Winter Preschool Centers

Description

This winter, create a flurry of fun in your classroom with these cuddly critters! Bundle up in their warm sweaters and don those chunky knit mittens as they embark on exciting snow adventures – all while learning important early literacy skills. Let the magical memories and learning begin!

These 12 winter activities for preschoolers and just too cute and a must-have in your winter preschool lesson plans. Including 12 new and creative printable activities, your preschooler will practice skills in all the skills in early literacy while learning about the warmer side of winter.

THESE Winter Themed Preschool Centers WILL HELP PRESCHOOLERS DEVELOP the following skills:

• phonological awareness
• phonemic awareness
• letter formation
• phonics

AS WELL AS THE FOLLOWING MATH SKILLS:

• number sense
• algebra
• geometry
• measurement
• data analysis and probability

Bundle and prepare for some winter-themed fun! This creative pack of printable centers offers a friendly twist on the classic season – get your little ones to learn about all kinds of wonderful wintry topics, like snuggly clothing, thrilling snow sports, cosy blankets and more. With 12 hands-on activities included in this preschool center bundle, they’ll be sure to stay engaged as they explore each one with you carefree!

And with so many early learning concepts included, these preschool centers will reach a wide range of skill sets in your classroom.

HERE’S WHAT’S INCLUDED:

This pack includes 87 pages of printable winter activities to use for whole group teaching or to add to your preschool centers. Activities are as follows:

Winter Literacy Activities

• Snowy Arctic Letter Matching (Alphabet Knowledge) – Match the lower case letter on each snowflake letter card to the corresponding upper case letter.​
  
• Winter Clothes Word Tracing Cards (Letter Formation) – Cut apart the tracing cards and place in a dry erase pouch. Use a dry erase marker to trace over each word.​
  
• Cozy winter Rebus Reader Cards (Print Awareness) – Cut apart the rebus reader cards. Read aloud the sentence, inviting the preschoolers to fill in the picture words. (Acceptable answers are any word that makes sense in the sentence. Additionally, when added to a preschool reading center, preschoolers might make up their own sentences as they “read” the text. This is ok. Encourage preschoolers to point to the words as they “read”.)​
• Snowman Rhyming Cards (Phonological Awareness)  – Cut apart the rhyming cards and use them to make matches on the snowman mat.
• Winter Fun Beginning Sound Mats (Phonemic Awareness) – Cut apart the beginning sound cards and place in a pile. Place the letter cards in a separate pile. Draw a letter card and place it on the mat. Add the corresponding beginning sound cards. (To simplify, place a select group of letters and matching beginning sounds and have your student work with only a few letters and sounds at once, rather than the entire alphabet).
• Winter Friends Word Building (Phonemic Awareness) – Cut apart the word building cards. Use letter cards to spell out the word on each card.  Alternatively, magnetic letter manipulatives can be used. Find matching letter manipulatives here: Magnetic Letter Manipulatives​

Winter Math Activities

• Snowman Counting Mats (Number Sense) – Select a counting mat. Identify the number on the mat and count the snowmen. Use the small counting manipulative cards to find the same quantities in the finger counting, dice, and tally mark cards. Place the corresponding cards in the boxes on the mats.
• Snowman Playdough Shape Mats (Geometry) – Identify the shape on the mat. Then use a small manipulative or playdough to form the written name of the shape and the shapes on the mat.
• Warm Friends Mark and Sort (Algebra)  – Cut apart the warm clothes cards and the winter friends marking cards. There are two ways to play this game. First, select a winter friends card and take a close look at what the animals are wearing. Fill out the card by putting an x in the appropriate boxes on the card. Then, if desired, take this activity one step further by placing a counter on the sorting mats for each item of clothing the winter friend is wearing.
• Winter Fun Measurement Mats(Measurement) – Use non-standard units of measurement to identify the height of different pieces of the winter fun picture mats. There are 4-5 measurements to make on each mat. For an added challenge, use different units to see if how they compare.
• Winter Clothes Colors Roll and Graph Data Analysis) – Assemble to dice. Roll the dice and identify all the color that Winter Friend is wearing. Add a marker to the graph for each color the winter friend is wearing. Continue until one color is filled to the top of the graph.
• Juggling snowman Composing Ten (Number Sense) – This activity requires double sided math counters. You can also make your own using dried lima beans. Paint one side red and another side blue or yellow. Give each child a total of ten counters in a cup. Roll the counters out of the cup and onto a tray. Identify how many counters are red and how many are another color. Place the counters on the snowballs on the mat. Start with the red counters and then fill in the second color. Finally, have your preschooler find the corresponding number card in the right color and place them at the top of the mat.

HOW TO USE THESE Winter Printable Preschool Centers

These preschool activities are not limited to only centers. They can also be used in the following settings:

• printable preschool centers
• small group activities
• table top activities
• sensory table activities
• quick circle time activities
• whole class skills practice
• informal assessments

HOW TO ADD THESE TO WHAT YOU’RE ALREADY TEACHING

Of course, these thematic activities pair wonderfully with my Daily Lessons in Preschool Literacy and Math Curriculum because they target the same skills. With the thoughtful design of the daily lesson plans included in my curriculum, you will know exactly which fall centers to pull out during the theme. Together, they make the perfect team for a well-rounded, engaging theme based curriculum.