What Causes the Seasons?

Are your students starting to be a bit curious about the world around them? Maybe they have asked questions such as how night turns into day or what causes the seasons to change. Let’s take a quick look at the reason why many places experience the four seasons throughout the year.

The changing of seasons is caused by the Earth’s tilt on its axis and its revolution around the sun. The Earth’s axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees, which means that different parts of the Earth receive different amounts of sunlight at different times of the year.

During the summer months, the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, which means that it receives more direct sunlight and longer days. This results in warmer temperatures. At the same time, the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, which results in cooler temperatures and shorter days, leading to winter weather.

Teach Starter has developed an instructional slide deck that you can use with your students when teaching the “why” behind the change of the seasons. Topics in this slide deck include:

• Understanding Earth’s orbit and tilted axis
• Direct and indirect light
• Opposite seasons
• Solstices and equinoxes

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your science lessons. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

• Complete the instructional slides in short “chunks” to allow for processing.
• Provide students with a printout of the slides to refer to during the lesson.

Make sure to check out additional resources that cover observable patterns on Earth!

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the Download button to access the editable Google Slides version of this resource. 

This resource was created by Bellamy Taylor-Pines, a teacher in Illinois and a Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities and resources that cut down on lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Cause of the Seasons – Word Wall Cards

Reinforce science vocabulary in your classroom with this set of word wall cards that focus on what causes the change of seasons.

teaching resource

Cause of the Seasons – Task Cards

Demonstrate an understanding of what causes the seasons with this set of 24 task cards.

teaching resource

What Causes the Seasons? Mini-Book

Explore what causes the seasons on Earth to change with this printable mini-book.