Activity: Exploring the Four Seasons

As fall begins, now would be a great time to talk about the seasons with your students and to explain what happens in the garden in each season.


Materials:
Construction Paper
Markers/crayons

Activity:

• Ask students to name the four seasons. (Write them on the board).
  
• Ask questions about each of the seasons:
  What is the weather like in the winter/spring/summer/fall?
  Can you name some activities we do in the winter/springs/summer/fall?
  What do you usually wear in the winter/spring/summer/fall?
  
• Explain that just as we do different activities and wear different clothes for each season, the garden is also different in each season. In particular, the weather also plays an important role for each season in the garden.
  
• Ask students how the garden changes with each season.
  
  In the spring, we prepare our garden and plant seeds. The rain helps to water our seeds so that they can grow.
  
  In the summer, the sun helps our plants continue to grow big and tall.
  
  In the fall, our plants are ready to be harvested. We get to pick them and enjoy eating them. The weather starts getting colder in the fall and we have to prepare our garden for next year.
  
  In the winter, it is too cold for most of our plants to grow outside. It snows in the winter and covers up our garden.

• Give each student a piece of paper and ask them to draw a picture of each season. Have students include different activities that occur in each season and/or draw what the garden looks like in each season.
  
• Have students share their completed drawings.
  

Work Cited
Activity adapted from “Me and the Seasons” in Jaffe, R. & Appel, G. (2007). The Growing Classroom: Garden-based science. National Gardening Association: South Burlington, VT.