Overview: If your students are suffering from the cold-weather blues, turn your classroom into a summer resort for a day or a week. They will get a chance to pretend it’s warm, and also do comparison activities that will put their brains to work.
Teacher Preparation: turn your classroom into a summer resort with lots of lighting and plants, and have students bring beach towels, sunscreen lotion, beach balls, etc. Make a large sun (wearing sunglasses) to hang in the room.
Procedure Ideas:
* Research and compare average temperatures in June with January.
* Have students make two lists: Typical Summer Activities and Typical Winter Activities.
* Compare summer Olympic sports with winter ones.
* Compare winter food with summer, including a look at gardening.
* Share picture books with summer themes.
* List countries that have summer in January.
* Make ice cream.
* Make a sandbox in a corner complete with little shovels and buckets.
* Discuss dangers of staying out in the sun too long.
Points to Remember: Half the world experiences the opposite season at any given time, and the internet is a way to make contact with kids experiencing different climates (for example, we loved the e-mail we got from Austrailia talking about celebrating Christmas by the pool…). To make contact with other schools, go to our Key Pals page for information on listing your class.