Preparation:
For the activity, you will need to make a model of the Earth, using an orange. Make sure you can make the classroom dark. It would help if students are already aware that seasons exist and they are associated with different weather patterns and temperatures.
Activity 1: Vertical or shallow angle
Step 1:
Turn off the lights and close the blinds in the classroom.
Step 2:
Organise the student into pairs. Give each pair a torch and tell them to shine it onto their table at different angles. Can they see a difference in the size of the area covered by the light?
Step 3:
Explain that light shone at a shallow angle covers a larger surface area than light shone from a right-angle. The students complete Task 1 on the worksheet.

Activity 2: Hot or cold?
Step 1:
Give each pair of students an orange. Explain that the orange represents the Earth. The top of the orange is the North Pole. The bottom of the orange is the South Pole.
Step 2:
The students complete Task 2 on the worksheet, up to step 11.
Step 3:
Discuss the tasks. Explain that the Sun, like the torch, produces a fixed amount of light. The larger the surface area on which the sun shines, the larger the area over which the heat is spread. So each part of that area gets less heat than when the light from the Sun is concentrated on a smaller area. At the Equator the Sun shines vertically on the Earth's surface, so it falls on a smaller area. This means it is warmer at the Equator.
Step 4:
Together, look at the drawings on the worksheet. Use your orange to show that the Earth is tilted slightly diagonally. Rotate the orange around the torch. Start with the North Pole turned away from the Sun. Now the students can see that sometimes the North Pole is turned towards the Sun, and sometimes away from it.

Step 5:
Show that the Sun shines more directly on the Northern Hemisphere when the North Pole is turned towards the Sun than when the North Pole is turned away from it. Explain that the seasons on Earth are caused by the different angles at which the Sun's rays hit the earth. This is why it is hotter in the summer than in winter. Discuss with the students that the sunlight never falls vertically on Europe. You can explain that this because there are always shadows. Even in the middle of the summer at noon when the Sun is highest on the sky, it is still not vertically above us.
Step 6:
The students complete the rest of Task 2 on the worksheet. Say that in Europe (or anywhere not on the Equator) the Sun shines for a shorter time in the winter than it does in the summer. Say that this is because of the angle of the Sun in relation to the surface of the Earth. Because the angle of the Sun shining on Europe changes throughout the year, we experience different seasons. This is because the amount of heat and light changes.
Activity 3: Seasons are not different everywhere
The students complete Task 3 on the worksheet. Ask them why we have such different seasons in Europe, while the countries on the Equator do not. Conclude that this is because of the changing angle at which the midday Sun shines on the Earth's surface in Europe, whereas it is more constant at the Equator. Refer back to the activity Vertical or shallow angle.