Friday, January 1, 2016

Winter Activities

This is our January I Teach First blogger linkup. We are sharing lots of ideas, resources, strategies, freebies, and more. You can visit the blogs by clicking on the links below. We'd also love for you to follow us, so you don't miss out on any of our monthly linkups. 

As we head back to school in a couple of days, I’ve been preparing some winter activities for the month of January. I thought I’d share some of them with you.

We will start our discussion of winter by brainstorming a list of words that are associated with winter. Children add to the list as they think of more words. This activity can be done over several days. Adding to the list of words also makes a great sponge activity.


We then sort the winter words into categories. We do this whole class. The chart stays up thru the winter months. Students can refer to it when writing.


I then make word cards.  I put the word cards at the literacy center. Students sort the cards into categories with a partner. The students can also sort the cards using their own categories. Other uses for them: bingo cards, alphabetizing, syllable sorts, writing sentences and poetry, etc.

Lots of winter read alouds are always a must. Here are some snow and snowman books that are great for reading aloud:



A snowman is perfect for discussing the beginning, middle, and end of a snowman story.


The children will also be painting snowmen. We add salt to the paint to give the snowman paintings some texture. The snowmen adorn our bulleting board. I keep them and place them in a memory book that the children receive at the end of the year.



On an especially cold or rainy day, I surprise the children with hot chocolate. It’s quick and easy to prepare in the classroom. I heat the water using a hot plate and large pot. The children can choose to add a few marshmallows, too.

Here’s a ”sweet” and engaging mini unit of HOT CHOCOLATE ACTIVITIES to go along with a hot chocolate day.

It includes a craft that can be used as a bulletin board display or the cover of a booklet.

You can click on the pictures for a detailed preview of what's included in the packet.

And here’s a snow booklet. Children can write about all the fun things they can do in the snow.
Click on the picture for a FREE download.

Happy winter!


3 comments:

  1. Thanks for linking up with us this month! Wow! So many great ideas in one post. I especially like the snowman retell. :)

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  2. I love the snow book recommendations. Thanks!

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  3. Your anchor charts are AMAZING! Happy New Year! Wendy 1stgradefireworks

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