Snowfall Measurements

Just because your kids aren’t in school doesn’t mean they can’t learn during their snow day! With this environmental science activity for kids, you can teach your children to measure snowfall, observe weather patterns, and collect and analyze data.

Activity Instructions

Help your kids place a yard stick or ruler into the ground well away from any snowball fight zones, as they will want to measure undisturbed snow. 

As the snow falls, encourage them to measure the amount that has accumulated every thirty minutes to an hour. During this data collection process, help your child use our snowfall log and graphing worksheet to chart the amount of snow that accumulates.  When charting the snowfall, explain to your children why weather is so important—and why understanding it is crucial to everyday life.

Discuss the following ways in which knowing the weather forecast can help people plan their days:

• Knowing that severe weather is on the way helps people prepare for storms and get to safety.
• Snow can make roads dangerous, so drivers need to prepare for snowstorms before they arrive. For example, they need proper tires to drive through the icy conditions.
• Schools have to plan for snow days so that children, their parents, and their teachers do not have to travel through unsafe conditions to get to school.
• Review the water cycle animation on the EPA's web site.

Help your kids analyze their data by talking about their experience.

Materials

• Snow gear
• Yard stick or ruler
• Snowfall log and graphing worksheet

Outcome

This kid’s science activity will teach your little ones how to collect and analyze data. Additionally, it will open their eyes to the importance of environmental sciences, in particular meteorology. iStock File #: