Brrrr! Bundle up for these delightful winter activities for preschool! Learning about seasons is such a foundational aspect of the preschool years. Little ones have an avid interest in the world around them and how it is continually changing. It’s a magical world and winter is dazzling.
Let’s have some preschool winter-time fun and learn academic skills while we’re at it!
Winter Activities for Preschool
Let’s break it down by academic content areas. You’ll find ideas here for classroom whole group winter activities for preschool as well as small group instruction. These ideas can also work well for homeschool environments. Scroll to read all or jump ahead to each section:
- Winter Books for Read-Alouds
- Language & Literacy Winter Activities
- Math Winter Activities
- Science & Sensory Winter Activities
- Social Studies Winter Activities
- Arts & Crafts Winter Activities for Preschool
- 10 Winter Centers
- Winter Preschool Thematic Unit & Lesson Plans
READ: Write Engaging Lesson Plans for Preschool – FREE Lesson Plan Template
There are tons of winter activities for preschool in this post!. If you’re looking to create your winter thematic unit yourself the ideas below should jump start your creativity. But, if you’re short on time, you can download my bilingual Winter Pre-K Thematic Unit unit and – poof! It’s done for you!
The Winter Pre-K Thematic Unit is an engaging, fun, and academically rigorous unit addressing language, literacy, math, science, and social studies in both English and Spanish already pulled together to save you time! There are even 5-day lesson plans completed for you. How easy is that? Just download, print, gather your materials and you’re all set!
Whether you build your own winter thematic unit or download the printables, these winter activities for preschool should get you and your students off to a dazzling start.
Winter Books for Read-Alouds
Click the links to jump to Amazon. I’m an affiliate and it will take you straight there!
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Froggy Gets Dressed by Jack London
Clifford’s First Snow Day by Norman Bridwell
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Dream Snow by Eric Carle
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Snowglobe Family by Jane O’Connor
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
Language & Literacy Winter Activities
- Write on mitten shaped paper
- Copy vocabulary words onto fun winter thematic paper
- READ & WRITE around the room – cut up vocab words and tape them around the room. Pass out clipboards and paper. Hunt for the words on the wall and when you find them, copy them down.
- Clap the syllables in the winter vocabulary cards
- Write the beginning letters of winter words in shaving cream snow
- Play the “Name That Letter” ABC Game – or use it for phonetic awareness and make the letter sounds
READ: Preschool Skills – Kindergarten Readiness Assessment & Checklist
Math Winter Activities
- Sequence snowman numeral cards 1-9
- Roll a dice and pick the matching snowman numeral card 1-6
- Use the snowman spinners 1-3 or 1-4. When the spinner stops, use tongs to pick up white cotton balls (snowballs!) and put them on your plate
- Play snowman dominoes. Count and match the quantity.
- Match snowman dominoes dots to the numeral cards
- Draw circles to make snowmen. Practice bottom-middle-top and large-medium-small.
- Buy 3 sizes of cotton balls or white pom-poms. Sort into trays using tongs: small-medium-large
- Teach spheres! Learning about snowballs and snowmen is the perfect time to introduce this 3-D shape!
- Winter Graphing: Graph colors of students’ jackets. Another day, make a class graph of colors of mittens. Graph who wore mittens and who wore gloves.
- Teach positions: Use a wadded up piece of paper to make a snowball. Throw it above you, below you, between your legs, put it behind your back, in your pocket, beside your leg, etc.
- Get a blank snowman. Roll dice Add that number of buttons to your snowman.
The Winter Thematic Unit comes with all of these fun winter math materials:
“Cute activities!”
Allison C.
Science & Sensory Winter Activities
- Observe ice melting. How long does it take?
- Introduce a thermometer
- Review hot vs cold
- Match the snowflakes activity
- Sort photos or real items for cold weather vs items for hot weather. Click here for Hot/Cold STEM Sorting Cards.
- Sort photos by season. Click here for Season Sorting Cards.
- Name the four seasons
- Build a felt snowman (no pattern necessary – just cut out 3 circles, hat, eyes, mouth, buttons, etc.) See pic below.
- Make Sensory Snow for your sand/water table. The recipe is included in the Winter Thematic Unit
- Play with white play-dough. Make a snowy scene then use small plastic animals to make tracks in the snow. Roll the play-dough into spheres and build a snowman.
Social Studies Winter Activities
- Name the four seasons
- Learn about the winter season. What happens in wintertime? What clothes do we need for winter?
- Winter Clothes mini-book activity: copy or sound out the word (or just the 1st letter) for each winter article of clothing. Clap the syllables. Cut and staple your book. Read it as a class and read it to your family.
- Brainstorm winter activities (sledding, ice skating, making snowmen, snow angels, drinking hot chocolate, etc.)
- Bring real winter clothes from home. Sort by color or sort by child vs adult. Sort a basket of mittens and gloves.
- Teach how to put on your jacket by yourself! (Easy instructions included in the Winter Thematic Unit!)
- Practice zipping up jackets.
Winter Art Activities
Ice Painting
Put a small bit of tempera paint into a paper plate. Add an ice cube. Push the ice cube around with a popsicle stick. Watch it melt and swirl the colors together. Time how long it takes to melt. Describe your picture when it is finished.
Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Fold coffee filters in half and in half again. Cut out triangles and other shapes along the edges. Unfold to make a snowflake! For added fun, dip the center into colored water before opening for a beautiful watercolor effect. Open and dry. Hang from the ceiling in your classroom for a wintry wonderland!
Sock Snowmen
Ask for donations of socks. Stuff a white sock with cotton balls or other old socks. Use a rubber-band at the top of the body (at the neck) and another rubber-band at the top of the head. Cut the toes of colored socks to be little hats. Cut the rest of colored socks into scarves. Use brown pipe-cleaners wrapped around the neck and sticking out to the sides to be arms. Wrap the scarf around the neck. Add buttons. Use a permanent marker to make eyes, nose, mouth or make carrot noses from orange felt or socks. So cute!
Paper Plate Snowman
Use a large white paper plate as the bottom snowball. Glue or staple above a small paper plate for the middle snowball. Print photos of your student’s heads as the top snowball. Add pipe cleaner arms and buttons! Or fill the snowballs with a snowy story or winter words.
Footprint & Hand-print Penguins
Trace around child’s foot on black paper using white chalk. Trace around both hands on black paper using white chalk. Let child cut out. Use the footprint as the main body of the penguin. Add an oval of white inside the footprint. Add googly eyes and a small orange triangle beak. Glue the hand-prints on the sides as the penguin’s wings.
Paint with Puffy Snow Paint
Mix together equal parts white glue and shaving cream. Now you have snow paint! Make a wintry picture. If will get puffy as it dries!
“I am so excited to use some of these ideas with my students! Thank you for making a great bilingual resource!”
Sarah G.
10 Winter Centers for Preschool
Centers are the heart of any preschool or pre-k classroom! Change up your centers during this season with fun winter activities for preschool catered specifically to each center. Young kids learn SO much more when the ideas are integrated thematically and pulled throughout the classroom to allowing them to interact with their learning in engaging and meaningful ways.
READ: The Ultimate Guide to Preschool Centers
1. Dramatic Play
Add winter gear to your dramatic play area. Practice buttoning, zipping, tying jackets, boots, and shoes. String a clothes line and clothespins to hang clothes on the line. Add scarves and hats. Excellent fine motor practice!
2. Blocks
If you’ve been using wooden blocks, rotate to something different. Try Legos, Waffle blocks, Lincoln Logs, or gears! Or, add white felt as a snowy backdrop and include small plastic winter animals such as penguins, polar bears, winter hares, etc.
3. Math Center
Use the Snowman Domino dots & numbers match-up. Sequence the Snow Numbers Cards. Add cotton balls as snowballs then count to show the number on the numeral card. It will create a graph!
4. Literacy/ ABC Center
Play the Name That Letter ABC game. Spin the spinner and say each letter and letter sound; Match words to pictures using the winter clothes cards.
5. Writing Center
Copy the winter vocabulary onto thematic paper. Or use the theme paper to do free writing about winter.
6. Reading Center
Read winter themed books. If available, have puppets or felt pieces for familiar stories such as Froggy. Watch or listen to stories read aloud on YouTube.
7. Science Center
Make groups using the Season Sorting Cards or the Hot-cold Sorting Cards. Provide felt pieces to make a snowman on the felt board. Observe melting ice cubes with magnifying glasses.
8. Art Center
Snowman thumbprints & q-tip painting: Use an 8.5 x 11 light blue piece of paper. Get white paint. Dip thumb-tip in white paint. Make three thumbprints on paper to make little snowmen. Use a Q-tip to add dots of snowflakes. Create a whole snowman family! Use markers to add little hats and arms. If you model this to the class, they will be able to do it independently in centers – I promise! To make it more manageable, only pour out a tablespoon of white paint onto a plastic lid for each child. They don’t need much!
READ: Classroom Storage Hack – 1 Simple Trick
9. Sensory
Spread shaving cream on the table and use fingers to draw shapes, letters, and numbers. Try drawing a snowman and practice top-middle-bottom and small-medium-large. Or, make Sensory Snow using the simple recipe included in the Winter Pre-k Thematic Unit. Have fun!
10. Technology
Two of my favorite technology winter activities for preschool are The Snowman story and the Little Snowflake song. The Snowman is a beautiful wordless story lasting about 25 minutes. The narrator speaks only in the opening scene for just a few seconds and then the rest of the story is wordless but beautiful and vivid! A winter wonderland of childhood imagination with haunting music! This is a fabulous comprehension tool for preschool and a restful way to wind up a long day in the classroom.
Also try out the winter scenes from Sheppard’s Software online games for free. Young learners can design a snowman, dress for winter, or make snow animals. This site is just perfect for early childhood and will reinforce all that winter vocabulary you’re introducing this week!
Don’t forget to try out the Little Snowflake song – you’ll be singing it for weeks! Great oral language!
The Bilingual Winter Activities for Preschool Thematic Unit and Lesson Plans download includes all of the following:
- 5 day Lesson Plans with suggested books
- 10 Center ideas on 1 handy-dandy printout
- Sample Daily Schedule for preschool/pre-k
- 4 options of Winter Thematic Writing Paper
- Colorful Winter Vocabulary Charts
- Adorable Snowman Numeral Cards
- Snowman Domino Cards & Matching Number Cards
- Name That Letter literacy activity game
- Snowman Spinners 1-3 and 1-4
- Winter Clothes mini book activity
- Winter clothes vocabulary cards
- Snowflake Match
- Recipe for Snow Paint
- Recipe for Simple Sensory Snow
Whew! That’s a lot of fun and learning for one week of preschool!
Everything in the Winter Thematic Unit comes in English and Spanish, black and white as well as full color. Adorable graphics! This unit is kid-friendly, engaging, and academically rigorous all at the same time! My students love it and I hope yours will, too.
Happy winter! It’s a magical time to learn in preschool!
