Seasons of the Year

Summer

Summer is the warmest time of year because the top part of the Earth is facing the Sun. The longest days of the year occur during the summer months. June is the time of the summer solstice, the longest day of the calendar year. The time of the solstice is determined by the location of the Sun which is directly over the Tropic of Cancer on that longest day.  

Autumn

This is one of the two in-between seasons. During summer, the North Pole is leaning towards the Sun and the South Pole leans towards the Sun in winter. In Autumn, the Sun is directly over the Equator during September. Autumn events include leaves falling from trees, shorter days than summer, and harvesting summer crops. 

Winter

This is the season where the Earth is tilted way from the Sun and the South Pole is getting all of the light. In December, the Earth hits its next marker when the winter solstice occurs. That shortest day of the year happens when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at noon. From that point, everything starts to change again. Winter events include colder temperatures, snow and winter storms, the shortest days of the year, and the hibernation of some animals. 

Spring

Spring is a time for rebirth and emerging from the short and cold days of winter. March is the time of the vernal equinox that signals the official start of spring. As far as the position of the planet, it is a bit of a mirror image to its position in autumn. The Sun is directly over the Equator. Spring events include blooms of wildflowers, new leaves on trees, warmer days that winter, and wetter weather. 

Activities:

• Seasons of the year - exercises
• Drag and drop
• The four seasons
• Seasons: Hangman game
• Match up 1, 2 and 3
• A matter of time
• Months and seasons, 1
• Months ans seasons, 2
• Months and seasons, 3
• Months and seasons, 4

Leap Day

Leap Day is February 29, which is an extra day added during a Leap Year, making the year 366 days long – and not 365 days, like a common year. Nearly every 4 years is a Leap Year.

A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year.

A person born on February 29 may be called a leapling or a leaper. In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1. In some situations, March 1 is used as the birthday in a non-leap year since it is the day following February 28. People born on February 29 are all invited to join The Honor society of Leap Year Day Babies.

Folk traditions:

• In Britain and Ireland, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years.
• In Denmark, the tradition is that women may propose on the leap day, and that refusal must be compensated with 12 pairs of gloves.
• In Finland, the tradition is that if a man refuses a woman's proposal on leap day, he should buy her the fabrics for a skirt.
• In Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky. One in five engaged couples in Greece will plan to avoid getting married in a leap year.
• In Scotland, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on Leap Day.

Seasons

Days of the Week: Activities

A bunch of sorted activities to review the vocabulary of the days of the week.

• From English Exercises, crosswords, words search, unscrambling... 
• Try a hangman from English-Hilfen.
• What about a crossword from English-Hilfen too?
• A listening game from ESL Games.

Months of the Year: Activities

A bunch of sorted activities to review the vocabulary of the months of the year.

• From English Exercises, crosswords, words search, unscrambling... 
• Try a hangman from English-Hilfen.
• What about a crossword from English-Hilfen?
• A listening memory game from ESL Games.

Friday I'm in Love

To review the days of the week, let's have an eye to a song by The Cure: Friday, I'm in Love.

First of all, let's watch the video:

Secondly, the lyrics:

I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too
Thursday I don't care about you
It's Friday I'm in love

Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday Wednesday break my heart
Thursday doesn't even start
It's Friday I'm in love
Saturday wait
And Sunday always comes too late
But Friday never hesitate...

I don't care if Mondays black
Tuesday Wednesday heart attack
Thursday never looking back
It's Friday I'm in love

Monday you can hold your head
Tuesday Wednesday stay in bed
Or Thursday watch the walls instead
It's Friday I'm in love
Saturday wait
And Sunday always comes too late
But Friday never hesitate...

Dressed up to the eyes
It's a wonderful surprise
To see your shoes and your spirits rise
Throwing out your frown
And just smiling at the sound
And as sleek as a shriek
Spinning round and round
Always take a big bite
It's such a gorgeous sight
To see you eat in the middle of the night
You can never get enough
Enough of this stuff
It's FridayI'm in love.

And finally, a visual way to understand the words:

Calendar Song

Night and Day

There are 24 hours in a day. The day is divided into day and night. Daytime is from sunrise (approximately at 6am) to sunset(approximately at 6pm). Night-time is from sunset to sunrise.

Every day starts precisely at midnight. AM (Ante-Meridiem = before noon) starts just after midnight. PM (Post-Meridiem=after noon) starts just after midday. This means that 12am and 12pm have no meaning.

This diagram shows the cycle of a 24-hour day and the words we use to describe its parts. The day starts at midnight.

To refer to these parts of the day, we use different prepositions:

In the morning.	6,00 AM – 12,00 PM
In the afternoon.	12,00 PM – 6,00 PM
In the evening.	6,00 PM – 12,00 AM
At night.	12,00 AM – 6,00 AM

Telling the Time

Telling the time in English is not very difficult.

Telling the Time (2)

Useful Expressions to Tell the Time

Here you have some useful expressions to tell the time:

Daily Routines

A video clip to review daily routines:

In this other, you will review daily routines while practising the present simple tense and the time:

Daily Routines 2

Playing with the Time

If you want to review how to tell the time in English, you can check this blog: The Teacher. Just follow this link.

But if you want to get fun and learn at the same time, here you can find lots of on-line games related to time in English:

• Free Training Tutorial
• Classroom
• Woodlands
• Timemonsters
• Maths games
• Bfgl

Expressions with Time

Spring

Spring, spring is coming soon

Grass is green and flowers bloom

Birds returning from the south

Bees are buzzing all about

Leaves are budding everywhere

Spring, spring is finally here!

Activities for this Spring:

• Squigly's Games
• DLTK's
• A Kid's Heart