AUTHOR ALERT: We met Belinda Jensen!

We really enjoyed meeting the author of Bel the Weather Girl when she did a book-signing at Scout and Morgan Book Store in Cambridge in August 2016. Bel is one of our new favorite book characters. We've been learning tons about weather! One of the things I like most about the books is that there is an easy-to-do experiment at the back of every one.

Plus, we like supporting local, Minnesota authors. Belinda Jensen is a homegrown, female author that you'll recognize from Channel 11. She's the kind of person I hold up as a role model for my kiddos.

About Belinda (from her web site):
Belinda Jensen has been a meteorologist for 25 years and has been curious about the weather since she was an elementary school student! She is now the Chief Meteorologist for KARE 11 News, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul.


Belinda loves to visit classrooms to share her passion and enthusiasm for weather-related topics, and during those many visits she’s discovered that for some students, weather is an exciting mystery—but that for others, it’s a scary subject. Believing that knowledge is power, Belinda developed a series of engaging and enlightening presentations that reveal the science behind weather, and discovered, just as she hoped, that children aren’t nearly as frightened when they are informed.

Belinda continues to pursue her goal to help kids understand the science and mystery of weather with her series of children’s books featuring the character “Bel the Weather Girl,” who, like Belinda herself, is already fascinated with the weather as an 8-year-old. 

Although Belinda herself has never feared the weather, her own 8-year-old daughter along with her 6 year old Bernese Mountain Dog are both very apprehensive about weather and provided her true inspiration for the series.

Belinda grew up in the upper Midwest, sometimes dubbed the “Super Bowl of weather.”

From the web site:
Bad weather can be scary—but not for Bel the Weather Girl! Her mom the meteorologist has taught eight-year-old Bel a lot about what makes the wind whirl and the thunder roar. Now Bel is sharing fun weather facts with her cousin Dylan, whose fear of storms is soothed by Bel’s weather-ready tips.
Weather is powerful and sometimes unpredictable, but each of the books in this science-based series offers young readers a playful yet fact-filled explanation for a different weather wonder. As Bel likes to say, “Every day is another weather day”—and every day is also an opportunity to read about another adventure featuring Bel, Dylan, and Stormy the Weather Dog!

Read 'em all yourself!
- The Sky Stirs Up Trouble: Tornadoes
- A Party for Clouds: Thunderstorms
- Raindrops on a Roller Coaster: Hail
- A Snowstorm Shows Off: Blizzards
- Spinning Wind and Water: Hurricanes
- Weather Clues in the Sky: Clouds




Get lesson plans for teachers/homeschoolers here.

FIAR: Stopping By The Woods on A Snowy Evening

I am so attached to Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost after rowing through the edition by Susan Jeffries. I think it is one of my most favorite poems now. I can't hear my daughter recite it enough. Rowing through this book and Katy & The Big Snow brought us so much delight during a time of winter that is typically pretty dreary.

WE READ:
- Winter Trees by Carole Gerber
- Best Foot Forward: Exploring Feet, Flippers and Claws by Ingo Arndt
- Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
- Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky
- Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac by Jim Arnosky
(and a few other Arnosky books that didn't have anything to do with winter but were lovely!)
- Winter Lullaby by Barbara Seuling
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz
- The Mitten & The Hat by Jan Brett
- The Log Cabin Quilt by Ellen Howard
- Emily by Barbara Cooney
- Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet by Betsy Bowen
- Marven of the Great North Woods by Kathryn Lasky
- The Winter Gift by Zagwyn
{poetry books}
- A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy
- A Swinger of Birches
- Sing a Song of Popcorn (book of poems for young people)
- The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems
- Animal Tracks: Wild Poems to Read Aloud by Charles Ghinga
- Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Story by Loreen Leedy

WE LEARNED ABOUT ROBERT FROST:

Who he was - where he lived - what his family was like... We learned all these things. Here's a great web site with information: http://www.frostplace.org/ 

We enjoyed watching these videos:

• Robert Frost reading "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening:

• Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" read by Susan Sarandon: •

Find a great lapbook for Stopping By The Woods on A Snowy Evening over at Homeschoolshare.com. Activities in the lapbook include: Jingle Bells copywork, Stopping by the Woods copywork, Rhyme Scheme & Poetry handout, Animals in the Story, New Vocabulary Words, Poems I Read list, and New England Winter Weather Facts.

We talked about Tree Skeletons, using Winter Trees as a jumping off point.

We did a bunch of activities regarding animal tracks. See blog post that focuses on that here.

We also did tons of weather-related experiments. See post here.

What's a unit on poetry without a little art too? The Girl was inspired by looking at images of birch trees in the moonlight, as well as a cat on a swing. Can you see it?

We built snowmen out of paper.
- Snowman Mobile
- Free Olaf printable: http://www.thepurplepumpkinblog.co.uk/2014/12/free-olaf-printable.html
- We also found an Olaf states of matter mini book, which was a great thing to use when we melted and then refroze snow (see post on Katy and the Big Snow). I plan to take it back out during our study of states of matter when we row through Mike Mulligan.

POETRY FOCUS
We really focused on poetry, reading lots of Robert Frost as well as other poets. I can't say enough great things about three books:
- A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy
- A Swinger of Birches
- Sing a Song of Popcorn (book of poems for young people)

I love poetry, and I insist on good poetry. These three books have that.

We wrote our own WINTER acrostic poem. Find link here: http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/seasonal-acrostic-winter/

But possibly the most important thing we did was memorize Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening.

FIAR: Paper snowflake activity

We weren't getting enough snow here this winter, so we settled for paper snowflakes. Then most of them ended up on our Valentine's Day cards!

This activity was part of our rowing of "Katy and the Big Snow" and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening."

Our inspiration was "Snip, Snip, Snow" by Nancy Poydar.

FIAR: Snow experiments to go with Katy & The Big Snow, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Inspired by Snowflake Bentley, we took a microscope and observed the intricacies of a snowflake. Wow. Simply amazing!

We made pipe cleaner snowflakes covered with Borax crystals. Learn how here: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/boraxsnowflake.htm

Why can I see my breath when it is cold? We did an experiment to answer this question.

BALLOON EXPERIMENT

We conducted an experiment with balloons. First, we blew them up and measured them inside. Then we tied them to the deck outside and measured them again once they had cooled out there for one-half hour. We measured them again in the morning. The balloons decreased by one inch in circumference when we placed them outside, and there was no change from the first time we measured outside to the second time.

MELTING AND FREEZING

We filled up a mason jar with snow and then let it melt. There was so much less water than there was snow! Next we placed a jar of water in the freezer, marking the height. (The weather didn't cooperate with us to just place it outside.) When we took it out later the height was higher! The ice took up more space than the water did.

WHAT ARE THE STATES OF MATTER?
And, what's study of winter without Olaf?  He helped us learn more about different types of matter in a little flip book.

WHAT MELTS FASTER?

We also investigated what substances ice will melt faster in. We filled bowls with sugar, salt, dirt and pepper. The dirt and pepper insulated the ice, so it stayed cold longer. And the ice in the salt melted faster. Why? "Because it lowered the freezing temperature!" explains The Girl. And that's why we use salt and sand on our roads in the winter.

 

The Boy just wanted to mix up dirt and water! And everything else!

And our perpetual favorite experiment: Volcano in the Snow!

We made a weather wheel, and also a paper compass.

I often write something out on the chalkboard and The Girl copies it in her workbook.

FIAR: Learning about our neighborhood during 'Katy'

As part of our unit on Katy and the Big Snow, we focused on what makes up our neighborhood.

I think the kiddos' favorite thing was constructing a neighborhood map on our floor, using the Make Your Own City cut-outs from the Homeschool Share lapbook. Building it was more fun than playing with it, though. I left it up on the floor for about a week, but no one really played with it after it was all constructed!

Then, they also made their own city using a Sims City app. That was a favorite activity with Daddy for a few weeks.

Crayola has a free Neighborhood Map Coloring page where kiddos can practice their skill at following directions.

Plus we learned about Street Signs, again using the information from the Homeschool Share lapbook. We collected data and created a graph showing what the most common and least common signs are around our house. This was a great game to play while driving an hour up north.

FIAR: Katy and the Big Snow

What better way to appreciate the cold winter weather than to delve into "Katy and the Big Snow" by Virginia Burton?!

We have spent a good chunk of the deep winter months here in Minnesota rowing "Katy," along with "Stopping by the Woods on A Snowy Evening" illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

WE READ:
- Snow Crazy by Tracy Gallop
- The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
- Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams
- Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
- Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
- Snow (Weather Watch) by Alice Flanigan
- Whatever the Weather: Snow by Lauren Taylor
- Snow (Science of the Skies) by Bill McAuliffe
- The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg
- Snip Snip Snow by Nancy Poydar
- All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Shertle
- The Snow Globe Family by Jane O’Connor
- Ice Bear: In the Steps of a Polar Bear by Nicola Davies
- Snow is My Favorite and My Best by Lauren Child
- My Grandma Loves Hockey by Lori Weber
- Pond Hockey by Andrew Sherburne
- Twelve Owls by Laura Erickson
- Great Wolf and the Woodsman by Helen Hoover (illustrations by Betsy Bowen - Minnesota artist whom we love!)
Other related books: See post on rowing Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening

WE LISTENED TO:
- Music Time Songs for all four seasons: 58 children's classics for all four seasons (2007)

WE DID:
As always, we based our activities off the Katy and the Big Snow lapbook over at Homeschool Share.

First, we mined our memories and wrote what we know about Katy. Then we used our imaginations to create our own characters!

The depth of the snow is a big deal in Katy, so we cut pieces of string that were as long as the snow was deep. Then we measured a bunch of various things in the house.

We used Scrabble tiles to create words.

Our gluten-free, corn-free, snow-like sand was the perfect complement to our study!

Storytime at the U of M Arboretum in Chanhassen introduced us to few lovely winter tales.

WE WATCHED:

 


Related blog posts:
- FIAR: Learning about our neighborhood