Are you looking for hands-on and engaging winter preschool activities for math & literacy? Keep reading to see our favorites!
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WINTER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
With winter comes colder temperatures and the anticipation of festive holidays! It’s a great time for playing in the snow or snuggling up in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book.
Books allow little ones to experience other places, real or imaginary. Learning to read opens up their world to new adventures, and we can set the foundation for reading success in these early years!
Luckily, little ones get SO excited when participating in activities about winter, which then leads to interactive play and STEM exploration. So get ready to build academic momentum while sledding down a mountain of learning!
Keep reading for over 30 winter activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include printables for math & literacy, fine motor, gross motor, sensory play, art, and more! Oh, and there are a few freebies, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
WINTER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your winter activities, make sure you have your books all ready to go! You can check out our favorite books for this theme in this post. There are almost 30 books for you to choose from! Make sure to request these from your local library (or order them from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
Phonological awareness skills are the key building block to reading success, which is why they should be practiced a little bit every day. In order to keep things fresh & engaging, I like to use phonological awareness games that go along with my current theme. Click here to check out these winter phonological awareness games that will help your little ones become strong readers in less than 10 minutes a day (and with zero supplies!)
You’re definitely going to want to start your winter activities with these vocabulary cards! These are the perfect way to introduce your little learners to the vocabulary they’ll need for the different activities in this unit. You can use these words in your writing center, as a Write the Room activity, as a Color the Room activity, or as a picture match.
For this activity, your little one will find letters in a sensory bin filled with white rice, cotton balls, fake snow, or shredded paper and mark them off on their letter card. Or better yet, turn this into a scavenger hunt and tape letters all around the room! They can match uppercase to uppercase, lowercase to lowercase, or uppercase to lowercase. They can also put the letters they find in ABC order or try to come up with winter words that start with each letter sound.
These snowflake letter cards can also be used to play games such as Memory, Go Fish, or make CVC words. Make sure they say each letter as they find it. All these activities improve letter identification, which is a key foundation for learning to read and spell.
It’s important that our little ones know both the name AND the sound associated with a letter. Beginning sound isolation is the first step on the road of developing phonemic awareness skills. This FREE activity has your little one saying the name and sound of the beginning letter of the object next to the bird. Then, they will “fly” that bird to the tree with the letter that spells that sound. Can they find other items around the room that start with that sound? Can they sort the objects on the bird cards into living and non living groups? So many possibilities to extend the learning!
If there’s one skill that our students need more practice with to set a strong foundation for reading, it’s rhyming! This activity has your little one choosing a card, saying the word in the center, and identifying three pictures around the outside that rhyme. They will clip the rhyming words with small clothespins, which helps develop fine motor skills. Can they tell you other words that rhyme? Are there objects around the room that rhyme?
This activity helps to familiarize your little ones with high-frequency words. You will choose 3-5 words to work on and label large containers or bowls with those words. Your little one will choose a word card, say the word, and toss a ball or beanbag into the correct container. After the pile of word cards is gone, they can use the Snowball Letters to build each word. Then, they can work with a new set of words. Since many of these words have irregular letter sounds, practicing them will benefit them greatly in your child’s reading.
This is a fun activity that helps improve fine motor skills. Your little one can put stickers along the lines (or dot along the lines with do-a-dot markers) of the snowflake in patterns. Want to practice scissor skills instead? Your little one can cut along the lines of the snowflake. *Looking for kid-safe scissors? We like these!
In this activity, little ones will be making CVC words. They will choose a Snowman Word Family Hat card with the two-letter ending and sound it out. Then, they will choose Snowman Body Letters that are the same color. *There are 4 Snowman Body Letters, which means they can make 4 new words with the same two-letter ending. Are they able to come up with more letters that can be used to make more words with that same ending? Are the words real words or nonsense words? Do they recognize that they are making rhyming words? So much learning happens in this one winter preschool activity! For more fun, they can make up a story about a snowman they create by gluing the CVC snowman letters onto a piece of paper, adding arms, a scarf, and a winter background!
This FREE activity includes snowflakes with letters on them. Tape the snowflakes to the wall and have your little ones toss a large snowball at one and tell you the name and sound of that letter. They could also tell you a word that starts with that letter. Another variation includes calling out a letter name or sound and your little one will aim specifically for that letter, which is great for gross motor development!
Want to make this even more fun? Crumple up the snowflake letters to make snowballs. Have your little ones throw the snowballs around the room while music is playing. When the music stops, they will pick up the nearest snowball and tell you the name and/or sound. You can also do this with any paper and write numbers or words on the “snowballs,” too! This activity will have your little ones running around and laughing!
Everyone loves to play bingo, and it’s even better when it’s FREE! Hide snowflake letters in a sensory bin filled with cotton balls, white rice, fake snow, or shredded white paper. Little ones will choose a snowflake letter and find the matching letter on their Bingo card. The first one to get 4 in a row wins the game!
Looking to teach about polar animals during your winter preschool theme? Check out THIS post! It includes over 30 polar animals activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. These activities include literacy, math, fine motor, gross motor, crafts, snacks, and more!
One of my favorite winter books is How to Catch a Snowman. I like to do a book project based on this book which includes the following:
- Comprehension Questions
- Poem: Five Little Snowmen
- Art Project: Marshmallow Snowman
- Snack: Marshmallow Snowman
- Song: I’m a Little Snowman
>>>Grab my Winter Preschool Activity Pack to get all these ideas!<<<
WINTER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: MATH
Little ones will learn how to create the patterns AB, ABC, AAB, ABB in this activity. Looking at the Winter Pattern Mats, they will choose the correct winter themed picture cards needed in the spaces to complete the pattern. You can hide the pattern cards in a sensory bin filled with cotton balls, white rice, shredded paper, or fake snow to make it more fun! When they are ready, they can create their own patterns with missing pictures for you to solve! Can they find patterns around the room or outside?
For this activity, your little one will be learning about greater than or lesser than using gator symbols. After explaining how the gator symbols work, have them choose two snowflake numbers and place them on the mat. They can count out small manipulatives to help visualize each number. Then they will place the correct gator symbol in the middle of the two snowflake numbers.
Sliding a number strip (or addition strip) through the slit in the Snow Globe Mat, little ones will place that number of small manipulatives on the Snow Globe. *We used mini erasers. When using the addition strip, have them put different colored manipulatives to represent the two numbers that are adding together. For a challenge, they can roll one or two dice and place that many manipulatives on the snow globe. For even more fun, they can trace the number in a cookie sheet filled with “snow” (shaving cream) to practice number formation.
This is a great activity for a larger group of littles (or family members). They will ask others what their favorite season is and keep track of the answers on their Tally Chart or Bar Graph. Which season is the favorite? Circle it on the chart. Why did others pick the season they did? What is the weather like in each season? What holidays are in each season? They can even draw a picture of each season.
This activity has your little one learning about different shapes. Depending on their level, they will be working with 3 or 6 shapes. Go over the names of the shapes with them. Have them spin the spinner, name the shape, and cover it. There are also shape cards that can be used to play Memory, Go Fish, or do a scavenger hunt. Can they find things around the room with the different shapes?
This is a fun activity to work on number sense and subitizing. Using the Ten Frames, your little one will say the number and put that many small manipulatives in the boxes, such as mini erasers or gems. For the Ten Frames with the black dots, have them count the dots and say the number. They can also roll a dice or two and find the Ten Frame that matches. Can they put the Ten Frames in numerical order? You can also use the Ten Frames to create addition or subtraction problems!
Looking for more number practice? These FREE Penguin Numbers can be used for so many activities! Tape the penguin number cards to paper plates, then tape the plates to the wall. Have your little one throw a large snowball at a penguin number plate and say the number. This is a good activity to improve their gross motor skills (hand-eye-coordination). Another idea is to have your little one place the penguin number cards on a table and count out that many penguin eggs (mini marshmallows) for each number. *Looking for more penguin activities? Check out this post!
>>>Grab my Winter Preschool Activity Pack to get all these ideas!<<<
WINTER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES: FINE MOTOR, SENSORY, ART, & SNACKS
Sensory bins inspire little ones to use their imagination and creativity, which is why we make a new one for each preschool theme. This is the EASIEST recipe for DIY fake snow! All you need to do is mix 2 1/2 cups baking soda and 1/2 cup white conditioner together. It’s creamy and smells SO good, and it’s perfect for your winter sensory bin. Check out this blog post for more!
Don’t want to make your own fake snow? No worries! This instant snow is SUPER easy to use…all you do is add water! This is another great winter sensory bin idea. Your little ones can search for small winter themed toys buried in the “snow” or try to make a snowball or a snowman. They can also trace letters or shapes in the “snow”.
Ready to have fun practicing letter and number writing during your winter theme? Break out the shaving cream! Your little one can swirl it around, trace numbers or letters in it, or write their names in it. It’s good, clean fun!
These winter play dough mats have a word on them with a picture. Your little one will trace the letters of the word with their fingers. Next, have them say the word, isolating the first sound, and then create the picture using play dough. This is great for developing their fine motor skills and phonemic awareness skills.
This activity inspires creativity and builds STEM skills! Using toothpicks and marshmallows, your little one will make winter themed creations such as snowmen and snowflakes. They could even try to make a winter animal. The possibilities are unlimited! It’s always exciting to see what they come up with!
What a delicious way to start the day! These snowman pancakes are easy to put together using different sized pancakes, mini chocolate chips, blueberries, mini marshmallows, and bacon. Your little one will enjoy decorating their snowmen and maybe adding some whipped cream for a snowy background. While making the snowmen, you can read Snowmen at Night to make it more festive!
*Check out some Christmas-themed breakfast ideas here!
This penguin mask is a great activity to improve fine motor skills! Little ones can cut a paper plate in half, cut out eye holes, and decorate their penguin with black construction paper “feathers”. Add a beak and a pipe cleaner strap and they’re ready to transform into a penguin. Waddling like penguins around the room while wearing their masks will surely have them laughing!
Who wouldn’t want to create and, of course, eat these cute penguin cookies?! All you need are chocolate sandwich cookies (mini size and regular size), gummies for the feet and beak, and edible candy eyes. Your little one can waddle around like penguins wearing the penguin mask in the activity below before or after eating them!
WINTER PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your winter lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! The printables for this unit can be found in my Littles Love Winter Math & Literacy Centers.
What are your favorite winter preschool activities? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
