• Shop
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Checkout

Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten

Bright Ideas for Little Learners

  • Home
    • Meet Mrs. Plemons
    • Contact
    • Disclosures
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Baby Bins
    • Colors
    • Shapes
    • Animals
    • Seasonal
  • Tot School
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall
    • Year Round
  • Preschool
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall
    • Year Round
  • Elementary
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall
    • Year Round
  • 0 items$0.00
Preschool, winter

Preschool: Winter

January 2, 2018

Happy New Year everyone! We enjoyed a little break for the holidays but Madelynn has been asking for school every day since Christmas so we are jumping right back into our preschool routine.  It has been below zero almost every day this week too so I am glad I had some fun winter themed activities planned to keep us from going stir crazy!

Tons of winter themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for winter in tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

Here were our plans for our Winter theme:

Tons of winter themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

And here are the details for each activity:

Practice making predictions with "The Hat" by Jan Brett. Great for a winter theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Making Predictions:

Our first story was The Hat by Jan Brett.  Before reading, we practiced answering questions and making predictions.

I asked “After looking at the cover, what do you think this story will be about?”  Madelynn: “I think a porcupine will go in a hat and all the other animals will go in and get poked.” 

We love Jan Brett in our house and just finished reading The Mitten which probably explains Madelynn’s prediction. Also I love that she didn’t know what animal it was on the cover and guessed porcupine, which meant we’d have a good teachable moment learning the word hedgehog.

Tons of winter themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

Cold Lady Retelling:


Our next story was all about our favorite silly old lady, There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro. We started by reading the story.  After reading I gave Madelynn 8 pictures from the story with simple sentences underneath. We read through them all together and then I prompted her to find what happened first, second, third, etc. She then glued them to her page in the correct order to retell the story. I kept the book nearby so she could check the  pages if she was stuck, and it was also an easy way to double check her work.

 If I Could Build a Snowman:

Next we read Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. While reading, we talked about all of the materials the author used to make each snowman. Then I asked “What would you use to build a snowman?” Madelynn decided she was going to make Frosty the Snowman (we had just watched the movie a week or so ago). After drawing the details in her picture I asked her to write her snowman’s name and she wrote “FF.”

Practice beginning reading skill and vocabulary with this winter clothing vocabulary matching activity. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Winter Vocabulary Match:

  Our next book was one of my favorites, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel. The fun rebus style and repetition of this book make it a great anchor book for learning vocabulary. After reading we used cards to match winter clothing words to pictures. I helped emphasize the beginning sounds so Madelynn could find and match the correct word to the picture.

Practice tracking print with these easy readers. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Tracking Print:

Our last book was this It is Winter book from our Scholastic Guided Science Readers set. Madelynn is starting to read easy level A books with patterned text. This book is a level B, so she read the “it is winter.” sentence on each page, and I helped her with the second sentence using picture clues to read the words.

This winter themed snow writing tray is fun for letter writing and fine motor practice with a winter theme. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

SnowLetter Writing Tray:

Our first literacy activity this week was a winter snow themed letter writing tray.  To make this fun winter activity I filled our shallow tray with instant snow. Madelynn used snowflake letter cards as a model and chose which ones she wanted to practice.  If you haven’t played with instant snow before it is super fluffy and cool like real snow. It was a really fun way to switch up our normal sand/salt tray.

This winter sound stamping activity is perfect for letter, sound, and fine motor practice with a winter theme. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Winter Sound Stamping:

Next, for more letter practice we used our dot stampers. We started out stamping inside the letter to make a W. Then Madelynn had to find the upper and lowercase w’s in the winter tree, stamp them and make the “W” sound each time. Then she stamped the other letters different colors and tried to make the sounds for each one.

This icy ending sounds activity is a fun and easy way to introduce ending sounds in words with a chilly winter theme. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Icy Ending Sounds:

This week we began to focus on ending sounds in words.  Madelynn has been really focused on beginning sounds for a while now and isn’t hearing the other sounds in words especially when writing.  (She’ll usually hear the beginning sound and write it over and over like when she wrote FF for Frosty.) Madelynn choose an icy picture card and identified the picture. I helped her say the word slowly and she slid her finger under each letter snowball. I had her listen for the ending sound and then she filled in the missing sound with a clear gem letter.

This snowman name craftivity is fun for name writing, recognition, and fine motor practice with a dinosaur theme. Great for a winter tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Snowman Name Craft:

For this week’s name craft we created this adorable snowman.  First Madelynn cut the snowman pieces out. Then she traced the letters in her name on each part of the snowman body. After she finished writing, she glued the snowman pieces together and added the snowballs under the head in order to spell her name.

This winter journal writing activity is a great way to show learning, practice fine motor skills and learn about writing. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Winter Journal Writing:

For our journal this week Madelynn chose to draw and label a snowman. Of course she decided to draw her favorite snowman buddy Frosty again.  This time I encouraged her to really listen for other sounds after the first “F” sound. She wrote “FT” so hooray for learning ending sounds!

This color by shape snowman activity is perfect for identifying and naming shapes and fine motor practice with a winter theme. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Color By Shape Snowman:

Now that Madelynn is excellent at counting and identifying numbers to 10, we are switching up our focus for our color by the code activities.  For this week’s color by code activity Madelynn worked on identifying and naming shapes. I told her the color for each shape and she had to search and color each one in the picture.

Practice counting teen numbers and fine motor skills with this build a teen snowflake. Perfect for a winter theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Build a Teen Snowflake:

This week in math we are working on teen numbers. Madelynn has been doing great with identifying numbers 11 through 20 but still struggles to count out 11 through 20 objects (because you know 4 year-old attention span) So I put together this count and build snowflake math activity. I twisted 3 pipe cleaners together to make a snowflake. Then I gave Madelynn a bowl full of pony beads and snowflake number cards.  She chose a card then added that number of beads to each snowflake.This week in math we are working on teen numbers. Madelynn has been doing great with identifying numbers 11 through 20 but still struggles to count out 11 through 20 objects (because you know 4 year-old attention span) So I put together this count and build snowflake math activity. I twisted 3 pipe cleaners together to make a snowflake. Then I gave Madelynn a bowl full of pony beads and snowflake number cards.  She chose a card then added that number of beads to each snowflake.

This snowflake ten frame activity is a fun way to practice identifying numbers and counting out sets of objects. Great for winter tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Snowflake Ten Frames:

For this activity I started out by filling plastic ornaments with marshmallows in quantities of 11-20.
Madelynn choose an ornament, poured them out, then counted them. For additional number recognition and fine motor practice, she had to find the matching ten frame card and place the marshmallows on each snowflake.

This winter sound stamping activity is perfect for letter, sound, and fine motor practice with a winter theme. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Mitten Stamp Book:

Our next number sense activity was a mitten stamp and count book. I helped Madelynn read the sentence on each page. Then she used mini dot stampers to add the correct number of spots to each mitten. The mini stamp markers were perfect for stamping quickly while counting.

This snowflake catch and count activity is a super fun way to practice number identification, counting, and fine motor skills with a winter theme. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Snowflake Catch & Count:

For our last number sense activity we reinforced the numbers 1-10 because you can never have too much practice right? Madelynn counted and velcroed snowflakes to each mitten to catch the correct number of snowflakes.

We LOVE this instant snow sensory bin. Perfect for exploration with a winter theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Snow Sensory Bin:


In this bin: instant snow, clear snowman cups, scoops, snowman cookie cutters, cupcake liners, puzzle “SNOW” word

This ice paint/tape resist snowflake activity was great fine motor practice and turned out gorgeous!. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Ice Paint/Tape Resist Snowflakes:

For this art activity I dyed water with liquid watercolors and froze them into blue & purple ice cubes with popsicle sticks in them. Then I taped snowflakes on cardstock with washi tape. Madelynn used the colored ice to paint over the snowflake shapes. After a bit of painting, I helped to remove the tape and reveal . *Be careful not to let the paper get too soaked or the tape will be hard to pull off without ripping the paper.

This pouring ice experiment was absolutely amazing. My girls felt like Elsa with her ice powers. Great for winter in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Pouring Ice Experiment:

This science activity took a bit of trial and error and prep time, but was totally worth it. First, I placed a bottle of water into a bucket and packed ice around the base. Then I poured salt over the ice and topped it with water to the bottle’s lid. Next, we let it sit for about 30 minutes (until the temperature was approximately 17 degrees.)
When I told Madelynn it was time, she carefully removed the bottle while I placed ice cubes in a mixing bowl. After I removed the cap, Madelynn slowly poured the water over ice cubes, and watched as an ice tower formed like magic.

We had a blast making tissue paper snow prints for our winter theme. Perfect for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Tissue Paper Snow Prints:


I’m loving how this pretty wintery craft turned out. Madelynn placed bleeding art tissue paper squares on top of white cardstock. Then she painted water on the tissue squares to color the white paper. After we allowed the paper to dry we easily peeled off the squares to reveal a gorgeous water colored background. Finally she used white tempera paint to stamp snowflakes on the colored paper.

We LOVE this icy sensory bin. Perfect for exploration with a winter theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Icy Sensory Bin:

In this bin: frozen water beads, cups, scoops, winter Little People

Want all of this week’s Winter activities for preschool?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Winter Plans & Printables On TpT: Winter Plans & Printables

Tons of winter themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for winter in tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Preschool Bundle On TpT here: Preschool Bundle

45 weeks of engaging themed activities and ideas ready to go for your 3-4 year old. Weekly plans include reading comprehension, literacy, math, sensory play, arts & crafts and Science/social studies concepts. Everything you need for a year packed full of Preschool fun and learning.

Then check out the rest of our 45+ themes on the Preschool Curriculum Main Page.

 
 
 
✕

FREE Printable Shape Roads!

Sign up for ideas, tips & exclusive FREEBIES delivered right to your inbox!

Success! Please check your email to confirm your subscription and grab your FREE shape roads!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
by Jessica 
17 Comments

About Jessica

Bright ideas for the little learners ~ Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten is an education blog dedicated to fresh, engaging, and fun teaching ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, and the primary classroom.

View all posts by Jessica

Related Posts

  • Preschool: Fire Safety
  • Preschool: Space
  • Preschool: St. Patrick’s Day
  • Preschool: Halloween
previous article: Baby Bins: Christmas {Week 2}
next article: Baby Bins: Winter

Comments

  1. Cynthia Kisling says: February 20, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    Will you have the remainder of January – May Preschool Calendar Available

    Reply
  2. Jenni says: September 14, 2018 at 10:36 am

    I’m so glad I found this, my daughters are going to love trying these. Thanks for sharing

    Reply
  3. Reade says: December 31, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    How did you freeze the water beads without all of them sticking together?

    Reply
    • Jessica says: January 17, 2021 at 9:49 pm

      I laid some flat in a tray, but they did stick together in clumps!

      Reply

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join the newsletter

Subscribe to get our latest content by email.

We won't send you spam.
Unsubscribe at any time.

Join the FB Group

Archives

Hot Topics

Animals Baby Bins Back to School Books Colors Elementary fall fall fall Literacy Math Preschool Reading Recipes Seasonal Sensory Summer Shapes spring spring spring summer summer summer Technology Tot School Uncategorized winter winter winter Writing year round year round year round

Popular Posts

  • Tricks and Treats for Teachers Blog Hop

    October 3, 2014
  • Preschool: Weather

    October 24, 2017
  • Preschool: All About Me

    September 18, 2017

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Instagram did not return a 200.

FOLLOW ME @MRSPLEMONSKINDERGARTEN

Copyright © 2023 // Design by Laugh Eat Learn // Theme by Georgia Lou Studios

Copyright © 2023 · Prima Donna on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in