Best Winter Activities for Preschoolers

Looking for fun and educational winter activities for preschoolers? Stay At Home Educator brings you a complete collection of winter preschool theme activities that make learning easy even on the coldest days. Whether you’re a parent teaching at home or an early childhood educator, these preschool winter themed lesson ideas are designed to support hands-on discovery, sensory play, and literacy and math skill development.

Winter preschool activity collage showing art, math, and literacy ideas including snowman crafts, number games, and alphabet puzzles. — Winter theme activities for preschoolers and toddlers.

From frosty winter science and art activities to playful ice and snow themed math and literacy activities, your classroom will feel like a true winter wonderland, just without the frozen toes. Try glittery snowflake art, icy blue sensory bins, or snowman counting games to strengthen fine motor skills and early literacy.

These ideas also work beautifully as winter themed toddler activities and are organized by category such as math, literacy, sensory, and fine motor so you can quickly find what fits your lesson plan. Did I mention we offer free winter themed lesson plans, too?

Table of Contents

Winter Literacy Activities for Preschoolers

Let’s start with some winter themed literacy activities for preschoolers. Our growing list of lesson ideas include visual discrimination skills, letter recognition, winter prewriting mats and more!

Check out these activities:

Preschool winter literacy activity with matching snowman cards helping children develop visual skills, letter recognition, and beginning phonics understanding.

Winter Math Activities for Preschool

Winter-themed math activities offer exciting opportunities for preschoolers to practice counting, sorting, and shape recognition. Using snowflakes, mittens, and winter animals, these activities will fit seamlessly into your winter preschool centers and lesson plans.

Don’t miss these great activity ideas!

Preschooler arranging illustrated cards of trees, houses, and mittens in a winter pattern activity that builds early math, sequencing, and visual discrimination skills.

Winter Art Activities for Preschoolers

Get inspired by the patterns of ice and snow in the winter season! Winter process art activities allow preschoolers to experiment with colors, textures, and materials, creating unique winter masterpieces. From painting snowy scenes to making textured snowflakes, these activities focus on the creative process, not the final product.

Enjoy these hands-on activities!

Winter preschool art idea featuring a snowy night collage with green marbled trees, painted blue sky, and shiny snowflakes, helping children strengthen cutting skills and artistic expression.

Winter Sensory Activity Ideas

Winter sensory activities are a great way to engage preschoolers in hands-on learning while exploring the sights, sounds, and textures of the season. From snow-themed sensory bins to ice play, these activities help develop fine motor skills and stimulate creativity in a fun, interactive way.

This simple and exciting preschool winter activity strengthens hand muscles and coordination! Using colorful tweezers, children pick up mini marshmallows based on dice rolls to count and sort. It’s a hands-on way to build fine motor precision, math skills, and patience. Perfect for small group centers or indoor play during cold days.

Winter Theme Printables

Winter Theme Fine Motor Activities

Winter is the perfect time for preschoolers to strengthen fine motor skills with seasonal activities. Whether it’s stringing beads to create icicles or using tongs to pick up cotton ball snowflakes, these tasks help develop hand-eye coordination in a fun, festive way.

See what activities we have in store!

Preschool fine motor activity using tweezers, dice, and mini marshmallows on a blue tray to build hand strength, coordination, and early counting skills in a fun winter math game.

Free Winter Preschool Lesson Plans

Winter provides the perfect opportunity to create engaging lesson plans that incorporate the season’s unique elements. From exploring winter weather and animals to learning about winter holidays around the world, these lessons can be both educational and fun for preschoolers.

Grab these free winter themed preschool lesson plans.

Hands-on Winter Activities for Preschool

Winter-themed activities offer a creative way for preschoolers to explore the season through hands-on play. Activities like making snowflakes, playing in a “snow” sensory bin, or reading winter stories can help reinforce concepts such as shapes, colors, and sensory exploration.

Check out these awesome ideas to try!

Monthly Winter Preschool Theme Ideas

Looking for lesson planning ideas for your winter theme, but based on the month? Got you covered with these monthly preschool theme idea collections!

December Preschool Themes

January Preschool Themes

February Preschool Themes

Themes to Teach in February

FAQ About Teaching January Themes in Preschool

What do you teach preschoolers in the winter?

Like any preschool theme, there is always a larger theme that can be broken down into smaller themes. For example, in a winter preschool theme, you can teach your preschoolers about snow and ice, snowflakes, frozen ground, hibernating animals, sledding, winter clothing, cold weather animals and so on.

All of these things can be taught through winter themed alphabet activities, winter math activities, and of course, winter preschool art projects and sensory activities too!

Just see all the ideas below!

what to teach preschoolers in january, January preschool themes

What if it doesn’t snow where I live?

While still snowy woodland scenes are icons of winter landscape, you can teach a winter preschool even if it doesn’t snow where you live. You can still 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, but you can even make your own faux snow by mixing baking soda and shaving cream together.