35 Fun Winter Activities for Kindergarten and Preschool Students
Winter is a magical time for kindergartners! It’s the perfect opportunity to engage them in fun and educational activities that embrace the season. Check out these 15 winter activities for kindergarten and preschool students to ignite their curiosity while honing their literacy, math, and science skills.
Since I came from a school setting into homeschooling, it’s taken me some time to figure out what works best for my kids. When we first started, felt as if I needed to give them a school experience.
We sat at desks, completed workbooks, and took tests. It was a miserable experience for us all. Needless to say, that didn’t last long!
Over time, I’ve figured out that hands-on learning is the best way to keep little learners interested and engaged. Worksheets are great in their place. However, preschool and kindergarten students often learn best through experiences.
If you’re a first-time homeschool mom like I was, you might be overwhelmed at the thought of trying to teach all the things they need to learn. You want them to know all the important stuff about reading, writing, and numbers.
It’s important to remember that kindergarten and preschool should be fun! We want to ignite a lifelong love of learning in our kids. Using seasonal-themed activities is a great way to keep them engaged and excited about learning.
When it’s cold outside, these winter theme activities are a great addition to your kindergarten or preschool curriculum.
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35 Fun Winter Activities for Kindergarten and Preschool
Winter is the perfect time of year to improve fine motor skills, math skills, science skills, literacy skills, and more! Use the winter season as a springboard for all sorts of winter stem activities for both indoor and outdoor play.
Winter-Themed Story Time
Any time is a great time to snuggle up and read! Choose books that are set in winter or involve snow to make your time even more special. Include literacy activities like sight words and spelling practice to make your story time even more educational.
Check out these winter books your kids will love:
- The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
- There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow
- The Biggest Snowman Ever
- Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee
Winter I Spy
I Spy is such a fun way to help kids practice counting and graphing. Grab this fun free download that features all things winter for kids to search, count, and graph. This is one of our favorite indoor activities for cold weather.
Winter Sensory Bin
Sensory bins are such a valuable resource to help kids improve hand-eye coordination, plus, they’re amazing boredom busters. Fill a large container with fake snow, winter-themed objects, and alphabet or number cards.
Let children explore and identify the items while practicing their letter and number recognition skills. Or grab this one that’s ready to go with rice, pom poms, snowflakes, Christmas trees, and all the tools kids need for sensory play.
Hot Cocoa Math
Making and drinking hot chocolate is a great winter activity for the whole family. Use mini marshmallows to make this a math activity. Add marshmallows to your cup, or subtract them by eating them up! It’s a fun game that encourages learning in a tasty way.
Snowmen Coloring Sheets
If you can’t build a snowman outside, build one inside with these snowmen coloring pages. Coloring is a great family activity that brings winter fun even if you can’t go outdoors–or, if you’re like me and live in an area where it never snows!
Winter Kindergarten Activity Pack
This winter fun activity pack has 90 pages of educational activities that are perfect for homeschoolers. Activities include sentence writing, vocabulary, counting, patterns, cutting practice, math, drawing and more!
How to Make an Easy Antarctic Diorama with Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
It was so much fun to create a little snowy wonderland of Antarctic creatures and learn about them, their habitats, diets, and more. You will not find arctic foxes, polar bears, or snowy owls in Antarctica because there are no true terrestrial (land-living) animals that make their home there.
Snow Dough Winter Playdough from The Soccer Mom Blog
Little hands love playdough! Making your own playdough is a fun hands-on activity for a snowy day! Snow dough is a winter-themed playdough that’s easy to make and uses the magic of instant snow for extra chill and a fluffy texture that’s as soft as fresh snow!
Winter Snowflake Sensory Bottle from Homeschool Preschool
Capture the essence of winter with this winter snowflake sensory bottle! It will make a great calming activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Sensory bottles are easy to make, and they provide hours of calming fun for little ones. This bottle is full of colorful snowflakes making it perfect for your preschool winter activities.
Watercolor Snow Paint from The Gingerbread House
If you’re looking for a fun winter activity that will allow you to spend time outdoors, try this watercolor snow paint! It’s also a great boredom buster for snow days or winter break. It’s a great stem activity as well as a way to experiment with art projects.
Easiest Paper Snowflake with Pasta from Plate in 28
These Paper Snowflakes with Pasta are the most simple and creative pasta craft your kids will ever make! Hang your paper snowflakes in your windows or from a tree and you’ll be ready to celebrate winter!
Free Winter Color by Number in Spanish from Lorena Y Lennox
These 10 free printable winter color-by-number pages in Spanish worksheets will be a great activity to do in the classroom or at home this winter. Included, there are ten color-by-number worksheets, each with a fun Winter scene to color and practice the numbers in Spanish.
Polar Bear Handprint Craft from Simple Everyday Mom
The polar bear craft is well suited for preschoolers, kindergarten, and elementary children, but can also be used with toddlers if they have some adult help. It’s a fun winter animal craft for kids! Since polar bears are arctic animals, it also makes a great craft idea for an Arctic animal-themed study unit. Includes a free template.
Snowflake Paper Plate Wreath from Crafty Kids Play
Ready to dive into a winter wonderland of fun? This beautiful and easy paper plate snowflake wreath craft is a great way to bring the beauty of winter inside (without the cold and mess of melting snow). With just a few basic supplies, we’ve included variation ideas so that kids of any age can make this simple wreath craft, perfect for the winter season.
Pretty Painted Snowflake Rocks from Sustain My Craft Habit
Bring a bit of winter indoors with these simple yet pretty painted rock snowflakes. They’re a great, inexpensive way to decorate for the winter season. Or use them as napkin weights for your winter tablescape!
Snow Measuring Craft + Activity for Kids [Free Printable Snow Tracking Chart]
If you live in the North, then you probably get a bit of snow. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to learn some charting skills with this cute snow-measuring printable and winter craft idea for kids! Add this to your winter science experiments that the whole family can enjoy.
Marshmallow Snowman Craft from Plate in 28
Who doesn’t love a cute, edible snowman? We simply can’t get enough of this Marshmallow Snowman Craft! These marshmallow snowmen make the best holiday gifts or treats!
Build a Snowman Craft for Kids from Paper Heart Family
Most kids enjoy building snowmen during the winter season. Whether that is a real snowman during winter weather or completing a creative activity with a paper snowman craft indoors, kids have so much fun with snowman building! While this is a fairly easy snowman craft, it is a perfect way to help young kids work on their fine motor skills.
Winter Animals Coloring Pages from Crafts Kids Love
Enjoy coloring some cute cold weather and arctic animals even if you’re stuck indoors! This is an excellent opportunity for adults and kids of all ages to spend time together during the cold winter months.
Snowman in a Bag Kids Craft from Oh My! Creative
This is a great “snow day” activity for toddlers or preschoolers…even young elementary school children. What’s great about it is that you might already own most of the supplies to make this snowman-in-a-bag craft! It’s also a fun activity for kids who may have sensory issues and not enjoy touching wet textures.
Penguin Finger Puppet Craft from Homan at Home
Use our free printable penguin finger puppet template to make a winter friend! This easy finger puppet craft is perfect for preschool and elementary school kids.
Winter Color by Number Sheets from The Best Ideas for Kids
These free printable Winter Color By Number pages are a fun indoor activity. Kids can use crayons, markers, or colored pencils to color them in. These are perfect to pull out on a really cold, wintry day!
How to Make A Puffy Paint Snowman Craft with Shaving Cream from Encouraging Moms at Home
Snowman activities bring a fun time during the month of January! Even if you can’t get outside to play, using shaving cream is a creative way to build a “fake snow” snowman indoors!
Related: 16 Cheery Snowman Crafts for Kids
Painting on Ice–Painted ice Crystals from Messy Little Monster
If you’re looking for something to get those high-energy kids outside in the snow, they are going to love this! It’s pretty simple to do and makes for a lot of play. Follow the step-by-step directions below to make your very own painted ice.
Kindergarten Word Search from Tree Valley Academy
The word search puzzle is a fun and educational activity for kindergarten or preschool children stuck inside on a cold winter’s day. It’s free to download and can easily be printed from your home or classroom printer.
Winter Observation Worksheet from 3 Boys and a Dog
These Winter Observation Worksheets are great for the kids. It’s an easy way to print out pages to let the kids right down their thoughts and observations. Looking forward to the change in season is so much fun! This worksheet helps your little one express thoughts, emotions, and things they’re excited about!
Winter Bingo Printables from Crystal and Comp
Winter is upon us, and with the cold weather comes the challenge of keeping our little ones entertained and engaged. As parents, we are always on the lookout for educational resources that can make learning fun for our children. These Winter Bingo Printables are a perfect activity to keep your preschoolers occupied while also helping them learn important skills.
Winter Suncatcher Craft from Darcy and Brian
This adorable project, featuring a winter hat and mittens, is a fantastic way to bring the magic of winter indoors. Whether at home or school, kids of all ages can enjoy creating these whimsical suncatchers. All you need is some tissue paper, glue, and the printable template to make this easy craft.
Simple Snow Painting Activity from Living Life and Learning
The kids are going to love this Simple Snow Painting Activity! It’s a super simple way to be creative in the show using fun supplies and a bit of creativity. I really love this creative activity for the kids. Since all we really need are a squeeze bottle and food coloring, there’s nothing hard to this at all! You can easily make this fun activity happen over and over again
Winter Pretend Play–Scooping Snowballs from Fun-a-Day
Bring snow to your classroom with a winter pretend play activity. In this activity, children will practice their fine motor skills and scratch that sensory-seeking itch as they scoop, toss, break, and stuff their snowballs made out of cotton balls!
Easy Build a Snowman Activity from Crafty Art Ideas
Are you looking for a great preschool snowman activity? Don’t worry this DIY winter game also works well for an elementary class party. It is a huge hit for all ages!
Winter Color by Number from Rock Your Homeschool
These winter color-by-number printables are wonderful ways to enjoy seasonal fun with kids. With ten pages filled with a variety of themes, your children will have a blast with these winter activities. From frosty snowflakes to cheerful snowmen, each theme is carefully designed to spark imagination and create cherished memories.
Printable Winter Bingo in Spanish from Lorena Y Lennox
If you are looking for a fun and engaging activity to do at home in the minority language or to use in your Spanish classroom, this winter bingo will be a hit! It comes with 20 cards and six playing sheets to use with up to six players!
Free Printable Winter Coloring Pages for Kids from Two Kids and a Coupon
Celebrate the cooler weather with these fun winter coloring pages for kids. Print them for your family!
Conclusion
Winter doesn’t have to be a dull and dreary season for kindergarten and preschool. With so many exciting and unique activities at your disposal, you can make the most out of this cold weather.
From building snowmen and going on snowy nature walks to staying cozy indoors with hot cocoa and winter-themed crafts, the options are endless. Don’t let the weather dampen your spirits or keep your little ones cooped up indoors all day. Get creative and have some fun while embracing the magic of winter in all its glory.
I hope this blog post has provided you with some inspiration and ideas for incorporating winter into your kindergarten curriculum. But I’m curious, what are YOUR favorite winter activities to do with kindergarteners? Did I miss any must-try activities? Share them in the comments below, because as we all know, teachers and homeschoolers learn best from each other.
And remember, don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new this season. Who knows, you may discover a new activity that becomes a staple in your classroom every winter or create lasting memories for your students.
More Kids Activities You’ll Love
Looking for more fun ways to keep your kids busy and learning? Check these out:
