Weather and Seasons: Explore

What are seasons?

Choose an activity that enables learners to observe and compare the four seasons in the UK – ensure you highlight how the seasons influence different things, e.g. the clothes we wear, the flowers we can spot, the animals we see and the food we can grow.

This is recommended as session two in the Key Stage One Weather and Seasons unit of learning, supporting learners to compare seasons.

< 30 minutes
KS1

Preparation

Green skills

  • Recording data

Step by step

Quick Starter Activity

Use images of different seasons in the UK to prompt discussion. For example:

Winter treeSummer beach

 

Ask learners the following questions for each image:  

  • What season do you think it is? 
  • Why do you think this? 
  • How does this season or weather make you feel?

Main Activity Suggestions

Suggestion 1 (Outdoor)

Oak National Academy: How do trees change across the seasons? In this activity, children observe the changes that occur to trees during different seasons. They analyse the annual calendar and compare events to the seasons. Learners then look at the weather that can be seen in each season and how this may affect our calendar events.

Suggestion 2 (Indoor)

YPTE: Seasonal Change. These short activities support young people to name and describe the four seasons, observing weather associated with each, as well as how day length varies.

Suggestion 3 (Outdoor)

Eden Project: Nature’s Colour. A short activity supporting learners to explore the changing colour of leaves at different times of the year. 

Top Tips

To support an equitable approach to learning, ask learners whose families live in different countries to compare seasons in the UK to climate where their families live and share with the class.

Curriculum links