The cozy months are easily the best months in an elementary classroom. The anticipation of what the season will bring, be it Winter holidays, snow days, or yummy treats, makes every day more exciting and magical. Add to the magic with this list of ideas for Winter play and learning! From fun art projects to explore the ice and snow through STEM, your students are sure to be engaged by these classroom ideas that can be paired with any Wintery theme!
Winter Process Art
1. Watercolor Ice Painting
Freeze liquid watercolors (or water dyed with old, dry markers) to create ice pops! Once frozen, students can use the colorful ice cubes to paint on watercolor paper. Alternately, challenge them to paint their name or sight words!
Learn More: Busy Toddler
2. Frozen Suncatchers
Play with ice again as you make these frozen suncatchers! Fill a cake pan with water, then drop food coloring into the water and add nature items. When they freeze, hang them up by ribbon to accent your Winter wonderland!
Learn More: Felt Magnet
3. Bow Painting
Easily turn this fun project into a holiday gift for families! Children will dip bows into paint and then stamp them onto a canvas. Finish it off by writing a sweet note and attaching a student’s school photo to the back!
Learn More: Pocket of Preschool
4. Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Work on cutting skills with this classic winter activity! Students will fold and cut slits into coffee filters (which are much easier for little hands than copy paper). When they unfold them, they will each have a unique snowflake to decorate the classroom or their bedroom windows!
Learn More: One Little Project
5. Snowy Process Art Painting
Children will love creating a sparkling snowstorm from paint and Epsom salts in this art lesson. Encourage them to paint large, whirling strokes with blues and whites, then sprinkle salt on top of their designs. When it dries, they will be left with a glistening blizzard!
Learn More: Stay-at-Home Educator
6. Dreidel Painting
As your classroom community studies various winter celebrations, kids can create this sweet craft using dreidels! Dip dreidels into blue and white paints, then spin them onto cardstock, leaving whimsical trails behind. Children can use these cards as they give gifts during the holiday season!
Learn More: Hands-on as We Grow
7. Northern Lights Chalk Art
Bring some shine to the dark Winter months with this stunning art project depicting the aurora borealis, commonly known as the Northern Lights. Cut out a mountainscape from thick black paper. Children will layer colors of chalk above the mountains and blend with their fingers to create a whimsical masterpiece!
Learn More: One Little Project
8. Pine Tree Collages
This fun Winter craft allows students to work with real pieces of pine trees, adding a sensory element! Students can create their own holiday trees by gluing small sprigs and spangles to triangular pieces of paper. Display your twinkling forest on your winter bulletin board afterward!
Learn More: Fun-a-Day
Frosty Literacy
9. “Ice Fishing”
Let students practice their letters, letter sounds, and sight words with this fun ice fishing activity! Simply write what they are studying onto paper fish that have staples attached. Students then fish with magnetic poles and read the letter or word they catch aloud.
Learn More: Joyfully Weary
10. Stocking Letter Pull
Hide letters inside a stocking and have students pull each out, then match them to a printed alphabet worksheet. For a greater challenge, have children match the letters they select to a picture that begins with the sound that letter makes!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
11. Retelling Jan Brett
The Hat and The Mitten are common read-aloud during the winter months. Luckily, Jan Brett’s website has tons of printables to accompany her books! Students can create their own mittens and hats or color their own characters to use in retelling the stories in class.
Learn More: Jan Brett
12. Unwrap the Alphabet
Who doesn’t love the joy of unwrapping a gift? Students will love this winter literacy activity where they get to unwrap puzzle pieces hidden in wrapping paper. As they open their letter surprises, have them complete the alphabet puzzle! This activity helps children hone alphabetical order and letter recognition.
Learn More: Busy Toddler
13. Snowball Letter Toss
Print or make a handful of paper snowflakes with the letters of the alphabet printed on them. Let your students toss a tissue paper or yarn “snowball” at the letters. Have them name or produce the sound for the letter they hit!
Learn More: Fun Learning for Kids
14. The Snowy Day Class Book
If ever you’re out for a snow day, encourage parents to take and send you photos of their children playing outside! Use the photos as a journal prompt upon students’ return to school. This activity pairs well with a read-aloud of Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day.
Learn More: Welcome to Room 36
15. Gingerbread Man Scavenger Hunt
This indoor activity is perfect for one of those frigid Winter days when you’re trapped indoors! Students will follow rhyming clues left by the Gingerbread Man to different parts of the school. Clues will lead students to a delicious treat at the end of the scavenger hunt!
Learn More: Sunny Day Family
Seasonally-Inspired Math
16. Beaded Pattern Snowflakes
Practice patterning as you create beaded snowflakes! Twist 3 pipe cleaners together to form the six prongs of a snowflake. Encourage students to create whichever type of pattern they are practicing with cool-colored beads.
Learn More: Early Learning Ideas
17. Condensation Shapes
This is one of the simplest activities for winter fun and learning- all you need is a window! Students will learn how their warm breath can cause condensation to form on cold windows. In the condensation, have children draw shapes, numbers, or whatever else you want them to practice. Simple and sweet!
Learn More: Learning Junction
18. Gingerbread Play Dough Cookies
Work together with students to practice measurement concepts as they make gingerbread-scented play dough. Then, use the dough for some fun winter sensory play, or use cookie cutters to create shapes. Students will practice shape recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence all while having a fantastic time playing!
Learn More: Erica’s Edventures
19. Holiday Light Sticker Patterns
This simple butcher paper activity will be an easy addition to your lesson plans! Simply draw several empty strands of holiday lights across a large piece of butcher paper. Have students create or complete patterns with dot stickers, bingo daubers, or colorful loose parts.
Learn More: Super Coloring
20. Winter-Themed Pattern Block Puzzles
Challenge students to complete the classic pattern block puzzle, but with a Winter spin! Students can build mittens, snowflakes, hot cocoa mugs, and more while also practicing shape recognition and spatial awareness. Set out puzzles without guiding lines for a greater challenge!
Learn More: Ms. Moran’s Kindergarten
Cool Winter STEM
21. Marshmallow Toothpick Structures
Students will get to try their hand at engineering and design as they create structures from marshmallows and toothpicks. As students manipulate these simple materials, they will learn about concepts like balance, building strong foundations, and problem-solving. Give them specific challenges or let them have free rein!
Learn More: Learn with Play at Home
22. Candy Cane, Baking Soda, and Vinegar Experiment
This sticky, fizzy experiment is the perfect idea for hands-on Winter science when you are stuck indoors! Add candy canes or peppermints to the classic vinegar and baking soda experiment and see what happens as the treats begin to dissolve.
Learn More: Fun with Mama
23. Gingerbread Man Traps
Elementary students love hearing the stories of the Gingerbread Man and comparing them! Inspire even more excitement by challenging kids to build a trap for him as a culminating activity. Surprise them by leaving a gingerbread cookie in their traps for them to find the next morning!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
24. Ice Cube Shaving Cream Towers
Challenge students to build with “ice” and “snow!” Using shaving cream and reusable ice cubes, children can create towers, igloos, snow forts, you name it! They will love this messy play activity that challenges their engineering minds!
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25. Snow Tracks
Explore the different types of tracks that animals leave behind in the snow. Then, experiment with ways of making your own footprints in the soft powder! If real snow is not available, try making tracks with plastic animals and white play-dough!
Learn More: Montessori from the Heart
26. How Do Coats Work? Experiment
Explore how coats help to keep animals warm through this winter science experiment. Fill two water bottles with warm water. Wrap one in a coat and leave one unwrapped before placing both outside in the cold. After a few minutes, check to see which is warmer and consider why!
Learn More: SciShow Kids
Dramatic Play Themes
27. Holiday Bakery
Integrate literacy, math, and social-emotional learning in your dramatic play center by turning it into a holiday bakery! Children can follow recipes, work with play money, create menus, and take on the different roles of workers and customers in this holiday bake shop. The ideas are endless!
Learn More: Play To Learn Preschool
28. Ice Skating Rink
Turn the tiled floor into an ice skating rink by simply adding pieces of paper or felt! Students will be able to get moving indoors, which is perfect for cold days when recess can’t happen. Work with students to create the skate rental desk, signage, and more as a collaborative project.
Learn More: Pocket of Preschool
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