Draw the Tree in Four Seasons

The same bare tree is printed four times on this kindergarten seasons page, once in each of four large panels labeled Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, with the season's sign beside each label. The tree is a trunk and a fan of empty branches, drawn in outline, standing on a ground line. The child draws what the tree looks like in that season: bare branches and snow, buds and blossom, a full green crown, orange leaves in the air and on the ground. There is no right answer printed anywhere, only four empty trees.

Every other page in this family asks the child to recognize a season; this one asks the child to produce it, which is a different and harder kind of knowing. Drawing the same tree four times makes the change itself the subject: the trunk never moves, only what grows on it. It is an open-ended page, so the teacher reads the drawings for what the child knows (blossom before leaves, leaves before bare) rather than marking them, and it makes a good talking page for a child who has more to say than to write.

It prints on one portrait sheet and asks for colored pencils or crayons. Do it after a walk to look at a real tree, or spread across the year with one panel finished each season and the sheet kept in a folder. The four seasons sort page and the which season is it page are the recognition tasks that lead here, and the season wheel gives the order the four panels follow.