June 2, 2023
Studying snowflakes is one of my favorite winter science lessons. With this snowflake sorting activity, you can practice sorting and classifying snowflake properties even if you don’t get snow in your area. If you do get some (or a ton) of snow, I love to kick off this lesson on properties by going outside and “catching” snowflakes to investigate.
To catch real snowflakes, we take a piece of colored construction paper outside while it’s snowing. Then we take a few minutes to hold our papers horizontally and observe the snowflakes we catch on it. We talk about the different shapes and sizes of the snowflakes we catch on the paper. If the snow isn’t too wet when it’s falling, I like to give the kiddos magnifying glasses to use as they study the properties of the snowflakes outside. If the snow is too wet as it falls, the flakes will make the magnifying glass too blurry to see through. If they are nice and tiny when they fall it’s great to use the magnifying glass.
Later, we use the snowflake cards inside to practice sorting and classifying based on the properties of size, shape, and color. The printed snowflakes have tons of color but the real ones don’t vary too much to sort based on color.
This lesson is perfect to use with the Kindergarten Common Core lesson for physical science on properties and change.
K.P.2.1 Classify objects by observable physical properties (including size, color, shape, texture, weight and flexibility).
Print the snowflake and category cards on card stock. You’ll want to print in color for this one so that the students can sort based on color. Cut out one set for each student or pair.
Click here to get your Snowflake Sorting Cards Free Printable!
Talk about the different groups that the snowflakes can be sorted into. Let students come up with their own ideas and bring up shape, color, and size if they don’t.
The students can then work on sorting the snowflakes based on one property at a time. I like to have them use small bowls for it to make the activity a little more tactile but sheets of paper or just spread out on the table would work well also. Have the students use the property cards to tell whether they were sorting based on shape, size, or color.
Snowstorms and winter can be magical whether your 5 or 95! Comment below to tell how you like to use the magic of winter in your classroom!
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