This week was dedicated to autumn. We learned about vineyards and grape varieties and tasted freshly picked grapes. We also played bingo, and the winners were rewarded with sweets.
The children were very curious to find out what the move into astronomical autumn means. Astronomically, the season begins at the autumn equinox, the moment when day equals night everywhere on Earth. At the equinox, the Sun passes through the autumnal point, where the ecliptic meets the celestial equator. After that, the day — the part of a twenty-four-hour cycle lit by the Sun — grows shorter and the night longer, right up to the winter solstice.
In the countryside, where traditions are still kept, the autumn equinox marks the end of the farming work and the celebration of the harvest. By tradition, this is the day when the first must is pressed from freshly picked grapes and the walnut trees are shaken. Next week we will learn about harvest celebrations.
The children were fascinated to understand how day and night arise from the Earth's rotation and how the seasons come about. This is one of those notions where intuition misleads the young: it seems natural that summer should be warm "because the Earth is closer to the Sun". Explained with a globe and a light source, the tilt of the axis becomes visible, and from there everything connects — including why, in autumn, it gets dark earlier and earlier.
About the after-school programme: https://pluskids.ro/en/after-school