Skip Navigation

Seasons

Additional Core Ties

English Language Arts Kindergarten
Writing Standard 8

Authors

Utah LessonPlans

Summary

Students will create a class chart showing what they are wearing. They will also become "season watchers" to help them understand the seasons.


Materials

Attachments

One per class:

  • Butcher paper 2' x 3' with graph titled What are you Wearing? (pdf)
  • Circle of Seasons or any other book on seasons

For each student:

  • 3" x 3" Post-it® note
  • File folder
  • Scissors
  • Clipboard
  • Plastic bag
  • Glue stick
  • Crayons
  • Piece of white construction paper

Additional Resources

  • Circle of Seasons, by Gerda Muller; ISBN 0525453946
  • Caps, Hats, Socks and Mittens, by Louise Border; ISBN 0-590-72429-0
  • The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree, by Gail Gibbons; ISBN 0152712453
  • Animal Seasons, by Brian Wildsmith; ISBN 0192721755
  • See the Seasons, by Rozanne Lanczak Williams; ISBN 0153148454


Background for Teachers

There are four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. Changes in weather occur from day to day and over seasons, affecting Earth, people, animals, and plants. Each season has different characteristics that makes it different, helping us identify each season.


Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate a positive learning attitude.
5. Understand and use basic concepts and skills.
6. Communicate clearly in oral, artistic, written, and nonverbal form.


Instructional Procedures

Attachments

Invitation to Learn
Ask the students a few of the following questions:

  • What was the weather like yesterday?
  • How did you know what to wear today?
  • What time of year does it usually snow?
  • What time of year do we have falling leaves?

Instructional Procedures

  1. Explain to the class that they are all going to become season watchers to help us understand the seasons.
  2. Read Circle of Seasons.
  3. Before going outside, discuss what students are wearing today.
  4. Give each student a Post-it® note to write his/her name on.
  5. Have each student place his/her name on the graph in the appropriate place according to what s/he is wearing.
  6. Discuss the results of the graph.
  7. Pass out a file folder to every child. Demonstrate how to cut a window.
  8. Give each student a clipboard, glue stick, plastic bag, piece of white construction paper, and crayons.
  9. Plan a season walk on a day that is typical of the current season. Invite the children to pick things that are typical of the season and place the different items in their bags (e.g., fall-colored leaves, sticks, summer-green leaves, grass, dandelions, etc.).
  10. After several minutes of collecting, have the students sit in a place where they can observe either a tree or the mountains. Have students open up their folders to use as a frame and hold it up to "frame" the tree or mountain they are observing. Encourage students to observe how their "picture" looks at this time of year.
  11. Place the white construction paper under the frame and clip the frame and paper to the clipboard. Have each student use crayons to draw the picture s/he is observing. When finished, have him/her decorate the folder frame with the items s/he collected and placed in his/her bag. Be sure each artist adds his/her name to his/her creation.


Extensions

Language Arts

  • Have the class work together to create an acrostic poem that goes with the name of the season. Hang the poem with the framed season artwork.

    Acrostic poem
    Write descriptive words or phrases beginning with the accompanying letter from the name of a season (i.e., spring, summer, autumn, winter).
     
    For example:
    Falling leaves
    All over the ground
    Leaves of every color
    Lovely sight to see

  • Take pictures of the same tree or area during different seasons. As a class, create text to describe the changes in the seasons.
  • Make a class book entitled What Happens in (name of season). Each student writes and fills in the sentence, “In (name of season) _______________” on a separate piece of construction paper. Have students illustrate their sentence. Create a cover and bind all the pages together.

Family Connections

  • Encourage students to observe the changes in the seasons in their backyard. Have them bring signs of the season you are studying to put on the Discovery Table set up in the classroom. Leaves, flowers, acorns, blossoms, pumpkins, etc. may all be part of the table. Include magnifying glasses for closer observations.
  • Send the class book What Happens in Seasons home each night for a different student to read with his/her family.


Assessment Plan

  • Artwork is an excellent assessment tool. Date each art piece and place in the student’s portfolio. Encourage students to add details and observe changes in the environment carefully. Look for progress in the student’s ability to draw specific changes as the seasons change.


Created: 09/10/2004
Updated: 10/17/2022
77432
/>