Flake Appreciation Day is celebrated on 18th December every year in the United States. The holiday is used to show appreciation for snowflakes which are loved by many. Snowflakes are beautiful, unique, and naturally occurring. They come in complex shapes and sizes and are divided into 35 categories. As with human fingerprints, no two snowflakes are exactly alike. Snowflakes are created when water vapor in clouds freezes around dust particles due to humidity. Typically hexagonal, snowflakes can sometimes take the form of flat, needle-shaped particles.
Snowflakes can be classified into one of 35 different shape groups based on their size and shape. When water vapor in the clouds condenses into ice crystals, snowflakes spontaneously appear in nature. Snowflakes’ shapes are impacted by elements like dust, temperature, humidity, and currents.
The history of snowflakes was greatly influenced by Wilson Bentley. He was born in 1865 in Jericho, Vermont. His work is significant as he helped discover that no two snowflakes are exactly alike. He used a type of photography that uses microscopes called photomicrography to take pictures of 5,000 snowflakes. Read this biography
• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & Mary AzarianFrom the time he was a small boy, Wilson Bentley saw snowflakes as small miracles. And he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal. Bentley's enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in his time, but his patience and determination revealed two important truths: no two snowflakes are alike; and each one is startlingly beautiful.
And then, read about some more snowflakes in:
• The Story of Snowflake and Inkdrop by Pierdomenico BaccalarioTwo worlds, two stories, two books in one, to be flipped and read from whichever direction you like! A big town in winter. A snowflake is about to fall from the sky. A big town in winter. An ink drop flies out of its bottle into the sky when a big gust of wind blows its bottle over. The wind carries Snowflake and Inkdrop through the sky. Where will each land?Two worlds, two intersecting stories told in vivid colour illustrations, as well as through ingenious laser cuts and foldouts that are full of surprise.
• The Snowflake by Neil WaldmanWith a double-page spread for each month, this book describes the journey of a single drop of water throughout the year.
• The Story of Snow by Jon Nelson How do snow crystals form? What shapes can they take? Why do star-shaped snow crystals usually have six arms? Are no two snow crystals alike?
These questions and more are answered inside this exploration of the science of snow, featuring photos of real snow crystals in all their beautiful diversity.
• The Snowflake by Benji DaviesHigh, high up in the clouds a tiny snowflake is made. Perfectly small, fluffy, crystal and white, it tumbles and bounces inside the cloud. But then she begins to fall…
• Snowflake in My Pocket by Rachel Bright & Yu Rong The snow is coming – Bear can smell it! Squirrel is so excited – he's never seen snow before! But when the snow arrives, Bear suddenly falls sick. Can Squirrel still bring some silvery, sparkly, magical whiteness to his best friend? • Fletcher and the Christmas Snowflake by Julia Rawlinson & Tiphanie Beeke It's Christmas Eve, and the rabbits have moved to a new burrow. Fletcher is excited about celebrating the holiday with them, until he realises...Santa Claus won't know where to deliver their presents!• The Smallest Snowflake by Bernadette Watts Every snowflake has a dream. While the other snowflakes boast about their plans to travel on to glamorous and far off destinations— the most beautiful mountain in the world or atop the golden pinnacle of the jeweled dome of the castle, St. Basil—the smallest snowflake simply longs for someplace special . . . someplace warm.
Strictly speaking it is Poinsettia Day in America, but as it is close to Christmas and poinsettias are very common here at this time, it is a good time to think about their origin and connection to Christmas. In Mexico the plant is called La Flor de la Nochebuena or, Flower of the Holy Night and is displayed in celebration of the December 12th, Dia de la Virgen. Use of the plant to celebrate Christmas in Mexico dates back to the 17th century. The flower connects to the legend of a young girl, distraught about not having anything with which to honour the Baby Jesus in a Christmas Procession. An angel tells her that any gift given with love is a wonderful gift. Later the weeds she gathers by the roadside to place around the manger miraculously transform into the beautiful red star flower we think of as Poinsettia. But Mexico's relationship to the plant goes back even further. The Aztecs called the plant Cuitlaxochitl meaning "star flower" and used it to produce a red dye. The sap was also used to control fevers. Montezuma, last of the Aztec king had Poinsettias delivered to him by caravan to what is now Mexico City. The legend of the young Mexican girl is the subject for at least two picture books that are ideal for sharing this story with young children. I especially like sharing the Tomie dePaola's The Legend of the Poinsettia, but Joanne Oppenheim and Fabian Negrin's The Miracle of the First Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story also does the task admirably.
