Updated December 23, 2022

We were hoping for snow when we went to Maine over winter break. We were lucky to not only get snow, but sticky snow, which is perfect for making snowmen! (My daughter repeatedly reminds me that we actually made snowwomen!)

As the snow started to fall, the temperature was hovering around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the freezing point of water. We tried to see snow crystals, or snowflakes, as they fell, but the crystals were partially melted and clumpy. The weather provided a natural lesson about changes of state- in this case, freezing and melting.

I shared with my daughter that the freezing and melting points of water are the same (technically, there are small observed differences).

How is it possible that freezing and melting, which are opposites, happen at the same temperature?

This didn't make sense to her. I asked her whether water would be ice or liquid water just below the freezing/melting point. It would be ice! What about just above the freezing point? It would be liquid water! She realized that the freezing/melting point is the threshold between these two states of matter.

The snow we used for making our snowwoman and snowgirl had the perfect mix of solid and liquid water to create a sticky snow. We started with a small snowball and rolled it on the snow-covered ground. It grew very quickly!

We piled the giant snowballs on top of one another, and added some embellishments that we found around the yard.

We were lucky to have the sticky snow we hoped for on this trip. Maybe on a future trip, we will experience the fluffy powder snow that's perfect for sledding!

Here is a video from the Fleet Science Center that discusses simple snowflake science and gives directions for making six-pointed paper snowflakes. I used it with my middle school students for a relaxed activity just before winter break. I think it would also work well with grades 3 - 5.

Fleet2Go: How to Make Paper Snowflakes

I also used this video on snowflake science with my middle school students:

The Science of Snowflakes

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Updated December 23, 2022

Keeping students engaged in the days before Winter Vacation is quite a challenge for a teacher, but for Caga Tió, it's effortless! When I told my middle school students about Caga Tió and asked whether they would like to care for him in our classroom as part of Spanish class, they were all in!

Early in my teaching career, I spent a year in Barcelona, where I taught English and lived with two Catalan roommates. My roommate Quim described a Christmas tradition of wrapping a log in a blanket to keep it warm, giving it food and water, and then, on Christmas morning, hitting it with a stick to make it "poop" turrón (almond candy). For a long time, I didn't believe him and thought he was trying to fool his American friend. One day, he insisted I come quickly to see what was on TV, and sure enough, there was a black-and-white video of children singing and beating a log with a stick. It was true!

The Caga Tió, or "poop log", I used in my classroom was one given to me by a friend. It's a simple little log with two sticks attached to look like legs and a face drawn on the front:

I wrapped it in a large throw blanket- large enough for hiding the nuts and turrón later on. Before we welcomed Caga Tió into our classroom at the beginning of December, my students assured me that they would take good care of Caga Tió by keeping it safe and warm, feeding it little pieces of food, and bringing it water. There were a few seventh graders who took on most of this- it was very sweet!

We kept Caga Tió close to my classroom nook in a corner of the room that was visible yet a little less accessible in order to avoid any possible rough handling. My students asked if I had a little cup for water, and I found one in my science closet. Students filled the cup daily, and I gradually emptied it throughout the day when they weren't looking. I did the same with the food they left, which was mostly fruit.

On the last day of Spanish class before Winter Break, I taught students a simplified version of the Caga Tió song, one that my friend had taught me. The song is not in Spanish but in Catalan, a language spoken in the state of Catalonia. (You can find the traditional Caga Tió, or Tió de Nadal, song on Youtube) It was a good opportunity to tell students that Catalonia has its own distinct language and culture.

Before passing out sticks to my students, I reminded them that the sticks were, of course, not for sword fighting or hitting each other but for gently hitting Caga Tió. For Spanish class, I had a smaller class size of about 12 students, making this activity more manageable. Although my class sizes are usually around 25 students, during Spanish class, half the students are in P.E., while the other half is with me.

Caga Tió was set on a desk, and students walked around him together in a circle, hitting him with their sticks and singing the Caga Tió song. Then they heated their sticks in a fire- made by my wonderful teaching assistant Nicole- before returning to hit Caga Tió and sing to him again.

When we thought students had sung enough for Caga Tió to work his magic, we lifted the blanket. It worked! He pooped!

I first offered almonds to students and then worked at cutting the turrón into pieces. (I have found turrón in the Little Italy neighborhood in my city of San Diego, and you can also buy it online.) There are two types of turrón- hard and soft. The hard turrón, or turrón duro, is difficult to cut into pieces but doable with a good knife. For students with allergies to almonds and/or eggs, I had alternative candies under the blanket marked with their names on sticky notes.

Having Caga Tió in our classroom in December gave students something to look forward to in coming to school, and I had the chance to have a little fun with them!

If you would like to know more about Caga Tió, you can read this NPR article: