Key Stage 1 geography · Human and physical geography

KS1 geography: UK weather and seasons

In Key Stage 1, children learn to notice and describe the weather every day and to recognise the pattern of the four seasons through the year in the United Kingdom. They record the weather, use words such as sunny, windy and frosty, and begin to see how the seasons affect plants, animals and what people wear and do. This is the groundwork for the study of climate and for the science of seasonal change.

Weather and seasons, explained

Weather is what the air is doing outside right now: sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy, foggy, snowy or frosty, and hot, warm, cool or cold. It can change within a day. Children begin by observing it and describing it in words and symbols, often with a weather chart in the classroom where a different child is the “weather reporter” each day. A common routine is to look out of the window first thing, draw or choose the weather symbol, and add a temperature if the class has a thermometer.

The seasons are the larger pattern. The UK has four: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Spring is a time of new growth, with buds, blossom and young animals. Summer is the warmest season, with the longest days. Autumn brings falling leaves, harvests and shorter days, and winter is the coldest, with the shortest days and the most frost. In general, schools think of spring as March to May, summer as June to August, autumn as September to November and winter as December to February, though the weather does not follow the calendar exactly.

Children are expected to spot daily and seasonal patterns. A daily pattern might be that mornings are often cooler than afternoons, or that a frosty morning often leads to a bright, cold day. A seasonal pattern might be that it is usually warmer and lighter in summer than in winter. Teachers collect observations over weeks and months, often with tallies and pictograms, which is a natural link to maths. Children do not need to know why the seasons happen; that comes much later in science. In Year 1 science, children also observe changes across the four seasons and how day length varies, so the two subjects often work together. The same objective also covers hot and cold areas of the world, which children study separately in relation to the Equator and the Poles.

Weather and seasons also give children useful geographical vocabulary. The National Curriculum list for Key Stage 1 includes the words season and weather, along with physical features such as beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley and vegetation. Children learn to describe how the weather affects what they can see in a place, for example puddles in rain, dry grass in a hot spell, snow on hills, or leaves piling up in autumn.

Words your child will hear

Weather: What the air outside is like at a particular time, such as rainy, windy or sunny.
Season: One of the four parts of the year: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Temperature: How hot or cold something is, measured with a thermometer in degrees.
Forecast: A prediction of what the weather will be like soon.
Frost: A thin layer of ice crystals that forms on cold, clear nights.
Thermometer: A tool for measuring temperature. The line or number shows how hot or cold it is.
Pattern: Something that happens again and again in a similar way.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught to identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
Pupils should be taught to use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to: key physical features and key human features
Key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: reading a week’s weather chart

A class recorded the weather at 9 o’clock each morning in October: Monday cloudy, Tuesday rainy, Wednesday rainy, Thursday sunny, Friday cloudy. What does the chart tell us?

Tally each type of weather. Cloudy: 2 days. Rainy: 2 days. Sunny: 1 day. Check the total: 2 + 2 + 1 = 5 days, which matches the five days recorded.
Say which weather happened most. Cloudy and rainy tied with 2 days each. Sunny happened least, on only 1 day.
Say what season it is. October is in autumn in the UK, so grey and wet days are not surprising.
Spot a pattern, with care. After two wet days, the sun came out. One week is too short to say this always happens, so we say “this week”.
Predict and test. Ask what you think the weather will be next week, and then record it to see.

Over the five days it was cloudy twice, rainy twice and sunny once. It is autumn, so cloudy and rainy weather is normal, but one week is not enough to show a pattern for the whole season.

Common mistakes and how to help

Mixing up weather and seasons

Both are about the sky and the temperature, and children hear them together, such as “winter weather”.

What helps: Weather changes from hour to hour. The season changes only every three months or so. Ask “Is that weather or season?” as you go about the day.

Expecting each season to bring the same weather every day

Children are taught that summer is hot and winter is cold, so a cold summer day or a mild day in winter can confuse them.

What helps: Say “usually”. Summer is usually warmer than winter, but weather varies, and the UK is known for changing quickly. Look at the forecast together.

Thinking the temperature is the whole weather

Temperature is the number on the thermometer, so a child may say it is “nice” whenever the number is high, forgetting about wind, rain or cloud.

What helps: Describe weather with several words: “cold, bright and windy”. Ask what you would need to wear for each.

Believing that all places have the same seasons at the same time

At this age children think of the seasons as belonging to the calendar. But places in the southern half of the world have summer when the UK has winter.

What helps: You do not need to teach the reason yet. If your child asks, say that in Australia it is summer when we have winter, and use a globe to show it is a long way south.

How to help at home

Be the weather reporter. Each morning, look out of the window with your child and choose words to describe the weather. Draw a symbol on a calendar for a month and see what you notice at the end.
Make a simple rain gauge. Stand a straight-sided jar or tub outside, away from where anyone will trip on it. Check it after rain and measure how deep the water is with a ruler. Compare it day to day.
Watch the wind. Tie a light ribbon or strip of cloth to a stick and hold it up, or watch how trees and washing move. Ask: is it still, breezy or very windy? Which direction is it blowing?
Take a seasonal photograph. Photograph the same tree or view once a month for a year, or draw it. Placing the pictures side by side shows the pattern of the seasons clearly. Never look directly at the sun, even on a bright day.
Dress for the weather. Before going out, ask your child to check the weather and choose what to wear. It is a real use of weather knowledge, and it builds independence.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts
Key Stage 2: Rivers and the water cycle
Key Stage 2: Mountains
Key Stage 2: Volcanoes and earthquakes
Key Stage 2: Settlements and land use
Key Stage 2: Economic activity and trade
Key Stage 2: Natural resources