Weather and Seasons

In kindergarten, students begin to develop the practices that scientists and engineers use to help them answer questions and solve problems. Students ask questions, make observations, and collect data as they explore weather patterns on Earth and investigate how different Earth materials are heated by the sun.

This page is a high level extract from lesson 6 where students create a seasonal flip chart to compare and contrast the typical weather associated with each season.

Science Background for Teachers:

This teacher background is intended to provide teachers with an in-depth explanation of the scientific phenomena that students will be exploring in multiple lessons of a larger unit. It seeks to answer the deeper “how” and “why” questions that teachers may have about the concepts being investigated.

Weather patterns change as the seasons change, which is the focus of students’ exploration in Lesson 6. A season is a time of year that has specific weather patterns and amounts of daylight. Many places on Earth experience four seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Earth’s changing seasons are caused by the angle at which the sun’s rays hit Earth. The part of Earth tilted toward the sun experiences summer because the sun’s rays hit this part of Earth more directly. This results in warmer temperatures and more hours of daylight compared to the part of Earth tilted away from the sun, which experiences less direct sunlight and therefore cooler temperatures and fewer hours of daylight.

Supports Grade K

Science Lesson: Discovering Weather and Seasons

In this lesson students explore different weather associated with each of the four seasons. They develop their vocabulary related to the seasons through a read aloud and Socratic dialogue with visual aids. Students will then create a seasonal flip chart to compare and contrast different weather as well as human behavior throughout the seasons. They will carry this understanding of weather and seasons as they continue to discover elements of weather including extreme weather.

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Science Big Ideas

  • Seasons are times of year that have specific weather patterns and amounts of daylight.
  • In most places, winter is associated with cold weather while summer typically means warm or hot weather.
  • Human beings modify their clothing and activities depending on the season.

Sample Unit CTA-2
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Science Essential Questions

  • What are the four seasons?
  • What makes one season different from another season?
  • What weather do you think about when you hear “summer”?
  • How do plants change from season to season?
  • What patterns did you notice in the temperatures for each season? Are some seasons warmer or cooler than others?

Common Science Misconceptions

Misconception: The seasons cause weather to change.

Fact: Seasons have specific weather patterns associated with them, but they aren’t the cause of the weather.  

Misconception: Snow and ice make it cold.

Fact: Snow and ice form when temperatures are low enough. In other words, cold weather causes snow and ice to form, not the other way around.

Science Vocabulary

Season : a time of year that has specific weather patterns and amounts of daylight

Lexile(R) Certified Non-Fiction Science Reading (Excerpt)

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Hands-on Science Activity

This hands-on mini-lesson has students creating a seasonal flip chart to compare and contrast weather patterns associated with each season. Students engage in a circle discussion where they discuss the differences of each season and then draw pictures to deepen their understanding of the seasons. Finally, they use their charts to communicate the information they learned about weather and seasons with their classmates.

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Science Assessments

KnowAtom incorporates formative and summative assessments designed to make students thinking visible for deeper student-centered learning.

  • Vocabulary Check
  • Lab Checkpoints
  • Concept Check Assessment 
  • Concept Map Assessment 
  • And More...

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Science Standards

See How KnowAtom Aligns to NGSS Science Standards

Discover hands-on screens-off core science curriculum for student centered K-8 classrooms. KnowAtom supports classrooms with all hands-on materials, curriculum, and professional development to support mastery of the standards.

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Standards citation: NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.

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