Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Borax Crystal Snowflake Project

We found a really cute idea over at The Crafty Crow to create Borax crystal snowflakes.  You can go here to find the directions for this project.  Of course, since we needed to do science anyway, we decided to "kill two birds with one stone" (a saying that Sunshyne learned over the summer) a craft for art AND an experiment for science.

Our snowflakes didn't turn out as cool as The Crafty Crow's but we were pleased with the results.  We decided to use The Usborne Big Book of Experiments to assist us with the science aspect of the project.

We collected all of the items needed for the project: A clean glass jar, piece of thread or yarn, teaspoon, Borax or other laundry booster, hotwater, pencil and chenile stems.  Sunshyne read the directions from The Crafty Crow and learned about what was happening from The Usborne Big Book of Experiments.  


She started by mixing her Borax into hot water (she had the instructions from The Crafty Crow written out on that little piece of paper).

Next, she began making her Snowflake shapes with the chenile stems...this part was a bit tough for her because she wanted them to look exactly like snowflakes and that just wasn't happening. After all, they're chenile stems and we are not the craftiest family out there.

She then adhered the finished snowflake to a piece of yarn and put the snowflake into the water and Borax mixture, being careful not the let the snowflake touch the sides or bottom of the jar once inside.

She tied the yarn around a pencil to suspend the snowflake in the water...Now all that's left to do is to wait and see what happens.

The next morning
Whaalaaa...her finished product!  It looks a lot more sparkly than my limited photography skills can illustrate, but she was estactic about her snowflake.  Since we don't get to see snow around our neck of the woods, this was a real treat for her.  Thanks Crafty Crow!

1 comment:

Inspired by Savannah said...

Love this craft. I can't wait until my daughter is older to try this and have rainy day craft fun.