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One of my favorite ways to welcome students back after winter break is with a thematic unit! The themed literacy and math activities are a great way to grab students’ attention and get them back in the swing of their learning routine! In this post, I’m going to share some activities that you can use in a fun winter unit for kindergarten that your students will love!
There are so many ways to practice literacy skills with a fun winter twist! Here are some hands-on literacy activities that will be a hit during your winter unit for kindergarten.
Students can practice building and reading words with this hands-on activity! Give each student letter cards that spell out the word “winter.” Students can then rearrange the letters to create as many new words as they can. They can practice writing these words on a recording sheet.
Students always love to read about the tiny family living in a snow globe. All the family wants is the large snowstorm that comes when the globe gets shaken! As you read the story with your class, you can make a large story map anchor chart. Students can then reference this anchor chart as they complete their own story map of this picture book.
Your students will also enjoy creating this mini-book for “The Snow Globe Family” as they practice story elements.
After reading about everything the family did in their snow globe, students can write about what they would do if they lived in a snow globe! You can use this writing activity as inspiration for a fun snow globe craft! This 3D craft uses a student photo and stands up on its own, which makes a perfect classroom decoration for the winter months.
Students can learn all about a brace map by breaking up a snowman into its various parts. This activity can be done using an anchor chart and individual worksheets. Identifying the different parts of a snowman will come in handy for other winter writing activities that your students will do in this unit.
After learning about the different parts of a snowman, students will each create their own snowman craft and write about it!
They will use a graphic organizer to make sure they include all of the snowman parts, then they will write all about their snowman and create a craft to match. These snowmen look great on a winter bulletin board!
After creating their own snowmen, students will be ready to teach someone else how to make one! They can create this fun flipbook and craft to outline the steps needed to make a snowman. There are two different craft options to choose from!
Finally, your students can practice spelling their names with a cute snowman craft! Each letter of their name will go on a different snowball. Students love to see how tall their snowman will be once they have stacked all of the snowballs!
After finishing the craft, you can sort the snowmen by the number of letters to see which name length is the most common in your classroom!
You can also get students excited about math practice with wintery activities! Here are some of my favorite math activities for a kindergarten winter unit.
Students can compare their names with the length of the word “snowman” for some winter math fun! They can complete a fun graphing worksheet as part of this name comparison activity.
The snowman fun can continue as students practice decomposing numbers for an addition sort. Each snowman has a sum on its hat and students will need to build the rest of the snowman by finding corresponding number sentences. This helps students see the different ways they can make numbers using addition!
One of the most important math concepts students need to master is combinations of ten. This will help them identify number patterns and improve their math fluency. Students can first practice this skill using the visual support of a ten frame.
You can use a variety of missing addend activities to help students practice making ten with a fun winter twist!
It’s also important for students to learn how to use a number line. This knowledge will help them them when they work on more challenging math concepts as they get older. You can incorporate number lines as students continue to practice making ten.
Students can use dry-erase mats, printable worksheets, and more to show different ways to identify the missing addend.
If your students are ready to practice vertical addition, snowmen can make it fun! Your students will love finding the correct bottom snowball for each snowman by solving each addition problem. This is also great cut-and-paste practice!
Are you curious about how all of these activities fit together into a cohesive winter unit for kindergarten? I have created a unit at-a-glance document that outlines how all of these activities can be used in a five-day unit study for kindergarten. This document is included in my printable bundle of winter math and literacy activities. It also includes fun book suggestions that correspond to the different literacy and math practice activities that your students will be completing throughout the unit.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this printable bundle, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning Shop or on TPT.
Be sure to grab these free winter mystery puzzles to bring some extra engagement to your winter unit study! Just fill out the form below and they’ll be sent straight to your inbox.
I hope that this post has inspired you to do a fun winter thematic unit in your classroom this year! If you’d like even more winter-themed ideas for your kindergarten class, check out this post with ten fun winter activities for kindergarten.
Be sure to add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find this fun winter unit whenever you’re ready to download and print!
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
