Dreaming of Winter? Let’s Make Snowflakes

Want a craft project that reminds you of cooler days?   We are pretty warm right now in Texas, and I was thrilled to discover a fun “wintery” science experiment.   Pam of Troop Petrie created some fun and whimsical snowflakes with her kids using borax (which is a staple in homemade cleaners) and pipe cleaners.   As borax is a chemical and not edible this would definitely need to be a “well-supervised” experiment.   Here are Pam’s snowflakes and directions.   Thanks Pam for submitting a guest post today! . We made borax snowflakes, it was really easy and fun. We made 4 of them and gave them to grandparents when they visited. Our biggest challenge was finding a jar with a wide enough mouth. I copied the directions from about.com

How to make Borax Snow Crystals:

1.Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections and twist the sections together at their centers to form a six-sided snowflake shape. Don’t worry if an end isn’t even, just trim to get the desired shape. The snowflake should fit inside the jar. . 2.Tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake arms. Tie the other end of the string to the pencil. You want the length to be such that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar. . 3.Fill the widemouth pint jar with boiling water and add borax one tablespoon at a time to the boiling water, stirring to dissolve after each addition. The amount used is 3 tablespoons borax per cup of water. It is okay if some undissolved borax settles to the bottom of the jar.   If you want tint, now is the time to add it.   We used food coloring . 4.Hang the pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil rests on top of the jar and the snowflake is completely covered with liquid and hangs freely (not touching the bottom of the jar).   Allow the jar to sit in an undisturbed location overnight. . 5.   Wake up to the sight of the pretty crystals!!! You can hang your snowflake as a decoration or in a window to catch the sunlight 🙂 . Thanks again Pam and Troop Petrie kiddos for sharing your science experiment with us! Check out these fun and easy paper snowflake patterns! Grab Free Printable Snowflakes Coloring Pages!