Items for each season (wool scarves, beach hats, rake, snow shovel, rain boots, winter boots, seed packets, hot chocolate package, plastic jack-o-lantern, sand bucket, swimming suit, coats ofdifferent weights)
5 strips of paper labeled (Spring, Winter, Fall, Summer and All Year)
What to do
Place the seasonal items on the floor and ask children to sit in a circle around the items.
Hold up an item, such as a rake and ask the children if they have raked leaves. Ask the children in which season did they rake leaves. Hold up other items representing different seasons. As youtalk about each season, place the season's label on the floor. Count the labels with the children and talk about the four seasons in each year. Tell them that a fifth label is for items that areused in more than one season. Put the label All Year next to the other four labels.
Ask each child to choose an item, tell which season the item is used and why, then place the item under the appropriate season label. Some items will fit into two or more categories, such as aswimming suit. The child can talk about how he goes swimming all year. He would then place this item under the All Year label.
After all the items have been sorted, assign children into five groups: winter, spring, summer, fall and all year. Encourage the children to plan a short skit with their props. This might be assimple as pretending to make a snowman or as elaborate as a play with individual speaking parts, depending on the ages and abilities of the children. Ask the children to present the short skits forthe other children.
More to do
Art: Cut four pieces of butcher paper (or use one long piece divided into four sections) and label each one with the name of a season. Working in groups, the children create amural using paints, crayons or markers depicting things their families do in the different seasons. For example, a child might draw a picture of a child on a sled on the winter mural.
Related books
My Favorite Time of the Year by Susan Pearson The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons Sleepy Bear by Lydia Dabcovich
