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By Julianne

Ok, I'll do what I should have done at first - post more detailed instructions for the salty snowflakes.

1. In a saucepan heat about 2 cups of water to just below boiling. (A teacher job) Add table salt a few tablespoons
at a time, stirring until it is dissolved. Keep adding salt until it begins collecting at the bottom of the pan and won't dissolve anymore. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile - students get three 4 to 6 inch pieces of white chenille stem. (We used to call them "pipe cleaners", and actually, you can use pipe cleaners if you can find them.) Have the

students twist the three wires together at their middles and spread them out to make a six pointed star shape. I have had older students add a string twined around these legs to make a sort of web. But it's not necessary.

3. Give each student a plastic plate or pie tin. Place the snowflake in the bottom and cover with the salty water. You can try this two ways - either leave the snowflake submerged in the liquid, or after it is wet, slip it up the side of the plate so that only one leg sits in the liquid. Either way let it sit undisturbed for several days. It should begin showing frosty crystals in a couple of hours - larger crystals in a day or so. You can leave it there until the water is all evaporated if you like.

4. You can do this same experiment substituting sugar for the salt. You should bring the water to a boil and add the sugar. Be sure to get as much sugar into the mix as possible. While you are waiting for for the sugar crystals to form you'll have to watch for mold growing on the surface of your syrup. If it does form you won't be able to allow the students to eat the crystals. But the point is to make a snowflake anyway and who wants to eat crystals off of a chenille stem??? (You can grow eatable sugar crystals on a craft stick, a chopstick or a bamboo skewer in a glassful of sugar water.)

Cheers!