If your family woke up to white grass this week, you weren't imagining it. On Oct. 21, the National Weather Service in Charleston put a frost advisory over a long stretch of central and northern West Virginia, from Pleasants and Tyler counties down to Clay, Braxton, Lewis and Harrison, with lows as cold as 34 degrees. Local station WDTV followed with a First Alert frost advisory for North Central West Virginia the same evening.
Here's a detail from that advisory that kids love: frost was expected to be worst in sheltered valleys, away from lakes and rivers. In a state full of hollows, that's a science lesson waiting right outside the door. Why would the low spots get colder than the hilltops?
And once the garden is done for the year, there's a second question worth asking: how do you keep plant science going all winter? This week, we'll do both: a frosty-morning plant investigation you can start tomorrow, and a living tree your kids can study indoors until spring.
What your kids will learn
Grades K–5
- The parts of a tree: roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit
- What a living plant needs every day: water, light and care
- How cold air and frost affect tender plants
- How to observe, measure and draw a plant's changes in a growth journal
Grades 6–12
- Why cold air settles into low ground, and how that shapes where frost forms
- How ice forming in and around leaf tissue damages tender plants
- Transpiration: why container plants need careful watering
- Running a long-term observation and recording growth data over time
This week's activity: The frosty-morning plant investigation
You don't need to buy anything to start. Grab a notebook, a pencil, a ruler and, if you have one, an outdoor thermometer.
- Make a prediction the night before. When the forecast calls for frost, ask: "Where in our yard will we find the most frost: the highest spot or the lowest spot?" Have kids write their guess down.
- Go on a frost hunt first thing in the morning. Bundle up and walk the yard with an adult. Look at grass, car windshields, fence rails and plants in high and low spots. Mark the frostiest and least frosty places on a simple map.
- Take two temperatures. If you have a thermometer, read it outdoors in a low spot and again near the house or on higher ground. Write both numbers down.
- Pick two plants to compare. Choose one tender plant still outside (a basil, tomato or flower plant works well) and one houseplant indoors. Draw a leaf from each and describe its color and feel.
- Check again in the afternoon. Tender plants hit by frost often turn dark and limp once they thaw. Record what changed on the outdoor plant and whether the indoor plant changed at all.
- Talk it over. Was your prediction right? Younger kids can explain "cold air is heavy and sinks." Older kids can research how ice damages plant cells and why some plants survive frost while others don't.
That second plant, the one safe indoors, is where the winter learning really starts. Our Dwarf Weeping Cherry Bonsai Tree Science Kit brings a real, living tree to your kitchen table, so your kids can keep observing while the yard sleeps.
- In the box: a live dwarf weeping cherry bonsai tree in a 6-inch ceramic pot (pot color may vary), plus detailed growing and care instructions
- Made for indoors: the tree grows inside and likes bright, indirect light rather than direct sun, so a spot near a window works well
- The big payoff: with steady care, kids watch for flowers and small cherries they can eat, and learn how a flower changes into a fruit
- Curriculum and worksheets included: for your grade band (K–5 or 6–12, chosen at checkout), emailed after purchase
Kids can measure it weekly, sketch new leaves, track how much water it uses and learn how bonsai growers keep a tree small. It's a long-term study, which is exactly the kind of patient science that's hard to set up from scratch in winter.
Want a quick win alongside it? The Sunflower Seed Germination Science Kit sprouts fast, typically in 2–5 days, so kids see results while they wait for the bonsai to change.
Join the growing community
Every kit comes with an invitation to Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands, our private group for families using our kits. Post your frost map, share weekly bonsai photos and ask questions whenever something puzzles you. Young growers from the West Virginia hills to the Arkansas Ozarks and the Arizona desert are learning right alongside you, and we'd love to see how your tree changes this winter.
Keep the science growing this winter
- Dwarf Weeping Cherry Bonsai Tree Science Kit – Grow a Living Bonsai with Flowers & Edible Fruit, with Curriculum & Worksheets: $149.88
- Sunflower Seed Germination Science Kit – Plant Biology Curriculum & Worksheets: $25.00
Get the Weeping Cherry Bonsai Kit
Sources: National Weather Service Charleston frost advisory for central and northern West Virginia (Oct. 21, 2026, via GovOneStop); WDTV, "First Alert: Frost Advisory Issued For NCWV" (Oct. 21, 2026).
