Fun and Engaging Winter Activities
Winters can feel so long in the classroom! When you’re cooped up inside it’s important to have a variety of engaging activities to keep those students learning in fun ways. Looking for some new lessons to try? You’re in luck, today I’m sharing a whole round-up of all my favorite winter activities from Christmas through Valentine’s Day!
Winter Activities for The Whole Season
In my classroom, I was a big believer in using seasonal morning work activities. All year long, I used morning work with a familiar format to conduct a spiral review of all the things we were learning. Using daily morning work is a great way to develop a routine in the classroom and allow you to check things off your morning list while kiddos are busy reviewing.
To keep things feeling fresh, I used morning work pages with seasonal and holiday themes for each month. Students looked forward to seeing each new month’s pages and coloring the holiday images. Here are some of the winter morning work pages we used:
In addition to the printable morning work pages, I also have digital versions. These digital options come in handy if you teach in a 1:1 classroom, want to add a spiral review to your technology center, or to project on the board for whole class modeling, instruction or review.
Winter Activities for Math Facts
If you teach in the primary grades, you likely already know that repetition is key with a lot of our learning material! This is definitely true when it comes to mastering math facts. What is your favorite way to practice math facts? My students always LOVED Color By Code Activities.
These no-prep printable worksheets are perfect for when you want to sneak in some extra practice. I love using themed color-by-code activities all through the winter to keep kiddos interested! Some of my favorites include:
- Christmas Color By Code
- Holidays Around the World Color By Code
- Winter Color By Code
- Winter Holidays Color By Code
- Valentine’s Day Color By Code
Using different themed pages for each month helps add some seasonal flair to your winter activities while still giving kiddos the practice they need with math facts. In 1st grade this means focusing on addition, subtraction, and mixed facts within 20. These pages work well when assigned to early finishers, as center activities, independent desk work, or anytime you have a few minutes to fill!
Winter BINGO Games
Another go-to winter activity for the primary classroom is BINGO! I love seasonal and holiday-themed BINGO games, especially when you need a quick and easy party activity right before break!
I made a variety of BINGO games that can be used to celebrate the winter holidays in our room. During December, we used Christmas BINGO or Holiday BINGO on party day. I also made a set of Valentine’s Day BINGO cards for February. I like that BINGO is easy for 1st graders to use independently, but also works well when played as a whole group.
The BINGO cards we use come in both color and black and white. I liked to laminate the color version to use year after year. The black and white option works great with BINGO daubers for an instant center activity! Students can take turns being the BINGO caller if you go this route.
Printable Winter Activities
In the first-grade classroom, we spend a lot of time working with hands-on center activities and learning games.
These are so much fun but they can also take a fair bit of prep time, so I like to balance those activities with no-prep printables! If you know me, you know I love a good, seasonal theme, so I created fun printables for each month.
These printable worksheet packs are FILLED with math and ELA activities to keep kiddos engaged all winter long. Each set is aligned to 1st-grade standards to help you ensure your students are getting the review they need for success! The fun, holiday, and seasonal themes on each page make these worksheets more engaging to students as they practice a variety of skills and concepts.
Celebrate New Year’s Day!
In my classroom, we always celebrated the New Year! First graders are old enough to begin to understand the meaning behind celebrating a new year and are often excited to keep the holiday fun rolling after Christmas.
If you like celebrating January 1st too, you’re in luck!
Be sure to grab this fun, FREE New Year’s Resolution resource from my shop.
Included you’ll find interactive flap resolutions, resolutions writing, hat decorating, and a coloring sheet for early finishers. This is a great activity for that first day back after winter break!
Best of all, you’ll have an instant bulletin board display to replace your holiday one.
Don’t Forget MLK Jr. & President’s Days!
With everything going on during the winter, it can be easy to forget to plan some activities for MLK & President’s Days. I’ve gotcha covered though!
Incorporating some activities focused on historical figures is a great way to use cross-curricular teaching in your classroom.
For teaching about Martin Luther King Jr., I’m a big fan of using a blend of both printable and digital activities.
The activities I like include a PowerPoint presentation with interesting facts, reference posters, digital, google slides activities, and printable worksheets and activities. I find that using both of these teaching methods helps tremendously with keeping active student engagement during the lessons. And don’t forget, you can also use MLK activities during Black History Month in February if you missed out in January.
When it comes to President’s Day, I’m a fan of using activities similar to those we used for MLK.
In my President’s Day Math & Literacy Centers, you’ll find fun digital slides, printable worksheets, reference posters, graphic organizers, and even crowns! This resource has everything you need to teach all about the history of President’s Day in an engaging format.
Start Planning Your Winter Activities
Which of these winter activities can you see yourself using? I think when it comes to planning engaging lessons, variety is key! Using a blend of center activities, no-prep printables, and digital resources is a great way to keep classroom learning fun this winter. If you’re looking for simple, low-prep activities to use all winter long be sure to check out my shop for all of these resources and more!
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