Winter is such a fun season, with so much to inspire your teaching! In my lessons, I love to use holidays and seasonal themes to create meaningful and engaging activities. Winter is a great time to swap out your books, freshen up your classroom decor and plan some new activities for students. Come along as I share some of my favorite fun and engaging winter activities to celebrate the season!

Set the Stage for Winter Activities with Books

If you’ve been around here a while you probably already know how much I love picture books. I’m a huge fan of using seasonal, thematic books along with lessons and activities I have planned. I use picture books primarily for read-aloud time, but I also love to put them out in a classroom library for children to flip through. Here are just a few of my favorites to get you started:

• One Snowy Morning by Kevin Tseng
• How to Catch a Yeti by Adam Wallace
• Snowmen at Play by Caralyn Buehner
• Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft

I could go on and on when it comes to winter-themed books! There are so many great choices out there. If you’re looking for more ideas, be sure to check out this post, which highlights so many more of my favorite winter picture books!

Winter Time Classroom Decor

Do you like using bulletin board displays in the classroom? Festive bulletin board sets are a great way to tie your theme together! In my school room, I’m a fan of using bulletin board displays that highlight “quick quotes” for subtle bursts of encouragement.

In December, this fun holiday bulletin board encourages students to dig into a good book. However, there are also options for writing, being jolly, and being kind. I add student names to the editable reindeer and use this board as a starting point to display holiday artwork.

In January, I love to kick off the New Year with a display like this. This editable bulletin board set includes New Year’s goal writing prompts with cute craft toppers. I have kiddos write some goals for the new year and then color their craft topper any way they’d like. Then I display the writing prompts and add a student name tag for each child. This bulletin board set is a quick and easy way to swap out the classroom decor after the holidays while working on a fun writing activity!

Sometimes, I’m in a need of an even easier option when it comes to winter classroom decor. This is where classroom posters will save the day! I use winter-themed class posters to decorate bulletin boards or place them in frames. Sometimes, I’ll even print these in a smaller size and use them as little notes to hand out to my kiddos!

Themed Winter Activities To The Rescue

Wintertime often means lots of time spent inside. This can often lead to restless kiddos, in need of some opportunities for hands-on learning. Themed teaching units will save the day when it comes to capturing student attention. A cross-curricular unit will help students dig deep into the topic while also working on reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and more!

December Unit

In my December Unit, I use hands-on games, center activities, craftivities, and more to work on a variety of subjects. In this cross-curricular unit, kiddos learn about gingerbread, non-magical reindeer, and holidays around the world through tons of festive lessons.

These fun topics are an easy way to ensure engagement among your students as you dive into the activities. Children will love learning about reindeer life cycles, how to make gingerbread, and details about holidays around the world. Beyond exploring these topics, using these themes makes teaching math and literacy skills simple and fun. Some of the activities we use in this unit include:

• Pocket Chart Letter Matching Games
• Feed The Gingerbread Man Beginning Sounds
• 2D Shape Sorting Games
• Gingerbread Graphing Activities
• Reindeer Life Cycle Posters & Worksheets 
• How to Make Gingerbread Cookies Readers & Sequencing Activities
• Winter Crowns
• Holidays Around the World Readers and Editable Color by Code Pages 

There’s a little something for every subject in this unit, so you can count on keeping those kiddos engaged in active learning all month long!

January Unit

Fill your January lessons with fun and engaging learning about penguins, polar bears, and snowmen! Your students will not only love these winter topics, but they will be learning important skills and concepts too! This January Unit has everything you need, and more, for a fun-filled month of learning.

Dive into learning about the winter animals of penguins and polar bears. While your students are covering numerous science topics, they will also work on key literacy and math skills. Your students will love the emergent readers that help them learn more about these animals. Then improve writing skills by having them write about their new learning. Connect the writing activities with one of the provided crafts for a great bulletin board display to show off all that your class is learning.

But this cross-curricular teaching doesn’t stop there. This Winter Unit is jam-packed with themed center activities. Your students will be engaged as they practice and review skills with a variety of hands-on center activities and games.

There are so many activities that you will not have any problem filling a week or the entire month with fun and engaging winter learning.

Winter BINGO Activities

Everyone loves BINGO, right? I know I do, especially when it comes to BINGO games that help my students focus on important concepts, like learning CVC words! BINGO is one of those games I always lean on because it’s simple to prep, students love it and it can be used for so many things.

I use Christmas and Winter CVC BINGO games during the winter months to help students learn new words in a fun way. The pre-made cards are great for focusing on CVC words but they are editable, so sometimes I’ll swap out the words for spelling words if we need some extra practice in that area. Either way is such a fun option for focusing on word work.

BINGO games are great for holiday parties, Fun Friday activities, or afternoons in the classroom. Using BINGO towards the end of the day is my favorite way to sneak in just a little more learning right before we finish up for the day. Even when students are tired from a long day of learning, BINGO always seems appealing!

Mix In Some No-Prep Printables

If you know me, you probably know how much I love color-by-code activities. And what’s not to love? They are low-prep, highly engaging, and a great way to practice a variety of skills! I use color-by-code worksheets to practice letters, numbers, sight words, number sense, and more! My favorite no-prep printables for wintertime include:

• Winter Math Color By Code Worksheets
• Christmas & Winter CVC Word Mystery Pictures Worksheets
• Winter Color By Code Numbers, Letters & Sight Words Worksheets
• The Gingerbread Man Editable 3D Color By Code Activities

My favorite thing about color by code though is how I can sprinkle them in among other activities for a quick way to review skills. I love hands-on centers and learning games as well, but in a busy classroom environment, it’s great to balance those types of activities with some no-prep ones as well! The best part though is that many of my color-by-code activities are editable, so you can use the pages for any skill your kids are focusing on.

Start Planning Your Winter Activities

Ready to start planning your winter activities? I hope you found something fun and new to try with your kiddos! When it comes to planning winter activities, I think variety is key! Using a blend of hands-on centers, no-prep printables, and games is a great way to ensure your students will be engaged in learning all through the season. If you’d like to check out any of these resources in further detail, you can find them all in my TpT Shop!

Save These Winter Activities

Don’t forget to Pin this post on your classroom Pinterest board so you’ll have all of these fun winter activities handy!