Seasons

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Home : 2004 : September : 27

Seasons
By NBCT

I usually find some way to teach a concept using art since I myself am a visual learner. (Make one of these yourself before trying to explain it to your students. You can make it as cute as you want (face on Sun, stars in
sky, etc.) or as life-like (scan actual pictures of Earth and reduce to needed size). Whatever you do, take it step by step together.

What I have done in the past is to take black construction paper (9X12) and using a white crayon draw a big circle in the middle to represent the Sun. Draw 4 smaller circles around the Sun to represent the Earth in its 4 seasonal stages. Make sure

to add an axis that shows the Earth's tilt on each one. After that is done, take a square of yellow tissue paper (it should be slightly bigger than the circle)and fold the edges under to fit to the Sun's circle. Glue it down. Do the same to each Earth using blue tissue paper. I have my students add details with crayons and markers including the shadow (following the axis line) to show what countries of the Earth receive the Sun's rays at different times of the year. This seems to show them why its the tilt that causes the seasons and not how close the Earth is to the Sun.

For the moon's phases, get small styrofoam balls and cut them in half. Glue them down on a piece of cardboard (painted black). Paint the phases on each "moon" and label. Be sure to include the Sun and Earth. The main concept is that the moon does not have a light source of its own. It only reflects the Sun's light, so be sure to draw a set of lines from the Sun (using a ruler)that show the paths to each moon. (You can do this to only the full moon if you want.) The 2 lines of each set should form the ouside edge of the reflected area. Using a white crayon lightly color the area inside the lines to show the entire path of the light from the Sun to the moon. I hope this helps, and that it's not too confusing! Good luck!