Preschoolers can look at pictures of snowflakes and discover that not all snowflakes are the same. Grownups can extend children's explorations by talking about the variability present in real snowflakes, as well as in snowflakes children create.

A chart that shows different types of real snowflakes may be helpful in starting or guiding conversations.

You can use pictures - in field guides and other books, or from the Internet - to help as you and your child try to classify your snowflakes. The National Geographic web site has some nice photos of real snowflakes taken with a special camera.

Preschoolers can observe the water as it moves through the paper. They can notice that the water moves to other parts of the filter (where they didn’t drop any water).

Preschoolers can look for and examine the small holes in the filter paper. If a grownup shows them how, they can get a closer look by using a magnifying glass.

Preschoolers can probably control the amount of water that they release from the pipette in each 'drop'. They can practice making small droplets fall on the paper, one at a time, and then observe the water move through the paper.

Preschoolers can also try cutting their own snowflake design, or learn to use a magnifying lens with help from a grownup.

The preschooler instinct is to put a magnifying lens close to their eye - adults can help out by holding the object to be examined near to the lens and then slowly moving the object away from their eye. Preschoolers can then move the lens along with the object in order to stay in focus (this also works for less-experienced early elementary-schoolers).