Winter Season Wonder

In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is the 

coldest season of the year. 

It begins about December 21 and lasts until about March 21. Around December 21 or 22, 

the sun's rays fall directly over the farthest point south of the equator - marking the first day of winter. 

Winter days have fewer hours of daylight because of the path the earth takes as it revolves around the sun. The earth completely revolves around the sun during 365 days. The earth's axis always tips about 23 1/2 degrees from a line perpendicular to its path. 

In the Southern Hemisphere, winter begins in June.

Different regions have longer winters than others. For example, in the polar regions, winter takes up half the year. In the Temperate Zones winter takes up about one quarter of the year. 

In regions where there is cold weather, it causes many changes in the environment. Water may freeze and become ice, snow, sleet or icicles. Most plants and animals become dormant and rest. 

Some animals hibernate. 

The only plants that grow and remain green are evergreens. 

People protect themselves from the cold climate with winter clothing when they go outdoors. They enjoy a variety of indoor activities or outdoor winter sports such as skiing, skating, or sledding. 


*     *     *     *     * 


Here are some fun winter links!
 

Want to make an online snowflake? Click here! 

BrainPop has some great winter and snow movies! Click here! 

Snowflake Workshop? Click here! 

What do you enjoy most about winter?


What activities will you be participating in this winter?


What is your favorite season? 

Solid Figures

Geometry is Great! 

We are learning so much about solid figures. Solid figures are always 3-D. That means they have a length, width, and height.

Solid Figures may have faces, edges, and vertices.

A face is the flat surface on a solid figure

An edge, is a line segment where two faces meet.

A vertex is a corner point where three or more edges meet.

There are many different types of solid figures:

Cube- It is a prism that has 6 square faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices

Rectangular Prism- it has 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices.

Square Pyramid: it has a square base and triangular sides. There are 5 faces, 8 edges, and 5 vertices.

photo by Ms. Tulbure

Sphere: a curved, round solid figure. It has 0 faces, 0 edges, and 0 vertices.

Picture by Ms. Tulbure

Cone: it has a circular face and connects at one vertex.

Cylinder: this solid figure has 2 equal circular faces. It has no edges or vertices.

Our class made some solid figures 

using toothpicks and marshmallows. Many solid figures are combined into one larger object. Can you identify the different solid figures you see?

2 square pyramids

Cubes and Square Pyramids

What is your favorite solid figure and why?

How many faces, edges and vertices does it have?

What is a famous example of your solid figure?