Snowbleck - Simple Snow Day Ratios

Ironically, while the eastern half of the country has been bracing against arctic blasts, Montana has been unseasonably warm.  We've had to make the most out of every snowflake.

So, today, with our latest flurry falling, but melting fast, I decided to extend the fun with a messy-play-meets-math-lesson type of activity - snowbleck - like oobleck, but made with snow instead of water.

The first step in making snowbleck is to collect, and melt a cup of well packed snow, to determine how much water it contains.

Our snow today contained 1/2 cup of water for every cup of snow.  A ratio of 1:1/2 snow to water (convenient for a simple lesson).

Oobleck is made with a 2:1 mixture of cornstarch and water.  We had 2 cups of cornstarch, so we needed one cup of water...

 ...or two cups of snow.

The girls mixed the snow with the cornstarch...

 ...melting it in their hands...

 ...transforming our math lesson, into a science lesson, into ooey-gooey fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.