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NEW 2015 RESOURCES

Blizzards and Snow Theme Page

CLN Theme Pages

Below are the CLN "Theme Pages" that supplement the study of blizzards and snow. CLN's theme pages are collections of useful Internet educational resources within a narrow curricular topic and contain links to two types of information. Students and teachers will find curricular resources (information, content...) to help them learn about this topic. In addition, there are links to instructional materials (lesson plans), which will help teachers provide instruction in this theme.

Antarctic Theme Page

Arctic Theme Page

Glaciers Theme Page

Natural Disasters

General Blizzard and Snow Resources

Here are a number of links to other Internet resources that contain information and/or other links related to blizzards and snow. Please read our disclaimer.

Blizzard Attack
In this interactive lesson, grade 7-12 students make a fictitious journey between two cities during adverse weather conditions, and learn some of the basic skills needed to stay safe during winter storms. A teacher's guide is available.

Building an Igloo
Even if you're not interested in actually building an igloo, this site will explain how its construction can keep people warm in severe weather conditions.

Don't Be Too Flaky
An activity in which students measure the density of water, ice, and snow.

Ice and Snow
Dragonfly Magazine has four articles about snow where kids can learn about the Antarctica and making an igloo, learn why ice floats and is slippery, read interesting facts about snow, or make a virtual flake.

In Praise of Snow
This lengthy article in the Atlantic Monthly is an intellectual study of snow - for high school students only.

All About Snow
If you want to know why snow is white, or why forecasting snow can be so difficult, this is the site for you. Learn the difference between a blizzard and a squall, or find out what graupel is in theGlossary page. Check the snow Gallery for some historic photos of blizzards and snow from the National Weather Service.

Mad Scientist Network
Use this search engine to find all the Mad Scientist Network files on "snow", and you'll find over 150 questions about snow that students have asked and had answered. The answers tend to be brief, but the sheer quantity of information available in the files is worthwhile.

Minnetonka Elementary Science Center
  • Snow/Water/Ice A lesson plan in which K-1 students learn to identify two properties of snow.
  • Snowman Unit Grade 2-3 lesson plan in which students make a snowman, write a descriptive paragraph about making it, and then perform a variety of mathematical measurements on it.
  • So Much Snow Grade 4-5 students explore how much water results from the melting of two litres of snow.

National Snow and Ice Data Center

Precipitation: Online Meteorology Guide
An explanation of the varying atmospheric conditions that produce hail, freezing rain, sleet, and snow.

Snow
Students can learn about the basics of snow, snow art, and how to build a snow castle.

Snow Activities
There are lots of elementary teaching resources offered by this home schooling family. Included are suggestions for snow-based activities within science, art, literature, and food.

Snowbound
The Grade 7 Natural Disasters Project provides a brief description of blizzards along with a wind chill chart.

Snow Flake Designs

Snow Flake Imagery

Snow School
Spring Brook Manufacturing, a snowshoe company, offers a collection of lesson plans/units on snow. Be sure to see their selection of lesson plans and ideas for teaching PE in the snow (e.g., Pass the Snowball, Human Sled Pull, Orienteering, Raid the Snow Fort). For outdoor education information on how plants and animals live in snowy conditions, check out the link to the Glacier National Park Environmental Education Guide. There are also a couple of experiments with snow - some of which are their own and some from other sites that are already on this Theme Page.

Snowtastic Snow
Here's a Web Quest Junior contestant with lots of information about snow. Elementary students can read about the ice age (history), learn about hypothermia (PE&Health), learn more about the science of snow, play games, or engage in a couple of activities.

TrackStar
TrackStar is an online interface that allows instructors to create lessons for students by sequencing existing instructional content in various Websites within a lesson. Students explore one topic at a particular location within one Website, then move on to the next topic at another Website. The list of topics remains visible throughout the lesson so that students can remain on track. Explorations of the Websites beyond the designated instructional content are also possible.

This link is to their search page from where a keyword search on "snow" will produce numerous hits. Caution #1: Many of the web sites that these lessons access may already be on this CLN page - it's the creation of lesson objectives and the sequencing of the tours through the sites that make the lesson potentially useful to your students. Caution #2: The quality of the lessons (e.g., definining objectives, finding Websites, sequencing the tours) will vary widely within the TrackStar collection.

Winter
Suggestions for some primary level winter activities that include literature sources, bulletin board ideas, science activities, and crafts.

Winter Storms
A unit on winter storms, complete with interactive components: weather maker, and winter storm timeline.

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Note: The sites listed above will serve as a source of curricular content in Blizzards and Snow. For other resources in Science (e.g., curricular content in Earth Science, General Science, Life Science, or Physical Science), or for lesson plans and theme pages, click the "previous screen" button below. Or, click here if you wish to return directly to the CLN menu, which will give you access to educational resources in all of our subjects.

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