Season Wheel: Seasons in Order

One large wheel sits in the middle of this kindergarten seasons page: four circles arranged like the points of a compass, joined by orange arrows that run clockwise. The top circle is filled in with a snowflake and the word Winter. The other three are dashed and empty. Below the wheel a bank shows the three missing signs with their names, Fall, Spring and Summer, in a scrambled order. The child works out which season follows Winter, draws its sign in the next circle along the arrow, and carries on round until the wheel is complete. Nothing is written, only drawn.

The wheel is the first place a child meets the idea that the seasons come back around, which a list on a wall never shows. Because only one season is given and the arrows fix the direction, there is exactly one correct filling, and the child has to reason from the neighbor rather than from a memorized chant. Drawing the sign instead of writing the word keeps the task within reach at this age, and the bank removes the need to invent a symbol. The teacher watches whether the child follows the arrows or fills the circles in reading order.

It prints on one portrait sheet and works in black and white, since the signs are line drawings. A child who finishes can be asked to say the wheel aloud starting from any circle. The four seasons sort page and which season is it page come before this one; the months and seasons page at first grade puts the twelve months onto the same four-season order, and the draw the tree page shows the cycle through one tree.