Book Love: Snowflake Bentley

Snowflake Bentley by Jaqueline Briggs Martin

Illustrated by: Mary Azarian

My husband and I have a bit of a photography hobby, and I especially love macro photography. So I was really excited when I heard about this book. It explores the life of Willie Bentley, who was fascinated by snowflakes and, through a lot of effort and patience, found a way to photograph them. The story itself might be a little too wordy for some preschoolers to sit through, and I did not read the book in its entirety to my classes. But we did read enough to get a sense for the story and how Willie pursued his interests, which I think is a great model for young children. 

Connecting Texts: I found a collection of his snowflake photography at the library called Snow Crystals , and I would definitely recommend having that available so that students can see how unique each snowflake really is. The Story of Snow is another great informational text that is really helpful in answering questions about how snowflakes form. 

Extension Activity: There are so many different ways that you can create snowflakes, and one of our favorites this year was using a variety of loose parts to design our own unique snowflakes with transient art. 

We focused on the idea that snowflakes have six sides just like a hexagon. Some snow crystals even form into the shape of a hexagon, as displayed by this page from Snow Crystals.

The children came up with many unique snowflakes, and other creations, of course. 

I was inspired by another teacher on Instagram to also add a camera to the table, so that the children could photograph their work like Snowflake Bentley. That was definitely the highlight of this activity- it brought so much extra interest and concentration to the process.