No one had to guess about whether they were going to get a snowstorm. It was real obvious that they were going to get some significant amount of snow. Some of the weather people said six inches, others said close to a foot.

The only real question was, ‘When was the snow going to arrive?’ Probably every one of the kids in school was voting for early Friday morning, so they wouldn’t have to go to school, however, the weather people were saying probably not until Friday night.

This was going to be the first snow that Sam had to go walking with Larry. Unless you want to seriously consider the last time that Larry had to take Sam out when it was snowing. It was cold enough to snow, but not to stick on the ground. Sam didn’t seem to think it was snowing at all, but he will this time. Larry was glad that he could take Sam for a walk one more time before the snow came.

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When the kids got to school on Friday morning, everybody was talking about the snowstorm that was coming. The second-grade teacher decided that she needed to do something that would focus the kids.

The teacher said, “Class, what we’re going to do is make our own snowflakes out of paper. Has anyone ever done that before?”

Mary raised her hand to talk, but didn’t wait for the teacher to acknowledge her, “I have! I already have lots of paper snowflakes decorating my room at home.”

The teacher said, “Great! If anybody has any problems figuring out what to do, they can ask you.”

The teacher said to the class, “We are all going to make some paper snowflakes and decorate the room. You can tape them to your desk, to the door, on the bulletin board. Just about anywhere you want to put them. This will be our fun activity for the day. We might as well start with this since everybody’s already thinking about snow.”

Larry said, “I wonder if any of our paper snowflakes are going to be the same.”

The teacher said, “Let’s try to make all of our snowflakes unique. That way it’ll be realistic, because in real life there are no two snowflakes that are the same. They may look alike. They may all be cold, but they’re not actually the same.”

Frank said, “I wonder how many snowflakes need to fall on the ground before it actually starts to look like snow. The first 10 gazillion of them usually melt.”

The teacher said, “Yes, that’s a very good observation. And the colder the ground is before the snow starts, the quicker we will start to see snow covering the grass and the streets.”

Janet said, “What if we get a lot of snow outside before we finish making our paper snow flakes here in the classroom?”

Lisa said, “I don’t think that’s gonna happen! It hasn’t even started snowing yet.”

The teacher said, “Yes, children, we don’t have to worry about having to leave early today. The weathermen say that it probably won’t start snowing until at least 6 o’clock tonight.”

Larry said, “The first thing I’m gonna do when I get home is make sure that my shovel is ready to go. I’m gonna need to shovel the driveway after the snow stops, so we can get out.”

Charlie said, “If it really does snow a lot, Larry, then maybe we can help each other. It’s always really hard to do it by yourself.”

Frieda said, “Maybe, when you guys are finished doing your driveways and sidewalks, you can come over and help me and my dad. I’m sure my dad’s gonna need some help. He can shovel, but not for a really long time. He gets tired very quickly.”

Larry said, “Sure, I think we can all team together and help each other in the neighborhoods where we live.”

Lisa said, “I think I can help, too.”

Charlie said, “Sure! Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you get off from having to do any shoveling. If you don’t have an extra shovel at your house, we do.”

Lisa said, “I knew you would be very prepared, Charlie.”

The teacher said, “This is really nice that you all are talking about helping each other when it snows outside. Maybe you should be helping each other in the classroom right now. What do you think?”

Janet said, “Yeah. A good idea. Could somebody help me make paper snowflakes. Believe it or not, I’ve never done it before, but it sounds like a lot of fun.”

The kids in the second-grade class had a really good time making their snowflakes and decorating the room. The teacher told the children that they could decorate anyway they wanted to. But she was surprised that when they were finished, she could hardly see anything, because there were so many snowflakes taped to the whole room.