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Hello Everyone!
I am currently working on a kindergarten lesson plan about the characteristics of the four seasons. To engage my students in the lesson, I have considered reading them a book about the four seasons and having a discussion afterward. Does anyone have any suggestions for other engaging activities I could incorporate into the beginning of my lesson?
Thank You!
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Hello,
A great way to engage students in the four seasons is to display the different caracteristics about he four seasons. Take students for a walk around your school and point out the things in the environment that change in each season. Have students do observational drawings of a tree that changes when the weather changes. Also, make their learning meaningful by allowing the students to lead the exploration. Ask students what they want to know about the four seasons. WHen you ask a student their feelings about the topic you are modeling for them.
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Hi Morgan!
I am an Early Childhood Major at the University of Northern Iowa hoping to teach Kindergarten someday. I have actually written a mini-unit on the four seasons for preschoolers and it was so fun to create. I love that you are planning to do this. I would suggest having the students investigate with hands-on activites and play. In my science methods course, we learned all about early childhood stem and how important it is for children to learn through playing. I think it would be awesome if you could have sensory tables; for example having leaves in a bucket for fall, or maybe ice for winter. You could also make it a year long project and have students take turns charting the temperature each day and disuss the patterns. Hope this helps!
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Hi Morgan,
I am currently studying Early Childhood Education at the University of Northern Iowa. I think this is a great idea for a lesson for kindergarteners because they are often curious a about the different seasons. I agree a great idea to read a book to them about the seasons to peak their interests. I would also suggests some hands on activities because I have learned that younger children learn better through hands on activities. You could draw a picutre of a tree and then split the leaves into four groups and have different materials to represent each of the seasons for the students to put onto the drawing. You could have matching/ sorting games where the students have to determine which season the picture goes with which season such as a raincoat and umbrella to go with spring.
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Hi Morgan, I would suggest playing a sound of each season as you read to them and have the students make the sound everytime the season word is mention that way its engaging and fun!
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One caveat as I read through these posts....seasons do not look the same in all parts of the country, which is a wonderful exploration itself. Most people use snow as a symbol for winter; I was five before I ever saw snow
I would recommend that you slow this lesson down and extend it into other areas. What knowledge do the chidlren already have of summer? of the other seasons? How do they describe each of the seasons? How do they divide the seasons? What holdiays or evetns do they use as seasonal markers?
Once you have that information, extend it sensorially - what does that season smell like in that specific locale?
Then the fun part. See where else in the country the stduents have connections, pick several and write / email them asking for seasonal descriptions etc in their locales.
Now you have a question which can relate back to earth's systems!
Have fun
Anne
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Hello! I am currently a student studying to become a teacher. I think you can make up games or talk about how the leaves are according to the season. I found a worksheet you might like to do with your students. Here is the link to it. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/212935888609514173/
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Hello Morgan!
I am currently a student studying to get my teaching degree. Learning about the four seasons should be fun and also interesting. I was looking at pinterest for any ideas about how to engage the students after reading the book and found a really fun activity that could make the students think about each season. Here is a link to the activity i liked: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/103934703880029287/. I hope you and your students have fun and like the activity.
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Starting with a read aloud sounds like a great idea! You could also take them outside to look at an experience a season or each season as it comes around. For instance for fall you could go outside and look at the leaves, or do a project with leaves. For winter you could go outside for a few minutes when its snowing and see how each snowflake is different, or how the snow can pack together when it is a wet snow. For spring, you could go outside and see the plants and flowers growing or track how much it rains outside- which could even turn into a math concept!
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Hi, Morgan! I definitely think that for a lesson about the four seasons you could have your students sing a song about seasons with you! I know that there are a lot of songs that are appropriate for kindergarten lessons and you should be able to find a couple on YouTube.
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Wow, that is a great idea! I will be sure to look into songs I can incorporate in my lesson. Thank you so much for the suggestion.
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Hi Morgan!
I have no idea if there even are gonoodle videos regarding the four seasons, but getting students up and moving with dance is a great way to motivate them and get them thinking about a topic! Having a tool like gonoodle is specifically helpful when there's a large group involved. If you haven't checked it out at all, you definitely should give it a try!
Hope it went/is going all well!
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https://youtu.be/vjNgyAOgp70
Hello fellow science teacher, I am replying you behalf of Funsciencedemos YouTube Channel that is home to hundreds of free videos for ideas for teachers and students to recreate in the classroom. Science is our passion and we are so excited to share our engaging, kid-teacher-parent friendly, and interactive lessons with you to use in the classroom or at home. Our videos adhere to the common core science standards, encompass a wide variety of science concepts, and are specifically geared toward younger learners. All videos on the FunScienceDemos channel come with an English subtitle that can be translated into almost any language, making science lessons accessible virtually any place in the world. We encourage you check it out and spread the word! We post new science videos once a month, please subscribe our channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/funsciencedemos Sincerely, The FunScienceDemos Team
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Hello Morgan,
I have an idea that you can do over four days or a couple of days. First read the book The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons or there is a verson of the story on YouTube. Next, prepare ahead for each student a 11'x17' white construction paper, fold twice (by width) so you have 4 sections. Depending on the age you can cut out trees or Kindergarten children could probably draw trees without any leaves or blooms in each section. Cut out a large number of small leaves from green construction paper. You will need the green leaves for the spring and summer trees. You could demonstrate how to draw a tree with just the trunk and branches. Label each section, winter, spring, summer and fall. Place or draw a tree in each section. The first tree for winter will be bare, but students can draw a snowman next to it. You could ask the class, 'How can we make this picture of the apple tree look like it does in winter, spring, etc.?' Let them come up with ideas or ask them questions about the book. For spring have children place leaves and either small white crumpled tissue paper or some small cotton balls on their tree. For summer, the tree will have leaves and green apples, which you can have them draw with a green marker, use a dot marker or cut them out. For the fall tree, children can tear small pieces of orange and yellow contruction paper, glue on their tree, and then add red apples by drawing them with a red marker, using a dot marker or by cutting out small red circles.
The other teacher and myself, teach our 3-year-olds some American Sign Language throughout the school year. We teach them how to sign each letter we are learning in the alphabet. Along with the alphabet, I teach them how to sign the season's.
Have fun and good luck!
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Hi there! I think some good ideas would be having the students watch a video focusing on seasons and some hands on activities can be a sensory table with things from the different seasons! I've also seen teachers have students create the different trees of the seasons with finger paints !
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I remember that during music on the university, we were looking for ways to engage students and one of my peers found songs that described the four seasons and they were catching. At the age of 20, which was when I was taking the course, I found it to be a fun and engaging way fo learning the seasons and it could help the students remember. This is the link to the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjpI6fgYSY
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Hello Morgan!
A great way to engage your students would be to take them on a nature walk. Have your students draw or talk about things they notice like the trees, color of the leaves, or any plants they see. This will engage them because they will have a better understanding of what season it is based on what they observe. After discussing the season that is taking place, you can then introduce the other season and teach them about what changes will happen in each season.
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Hi Morgan,
I would suggest playing a fun song or video about the four seasons to help the kids immediately become engaged. I am currently a college student studying to become a teacher and I had to create a lesson plan and present it to the students in the class that I was doing my field observations in. I chose to teach my students about the four seasons and began first with a song on youtube. I played it at the begginning with both an English and Spanish version because it was a bilingual class. I continued with my lesson by doing several activities and then I played it again at the end of the lesson. They seemed to really like it so I'm sure your students will too! Here are the links to the songs I used.
English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjpI6fgYSY Spanish version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf6-Gy1IQN0
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Try introducing a book or open the lesson up with a question! The book can be anything weather related or have something to do with either season. If you would rather have a discussion, start by having a question and answer session! You can ask students if they have ever learned about the seasons or talked with a grown up about them, or have them share their experiences. This is a great way to interest students in the topic and bring in their funds of knowledge, aka the information they already know via experience or learning. Students love talking about themselves and talking to others!
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I'm a preservice teacher, so I haven't had a chance to do this yet... but I have a lesson plan centered around Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons.' For PreK/K/1st grade students, I will give each student photos of 4 items that represent each season. While playing clips from each season's concerto, the kids will vote on which season they think is being represented by holding up the corresponding item. For example, if the Fall concerto is played, then the kids would hold up their orange or red leaf, an acorn, a pumpkin, etc. Here's a link to the 'Four Seasons.' Hope your lesson goes well!
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