Once Upon a Book ~ What Makes the Seasons?

What Makes the Seasons? 

by Megan Montague Cash

 

Summary: This rhyming story features a little girl who discovers all the many ways that the weather changes throughout each of the different seasons.

Bible Verse

“He changes times and seasons.” Daniel 2:21a Four Seasons Book: To go along with What Makes the Seasons? we made a book about the four seasons. I got this idea from our Hands-On-Homeschooling curriculum. Since I could not share the printables from the curriculum, I created my own printables so that I could share them with you. The link to download as well as more details on our book is here.

     Computer

First-School had a link to a site showing how trees change in the different seasons. The links are below:

• Trees in the Winter
• Trees in the Spring
• Trees in the Summer
• Trees in the Fall

Craft

After viewing the different trees and how they change, we decided to decorate a tree based on a season of choice…the boys chose spring and winter. Our spring tree has blossoms (we used popcorn) on it and the winter tree is covered in snow (we used salt). For the tree trunk and branches we traced their arms and fingers.

 

Snack

We decided to make a Spring-themed snack. So, we opted for flowers. If you would like other season-themed snack options, you may want to try a sun for summer, a snowman for winter, or acorns for fall.

Math

We integrated math into our snack. After the boys made their flowers, I asked them various questions like:

• How many raisins did you use?
• Did you use more oranges than apples?
• How many pretzels do you have left over?
• How many raisins and carrots did you use?
• Which do you have more of…carrots or apples?
• Which do you have less of…oranges or raisins?

Vocabulary

We talked about the meanings and characteristics of the words listed below. What Makes the Seasons? proved to be a fun and helpful addition to our discussion!

• summer
• winter
• spring
• fall
• autumn
• seasons
• hibernate
• weather
• blossoms

Science

As described in What Makes The Seasons, the “Earth’s yearly trip around the sun affects the seasons one by one.” To illustrate this point, we used a globe and flashlight. We went into a closet and turned the light out. One of the boys held the flashlight and the other got to turn the globe. We talked a little bit about the Earth rotating around the sun and spinning on it axis and I explained to them that when it is winter here, it is summer on the other side of the globe, etc.

Games

The boys played with the Seasons File Folder game that we made. The object is to match of different clothing items with the appropriate season.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!