Snowflake Bentley
Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrator: Mary Azarian
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Date: 1998
Awards: ALA Notable Children's Book, Caldecott Honor book (1999)
Ages: 4-8
Topics: snowflakes, nature photography, meteorologist, photographers, scientist, biography
Summary: This is a true story about a Vermont farm boy named Wilson Bentley. Wilson loved snowflakes. His dream was to take pictures of snowflakes but they always melted.
As he grew older, he acquired a microscope with a camera. He spent his life taking beautiful snowflake pictures and learning more about them. Wilson was a self-taught scientist. We learn about his life and snowflake science. Many people thought he was a little odd. No two snowflakes are alike just like people.
Book Connections
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Topic Connections
Biography
- Biography
- Inventor Hall of Fame
- Inventor of the Week
- My Hero Project
- CNN Heroes
- Role Models on the Web
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- The TIME 100
Collections
Microscopic Photography
- Dennis Kunkel Microscopy - Education
- Microi Images Blog
- Most Wanted Bugs
- Molecular Expressions
- Scanning Electronic Microscopy
- Small World Photography
Snow and Snowflakes
- Snow Crystals - Wikimedia Commons
- Snow Crystals
- Wilson Snowflake Bentley - Photographer of Snowflakes
Wilson A. Bentley
- The Man Who Made Portraits of Snowflakes
- Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley - Wikipedia
- Bentley Snow Crystal Collection from the Buffalo Museum of Science
- Wilson A. Bentley - Official Website
Learning Connections
- Be a Critic. Read a short online biography. Critique the article citing evidence found through other sources.
- Biography. Snowflake Bentley is a biography. Learn about someone and write a biography. Use photographs as inspirations for the illustrations. Use the Bio-Cube and Biography Maker to help plan your project.
- Graphic Novel. Use the graphic novel form to create a biography for a family member or historical figure. Incorporate primary source documents.
- Microscopic Photography. Read other books that use microscopic photography such as Mosquito Bite by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel. Write your own story using microscopic photographs for inspiration.
- Make Snowflakes. Try the Make-a-Flake and Make a Flake interactive. Have fun!
- My Collection. What do you collect? Write a story about your collection.
- Snow Haiku. Choose one of Bentley's snowflake photographs and write a haiku about snow.
Teaching Connections
- Try lesson ideas for Snowflake Bentley
- Books to Go with Snowflake Bentley
- Snowflake Bentley Study Guide (PDF) from Scholastic
- Snowflake Bentley Pathfinder
- Snowflake Bentley from Nancy Polette
- Snowflake Bentley from Vicki Blackwell
- Snowflake Bentley from Carol Hurst
- Using Snowflake Bentley as a Framing Text for Multigenre Writin
- Try lesson ideas for biography.
- 42explore: Biography
- Hooray for Heroes (Lesson Grades 3-8)
- I Had a Dinner Party Lesson
- The Value of Biographies in the Classroom Setting by Kathleen Krull
Learn More
Do a Thinkfinity search for lessons related to this topics in this book.