Earth’s axis is tilted about 23.5° from a line perpendicular to its orbital plane. During one orbit it keeps nearly the same direction in space. A hemisphere tilted towards the Sun gets more direct sunlight and longer days, giving summer. The opposite hemisphere gets winter. Distance alone cannot explain simultaneous opposite seasons. Safety: Paper only; no Sun viewing, heat lamps or exposure experiments. Stop: Stop at two orbit positions and the supplied daylight example. No temperature experiment or year-long observations.

Materials: Paper; Pencil; Ruler 1. Draw a Sun at page centre and equal-size Earth circles 6 cm left and right of it. Label left June and right December. In both Earths draw the axis leaning from lower left to upper right by about 23.5° from page vertical. Mark the upper end N. The page is an orbital-plane schematic, not a distance model. 2. Draw sunlight arrows from the Sun to both Earths. At June, the north end leans towards the Sun; at December it leans away. Add an equator at right angles to each axis. Write north summer/south winter at June and north winter/south summer at December. 3. Create an illustrative daylight card pair for latitude 45°N: June solstice about 15.5 hours daylight; December solstice about 8.5 hours. These rounded practice values are not a forecast for the family’s home. Link the longer day to more daily sunlight. 4. Add a counterexample card: Earth reaches its closest Sun distance around early January, while northern mid-latitudes have winter. Explain why that refutes a whole-Earth closer-means-summer explanation. 5. Write two cause sentences: one about sunlight angle and one about day length. Actual weather varies; summer does not mean every day is hot. Done: Complete both tilted Earths, four hemisphere-season labels, daylight links and the January counterexample. Proof: Keep the diagram and cause sentences. Note adult help keeping the axes parallel or interpreting daylight cards. Stop: Stop at two orbit positions and the supplied daylight example. No temperature experiment or year-long observations.