Fun Classroom Activities for the Winter Months

It’s January, and teachers are deep into that long winter stretch in the classroom.  Meanwhile, what the kids (and teachers) are actually thinking about is snow holidays and how much fun they could have with a few of those! 

With the major winter holidays behind us, it can be difficult to think of fun classroom activities to keep everyone interested and engaged.  With that in mind, I’ve collected some links to ideas for the smaller winter holidays still to come and just for winter in general.  I’ll mention just a few below, but you can see more on my Winter and Winter Holidays Pinterest board.

Groundhog Day

I’ve listed a number of ideas in a Groundhog Day post that I wrote recently for my own blog, but I’ll just mention one favorite here.  These groundhog cookies, from Sheknows, are so cute.  They’re made from no-bake cookie dough.  You could make the cookies ahead and have the kids just add the groundhog for a quick, edible craft.

Valentine’s Day

“Today I Got a Valentine,” by Kenn Nesbitt, is one of the many funny kids’ poems that you can find at one of my favorite poetry sites, Giggle Poetry.  Explore the site a little further, and you’ll find a whole section of silly love poems that might also be perfect for the holiday.

President’s Day

The History Channel has good informational text and a video for President’s Day.  The text tells about the origins of the holiday and holiday celebrations, and the fast-paced two-minute video is full of facts about the White House.

Saint Patrick’s Day

“Saint Patrick’s Day Riddles” is a FREEBIE from my own store, Classroom in the Middle.  With this PowerPoint, students reveal clues one at a time to solve Saint Patrick’s Day Riddles.

For a Saint Patrick’s Day treat, these little shamrocks, from a blog post at Qbees Quest, look really great.  They’re made from Hershey’s Kisses and heavy paper (green, of course).

Winter

·        The “Winter Storms” web page, from Scholastic includes informational text, a vocabulary cloze activity, and an experiment.  Students will also enjoy the “interactive weather maker” where they can manipulate temperatures and humidity to create weather changes. There are related pages about volcanoes, earthquakes, and other types of severe weather.

·        Recently, I found these directions for making sparkly snowflake window clings from puffy paint, glitter, and plastic freezer bags at the blog One Little Project at a Time.  This project looks like one that can be enjoyed by any age.

·        "Close Reading – Wild Winter” is a resource available in my store.  It includes four informational text articles, and everything needed for a full three readings of each.  The image below shows all of the activities for one of the readings.  

·        Sticker Snowmen Cards, a project from Art Projects for Kids, looks like a fun activity.  Kids make a number of snowmen using round white stickers, mailing labels, and markers, and then change the expressions on each one and even give them a sense of movement  by altering just  the facial features and the snowman’s buttons.

Do you have favorite lessons, treats, or fun activities that you like to pull out mid-winter?  If you would like to share, please leave a comment!

Pin to Save for Later