Seasons South and North

Seasons and Months Around the World - Keeping Track

 

I find that, as I write more blogs about the different seasons around the world, keeping track of what is going on where becomes more difficult. So, I thought I'd put together a little chart to help.  It gives a sampling of locations in the northern hemisphere, along the equator, and in the southern hemisphere, with what seasons they experience for any given month.

I would have liked to put in some drawings, put it is all ready so dense, that I thought they would make it too hard to read. I wanted to keep it A4 size so that readers can download and print it:

Download Chart of Seasons and Months Around the World

I might do a much larger one some day, a poster perhaps, so that I can put in some illustration.  

I also think it might be a nice idea to do more charts of other aspects of seasons around the world. I do hope this will be helpful.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Technorati Profile

Winds That Herald Storms Coming and Storms Going

Across the world from one another, two October winds are traditionally known as heralds of tropical storm activity. 

In Mexico, El Cordonazo, which means the lash or whip, giving a pretty good idea of how fierce it can be, can hit the west coast just around the 4th of October. It may continue for a couple of weeks longer. When it blows in off the Pacific Ocean, lashing at the trees and buildings, it is a herald of tropical storms and people know to protect their homes and themselves.

Far away from the Americas,  in India, another great wind makes an announcement, this time that the storms are finished for the season. The Gharapuri is a strong wind from the south the arrival of which means that the southwest rainy monsoon season is ended.

Discussion

Wind is something that we cannot see, but we can see its effects. Discuss with children how they cannot see the wind but they can see the trees bending, the clouds moving, flags flapping, laundry on the line billowing. Ask them what else they cannot see but the effects of which they can see (and try to lead the discussion more toward electricity or gravity and away from ghosts). 

The interest in these two winds is that they are heralds of a change in the weather. From repeated observation of these winds coming at the same time or just before the changes, people were able to recognize what was coming and even to plan and prepare. Ask the children what weather events or natural phenomena they know of the indicate something to happen in the future. Their lives are short and they have not seen many repetitions, so perhaps their knowledge will be limited to the sun going down meaning that soon it will be dark. No matter. The point is to encourage them to look at the world around them and to pay attention to it, to observe its changes and learn its patterns.

Geography

Discover more about Mexico and India and the oceans full of storms that surround them.

Mexico For Kids is a delightful site for learning more about this country.

India by the Woodlands Junior School is a great site for children to learn more about India.

Dance

With the children and some scarves or other very light fabric, create wind dances. Have some of the children be the lashing wind that heralds storms, while others can be the soft zephyr that heralds the end of the stormy season.

For more wind activities, see the post on Autumn winds of the 5th of May, 2009. See also the many books about winds in the panel to the right.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Technorati Profile

Myths of Spring and Autumn

Aristotle wrote that he read the old myths more and more as he grew older, for they were so true to human nature. That is why they were first told, to enlighten us to certain unchanging aspects of human behaviour; and surely that is why Freud raided their character list to name his complexes and ailments. Myths generally got it wrong when it came to explaining certain phenomena, though they are so poetic they can be forgiven, but they rarely got it wrong about people and their emotions in the long play of life: jealousy, romantic love, desire, mother love, despair, vanity, are all explained in stories that have lost none of their validity over the centuries. 

The Greek myth explaining the cycles of the seasons in the terms of a mother's grief at the loss of her beautiful daughter to a cold and aloof husband is a story of maternal love and devotion above all. Whether you are in the southern hemisphere, where it is spring because Persephone has returned to her mother for a visit, or in the northern hemisphere, where it is autumn because Demeter is grieving that her daughter has gone away again, tell the children the story. Ask them to tell their own stories about something cyclical, whether the seasons or some other lesson about life's repetitions they may all ready have learned in their young lives. Let their poetic side express itself, for there is no need to adhere to scientific explanations when sharing myths. Send us your best stories and we will post them here.

For a simple version of the myth about Persephone, Demeter and Hades, here are some links:

Odds Bodkin's retelling of the story for the very young

And a Greek production for children in which you can hear the names pronounced correctly:

Demeter and Persephone. Theatre for children @ Yahoo! Video

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Harvest Moon

This year, the Harvest Moon, (that fall moon which occurs closest to the September equinox, for the northern hemisphere) will be tonight, the 4th of October. It may not be orange, but it will be as beautiful as ever and will carry with it the symbolism of autumn celebrations and harvest festivals.

Harvest festivals have a charm all their own. The origin of the North American Thanksgivings, they are ancient in their observance and simple in their meaning: gratitude for the harvest's yields. Traditionally, the festivals have involved an offering of food and drink to the gods, or decorating a church with food, sheaves and flowers, and feasting. 

A Planting/Harvesting Seasons Table

In the same vein as the South/North Seasons Table, decorate a seasons table with two sides: one with tokens of spring (which is the current season in the southern hemisphere) being sure to include many seeds for fruits, grains and vegetables, and perhaps some that you have sprouted in advance. On the other side, place tokens of autumn, such as leaves whose colours have turned, and apples, gourds, sheaves, etc. Put in plenty that relate to one another, enabling you to discuss with the children how the seasons relate to the growth cycles of the plants that give us food.

See the Light of the Harvest Moon

Plan a class night outdoors in the school yard or garden late enough to be in darkness with the full moon above. Note the silvery glow of the light as compared with sunlight. Lead the children to look at familiar trees, tones, shrubs, etc. Point out how different the colours seem in moonlight. 

(Do NOT allow this to become a time for scary stories. This is a lesson in observation. It is NOT a time to create fear.)

The next day, take the children to look at the same objects and plants in sunlight and see how the colours have changed.

To illustrate the difference even more: Close the curtains and blinds, blocking out all light. Shine a torch or flashlight onto some colourful objects in the room. Then, take a mirror and use it to shine the torch's reflected light upon the same object. Explain to the children that the moon's light is really the sun's reflected light and, as such, much weaker, making the colours seem different.

Finally, point out that, without light we would not have colour and that without plants that we eat, we would not see at all.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Technorati Profile

Autumn Leaves

It is autumn in the southern hemisphere. In the south of Chile and Argentina, the southern beech (Nothofagus) trees' leaves are turning colour and in New Zealand, the poplar leaves have all gone yellow. Creatures and plants are preparing for a cold and windy season to come.

There are numerous explanations of the seasons using the life cycle of a tree. We thought we would use a leaf this time....with a mouse. The following craft not only explains the changes a leaf goes through, but how it is a part of the larger world. The resulting drawing allows the child who made it to use it as a small storytelling prop.

The Leaf and Mouse Storytelling Prop

Download Half a leaf 

Download this sketch or make your own of the same shape.

Make enough copies for each child to have one.

Ask the children to:

Fold the paper along the base of the shape and cut out the shape.

Keeping it folded, draw a simple mouse:nose, whiskers, eye, ear.

Colour the mouse grey.

Turn the mouse over and on this side, draw the veins of a leaf.

Colour this half of a leaf brown.

Open the shape and draw the veins of a leaf on both sides.

Colour one side green and one side yellow.

To Tell the Story of a Leaf

Each child now can:

Hold up the green side and explain that when leaves bud and unfold, they are green.

Turn the shape and hold up the yellow side and say that leaves turn yellow in the autumn when the weather turns colder.

Open the shape and refold it to show the brown side and tell how the leaves die, turn brown and fall to the ground.

Turn the shape and show the mouse who needs a home.

Open the shape and show the mouse and the brown leaf together and tell how a mouse will use dead leaves to make a nest.

Fold the mouse and brown side together and say that now the mouse is warm in her nest of leaves.

THE END

Now the children can take home their project and explain the changes in leaves to their families.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Technorati Profile