Definition of seasons for kids: season – Kids | Britannica Kids

Season Facts for Kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

For other uses, see Season (disambiguation).

The four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

A season is a part of a year. In most areas of the world there are four seasons in a year: spring, summer, autumn (British English) or fall (US English), and winter.

In some areas there are a different number of seasons. For example, in the tropical parts of Australia (in the northern parts of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory), wet and dry seasons are also observed. These are in addition to, or replace the regular season names.

In places which are tropical and subtropical, there are two seasons: the rainy (or wet, or monsoon) season and the dry season. This is because the rain changes more than the temperature.

Summer is a warm season because the days are longer and the Sun is high in the sky, giving direct light to the ground. Winter is a cold season because the days are shorter and the Sun is low in the sky, giving indirect light to the ground. Both the changes in the length of the day and the height of the Sun at noon are caused by the tilt of the Earth’s spin axis with respect to the plane of the Earth’s path around the Sun. At any time, in any season, the northern and southern hemispheres (halves of the Earth) have opposite seasons.

Four-season calendar reckoning

Animation of seasonal differences especially snow cover through the year

Meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year and winter the coldest quarter of the year. In 1780 the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (which became defunct in 1795), an early international organization for meteorology, defined seasons as groupings of three whole months as identified by the Gregorian calendar. Ever since, professional meteorologists all over the world have used this definition.

Therefore, for temperate areas in the northern hemisphere, spring begins on 1 March, summer on 1 June, autumn on 1 September, and winter on 1 December. For the southern hemisphere temperate zone, spring begins on 1 September, summer on 1 December, autumn on 1 March, and winter on 1 June.

In Australasia the meteorological terms for seasons apply to the temperate zone that occupies all of New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the south-eastern corner of South Australia and the south-west of Western Australia, and the south east Queensland areas south of Brisbane.

In Sweden and Finland, meteorologists use a non-calendar based definition for the seasons based on the temperature. Spring begins when the daily averaged temperature permanently rises above 0 °C, summer begins when the temperature permanently rises above +10 °C, summer ends when the temperature permanently falls below +10 °C and winter begins when the temperature permanently falls below 0 °C. “Permanently” here means that the daily averaged temperature has remained above or below the limit for seven consecutive days.

In Great Britain, the onset of spring used to be defined as when the maximum daily temperature reached 50 °F (10 °C) in a defined sequence of days. This almost always occurred in March. However, with global warming this temperature is now not uncommon in the winter.

Related pages

• Northern Hemisphere
• Southern Hemisphere
• Eastern Hemisphere
• Western Hemisphere
• Equator
• Tropic of Cancer
• Tropic of Capricorn
• Arctic Circle
• Antarctic Circle

Images for kids

• Tropical wet season/monsoon in Maharashtra, India

• Illumination of Earth at each change of astronomical season

• Four temperate and subpolar seasons: (above) winter, spring, (below) summer, autumn/fall

• The annual cycle of insolation (Sun energy, shown in blue) with key points for seasons (middle), quarter days (top) and cross-quarter days (bottom) along with months (lower) and Zodiac houses (upper). The cycle of temperature (shown in pink) is delayed by seasonal lag.

• The six modern mid-latitude ecological seasons. From bottom, clockwise: prevernal, vernal, estival, serotinal, autumnal, hibernal

• Wet and dry seasons

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Season Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.

why are there different seasons at specific times of the year?

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages, where The Conversation asks experts to answer questions from kids. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom of this article.

Why do we have different seasons at specific times of the year? – Shrey, age nine, Mumbai, India

Over the course of a year, the Earth goes on a journey around the Sun. The reason we have seasons is because, during its journey around the Sun, the Earth is tilted. The Earth’s tilt affects the amount of daylight each hemisphere gets, which in turn makes the temperature hotter or colder.

For example, if you live in the northern hemisphere – that’s north of the equator, like in Europe, USA, or India – then winter happens in December, January and February. That’s when the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, and the days are shorter.

For anywhere south of the equator, such as Australia or Latin America, it’s summer during these months. That’s because the southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, and the days are longer.

Solstices and equinoxes

Every season has a middle point. In summer and winter, these midpoints are called solstices. The summer solstice is the longest day, and shortest night, of the year. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the longest night.

In spring and autumn, the midpoints are called the equinoxes. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, day and night are the same length.

For thousands and thousands of years – right back to the Stone Age – people have known how to work out when the solstices and equinoxes happen throughout the year.

Stonehenge at sunset.
codybeckner/Flickr., CC BY-NC

Indeed, they built hundreds of amazing stone circles – like the famous Stonehenge – all over Europe, which marked certain times of the seasons across the year.

These days, we even know how to calculate the seasons on other planets. For example, the next Spring equinox on Mars is on the 23rd March.

Journey around the Sun

To understand how this works, imagine a small ball (representing the Earth) moving around a lightbulb (the Sun) in a circle. Let’s say the ball has a line drawn around the middle, representing the equator. If you have these things at home, you can try this yourself.

As the ball moves around the lightbulb, the half closest to the light will be lit, while the other half will be in darkness. One full circle around the lightbulb represents one full year on Earth.

As you move the ball around the lightbulb, try spinning it between your fingertips, so that the light always shines directly onto the equator.

If the Earth span like this, day and night would be the same length all year round, and there would be no seasons.

The Earth without seasons.
Ian Whittaker., Author provided

Now, take that small ball and tilt it at an angle, so that the light from the bulb no longer shines directly on the equator. If you are doing this at home, it might help to colour in either the top or bottom half of the ball.

The Earth’s tilt

Now the hemispheres of the ball will get different amounts of light at any one time. The hemisphere tilted away from the bulb gets less light, and the hemisphere tilted towards the bulb gets more.

The Earth in January.
Ian Whittaker. , Author provided

That means it’s “summer” in the hemisphere tilted towards the lightbulb, and “winter” in the hemisphere tilted away.

Keeping the ball at the same angle, move it to the other side of the light bulb. The hemisphere that was tilted away from the bulb is now tilted towards it. So, the hemisphere that was in “winter” when you started moving the ball, is now in “summer”, and the hemisphere that was in “summer” is now in “winter”.

The Earth in June.
Ian Whittaker., Author provided

The same thing happens as the Earth moves around the Sun, which is what gives us different seasons at specific times of the year.

Remember, the decrease in sunlight and colder temperatures you get during winter is not because the hemisphere is further away, but because the sun is above the horizon for a much shorter time.

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More Curious Kids articles, written by academic experts:

• Why has nobody found any life outside of Earth? – Anna, age 12, Sydney, Australia

• People say that everything is made of molecules. Are feelings made of molecules? Is sound made of molecules? – Claire, age six, Bristol, UK

• Do cats and dogs understand humans when they make miaowing or barking noises? – Mila, age 11 and Alex, age eight

Methodology “Determining the time of the year from pictures”

(The task can be included in the conversation and replace questions aimed at identifying a stock of information about natural phenomena, flora, etc. )

Equipment
Four pictures depicting the seasons (see APPENDIX 1).

12 pictures depicting various objects related to a certain season (3 for each season) (Appendix 2).

Study objectives
Revealing the completeness and accuracy of children’s ideas about the seasons. Storage of information about the environment. The ability to establish causal relationships based on the analysis of the situation. Speech development.

Procedure
Four large pictures depicting different seasons are laid out in turn in front of the child, accompanying each with the question: “When does this happen? When does it snow?” etc. After looking at these pictures, the child is given 12 smaller pictures and are asked to decompose them into corresponding large pictures. Instruction: “Look at what time of year each picture fits and put it there. ”

Analysis of the results

Children with normal mental development look at each picture with pleasure. Depending on the level of speech development, some children call in separate words what they see in the picture, others build phrases. By the age of 6, they must independently compose a story from the picture. Determining the time of year by signs (fallen leaves, snow, etc.) does not cause difficulties. Correlation of objects with the seasons is feasible for them, but some children need clarifying questions.

Mentally retarded children , as a rule, name in the pictures what falls into their field of vision, without summarizing what they saw on their own. With leading questions and pronounced signs, they recognize the seasons. Answers – in the form of separate words, which is associated with the poverty of the dictionary and the difficulties of constructing a phrase. They do not understand the task of laying out pictures according to the time of year (they simply put small pictures on top of large ones without taking into account signs). When learning, activity improves, but the poverty of ideas about the world around us often leads to erroneous results.

Children with mental retardation understand the meaning of the task. The season in the pictures is determined, but when laying out the pictures, constant clarification is necessary, since many children have insufficient information about the environment. Difficulties arise in the independent description of the picture.

When analyzing the results, you can use the following assessment of the results:

Source: Nemov RS “Psychology in 3 volumes”. – Volume 3, page 124

Evaluation of results

10 points – in the allotted time (2 min.) the child correctly named and connected all the pictures with the seasons, indicating at least 2 signs on each main one, indicating that the picture shows this particular season (not all less than 8 signs in 4 pictures)
8-9 points – the child correctly named and connected all the pictures with the right seasons, indicating 5-7 signs confirming his opinion in all the pictures taken together.
6-7 points – the child correctly identified the seasons in all the pictures, but indicated only 3-4 signs confirming his opinion.
4 – 5 points – the child correctly identified the season only in 1-2 pictures out of 4 and indicated 1-2 signs to support his opinion.
0 – 3 points – the child could not correctly identify any of the seasons and did not name exactly a single sign (a different number of points from 0 to 3 is given depending on whether the child tried or did not try to do this).

Conclusions on the level of development

10 points – very high
8 – 9 points – high
6 – 7 points – average
4 – 5 points – low
0 – 3 points – very low 9000

Appendix 1

0001