow melts quickly if we bring it inside. But you could see just how fast! Bring a snowball inside, put it in a bowl, and see how long it takes to become a puddle of water.
When you do go outside in the snow, make sure you bundle up in warm layers. Like a hat, mittens or gloves, snow pants, a warm coat, warm socks, boots, etc.
Also, don’t forget to put on sunscreen! The sun can reflect off of that white snow and actually give you a sunburn!
Try to catch snowflakes on a dark piece of cardboard. Use a magnifying glass to see the snow crystals better.
You could build snowmen, snowwomen or children, snow animals!
You could make snow angels by laying on your back and spreading your arms and legs out wide, and then opening and closing them a bunch.
It is fun to go down a hill on a sled or snow tube, with adults to help.
You can go cross country skiing, downhill skiing, or snowboarding. And if you’re curious about snowboarding, check out our past episode on it.
A long time ago, people would make a sweet treat, but pouring maple syrup over a cup of snow. Today we enjoy a snow cone, but those aren’t made out of snow from the ground.
T and I don’t live in a place where it snows, so we have to travel to the mountains to see it. If you don’t get to see it in your normal life, you could see it in pictures or videos.