~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for Winter ~
Books
Activities
Snowman Art
[Art]
Thanks to Sheryl from Teachers.net for sharing this great snowman art project with me, and letting me include this on my website. Children glue 3
sizes of white paper doilies onto large blue construction paper (12x18). They identify the large, medium and small doilies, gluing them in order
from the bottom to the top. I set out several kinds of collage materials: colored craft pompoms, colored buttons, yarn, pipe cleaners, wiggle eyes,
tissue paper squares, popsicle sticks, and small craft foam squares. All of these materials are inexpensive; I was able to find the 3 sizes of
doilies, pompoms, pipe cleaners, colored buttons, and popsicle sticks at the Dollar Tree. I tell the children to decorate their snowman any way
they chose and use any materials they choose. These turned out so cute and unique to each child. I like this because it's more open-ended than most
art projects. Tip: Use a divided chip and dip tray to hold the collage materials. This makes it easier for the children to see the materials and
get what they need.
(Click to enlarge the images.) If three sizes of doilies are unavailable, you can use two same-sized doilies for the snowman.
Snowy Scene
[Art]
Have children draw a picture themselves and their friends playing outdoors on a piece of blue construction paper. Oil pastels work well on colored
construction paper. Pour a small amount of white tempera paint onto a small plate or shallow bowl. Have the children dip a cotton ball into the
white paint and press it all around their paper to make snow.
Mitten
[Art, Fine Motor]
Trace and cut out a mitten shape for each child (use thicker card paper, old file folders, or posterboard). Punch holes around the outline of the
mitten, and tie a piece of yarn to one of the holes. Have children lace the yarn through the holes like a lacing card. When they are finished, children
can color the mitten to decorate it.
Scarf
[Art]
Purchase some fleece at a fabric store. Be sure to check for inexpensive remnants or ask for donations of scraps. Cut the fleece into strips
to make scarves for each child (these do not have to be large). Make handprints on the scarves using fabric paint. Cut some fringe in each end.
Snowflake
[Art]
Place a doily on a paper plate. Use a sponge to sponge-paint over the doily with blue paint. After covering the whole plate, remove the doily to see the snowflake design.
Animal Tracks
[Fine Motor Skills]
White play dough and small toy polar animals (reindeer, polar bears, penguins, artic wolves, etc.) are placed in the play dough area. Children make
animal tracks in the "snow". The animals pictured are from the Penguin Toob and Arctic Animals Toob by Safari Ltd. These sets are perfect for making animal tracks because
the features on the animals are very detailed and make accurate footprints.
Snowman Sculpture
[Fine Motor Skills]
Use either white play dough (or Model Magic if you want to save it) with items for creating a play dough snowman. For example: beads and small buttons
for the eyes and mouth, peg for the nose, hat from a small doll, scarf (cut out of felt), pieces of pipe cleaners, etc.
Snowman Letter Search
[Literacy]
Print out the Snowman Letter Search mats and either laminate them or slip them into clear page protectors. Children will choose a mat, identify
the letter in the directive at the top, and find and mark them with a manipulative. Manipulatives can be flat floral marbles, coins, bingo chips,
Unifix cubes, lima beans, etc. Each mat has 3 uppercase letters and 3 lowercase letters to find.
Snowman Letter Sounds Game
[Literacy]
Print out the Letter Sounds Mats and laminate or slip into clear page protectors. To play this game, children will identify the letter at the top, and cover
only the pictures with the same beginning sound. Manipulatives to cover the pictures could be Unifix cubes, plastic bingo chips, lima beans, coins, flat floral
marbles, etc. My suggestion is to place the game mats on a tray with only 5 manipulatives. Each mat has 5 pictures that begin with that letter. Having only 5
manipulatives will remind them to search for 5 pictures, and will help them self-check. You may need to review what the pictures represent before playing the game.
(Note: The letter X uses pictures representing words that end in the /x/ sound.)
Shaving Cream Snow
[Literacy]
Children practice writing their name or letters with their finger in shaving cream "snow".
Story Retelling
[Literacy]
Choose a Winter themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children
and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character
said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their
cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words.
Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.
Build-A-Snowman Math Game
[Math]
Children roll a die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of snowman pieces. They add the pieces of snowman (there are 10 pieces in all)
until they have completed it. The pieces are two white felt circles (the stiff kind of felt), black felt hat, blue felt scarf, two wiggle eyes,
orange felt nose, 3 buttons.
Graph (Mittens/Gloves)
[Math]
Children bring mittens or gloves from home. We graph them on the floor mat and compare and count the two sets to see which has the most.
Grid Games
[Math]
To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one
picture in the grid. Children play until the whole grid is full. This grid game uses white pom poms found in craft stores. (The snowman grid game in the
photo was made using scrapbook paper and stickers.)
10 Spaces
20 Spaces
10 Spaces
20 Spaces
Mitten Counting Match Game
[Math]
There are two cards representing each number. The children count the mittens on each card, and match the cards that have the same amount of mittens.
The mittens are placed in different arrangements so that they do not appear the same at first glance. This way, children have to actually count them rather than match
them by site.
Mitten Matching or Classifying Cards
[Math, Visual Discrimination]
These cards can be used for a matching activity or a classification activity. Set includes 18 mitten cards.
Matching: Print two copies of the cards onto cardstock, laminate, and cut them out. Children match the pairs of mittens that are the same.
Classification: Print one copy of the cards onto cardstock, laminate, and cut them out. Children classify the mittens into categories. One way to classify
them would be: stripes, spots, stripes and spots, hearts. Another way to classify them would be: mittens with 2 colors, 3 colors, more than 3.
Snowflake Matching Cards
[Visual Discrimination]
Matching: Print two copies of the cards onto cardstock, laminate, and cut them out. Children match the pairs of snowflakes that are the same.
Snowman Stamping Game
[Literacy/Math]
Write a letter or numeral on each snowman, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find
that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X"
over the snowman if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.
Winter Patterns
[Math]
I use snowman and snowflake Martha Stewart craft punchers to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Children glue the cutouts on
the paper pattern strip. You can do AB, AABB, ABC, ABB, AAB, etc.
Winter Sorting
[Math]
I use snowman and snowflake Martha Stewart craft punchers to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Give each child a bowl of assorted paper cutouts.
Have them sort the paper cutouts onto the sorting sheet and glue them on.
More Winter Sorting
[Math]
This is done the same way as above, using a sorting sheet with 6 spaces.
Winter Counting
[Math]
I use snowman and snowflake Martha Stewart craft punchers to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Print out the numeral sheets. Have children
count out the correct amount of paper cutouts to glue onto the numeral.
Snowball Sizes
[Math]
Purchase white craft pom poms in three different sizes (these are available at any craft store). Obtain three different sized jars or boxes and attach the snowman size cards on each jar/box: small, medium, large. Place all of the white pom poms (snowballs) in one container and have the children sort them by size in the jars/boxes.
Melt Ice with Salt
[Science]
A day in advance, children fill small paper cups with water and put them in the freezer overnight. The day of the experiment, the children peel the
paper off of their ice and place it in a disposable bowl. We use an eyedropper to place drops of colored water on the ice to add color,
then the children sprinkle on some salt, and observe what happens. When we do this, the salt seems to "eat away" at the ice, and with the food color
added, it looked like colored crystals.
Ice Cube Art
[Art, Science]
Each child chooses two colors of powdered tempera paint to spoon onto a paper plate. We use an ice cube on a popsicle stick to swirl around the plate,
watching and waiting as it melted, mixing with the paint and blending the colors. Children can see how long it takes for the ice to melt.
Ramps & Pipes
[Science]
Children use long boards, pieces of cardboard, PVC pipes, and paper towel tubes to make ramps, and drop ice cubes down the ramps.
Cryogenics
[Science]
Cryogenics is the study of the effects of freezing temperatures on different materials. In this activity, we place four different substances
(water, liquid soap, vanilla pudding, and honey) into small cups, then freeze them. After they are frozen (the next day), we take them out to
observe and touch to see what effect freezing had on the substances.
Ice Rainbows
[Science]
Children drop colored water onto crushed ice to watch the colors travel down through the ice pieces and blend with other colors.
Insta Snow
[Science]
Insta-Snow is a superabsorbant polymer. I let my kids watch as I make it so they can see the powder absorb the water. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby,
but you can also get it from Steve Spangler. Since my kids don't get the opportunity to see or touch real snow, they like to just run their fingers
through it and play with it. You could also use it with measuring cups and containers of different sizes, or with small plastic polar animals.
Winter Walk
[Science]
Go for a winter walk around the neighborhood or schoolyard together. Talk about the changes they see in nature. How do the trees look now that is
different from summer? How does the grass look? How does the sky look? Are there any (or many) animals around? Are there any flowers?
Snowman Snack
[Cooking]
Place two English muffin halves on a plate, one above the other, like a snowman. Spread cream cheese or white cake icing on the muffins. Add M&M candies or raisins for the eyes and mouth. Add a baby carrot for the nose. Add a piece of a fruit leather strip (fruit roll-up) for the scarf.
Dramatic Play Center
[Centers]
Include a basket full of winter clothing: mittens, hat, scarf, pans, boots, scarf, coat. This goes well with the book Froggy Gets Dressed by
Jonathan London.
Block Center
[Centers]
Add white polyester that children can add to the structures they build for a snowy winter setting. Take a photo of each child dressed in their winter
clothing, cut out the photos and attach them to a block so they will stand up straight. Children can use these as people "figures" of themselves in
their block structures.
Science Center
[Centers, Science]
Add books that show pictures that represent the winter season. You can also take photos of the trees and other plant life around your school showing
how they look in winter to display in the science center.
Ice Skating
[Large Group, Movement]
Have each child place their feet on two paper plates (one foot on one plate). They should move around the room, sliding their feet along as if they
are skating. A "freeze" game could also be played by starting and stopping music and calling for everyone to "freeze".
Resources
10 Spaces
20 Spaces
10 Spaces
20 Spaces
Links
- Winter Theme Links
- Pre-K Pages
- Connolly's Kids
- Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos
- The Virtual Vine
- Enchanted Learning
