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Sort the Seasons

Science · Reception–Year 2

Drag each seasonal change into spring, summer, autumn or winter.

About the season sort

Thirty-two pictures and four boxes. Drag each one into the season it belongs to, and once every picture is down the board says whether they are all in the right place. Four boards by topic, and a Mixed board that deals eight at a time from all of them.

Two cards for every season on every board, so a class cannot finish it by counting. Three in one season and one in another would let them sort six pictures and put the rest wherever there was room, which is the question answering itself.

The Mixed board is the one to finish on. Four boards of one topic each let a class lean on the topic rather than on the season: once they are sorting the trees, every card is a tree and the question is narrower than it looks. Mixed takes two cards from each of the four subjects and two for each season, so there is nothing to go on but the time of year. Press Next eight for the round after that, and four rounds gets through all thirty-two.

An animal is not a season, which is most of what the animals board had to get round. A squirrel is in the park in January and so is a robin, so neither of them is a change: what changes is what the animal is doing, which is why those cards are called Burying nuts and Hibernating rather than being named after the creature. The four that do name one are the four that are only here for part of the year.

Every picture is one season and only one season, and that threw out more cards than anything else. Rain falls all year. Frost belongs to autumn as much as winter. A butterfly is late spring as often as summer. What is left is what a class can defend: frogspawn is March, conkers are October, and there is nothing ambiguous about a snowman. A board that marks a card wrong when the class was right is worse than a shorter list.

Nothing is marked wrong. With every picture down, the board either says they are all right or names the first one in the wrong box and gives the reason it belongs in its own season, which is a reason that works again on the next card. Show me sorts them for reading back rather than for working out.

The drawings use the same paints as the Seasonal Changes board, so a class that has worked through the year on that tool is matching greens they already know.

How to use it on your whiteboard

  1. 1Drag a picture from the tray into one of the four seasons.
  2. 2Drag it out again to change your mind: a box is not a fixed place.
  3. 3Tap Trees, Weather, Animals or Outside for a set of pictures on one topic.
  4. 4Tap Mixed for eight from across all four, then Next eight for the round after that.
  5. 5Tap Show me to sort them, and Start again to take them all out.

Questions

What counts as a seasonal change?
Anything about a place that is different at one time of year from another: what a tree looks like, what the weather does, what is growing, and what we wear and do because of it. The three boards here are one of each.
Why is there no card for rain, or for frost in autumn?
Because a card has to belong to one season only. Rain falls all year in the UK, and the first frosts come in November as often as December. A sorting board that disagrees with a class who were right about their own weather is teaching them not to trust what they see.
Where are the butterflies and the bees?
Left out, for the same reason, and summer is the season that suffers for it. Every animal a poster puts in summer is about earlier than that: butterflies and bees are out in April, a ladybird has overwintered as an adult and is flying in spring, and dragonflies are still about in October. What is left is what arrives late and leaves early, so summer here is grasshoppers and swifts.
Can we use it with the Seasonal Changes tool?
That is what it is for. Work through the year on Seasonal Changes first, where the same oak, holly, field and pond are drawn in all four seasons, then sort the cards here. The drawings are in the same paints on purpose.
What is the Mixed board for?
The harder question. Four boards of one topic each quietly let a class look for the topic’s own tell, and once they have done the trees they know every card is a tree. Mixed takes two cards from each of the four, so the only thing left to go on is the time of year. Do it last.
Why only eight at a time on Mixed?
Because a box has to be able to hold every card. Nothing is marked wrong here, so a box can never refuse one, and that means the number of cards decides how big a card can be rather than the other way round. Thirty-two in a box leaves them too small to read the name under. So Mixed deals eight, and Next eight deals the round after that until the whole thirty-two have been round.
Does it mark anything wrong?
No. It waits until every picture is down, then either says they are all in the right season or names the first one that is not and says why it belongs where it does. There is no score and no cross.