A Pathfinder for Grade 3

Have you ever tried to look at a snowflake up close? Almost 100 years ago, a young farm boy named Wilson Bentley became interested in snowflakes. He looked at them with a microscope. Their incredible shapes made him want to photograph them to preserve their beauty.

If you would like to learn more about Snowflake Bentley and snowflakes, follow the links on this pathfinder.

Books
Magazines

Internet
Sites

Videos
CD-ROM
Dewey
Numbers
Keyword
Phrases
People
Places
State
EALRs

Print Resources-Books and Magazines

Our library has wonderful books about SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY and SNOWFLAKES. A few of the books are listed below.


NONFICTION BOOKS
546 Wic Wick, Walter. A Drop of Water. New York, Scholastic, 1997.
Describes the characteristics of water. Includes a section about snow crystals.
 
551.57 Ash Ashwell, Miranda.Snow. Des Plaines, Ill.: Heinemann, 1999.
Briefly discusses aspects of cold weather, including such topics as snow, frost, icebergs, blizzards, effects on plants and animals, and more.
 
551.57 Ste Steele, Philip. Snow: Causes and Effects. New York: F. Watts, 1991.
Explains where it snows and why and how snow affects the lives of humans and other animals.
 
921 Ben Fritts, Mary Bahr. My Brother Loved Snowflakes. Honesdale, PA: Boyd Mills Press. 2002.
Examines the life of Wilson A. Bentley, who made the study of snow his life's work.
 
921 Ben Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. Snowflake Bentley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations. Mary Azarian, illustrator of the book, was awarded the Caldecott Award for her excellent wood cut illustrations portraying Snowflake Bentley.
 
974.7 Mur Murphy, Jim. Blizzard! The Storm That Changed America. New York: Scholastic, 2000.
Presents a history based on personal accounts and newspaper articles of the massive snowstorm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.
FICTION BOOKS
 
E Shu Shulevitz, Uri Snow. New York: Scholastic, 1998.
A young boy and his dog celebrate the first snowfall.
 
REFERENCE
 
REF 551.57 Ben Bentley, W. A. Snow Crystals. New York: Dover, 1962.
Contains the photographs of over 2000 snowflakes taken by W. A. Bentley and W. J. Humphreys.
 
REF 551.57 Ben Bentley, Wilson. Snowflakes in Photographs. Mineola, New York: Dover, 2000.
Contains 72 plates of photographs of snowflakes taken by W. A. Bentley.
 

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Online Resources--Internet Sites

These Web sites will help you learn more about SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY and SNOW:

Wilson Snowflake Bentley - Photographer of Snowflakes
The official web site from Jericho,Vermont, home of Snowflake Bentley. Read a little about his life and connect to some resources about the man.
 
Wilson Bentley, Snow Crystal Display
 
Jacqueline Briggs Martin
In 1999, Jacqueline Briggs Martin's book about Snowflake Bentley won the Caldecott Award for the illustrations by Mary Azarian. Visit this web site to find out more about the book.
 
Mary Azarian, Vermont woodcut artist and book artist
Take a look at some of the wood cuts of Mary Azarian.
 
 
Snow Crystals
View crystals and learn about how they form at this site.
 
Make a Flake
Design and cut your own snowflake at this fun interactive site.
 
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Videos, CD-ROM, Laserdiscs, etc.

Our library has these multimedia resources about SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY:

CD-ROM 551.57 Wil Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley Digital Archives: The Man and His Images, volume 1.

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Dewey Decimal Numbers to Browse

If you want to browse the shelves in the library to find information about SNOW, look for these numbers:

  • 551.5 - Meteorology
  • 551.6 - Weather
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Keywords and Phrases for Searching

Do you need more information? Ask your teacher, librarian, or parent to use these words and phrases to help you search Electric Library, the library online catalog, CD-ROM or print encyclopedias, and the World Wide Web:

  • snow
  • snowflake 
  • snow crystals
  • frost
  • weather
  • scientist
  • photography
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Community Resources-People and Places

The following community contacts may help you with your topic:

NCRL - Wenatchee Public Library's Online Catalog  

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EALR's

Reading

1. The student understands and uses different skills and strategies to read.

To meet this standard, the student will

1.1 use word recognition and word meaning skills to read and comprehend text

  • integrate appropriate reading strategies to adapt reading to different types of text

1.5 use features of non-fiction text and computer software

  • find and sort information for a specific topic or purpose

3. The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes

To meet this standard, the student will

3.1 read to learn new information

  • locate and use a variety of resources
  • select resources to answer a question or solve a problem 
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