Activities and Experiments About Seasons
Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring….these are the seasons of the year! Even just typing this phrase gets songs running through my mind for teaching kids the season. It’s such a simple concept, yet this needs to be taught to our students. And there are some fabulous activities for teaching seasons in kindergarten and first grade.
What is a season in simple words?
There are changes in the weather throughout the year. These weather changes are divided into four seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring. Each season has unique weather depending on where you live.
How do you teach seasons in Kindergarten?
When teaching seasons in kindergarten, keep the lessons simple, engaging, and interactive. Also, repetition, repetition, repetition. Maybe you can find a way to incorporate seasons into your Calendar routine by singing a song and discussing what seasons it is currently. Maybe you can find ways to teach seasons in Math or Literacy circles by reading a story about the seasons and answering questions bout seasons. Whatever works best for your classroom, a few minutes routinely throughout the week can be a great way to help the concept of seasons get ingrained into your students.
The Easy Way to Teach Weather & Seasons
Looking for an all-in-one unit to teach weather and seasons to little learners? In just a few clicks you can grab all the pieces you need: lesson plans, vocabulary cards, hands-on activities, printable worksheets, and more!
videos about seasons for kids
Songs are the perfect learning tool in early elementary. Here are some YouTube videos with songs all about the seasons for Little Learners.
Seasons Song - this is a simple song that young learners enjoy. Be careful though…it might get stuck in your head too!
Here’s another fun season song you could incorporate into your routine.
For some more educational videos about seasons that aren’t songs, you might want to check out these videos.
This is a snippet from Elmo’s World. This keeps the language of seasons simple without going into depth about the tilt of the earth and hemispheres.
This video does a good job of explaining that seasons are different depending on where you live. Parts of this video definitely go into more depth than you’ll need to teach, but maybe your students will enjoy these more advanced parts.
SciShow Kids is a go-to youtube video for me! Here’s a great video about why there are seasons. This video (embedded in the link below) also goes into more depth than you probably need to teach, but your students might still find this interesting!
Reading about Seasons and Using Vocabulary
Have you thought about integrating literacy and science? Grab these short non-fiction readers about weather and seasons. These are available in single-page format or as student mini-books. You will likely have to help with reading these passages, depending on the reading level of your students, but they can follow along, underline key vocabulary words, and color the pictures in the mini-readers.
There are also vocabulary cards to display in your classroom as students learn each vocabulary word. Or these cards can be used as hands-on vocabulary puzzles. Simply cut out each word and picture. Then ask students to match them together. For students who cannot read, try using the pictures alone as a center activity where students verbally explain what the picture represents.
Teach that Seasons are a Cycle (or a Pattern)
“Seasons Are a Cycle” anchor chart. Make sure the season descriptions match where you live. Try printing photos and gluing them to the chart!
Young kids love learning about patterns. They take joy in making patterns with manipulatives and finding patterns in their environment. So I imagine they would find delight in realizing that seasons are a pattern as well (although “cycle” is the more technical science word). Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, repeat, repeat, repeat! It’s a pattern!
Help Students to Understand local seasons
Another important aspect of teaching seasons is to help students understand the seasons where THEY are! I live on the West Coast of British Columbia, so I experience seasons radically differently than my followers in Australia. So take time to explore what each season feels like to your own students. Winter won’t have snow for everyone. Fall might not have falling leaves for everyone.
Teaching seasons to little learners doesn’t have to be complicated. There are some simple activities to do to teach seasons that are meaningful and easy to prepare!
