Seasons and holidays
Fall Leaf Portrait
Find a real fall leaf, look closely and draw its portrait: the veins, the edges and every color.
Thinking sheet · Seasons and holidays
Shortest Day, Longest Night
In December the night is longest. Track sunrise and sunset, and draw what you do in the dark hours.
- Grades
- 1–5
- Time
- about 20 minutes
- Topic
- Seasons and holidays
- Kids practice
- earth and sun, telling time, seasons
What kids do
“The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Notice the dark!”
- The sun rose at
- The sun set at
- Outside my window after dark
- Cozy things I do on long nights:
- After the solstice, the days will get…
How to run it
- Look up sunrise and sunset times for your town.
- In the Southern Hemisphere it’s the longest day in December!
- Compare with times from June on the back.
Talk about it
- Why do winter days get shorter?
- How do animals handle long nights?
- What do you like about the dark?
Take it further
Track sunset every Friday until spring.
Pairs well with
Free for home and classroom use. Print as many copies as you need.
More thinking sheets
Seasons and holidays
Leaf Color Graph
Collect leaves, sort them by color and make a bar graph of what you found.
Seasons and holidays
Pumpkin Faces Three Ways
Design three jack-o’-lantern faces: friendly, silly and surprised. Then pick one to carve or paint.
Seasons and holidays
Scarecrow Makeover
The crows aren’t scared of this scarecrow at all. Give it a makeover that works (or makes them laugh).
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