Forums

Hello NSTA! I am coming up with a unit plan on reasons for seasons with my classmate for my science methods class. Does anyone have any fun activities to get the concept across or know of any informative articles, science objects, etc.? Any help or feedback would be very much appreciated!

I did a really cool activity with the students on seasons. You first would model it as the teacher. Get a globe and stand at the front of the classroom and have a student hold a flashlight towards the globe. Then you would move around as you show the students where the light is hitting and what part is getting direct and indirect sunlight. As you do that make sure you have the front of the classroom as summer and keep it as summer throughout. Make sure you always tell the students that the axis is facing the back of the classroom and at each point around the classroom point that out. Then get four students up to the four seasons in the classroom. Have them walk to the next point and tell them to act their season out. Then students can talk about what season it is and the weather. The students really liked being the Earth in the four seasons. This was a forth grade class.

I certainly like the idea of making a journal for each individual season so the students can see the differences in each season as a whole. Take down colors of leaves, different animals living or adapting in each season are just some examples. Discuss the rotation of the planet and its position in the solar system during that time of year and make sure to explain that the time of the seasons are different depending on the hemisphere of the planet. There are a lot of scenarios to take into consideration, but I'm sure that this will go well.