The Snowflake by: Neil Waldman (Non Fiction)

The Snowflake is a picture book that shows how the water cycle works.  It goes through the cycle of how water travels from earth to the clouds by showing the life of a single snowflake.  Each month of the year has it's own page, and explains the transformation of the snowflake (water) for that month.  The story discusses how one water droplet freezes, melts, evaporates, condenses, and then freezes again.  Instead of it being just an informational book, it tells a creative story of one single snowflake.

I would use this in the classroom to teach the students about the water cycle.  The fact that this book explains the water cycle through a narrative story will give the students a diifferent perspective instead of just a chart explaining the cycle.  It will peak their interest and keep them engaged throughout the story.  After reading the story, I would have the students make a flow chart of the places the snowflake went.  Then, after explaining what the symbolism of the story really means, they would make another flow chart of the actual stages of a water droplet with the correct terminology.