Challenge children to illustrate the Native American story of Old Man Winter and Young Man Spring and the science story about why we have seasons.

Ask the children to think about the story they just heard.

• What happened in the story?
• What does it explain about our changing seasons?

Invite them to illustrate why we have seasons — or one aspect of the story.

Older children can work individually or in groups to illustrate the science story.

Illustration detail will depend on the age of the children.

Invite the children to create and illustrate their "own" story of why we have seasons.

Expand the types of materials available to include paint, tissue paper, glue, scissors, etc., so the children can make mosaics, mobiles, or sculptures to illustrate the stories.

More Activities

Last updated
January 4, 2007

Who?
Ages 5 and up

How Long?
30 minutes or longer

What's Needed?

• Crayons, colored pencils, or markers
• Paper or poster board

Connections to the National Science Standard(s)

Standards A&D (grades K–4): Understand and communicate the explanation (this communication may be illustrated) for the patterns of movement of objects in the sky. The sun, for example, appears to change its path over the seasons. Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.

Standards A&D (grades 5–8): Understand and communicate the scientific explanation of how objects in the solar system have regular and predictable motion that explains such phenomena as seasons. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on its axis and the length of the day.