6 Snowy Printable Winter Activities for Preschoolers
It’s winter here in the northern hemisphere which means it’s time for warm mittens and cozy hats, building snowmen, and sledding in the snow! Oh, and it’s time for a winter theme in preschool, too! Here you will find six printable winter activities for preschoolers that are a perfect addition to your winter theme lesson plans.
6 Winter Printables for Preschool
Nothing makes lesson planning easier than having a few printables to add to your arsenal. These six winter printables have all the traditional wintery images you’d expect, too. Hot cocoa, snowy trees, snowflakes, sleds, winter knit caps and more.
When the chill of winter hits it always when I like to do a winter theme in my preschool.
That said, one year in August when the heat of our dry climate was simply unbearable, we did a winter preschool theme then, too.
I know, I said that about our arctic theme, too. But it’s true. I’ve done both in the summer.
You see, it can get unbearably hot where we live. And summers are dry and still. We can go weeks without even the faintest breeze and without seeing a cloud in the sky. Just blue skies for as far as you can see in every direction.
And that sounds nice, which it is. Our summers are long and typically last well into the “fall season”. We study the typical summer preschool themes, like desert and ocean and we enjoy the heck out of those themes.
Except that sometimes we need a preschool theme that will transport us from that intense heat that leaches the energy out of you to something drastically different and unexpected.
Like a winter preschool theme in the middle of summer. It’s invigorating.
My point is that while I’m writing up this post at this very moment it’s sunny outside but bitterly cold. But preschool winter activities don’t always have to parallel the season.
We’ve had a few snow flurries, so my boys are eating up these winter printables right now, but I might pull them back out in the middle of summer when my boys complain about the heat.
So, as I’ve said before, whatever your timing or reasoning, these six printable winter activities are a fun addition to your preschool lesson plans.
With minimal prep work, you can quickly add these winter printables to your circle time lessons, preschool centers, or just some winter theme independent work!
FAQ About Teaching a Winter Theme Activities
January is the most popular time to teach a winter theme in preschool. Topics like ice and snowmen, mittens and boots, and penguins and arctic animals are all fitting. Try spending an entire week learning all about winter clothing.
While snowy woodland scenes are icons of winter landscape, you can still teach a winter preschool theme even if it doesn’t snow where you live. You can teach about ice and frozen things, hibernating animals, as well as coats and mittens.
You can purchase fake snow that makes a really fun science experiment, or you can make your own faux snow by mixing baking soda and shaving cream together.
A well-done preschool theme is going to include a variety of activities in different content areas. Activities should include winter alphabet activities, winter math activities, sensory and art activities, as well as winter fine motor and dramatic play activities.
You can see all the best winter theme preschool activities here:
>>> Best Winter Activities for Preschoolers <<<
Related Reading
6 Snow Printables for a Winter Preschool Theme
These printables consist of three letter activities and three math activities. You only need a few extra materials that I’m sure you already have on hand.
MATERIALS
- winter theme printables (found at the end of this post)
- Dice
- Math counters (or floral pebbles or buttons, even)
- Pencil and crayons
Printable Winter Theme Matching Game
One of my favorite activities to add to any preschool theme is a good old-fashioned matching game. Matching games have many benefits, like improving concentration, increasing attention to detail, training visual memory and visual discrimination, expanding vocabulary…I could go on.
Matching games are also helpful for developing pre-literacy skills because they require visual discrimination skills.
And there are so many ways to play, too!
You can play a traditional game of concentration, or you can play the cards out face up and ask your preschooler to find matches that way, too. You can tape one set to the wall for some gross motor fun, or play a “hide and seek” version around the room.
Prewriting Practice Cards for Winter Theme
Nothing motivates a developing writer like friendly themed pictures on their practice sheets. These pre-writing strokes tracing sheets work all the line sets needed to form letters and numbers, without tracing actual numbers or letters.
This means your preschooler can practice the prewriting lines she needs the most, without having to struggle through what she isn’t ready for.
You can cut apart the prewriting practice cards to make individual cards, or leave them as a whole sheet and place them in a dry erase pocket. If you cut them apart, punch a hole in the corner and add them to a binder ring.
Winter Letter Matching Puzzles
These letter matching puzzles help your preschooler identify and match upper and lower case letters, which is an important precursor to learning to read. The upper case letter is in one corner and the lower case letter in the bottom corner, with a straight line diving the two, making them quick and easy to prep.
And, this alphabet puzzle has three different color backgrounds, so if you have a preschooler just learning their letters, you can pull out one color set at a time to make the alphabet a little less intimidating.
I Spy Winter Games for Preschoolers
I love I Spy games, and I think they are an underutilized tool in early childhood education. Like matching games, they also work on attention to detail and visual discrimination, but many educators find I Spy games to be a powerful tool to teach language and speech development, too!
This set comes with four versions. Three of the versions have winter pictures and the lats, pictured above, is a word version; a challenge for your older preschoolers.
Preschool Graphing Activities for Winter Preschool Theme
This board game has preschoolers practicing counting and graphing, and throws in a little logic and strategy, too!
Players move around the board in any direction they choose, collecting token to fill their graph. The key is to land on the pictures that will build one line of their graph the fastest, making them the winner!
This game can be played independently, in pairs, or in small groups. You can even play this like a cooperative game where everyone shares a single game piece but graph their own cards.
Winter Number Tracing and Counting Cards
These snowflake number tracing cards can be added to your math center or your preschool writing center. The number of snowflakes on each card corresponds to the numeral on the card, of course. But as my daughter would point out, they must be real snowflakes because each one has exactly six points!
You can cut apart these cards and laminate them, or place them in a dry erase pocket.
GET YOUR WINTER THEME PRINTABLES HERE!
Think these printables would fit in well with your winter theme lesson plans? Just click the image or the link below to grab them.
>> Printable Winter Activities for Preschoolers <<<
More Printables for Preschool Winter Theme
These winter printables are quick to prepare and are designed for independent work, small groups, or add them to your preschool centers.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.