Snowflakes

(Taken from: Make your own paper snowflakes, Peggy Edwards)

temperatures in the atmosphere, the water-droplets crystallize into ice and fall to Earth as snow crystals. As they fall, they collide and form clusters that we call snowflakes. The water molecules bond together by their hydrogen atoms and form a hexagonal lattice pattern. This pattern repeats, so all snow crystals have hexagonal symmetry. The basic shape of a snow
When water vapour condenses at freezing crystal is largely determined by the temperature, and the complex shapes of snowflakes occur because they experience lots of and conditions as they form.

different

temperatures

,.Fact.Snow, permanently or temporarily, covers about 23% of the

Hexagons
Draw in the lines of symmetry on this snowflake.

To fold paper to get 6 identical sections:

How many degrees in a revolution: ____________________ To divide into 6 sections, how many degrees in each section: ___________________ Fold the paper in half Find and mark the centre of the fold line Put a protractor centred on your mark and divide the space into 3 sections according to the angle you worked out above!

,.Fact.Snow is made of transparent ice crystals but the many reflecting surfaces of the crystals make it appear white.

Pattern Ideas