SEASONAL PLANT

CYCLES

Session Focus

Children will be know the basic seasonal-cycles of common plants and trees. Children will associate these changes with weather conditions across the seasons.

Curriculum Links

Science: Observe changes across the four seasons; Observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies; Identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees; Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.Geography: Identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom; Notice features of their local environment.

Resources• Tree Season Cycle Chart & Sorting Cards (scroll down)• Clothes throughout different Seasons. (e.g. wooly hat &

gloves; sunglasses & sun cap; umbrella; warm jumper & kite.)

• Camera Key Vocabularylife-cycle, seed, shoot, root, leaf, bud, twig, flower, berry, fruit, seed, branch, shape, colour, size, pattern, features, season, spring, summer, autumn, winter, temperature, daylight, weather, light, sun, climate.

Risk Assessments Generic Site RA

PIONEER SCHEME SECTION OBJECTIVES

LEVEL 4

WELLBEING & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Understands people have different likes and dislikes and respects them.

SELF MANAGEMENT OF RISK

• Takes a controlled risk whilst ensuring rules are followed.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

• Can leave the outdoor environment how they found it and know why this is important.

RESILIENCE & PROBLEM SOLVING

• Experiences the outdoor site over all seasons.

ENVIRONMENT • Can talk about the weather patterns and link it to seasons

• Identifies and names a common trees and plants using simple ID guides.

• Can identify whether a tree is deciduous or evergreen.

• Names the parts and structure of plants, flowers & trees.

• Celebrates their own and others’ achievements.

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SESSION REFLECTIONS

WEATHER RELATEDSESSIONS

www.outdoorlearningmadeeasy.co.uk

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EDOUTDOOR LEARNINGSITE SUSTAINABILITY

PLAN

Session Outline• Discuss the four seasons with the children and the common weather patterns associated with each.

• Talk about daylight hours in the different seasons and how in the Winter we often wake up and go to bed when it’s dark, but in the summer it is light. Briefly explain this is due to the earth’s distance from the sun.

• Hold up various items of clothing and props and the children are to shout out a season in which we need them. (E.g. wooly hat & gloves = winter; sunglasses and sun cap = summer; umbrella = spring; warm jumper & kite = Autumn).

• Can the trees and plants change their clothes in each of the seasons?

• How do the trees adapt or change in each season and how is this related to the weather & daylight hours? In the Winter, the Earth is further away from the sun and so there are less daylight hours and the temperature is colder than in the Summer. This causes the trees to loose their leaves in the winter as the trees need warmth and sunlight to grow. As the Earth gets closer to the sun in the Spring, the Earth warms up and there are more daylight hours and so new life starts to grow as buds on trees. As the daylight hours reach their longest and temperature the warmest, during the summer plants are blooming. When the temperature starts to drop again and daylight hours get shorter, leaves start to fall and trees produce fruits containing seeds in preparation for their new life-cycle.

• Give the children time to explore their outdoor area. Encourage them to look carefully at the trees in their outdoor learning area and identify which season it is?

• Are there any trees which do not fit this pattern? (Evergreen) • Can the children find any Evergreen trees in their outdoor learning

area?• Can the children predict how the trees in their outdoor

environment will change throughout the seasons?• Take a group photograph in front of a deciduous trees in their

outdoor learning area to save/ print ready to compare in future seasons.

• In Pairs, can they put the Tree Season Cycle Pictures into the correct seasons? Can they identify the evergreen and deciduous trees? (Scroll down for resources)

Differentiation: HA - Can they find any species which show different stages of their season-cycles or are all the species in the same stages?LA- Concentrate on one species to describe and study.Extension: Focus on Elder throughout different seasons & allow the children to sample some produce from different seasons, e.g. Elderberry jam,

Elderflower fritters or Elderflower cordial, etc.

SEASONAL CYCLE CARDS (A) - Print, cut and laminate enough sets for one between each pair

Oak

Oak

Oak

Oak

Holly

Holly

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SEASONAL CYCLE CARDS (B) - Print, cut and laminate

enough sets for one between each pair

www.outdoorlearningmadeeasy.co.uk ©

Holly

Holly

Elder

Elder

Elder

Elder

SEASONAL CYCLE CARDS - ANSWERS

www.outdoorlearningmadeeasy.co.uk ©

Spring Summer Autumn Winter

Oak

Holly

Elder