天气和季节
Tiānqì hé jìjié — Weather & Seasons
Kindergarten learned sunny and rainy. Grade 3 adds the four seasons, temperature, and the small word 了 that signals something has changed — the first appearance of an idea Grade 4 will build a whole unit on.
Unit objectives
- Name the four seasons and describe each
- Give a two-sentence weather report
- Use 了 to mark a change: 天气冷了
- Say which season they like and give one reason
Key vocabulary
春天 夏天 秋天 冬天 天气 热 冷 暖和 阴天 风
A first look at 了
Put 了 at the end and the sentence says “this is new — it wasn’t like this before”:
天气很冷。 The weather is cold.
天气冷了。 It’s got cold. (it wasn’t before)
This is a gentle first meeting with 了. Grade 4 Unit 7 handles it properly — for now students just need to feel that it signals change.
Four seasons, one changing sky
The four seasons
All four end in 天 — the same character as “day” and “sky.” Four words, almost no new load.
Hot, cold, warm, windy
Temperature and conditions, matched to photographs of real places on the same day.
The weather report
Students present a two-sentence forecast to the class, like a television presenter.
My favourite season
An opinion with a reason attached — the first time students justify a preference in Chinese.
A country of many climates
China spans roughly the same range of latitudes as the United States, and its weather varies just as wildly. Harbin in the north-east runs an annual ice festival with buildings carved from frozen river blocks; Hainan in the south is tropical, with palm trees and beaches, in the same week. Asking students to compare two Chinese cities’ forecasts on the same day makes the point better than any map — and gives them a real reason to read numbers and weather words.
Unit 5 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child describe today’s weather in two sentences?
- Can they name all four seasons?
- Do they hear the difference between 冷 and 冷了?
A daily weather sentence at breakfast is the cheapest, most effective homework in the whole year.