The Four Seasons game

After collecting a variety of fabrics — choosing colours and patterns according to the colours of the four seasons, we made a chart by dividing it into four main fractions, one for each season. We embroidered the name of the seasons and then the name of the months in each fraction.

This traditional Chinese game was used to teach the name of the seasons and their order in the annual cycle.

Aim

The child learns the names and the order of the four seasons.

Objectives

• Honor the changes of the seasons
• Develop the power of observation
• Prepare indirectly for learning about the time
• Prepare for understanding the related science

Age

3+

Materials

• A fabric Four Seasons Chart

Control of error

None

Language

Name of the seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn

Presentation

This activity is carried out in a small group of four children.

Invite the children to sit down, making a circle. Once they are all settled, place the Four Seasons Chart in the middle of the group. Walking around the Chart, tell the children that they will be learning about the four seasons. Pause and name each season as you step alongside each fraction.

Invite each child to stand one at a time in seasonal order (i.e. spring, summer, autumn, winter). The first child starts by saying, “I am spring. I am leaving”. Then invite the child in the summer to stand up and say, “I am summer. I am coming”. This child will then continue, “I am summer. I am leaving.” The autumn child would stand up and continues. The game finishes as the fourth season has been called out.

Ideas

The children may like to hold a photograph of a tree through the four seasons and place it on their seasonal fraction. The pictures of the tree may help them identify, define, compare and contrast characteristics of each season.

This exercise may be carried out as an individual exercise in which the child may use theme cards or real items (i.e. clothing, food) and match each item to each seasonal fraction.

Children learn about the changing of the seasons with hands-on experiences every day. Developing a connection to nature by observing seasonal changes is a year-long activity.

Making ice mobiles: This activity involves putting natural items in shallow containers. Place a string across your container, make sure that part of the string is coming out, as you will be using it to hung up your mobile. Once frozen, remove the frozen ice shapes from each container and hung them outside.

The Four Seasons chart opens up various possibilities. You might like to use it as birthday chart in your classroom; whenever needed for an activity, it can be easily removed from the wall and placed on the floor.