Weather School / First Weather · ages 2 to 5

The weather rock on a frosty lawn at sunrise, the grass around it white and sparkling while the rock itself stays bare.

Frosty Mornings

Who painted the grass white in the night, when no snow fell anywhere?

The weather rock outside under a night sky, waiting to be looked at.

The mission: guess first, then go look

Before you touch it, guess: will the white stuff on the grass feel soft like a blanket or scratchy like sugar?

Touch one white blade of grass, very gently, and look close. Tiny ice sparkles, covering everything. Now look at your fingertip. Frost melts the moment something warm comes along.

Some cold mornings, the grass turns white and sparkly, and not one snowflake fell.

That is frost: tiny ice crystals that grew right on the grass while you slept.

Frost loves clear, cold nights, the same kind that make the stars look extra sharp.

Professor Weather Rock in a graduation cap, pointing upward with a wooden pointer.

Professor Weather Rock says

Frost is not frozen rain. It is water from the air that turned straight into ice crystals right where it landed, without ever once being a raindrop.

Rocktivity Time!

Pick a door. Every door is a good one.

Move like the weather

Be the frost. Stand still as grass on a cold night, then freeze yourself one piece at a time: one finger, one arm, one shoulder, slow, slow, until you are all sparkles and stillness. Now here comes the morning sun. Melt one piece at a time, until you are just you again.

Ask them

“What do you think the grass thinks of its sparkly white coat?”

The Rocktivity

Fill a shiny metal can with ice cubes and a big spoonful of salt, stir, and wait. White frost grows on the outside of the can while you watch, right there on the kitchen table.

On a frosty morning, try this

Go hunting for the places the frost is NOT. Guess first: will there be frost under the car? Under the big tree? Right up against the house? Now go check. The open grass turned white, and the covered spots stayed green. Guess why, before your grown-up says a word.

Is the rock right?

You looked with your own eyes. The rock is outside looking too. Ask it what it sees, then decide together who read the sky better.

Words we learned

Frostnounsay it: FRAWSTTiny ice crystals that grow on things during a cold night.

Meltverbsay it: MELTWhat ice does when something warm touches it: it turns back into water.

For the grown-up

Frost is water vapor from the air turning straight into ice crystals on surfaces that got very cold overnight. Open grass loses its heat up into a clear sky, so it can get colder than the air around it. Anything with a roof over it, a car, a thick tree, holds its warmth in, which is why the covered spots stay green. If your child remembers from Day and Night that clouds work like a blanket, this is the same idea on a lawn: a frosty morning is what happens when nothing tucked the ground in. Whatever the grass thinks of its coat, ask who else got one, and who missed out.

Take it off the screen

A colouring sheet with the big word to trace, plus the whole lesson in print. Free for any home or classroom.

Print the colouring sheet and lesson (PDF)

The trail continues

Frost is ice that grows down here on the ground. Some cold days, the sky sends ice of its own, drifting down in soft white flakes. Next time flakes fall, go stand out in them for a minute.

Snowy Days will meet you out there.