Learn about Shapes, Symmetry and Geometry with Snowflake Patterns

I love this snowflake geometry project from the STEM Laboratory.

Use her printables for a variety of shapes, read books or websites about how snowflakes form (NOAA has a pretty great rundown of the science behind snowflakes) and then have kids build their own snowflakes.

You can talk about symmetry as you do this, or make part of a design and have the kids repeat it to form a full snowflake.

When their designs are done you can count the number of each kind of shape that was used, and you’ll also have some great winter art to hang at home or in the classroom.

This is a great activity to do when reading books about snow, too, and even little kids will have fun making snowflakes with the shapes.

[Photo via the STEM Laboratory.] Check out more fun science projects with these Science books for kids.

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Learning about Women in STEM

I love the idea of unit studies, which can be done at school, in a homeschool environment or just for fun at home as a way to learn about something specific your kids might be into (or maybe that you are interested in and want them to know more about).

Simply Learning Together put together a homeschool unit study on the Vikings, which sounds like a lot of fun, first off, but it also walks you through the process of how she develops a unit study for her kids so you can do it, too.

It’s a pretty simple process that involves going to the library, reading and researching yourself, then developing some activities and lessons based on what you have learned.

This unit study for the Vikings, for example, shares the books she read and how she planned out the activities. In the post you’ll find a link to a printable map they used, and she talks about different activities they did including baking bread, having a super cute Viking lunch (a sandwich with banana horns to make it look like a Viking helmet!), working with runes, having a snack in “Viking horns” (waffle cones) as well as music, language arts and notebook activities they did.

You could definitely build off these ideas using the books available in your local public library or through doing your own research to find more information and activities your kids might be interested in depending on their age. You could throw in some Viking mythology, for example (I love Norse Mythology for Smart People as a source). Add some STEM with this how to build a Viking ship activity from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus, or make a Viking shield out of cardboard with this idea from This Crafty Family. There are tons of great ideas out there once you start looking!

[Photo: Simply Learning Together]

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