Winter Themes for Preschool Bundle
The long cold winter months and teaching little ones can be a bigger challenge than the beginning of the school year. There is less daylight, more snow, and longer days inside. This might be the most creative time of the year to keep toddlers and preschoolers fun, engaged, and not bored. The winter themes for the preschool bundle have you covered for those days. The themes included are Bears, Polar Animals, and Snowy days. These can be one-week themes or stretch out the fun with two-week themes.
The winter might have our outside time cut shorter due to the workload to get outside but the fun does not have to change due to the weather. I love some great sensory experiences such as playing in the snow or even bringing the snow inside and avoiding putting on all the winter gear.
The activities in this bundle include literacy, movement, math, and matching skills.
Literacy activities for winter themes
Teaching literacy skills over these essential years is the foundation for strong communication skills during the grade school years. There are many ways you can teach literacy skills in the classroom. My favorite method is through emergent readers that follow the theme being taught. This is a great way for teaching new concepts, learn basic information about a new topic, and showing concepts about print in action. Laminating these books will allow them to be more durable so that after you use them for teaching they can be placed on the bookshelf for further individual learning.
I also like to add a word wall with specific words that correlate with the theme. This gives the children a visual image and the word that labels the image. The last method of introducing literacy is alphabet matching. It’s so important for kids to see various letters to learn the concept that letters can form words. Depending on the ages in your class you can do a match with just one lowercase or use both for older kids. I love using sand, kinetic sand, and playdough to make various letters. For older kids, a dry-erase board and dry-erase markers to practice their writing skills add fun and if they make a mistake they can erase it and try again.
Motor Coordination Activities
During the colder months, it can be a challenge to disperse energy in constructive ways when outside is not always an option. Finding useful approaches to utilize motor coordination skills in the classroom can be like walking a fine line. On one hand, you want the kids to excerpt as much energy as possible; on the other hand, you want the class to still follow the rules inside. I love adding gross motor activities in the winter such as a knockdown activity or a movement game. I use the class for these activities with clear directions beforehand and when the opportunity comes to move the class to a hallway for a change of environment to perform some of these activities. If your school has a hallway sometimes that’s all you need to change the dynamic of the personalities.
Teaching fine motor control takes time and patience. I love using a feed-an-animal activity or lacing cards for these skills. These are the skills that really get the hand muscles ready for kindergarten and writing for meaning. Other ways to work on fine motor skills are through different art tools. I love using brushes, q-tips ™ and squeeze bottles. These tools require the use of smaller muscles in the hand and add precision skills, Students will learn that the art activity is fun and new with these different tools. When using the squeeze bottles be careful how much product goes inside them. You want the children to work on the skill of squeezing for meaning and not adding more to the cleanup.
Matching Activities for Winter Themes Preschool
Matching activities might seem like they are not an important task to a person outside of the preschool realm. Children learn vital sorting, problem-solving, and fine motor skills with these activities. Most teachers learn to be creative with building skills that might not be fun to work on without adding to the thematic unit to engage and grow in these vital skills. Learning these skills might not seem like a big concept at the moment, however; these skills lay the foundation for future skills to build onto. I love adding file folders to teaching units as an introduction to the theme and using language to label and discuss what the kids see. Sorting activities can be based on color, size, or other means. This helps to teach kids about categories and how to place items in various categories. Adding matching activities to your teaching themes is more than a simple activity.
The next time you use these learning tools think of how many developmental skills you can work on that will build layers to your teaching and extend the learning for each child to make learning more personal. For example, the bears and hibernation file folder teaches fine motor skills, cognition, and habitats. Children will learn which animals hibernate, and their habitat for hibernation, and work on fine motor skills by placing the pieces in the file folder. You can also add language skills by labeling the animals and their habitats.
Preschool Winter Theme Activities for Math
Toddlers and preschoolers can learn vital skills through the domain of math. Kids learn how to solve problems and spatial relationships, counting skills, and shapes. These vital skills will be used for their whole life in various situations. One of my math teachers always said that “math is life“. I never understood what she meant by that quote until I left school and needed all of those skills to problem-solve all of life’s adventures. We use math every day whether it’s counting money to see what we can afford to spend or seeing if something will fit in the manner we hope for. Some people shy away from math because it seems too complex but we as teachers need to teach the hard skills. The next generation needs us to teach, guide, and support their learning and growth.
Some way I like to teach math in the classroom is by counting with one-to-one correspondence. This can be done through a tens graph or counting objects in a classroom. I like to do both activities in the class this gives the children more hands-on learning and makes the skill more practical for them to engage and learn from. I also incorporate graphs and then count the results. By using graphs kids need to make a choice and that builds on problem-solving skills. Then counting the results adds the numbers. Math in preschool should be fun, not hard.
I also like to incorporate math in simple unplanned activities such as outside play and center play. Finding moments and making the most out of every experience is why we all get into teaching. We want to make a difference and we want to improve the lives around us whether they are young or old.
Winter Themes Preschool Bundle
Throughout this post, there have been images of activities included in a bundle filled with winter themes. These activities might seem daunting at first but that’s where I come in and help you. I have created a fun and age-appropriate activities. You need to print, laminate for durability, and implement. Let me do the hard work for you and you can then have more time for what means the most to you. Family, friends, a movie, or a nap. Click the image below to learn more about the winter themes for preschool bundle. Fun awaits if you let it.
