Wonderful Winter Ideas and Activities for the Elementary Classroom

Winter is almost here.  The snow, the cold, and the fun outdoor activities await!  Wouldn't it be great to incorporate some winter fun into your lessons?  Let's take a look at some engaging winter teaching ideas and activities to use in your elementary classroom!

Making Paper Snowflakes

Ah, the old classic... scissors and white paper.  Students can develop their fine motor skills by cutting snowflakes out of paper and decorating the classroom!

If you don't know how to do it already, you might want to check out a video tutorial like this one.

Snowman Crafts

If you are teaching 2D shapes, you could have students use construction paper circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles to make their own snowperson for art class!

Alternatively, you could make snowmen out of white paper towel rolls or use Styrofoam balls from the craft store.  You could also have students glue cotton balls onto blue construction paper to create their snowperson.  Making stuffed snowmen out of felt is a little more time consuming but also fun!  There are just so many different ways to make them!

Winter Math

Grab these FREE Winter Addition & Subtraction worksheets for your early finishers!

Winter Procedural Writing

Talk about bundling up!  Learn vocabulary words like scarf, mittens, coat, boots, earmuffs and more.  You can use a planning sheet to write a procedure about getting ready for a cold winter day!  What do you wear?  What goes on first?  Last?  Don’t miss anything or you could get chilly!

Learn About a Winter Sport

Another engaging winter teaching idea is to research a winter sport!  Pick a winter sport like hockey, skiing, sledding, or snowshoeing and learn about it as a class. When was it invented?  How is it played?  What are the rules?  What equipment do you need?  Write a short research paper together and then learn the sport as a class (if possible)!

Crumpled Paper Snowballs

Who doesn't like scrunching up paper into a ball?  And it's even better if you get to throw it!  Have your students crumple up some white paper (ideally from the recycling bin) to make a few snowballs.  Then have 2 students each see how far they can throw the balls.  The winner of that round faces the next student, and the throwing competition continues.  You could include measurement concepts in this activity by asking students to measure how far their first throw went and then try to beat it with a second throw and measure again (using rulers, metre sticks, measuring tape, etc.).

Winter Patterns

Patterning is often taught throughout the year.  You can make seasonal math and literacy centers by using winter objects or pictures like mittens, candy canes, snowmen, snowflakes, and more!

Grab this Winter Patterns Freebie from my store to use for your December centers!

Winter Counting Activities

If you are teaching counting, addition, or subtraction you can use objects that resemble snowballs like marshmallows or cotton balls.  Students can use the objects to show one to one correspondence when counting, skip count with them, or arrange them into equal groups.  You may want to let them eat the marshmallows when they are done (but not the cotton balls!) 🙂

Or you can find a winter counting math center like the one below and add it into your rotation for some winter themed fun!

If you are looking for some winter teaching resources for your elementary classroom, here is a Winter Activity Bundle you might want to check out!  You can use these activities for your December and January math and literacy centers!