For the comprehensive development of preschoolers in kindergarten and younger students, it is imperative to pay attention to the natural changes of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. For example, with the beginning of autumn and the new school year, you can conduct a lesson “Autumn changes in nature”, clearly explaining the topic of training in the park on walks or in the classroom using the material collected in advance. Older children keep a calendar of weather changes, drawing icons and making comparisons with previous years. It records autumn changes in nature (pictures and a herbarium are attached). On the topic of the lesson, the children should pay attention to the following points.
Golden Autumn
In central Russia, autumn is indeed "the charm of the eyes," as the poet said. The heat and stuffiness of summer is changed by a slight coolness. The days are gettingshorter and the nights longer and darker. Trees are the first to react to these autumn changes in nature. The leaves turn yellow and red, then slowly fly around, covering the entire neighborhood with a multi-colored carpet. The period of the golden Indian summer is coming, when nature still pleases with a moderate sun, when late fruits ripen, filled with both sweetness and aroma, but the nights are already getting colder and colder.
Leaf fall
This majestic and colorful natural phenomenon is associated with biological changes that occur in almost all wild trees during the cold periods of the year. The foliage falls and thus allows the plants to rest, prepare for a long winter hibernation, when all life processes inside the tree stop, and the juices stop circulating. Without leaves, trees consume much less water and do not accumulate much snow on their branches during snowfalls. This means that the risk of mechanical damage is reduced. In addition, along with the leaves, the plants shed all kinds of pests, which then die during the period when the cold sets in. We can say that autumn changes in nature begin with leaf fall. But this is in wildlife (after all, trees are also living beings that have the ability to breathe and grow). And how are the autumn changes in inanimate nature associated with the near onset of cold weather?
Mists
Indian summer is a short period, usually ending with the onset of October. Appearalready the first signs of inclement weather. Fogs, thick, sticky, resembling milk in their appearance, fill the autumn nature with dampness and a rotten smell. In its essence, fog is a thick cloud, which, as a result of a temperature drop, forms at the very surface of the soil. As soon as it warms up, the fog will dissipate. Moisture will fall on withered grass and foliage in the form of frost (if the ground is already cool enough).
Hoarfrost
To the topic of autumn changes in inanimate nature, such a phenomenon as hoarfrost also applies. In essence, these are small particles of dew frozen in the form of snowflakes. They cover all surfaces with a thin, uneven prickly layer. This suggests that the first frosts and negative temperatures have appeared in the atmosphere.
Winds and clouds
In autumn, the cold front of the atmosphere brings with it colder air masses. The winds react to this and change their direction, intensify, bringing bad weather and precipitation. This time of year sometimes becomes slushy and long, causing autumnal changes in nature.
In turn, cumulus rain clouds bring a huge amount of precipitation. If the temperature changes sharply enough, then you can feel strong winds at the beginning of autumn, see and feel the rains with snow, as a result of the appearance of a cold cyclone.
Ice drift and icy conditions
At the end of November, it happens that the air temperature drops to negative values. The water surface of various reservoirs is bound by the first crusts of ice. It most often occurs in ponds and lakes,where there is almost no flow. The ice is not quite strong yet, so the wind and currents carry it away, forming the so-called autumn ice drift.
Ice covering the soil in the middle and at the end of autumn is formed with a slight frost, which prevents the rain from turning into snow. The ground has not yet cooled down enough to cover itself with a blanket of snow, a harbinger of severe frosts.
Watching the autumn changes in nature, you can find out how the transition to the winter period of life, cold and snowy, is being prepared. When everything around seems to freeze until the next spring and the onset of warm days.
Autumn changes in wildlife
- We already talked about leaf fall in trees and its significance for plant life at the beginning of the article. It should be emphasized that trees also belong to wildlife, as they live and die, breathe and give offspring. For plants, autumn is a thorough preparation for the winter period, when all of them (living in natural conditions) fall into hibernation: vital activity and the exchange of juices decrease many times.
- Insects with the onset of cold weather hide and hibernate. This is a defensive reaction to lower temperatures. Many insects (such as flies or beetles) crawl into cozy crevices and at first glance appear to be dead. But it's not. With the onset of spring, they will come to life and fly again.
- Cold-blooded animals "fall asleep" as a result of the fact that they cannot maintain the temperature necessary for existence. Snakes, frogs, reptiles and amphibians - allfall into hibernation in late autumn.
- At the very beginning of autumn, birds prepare for flights to warmer climes. Then their flight begins. Wintering birds do not fly away and feed intensively in the autumn forests.
- Some mammals also hibernate in late autumn and early winter. But this is more likely due not to the onset of cold weather, but to the lack of food supply for them in winter. These animals include: bear, badger, marmot, hedgehog, some rodents (gopher, hamster, dormouse).
- Wintering mammals accumulate weight intensively in order to spend their own fat for heating and nutrition in winter cold.
Thus, the animal world is preparing for the approach of the winter cold period, reacting differently to autumn changes in nature.
