Frosty Fun

             In our little town of St. Matthews, our winters get cold, but we don’t get snow often - maybe once every five years or so. Therefore, we brought the snow to us at the Calhoun County Library!

During our bimonthly STEM event on Wednesday, January 5, 2022,  kids in grades 3-6 participated in some frosty fun! The very first thing we did was have our young scientists predict whether it would snow in Calhoun County this winter season. Using a graph, we concluded that half said it would, and the other half thought we were crazy for even asking.

Using a jar, they each created their own snowman with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, jingle bells, buttons, and some “fake” snow. Our materials to make Frosty would not have been able to stick to the jars without some sort of glue- hot glue for the details, like eyes and nose, and regular glue for the shredded snow. Our precious snowmen didn’t even melt from the hot glue since we had a lesson involving problem-solving skills and the very important safety procedures that are needed while using a hot glue gun. No child was left unattended with it and no one got burned! In fact, the kids were too busy blotting the jar with the regular glue and plastic pieces.

“Monsters! Snowy abominations!” they yelled.

The room filled with laughter about how funny their customized snowmen creations turned out. They were making up stories about how they were freezing cold or that a blizzard was coming.

Then the “real” snow came out.

A small amount of white snow powder was sprinkled into cupped hands with a protective plate underneath. When a few drops of water were added, the powder expanded and expanded and expanded some more! What started as the size of a quarter grew enough to fill a quart Ziploc bag! It seemed like magic, but our scientists were too smart to believe that. After all, how can you trick geniuses? They learned how polymers grow when water is added!

A snowstorm came through the Calhoun County Library. You didn’t hear about it on the news, but everyone made it out safely and had ‘snow’ much fun!

Don’t forget to bring your kids to our next STEM program. At 4 PM on Wednesday, January 19, 2022. Glenna Mason from Clemson Extension’s 4-H Program will be teaching about simple stitches. At the same time, we will be having our monthly STEM, Jr. program. It’s for k5 – 2^nd  graders, and they will be making New Year’s Celebration Slime!