The Free Printable - Earth Goes Around the Sun Geography Activity

One of the most fundamental concepts in geography is the Earth’s rotation around the sun, which gives us our four seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Teaching young children about this concept can be a fun and engaging experience.

With the “The Earth Goes Around the Sun” printable, preschool and kindergarten children can visually see how the Earth moves through the four seasons, as well as the months of the year. This resource allows children to understand the cyclical nature of our planet’s rotation and how it impacts the weather and climate in different regions.

One way to use this printable in your classroom is to create hands-on activities that involve matching the seasons to the corresponding months of the year. You can use clipart images to represent each season (such as flowers for spring, a sun for summer, leaves for autumn, and snowflakes for winter) and have children match them to the months on the printable.

You can also create a simple timeline activity where children arrange the months in the correct order to show how the Earth progresses through the seasons throughout the year. This will help them develop a better understanding of time and how it relates to the changing seasons.

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Another fun activity you can do with this printable is to have children draw or color in pictures of what each season looks like in their own region. This can help them understand that while seasons may look different in different parts of the world, they all follow the same pattern of change throughout the year.

This printable can be a helpful addition to your end-of-the-year classroom activities. As you wrap up your year, assemble this poster. Poke a hole in the middle of the poster, cut the earth round and the sun, and fasten using a paper fastener. In your small group, demonstrate to your students the passage of time from the month when your academic year commenced to the current moment in time as you rotate the earth around the sun.

As you do so, invite your students to share their thoughts on their favorite events, and talk about fun facts they’ve learned during this time.

You can also create a shelf work using this printable. Cut season cards, label cards, and colored circles. Attach hooks and loops for children to match the circles that represent the months of each season. Print the first page for reference or self-check. Invite the child to assemble the poster – place seasons in the correct order, the Earth and the Sun in the center, and match circles and month labels to the correct season of the year.

I also included an editable version for those who wish to translate the labels into a different language or use it for teaching children in the southern hemisphere.

In our classroom, we sang the song The Earth Goes Around the Sun included in the printable. You might like to use the labels and poster as you teach this song to your students.

Seasons, months of the year, and a poster with a picture of the Earth that rotates around the Sun.

Here is what’s included:

Editable – translate seasons and months of the year into any language
Poster
Label cards
Season picture cards
Picture of the Earth
Picture of the Sun

“The Earth Goes Around the Sun” printable is a valuable resource for teaching young children about the Earth’s rotation and the four seasons. It provides a visually engaging way for children to learn and understand these important concepts in geography, making it a valuable addition to any preschool or kindergarten classroom.