Winter
Background Information & Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Learning about seasons and weather helps children understand the natural world around us. This movie will teach children about winter weather, and how people, plants, and animals adapt to survive this season. Invite children to share their experiences with weather and seasons, and then build on their knowledge to teach how and why seasons and weather change. We recommend screening Seasons before watching other movies on specific seasons to provide a general overview and to review basic science concepts. The Winter movie goes more in depth about the season and explains how Earth’s axis and orbit around the Sun causes seasons to change. It also discusses how seasons influence a few key weather conditions, such as rain, snow, and sleet, and explores how there are fewer hours of daylight in the winter.

Have children discuss what winter is like in your area. Have they ever experienced any big winter storms? What happened? You may want to use a thermometer to measure outdoor temperatures during the winter and throughout other seasons. This provides a great practice for children to use a thermometer and collect data. We recommend exploring the Temperature movie for review or extension. Explain that in many areas, winter is the coldest season of the year. What kind of weather occurs during winter? Review with children that precipitation is water that falls to Earth from the sky. Snow and rain are both kinds of precipitation. Sleet occurs when snowflakes melt and freeze as they fall to Earth. Sleet looks like little ice pellets. Some places, such as Florida, rarely have snow during the year. Invite children to name other places where it rarely snows. It may be helpful to chart those places on a map or globe to notice that many of those places are close to the Equator. You can also go online and compare the temperature in these places to the temperature in your community.

Review with children that it takes about a year for Earth to orbit the Sun, and that Earth is tilted on an axis. Using a globe or ball to illustrate the movement, show students how Earth’s axis and orbit around the Sun causes seasons to change during the year. In winter, our part of Earth is tilted away from the Sun and in summer, our part of Earth is tilted toward the Sun. Show children that the Equator is an imaginary line that goes around the middle of Earth. The countries near the Equator do not tilt toward or away from the Sun that much throughout the year, so the weather is consistently warm and mostly sunny. The half of Earth above the Equator is called the northern hemisphere. The half of Earth below the Equator is called the southern hemisphere. When the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, the southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. This means that when it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is summer in the southern hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere, winter begins at the winter solstice (in December) and ends at the spring equinox (in March). In the southern hemisphere, winter is in June, July, and August.

Discuss how animals might survive cold, snowy winters. You may want to screen the Hibernation movie to learn more. During winter, many animals hibernate, or fall into a deep sleep, to survive the cold weather. Many people think bears hibernate, but they actually go into torpor. When the temperature goes up on warm days, bears wake up and feed. Then they sleep again when the weather gets colder. Other animals migrate, or move to another place for the winter. Many animals grow thick layers of fat or thick fur to help them survive colder weather. Some animals have fur that changes color in the winter, allowing them to blend in with the snow and be less vulnerable to predators. Encourage children to come up with other ways animals survive the winter.

Learning about seasons and why they change helps children connect their own experiences to more abstract science concepts. In addition to screening the movies in the Weather unit, we recommend using plenty of maps and models of the solar system to help children understand Earth’s orbit, axis, and the changing seasons.

See more lesson plans and resources: BrainPOP Educators.

Winter Teacher Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Winter Wonderland

Tell the class you will be taking an imaginary vacation to a winter wonderland. Have students brainstorm the kind of weather they might experience and the animals they might see. Have students share their ideas with the class. Where might people and animals live in this place? How cold might it get? How might people stay warm? Encourage students to be creative but remind them that they must consider the weather first and foremost. Then have students draw pictures of clothes they will need to stay warm in the winter weather. Go around the room, having students show their pictures and explain why they think they will need these items when they are on the imaginary trip.

Orbit

If possible, take your students outside or to a gym where there is plenty of space. Assign students to partners. One partner can act as the Earth and one student can act as the Sun. Ask all the Suns to stand still. Ask the Earths to identify where their Equator is. Where is their northern hemisphere? Where is their southern hemisphere? Where is their axis? Then ask the Earths to try spinning around their Sun in a circle, or orbiting. After they have had a chance to orbit a few times, ask students to switch roles. You may also want to talk about how long this orbit takes, and discuss how the Earth tilts towards or away from the Sun.

Hemispheres

Remind your students that Earth is tilted at an angle. Have students make a model of the Earth by painting small balls or Styrofoam spheres. Students can create the Earth’s axis by poking a stick through the center of the ball and then they can model its orbit around the Sun. Have students draw a red line to show the Equator on their models, and paint the northern and southern hemispheres different colors. Then have them make a model of the Sun. As students model the orbit, they can see how during winter, one hemisphere tilts away from the Sun, while the other tilts toward the Sun.

December Travel Guide

Working in small groups, have each group pick three countries: one in the northern hemisphere, one near the Equator, and one in the southern hemisphere. You may also want to divide your class into three groups and assign them countries. Students can go to the library or use the Internet to research weather in the countries throughout the year. Then have students make a vacation travel guide for the month of December to these countries. What is the weather like in December in each of these places? What are the local activities in December? How is their weather reflected in the way they celebrate any December holidays? Your students may want to draw pictures and cut out photographs from magazines as well as write a short description of each location. Have students share their travel guides with the whole class.

Winter Family Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Winter Weather

Have your child record the weather during the winter. You can purchase an inexpensive thermometer and have your child measure the temperature outdoors and keep track on a line graph or monthly calendar. Your child should also record weather conditions such as sun, wind, fog, rain, snow, or sleet. You can use a clear cup with a ruler to measure rainfall or put a yardstick in the ground to measure snowfall. At the end of a week, month, or year, look back at the weather for specific time periods and draw conclusions about the seasons. What was the coldest month? What was the hottest week? When was the coldest day in the winter? When did it rain the most? Together with your child, go online to compare these statistics to last year, and to make a prediction for next month's weather.

Winter Animals

If possible, take a trip to a zoo with your child. Look at all the animals together and discuss how they might survive during in the winter. Remind your child that countries near the Equator stay warm all year. Would a monkey from the tropical rainforest survive in a place with freezing temperatures? Would a snake do well in a snowy climate? Why or why not? Encourage children to think of ways each animal adapts to its environment. Why might a fox’s fur turn white during the winter? How might a raccoon stay warm during the winter? You may want to ask an expert or tour guide at the zoo for more information, or have your child write his or her questions down so you can look it up at the library or on the Internet together.