PK Learns about Seasons

Theme: How the world works

Central idea: Changing seasons can change the way we live.

“Elsa,” “snowman,” and “ice cream” were the words they used when I asked what preschoolers knew about the different seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter might be intuitive for adults. Yet, how do these children who only lived for the Earth to go around the Sun a few times to understand how seasons affect their lives?

So, this is what we did. Before we talked about seasons, we first covered nature, weather, months of the year, and temperature. After that, for each season, the preschoolers asked questions. Any question, from “why is Summer so hot?” to “why do we eat hotpot in Winter?”. And then, we tried to answer these questions by reading books, watching videos, singing songs, reading poems. And active learning experiences like things acting out the rotation of Sun and Earth, a seasonal wear dress-up game, playing with bubbles, watching ice cubes melt, using a thermometer to learn about hot, warm, cool and cold, and using fruit and vegetable as stamps to make art to name a few.

Through those explorations, the students were able to expand and deepen their understanding of seasons and how seasons change the way we live.