1. A CHILDREN’S STORY WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY JENNY GONZALEZ AND EMMA DOSA. Sydney the Snowflake and her Amazing Adventures!

2. Sydney leaves home! Sydney the snowflake was just an itty, bitty little crystal when all of the sudden she was thrown out of her home, a big storm cloud. A big wind knocked her out of the cloud!

3. Sydney meets Sammy! Sydney became very lonely as she fell all by herself down to earth. She needed a friend. Just then a little snowflake named Sammy came along and their connection was strong like a hydrogen bond. A hydrogen bond is when two water molecules stick together with a bond that acts like a string holding them together!

4. OH NO! BAM! SWOOSH! Suddenly they hit something that they heard the adults talk about a lot. They called it a plastic bag. Sammy and Sydney couldn’t hold on! They were slipping and sliding right off the plastic bag! This means that the bag wasn’t adhesive so they couldn’t stick. Adhesion is when water can stick to another object.

5. Snow! They fell together all the way down to the soft, crisp snow waiting below. It was Sydney's friends and family that they landed on! They were overjoyed and welcomed her with a big hug. This is cohesion. Cohesion is when water sticks to water, or in this case snowflake to snowflake!

6. Uncle Steve! After a big family feast and get together it started to get really warm outside. “Wow! Who turned up the heat?” Sydney wondered aloud. “Oh this is nothing, Hun. This is just part of the Water cycle.” Uncle Steve said. “Just be very careful not to be swept into the cracks of big rocks.” “Why not?” Sydney asked. “Well sweetie, you see snowflakes like us or other water molecules tend to be drawn into cracks of rocks or sidewalks as if we were being sucked through a straw.” Explained Uncle Steve. “Oh my gosh, that is so scary!” Sydney exclaimed. This is capillary action.

7. Sunshine! As the sun started shining, Sydney noticed her relatives disappearing into thin air. All of a sudden she was being lifted into the air. “Sammy! Look at me! I’m flying!” Sydney was overjoyed to be back in the air. Soon she noticed she was losing all of her crystals and turning round like a rain drop. “Sammy look at me! Sammy?” Sydney questioned. Sydney noticed that Sammy was gone and she was all alone again. She continued her journey up when she noticed that she was entering a big storm cloud. She was back home!

8. Back to the storm cloud! For three long days and nights, Sydney stayed in her storm cloud wondering what else would happen. On the end of the third night she heard a rumbling noise. She looked out of her cloud and saw that it was raining. She heard squeals of laughter, but Sydney didn’t want to jump. Suddenly, she fell forward and stared to spin with the wind as she fell. “Again? Why do I always fall out of my cloud!?” She wondered to herself. “Wheee, this is so much fun!” she squealed to the wind but her voice was drowned out. She started to see houses, dogs, cars, trees, and a big lake. At first, she was heading towards a mailbox but she was blown away and dropped into the lake. PLOP! As the rain started to slow down and the sun started to shine she notices a lizard on the banks of the shore. “Hello there, lizard!” She yelled so he could hear her.

9. Mr. Basilisk Sydney was so confused, she thought that lizards could swim but he just walked right over her! On the water! “Wow, how did you do that?!” Sydney was so surprised. “Well you see, I’m a Basilisk lizard, we can walk on water.” the lizard explained. “How do you do that?” Sydney proclaimed. “If you pay very close attention to where I walk you can see that the water on the lake seems to have a film on it. If I’m fast enough, my special feet can step on the film without breaking it. This is called surface tension. Surface tension is when the water sticks together creating something like a force field but this force field is very easy to break.” Mr. Basilisk said. “Wow!” Sydney was in awe!

10. Riding with Mr. Basilisk! “Mr. Lizard, can you tell me why the water isn't freezing cold even if it is cold outside?” Sydney questioned. The lizard replied, “That’s because water absorbs and releases heat very slowly but this protects all the fish and everything that lives here. Scientists call it specific heat.” “Oh..how about why leaves floats on water?” Sydney was curious. “That’s because the leaves density is lower than waters’ so it floats.” The lizard explained. “What is density?” Sydney asked. “Density is how tightly packed the matter is in an object” the very smart lizard said.

11. Riding Mr. Basilisk “Say, Mr. lizard, could you give me a ride to the warmest spot in this lake?” Sydney asked. “Why, of course I can but may I ask why?” the lizard replied. “I’ve learned that when water is warmed by the sun we get evaporated back up to the sky where we stay in a cloud to get rained out again. Its called the water cycle.

12. Sammy’s back! So the lizard gave a swift ride to the raindrop to the very center of the lake where he waved goodbye and Sydney went back home. As soon as she entered her rain cloud she saw a familiar face. “Sammy! Where have you been?!” Sydney was overjoyed to see him again. “ I’ve had the most amazing time. When you got sent to the rain cloud I was sent to a snow cloud and was snowed out into a puddle. I wasn’t sure what was happening when I started to lose my crystals in the puddle so I asked a little bug that was there. She said I was dissolving in the water because water is a Universal Solvent.” Sammy explained. “What's a Universal Solvent?” Sydney asked. Sammy replied, “A Universal Solvent is something that can dissolve, or breakdown anything. Water is called that because it can break down more things then anything else in the world.”

13. Love to learn! “I have learned many things today! Like that milk has water in it and healthy adults drink tons of water a day.” Sydney told Sammy. “WOAH!” said Sammy. “why don’t you tell me about your adventures?” So sydney then lived happily ever after with a new best friend and knowing almost everything about water! The end.

15. Fun Facts! Did you know that raindrops actually look like a half circle instead of a teardrop! Using cool cameras scientist took pictures of raindrops to find what shape they really were! About half of our whole body is all water! We can only live a couple of days without water. Make sure you drink drink drink! Did you know that milk is made of 91% water? How much water can you drink in one day? A healthy adult can drink 3 gallons of water! When do you use the most water? In the shower? Brushing your teeth? Flushing the toilet!? Flushing the toilet is when you normally use the most water during the day! Did you know that if you drink too much water, you can make you brain have water imbalance, where there might be too much water in one place!