Four Seasons Sort

Eight pictures and four season boxes make up this kindergarten seasons page. A row of four pictures runs across the top, a row of four across the bottom, and in between sit the boxes, each with its sign and its name: a snowflake for Winter, a flower for Spring, a sun for Summer, a leaf for Fall. The pictures in this print are an ice skater, a seashell, a tulip bud, a sled, a red-leaved tree, a chick, a basket of apples and a swimmer. Every picture has an orange dot, every box has a dot on its top and bottom edge, and the child draws a line from picture to box. Two pictures belong to each season.

Sorting is the first thing a child can do with the seasons, before ordering them and long before naming their months. The page keeps the reasoning visible: a line is a decision the teacher can see and talk about, and a sled going to Summer is a conversation, not a mark. The signs matter as much as the names, because the other pages in this family use the same four signs without the words. The teacher listens for the reason behind each line; the chick belongs to Spring because that is when chicks hatch, not because it is yellow.

It prints in color, since the pictures carry the information, on one portrait sheet. Do it as a group first with the pictures named aloud, then individually. The which season is it page is the next step, with three pictures per card and the sign to circle; what does not belong flips the task into finding the intruder. Clothes for hot and cold weather, and the month names in order, are their own worksheet types.