Let’s Learn the Seasons of a Tree!

In Seasons Machine, Bing and Bong learn about the seasons by watching how a tree changes. When Bing finds the tree, it looks cold, so Bong jumps up into the limbs of the tree to keep it warm. Bing finds him and tries to get him down from the frozen tree, but Bong is stuck.

Bing goes into a cave and finds a Seasons Machine on the Tiny Planet of Nature. This machine can change the season right away when you click a button, unlike seasons on earth that take months to pass.

Bing presses the Spring button, the weather warms up, and Bong gets out of the tree. The tree changes for each season.

In Spring, the tree has yellow flowers. In Summer it has fruit. In Autumn, all of its leaves fall. You will watch a tree through the seasons, too!

Parents

The Seasons Machine episode allows kids to see how the four seasons of the year work quickly. This activity will help five year-olds become more aware of seasons where they live by getting to know a tree near their home. Help them choose a tree they can find and come back to again and again. Children this young are so immediate in their interests, you can help bring them back to their tree in different seasons, and make sure they can find their My Tree notebook over a period of months. It’s quite special for children to slow down in nature and observe something like a tree closely. Your child is likely to like the tree and notice more and more over time.

Skills

• Observing details (roots, limbs, leaves, bark)
• Fine motor coordination (drawing)
• Counting
• Ecology (noticing the tree in a context)
• Nature-awareness (imagining a tree’s experience)

Author: Ann H. McCormick, PhD