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Lesson Plans

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Changing Seasons

Students will learn about the changing seasons, then create a triorama depicting two different seasons in one scene.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

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  • Recycled File Folders
  • Tape

Steps

  • Step 1

    Have a discussion about the changing seasons, and ask students to describe characteristics of each season. Have students learn about how Earth's tilted axis and its rotation cause the different seasons. Tell students they will be making a triorama, a three-sided 3D creation, that depicts two different seasons. Have them plan the scene they want to create, perhaps an animal that's half in winter and half in spring.

  • Step 2

    To create the triorama students will fold a square piece of heavy paper or a recycled file folder bringing opposite corners together to form a diagonal line. Then have them cut along one of the folds from the corner to the center. To form the triorama they will pull one flap back over the other. Have them note which area will be hidden from view when this is done. They should lay the drawing surface flat for ease of decorating the background of their triorama. When they are done they will take that one end of the flap and pull it behind the other flap and secure it with tape. Have them illustrate two different seasons on the left and right sides. They might, for example, put a tree in the middle that displays bare branches on the left and green leaves on the right. The base will also be divided in half so that the left side might show snow on the ground while the right side shows green grass. They can cut additional features, such as an animal, shrubbery, or anything else, out of heavy paper. 

  • Step 3

    Students can cut additional features, such as animals, shrubbery, or anything else, out of heavy paper and arrange and tape them into the triorama. 

  • Step 4

    Have students present their trioramas and discuss the scene they created as well as activities they enjoy in each of the seasons.

Standards

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas. 

SCI: Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season. 

Adaptations

Seasons differ around the world.  Explain that in Australia, which is in the Southern Hemisphere, spring is from September to November, summer is from December to February, autumn is from March to May, and winter is from June to August. Have students sketch themselves performing an activity in a different season in Australia. They might show themselves wearing winter gear in July or swimming in the ocean in December, for example.

Ask students to write a poem about one of the seasons. It can be rhyming, free-form, an acrostic, haiku, or any other form.