December has many great holidays, but it’s good to remember that not every student celebrates! If you are looking for tons of winter ideas instead, I have you covered there as well! Morning routines honestly go out the window during the cold months! I have lived in Arizona for two decades but spent my youth in the midwest. I can still remember coming into the classroom and spending soooo much time taking off all those layers!
One of the biggest tips about celebrating holidays and the winter season is to have a theme! Instead of starting something completely new, brush up on old skills. Depending on the age, diversity of the school, etc. there are many ways you can go with this!
Have everything winter-themed, arctic-themed, penguin-themed, etc. Or do mini-units on those favorite books for the season. The Polar Express is obviously a great standby during the winter season, but there are so many other books you can make an entire week’s worth of fun with! Just a few to name: Snowflake Bentley, Over the River and Through the Woods, The Mitten, and The Snowy Day. Books for Celebrating the Winter Season
Another fun way to use these snowmen is first read the book Snowmen At Night and then have students write about what they think would happen if snowmen come alive at night!
Winter Bulletin Boards for the Winter Season
Teachers are so busy in October-January that I am sure many wondered why they have pumpkins still displayed when it’s snowing! Designing bulletin boards don’t have to take long. Try to see what can be used for a season rather than just one month. For example, sure that Christmas tree display will look great the three weeks you are actually in school, but what about after? Keep it simple and focus on the season, rather than a certain holiday. Plus, this is great for classrooms with a diversity of students and not specific to just Christmas!
Winter Snowscape Bulletin Board/Wall Display
An easy bulletin board to do is make a winter snowscape. I had a MASSIVE amount of wall space outside one classroom and the kids turned the area around the door into an entire snow scene. They made snowflakes and drew themselves skiing, making snowmen, etc. Sorry, the pictures aren’t the greatest because they were taken before the era of Smartphones, editing apps, and hallway lighting that wasn’t gross.
Another REALLLY easy board to make involved foam snowflakes and kids pictures….that’s it!
Grab some foam large snowflakes by clicking below.
One of my favorite bulletin boards was this one with a fun-looking fireplace! Each kiddo picked one of their favorite books and write a brief summary and drew a picture.
All you need to make this board are paper towels or toilet paper rolls for logs, and white paper folded in half and glued to construction paper. To make flames, just use large pieces of construction paper or butcher paper. Many teachers or craft stores have brick bulletin board paper, but if for some reason you can’t find it, or don’t want to trek out in the snow, Amazon has it!
Another really easy and cheap bulletin board was when I made a snow globe “shelf”. The students each drew their families and it was great to see the varying dynamics of each family. After they were done drawing, they cut around the drawing and then glued it to a blue plate. After adding snow and glitter, they then glued a clear plastic plate to the blue one. That’s it! It is such an easy and inexpensive bulletin board.
The one piece of advice I can not stress enough, have fun and work smarter, not harder. The holiday season can be fun, yet also educational for students. If you are looking for even LESS stress, be sure to check out my Winter No Prep and Digital unit!
After moving, I learned to appreciate winter and snow. One of my favorite units I have made is my Winter NO PREP and Digital Unit. Sledding, making snowmen, having snowball fights….oh how I miss it! I wanted to relive my childhood and basically lived vicariously through this unit.
Students will practice many different concepts such as alphabetical order, fractions, 2-digit addition and subtraction, creating and using contractions, adding coins, context clues, synonyms and antonyms, word problems, and much more!
Winter ELA Activities
After reading the words on the snowman, students will put all of the words in alphabetical order.
Teaching suffixes during the season doesn’t have to be hard. Students will color ice blocks either purple or blue based on whether the word ends with the suffix “less” or “ness”.
Snowball synonyms is a great way for students to review synonyms. This is a way for them to think of synonyms for commonly used words to enhance their vocab and writing!
Contractions don’t have to be hard or boring to teach. With Skate around the contractions, students will read the words on the ice and then create contractions using two words. They will also practice using the contractions in a sentence.
Teaching students about a piece of writing’s purpose can be a bit challenging for younger grades. With Polar Purpose they will read short sentences and then circle the correct purpose that the sentence was trying to convey. After practicing finding the purpose of each sentence, students will then write a short letter persuading their parent or guardian to let them have a penguin as a pet! This is also a fun way for them to practice letter writing by using correct formating and commas.
Winter Math Activities
Students will practice adding 2 digit numbers and then coloring the ice block based on if the answer is even or odd. This is a fun addition practice because kids love to color!
If you are looking for a fun way for students to practice adding two 2 digit addition problems Snowman Spinner is a fun math activity. Using a pencil and paperclip to make a spinner, students will practice adding 2 digit numbers. Another way to make this even more challenging is to set a timer and have them try and make and solve as many equations as they can in that amount of time.
Students will have fun practicing fractions with Frosty Fractions. After reading what fraction to shade in, they will color the fraction.
Snowball sums is a math activity that is great practice for adding 2 digit numbers with some regrouping. As they solve each answer, they will find the corresponding snowball and color it in.
Snowed in a fun winter math graphing activity where students will graph the number of how many inches per day it snowed.
These pages and many more are included in my Winter NO PREP and Digital Unit. There are plenty of math and ELA activities that can be used for homework, morning work, review, early finishers, indoor recess, sub plans, and even more! Perfect for surviving the winter season as a teacher!
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