Winter Writing Activities for Kindergarten
After a long winter break, it can be challenging to get students back into a writing routine! Since writing is one of the most difficult things our kindergarteners do during the school year, it’s easy for motivation to wane after the break. In this post, I’m going to share some engaging winter writing activities for kindergarten that can get your students back into the habit of writing!
5 Winter Writing Activities for Kindergarten
These winter activities can help you add engaging seasonal writing practice throughout your writing block! Whether you’re trying to teach writing without a curriculum or you’re looking for a few literacy activities to add to your literacy centers, these winter writing activities can help your students get the practice they need. They are also great for early finishers, morning work, emergency sub plans, and more!
1. Winter Labeling
There are many things that we revisit with our students after winter break, like classroom routines and expectations. This is also a great time to revisit some of the basics of writing! It’s likely that a large portion of your students didn’t pick up a writing utensil over the break. You can choose some simple activities that will help to rebuild students' writing stamina.
This winter labeling activity is a great way to get students motivated to practice writing. Students can feel like successful writers as they fill in the missing words on the winter-themed page. It’s a simple way to remind students that writing conveys meaning.
2. Snowflake Tear, Glue, and Write
One challenge for young writers is that they are still building their fine motor control. It’s hard to write when the physical task of holding a pencil is difficult! This is why it’s helpful to include some additional fine motor practice in your writing lesson plans after the winter break. This can help students get their hands ready to write!
This snowflake tear, glue, and write activity is a fun option! Students can use their pincer grasp to tear small pieces of paper and then glue them onto the paper to fill in the snowflake shape. After finishing the snowflake, students can complete the sentence at the bottom of the page. This is a great activity to keep students engaged at a writing center!
3. Winter Picture Writing Prompts
Reluctant writers often complain that they don’t know what to write about. This can have a huge impact on motivation, especially during the winter slump! Picture writing prompts are a low-prep, effective way to help students get past the hurdle of deciding what to write.
Winter picture writing prompts give students the chance to use vocabulary words that are at the time of mind during this season. Students can use the picture as inspiration for their writing. These prompts also come with different levels of sentence starters, making them easy to differentiate for the students in your class. Some students are ready for blank lines for describing the picture, while other students would benefit from a sentence starter. Either way, these picture writing prompts will be a great addition to your winter lesson plans!
4. Arctic Animal Writing Centers
Writing activities can also enhance your kindergarten units! If you love to study arctic animals during the winter, you can incorporate that topic into your writing block. This is a simple way to keep students motivated to write, since they will be writing about a relevant topic.
These arctic animal writing centers are easy to incorporate into your daily routine. For example, students can practice writing the names of different animals on dry erase task cards at one center. You can provide traceable task cards as well as a pocket chart of vocabulary cards for students to reference as they practice writing these animal names.
You could also take those same arctic animal vocabulary cards and turn them into a write the room activity. Just tape up numbered vocabulary cards around the classroom and have students go on a word hunt! As they find a vocabulary word, they can write it in the corresponding space of a recording sheet. An activity like this is helpful to get students moving around when writing motivation might be low or if energy levels are high during indoor recess season.
5. Penguin Writing Craft
Seasonal writing crafts can be another helpful addition to your winter lesson plans. Students love to create their own crafts that go along with their writing, especially when it’s put on display! Publishing student writing like this can help students celebrate their writing and motivate them to keep creating!
The penguin writing craft above is just one example of a fun winter writing craft that you can use in your classroom. As students color, cut, and assemble the penguin writing topper, they will also be practicing those important fine motor skills! Students can then write a sentence about penguins. This is a fun way to wrap up a penguin unit since students can write their favorite fact about penguins on the paper.
Seasonal Writing Activities for the Whole Year!
All of the winter writing activities that I shared in this post are included in the Kindergarten Writing Toolbox membership. This growing library of writing resources includes seasonal writing prompts, crafts, and centers for the entire school year! It also includes helpful instructional tools like checklists and visual supports for young writers.
The KWT writing activities use consistent formatting, so you don’t have to waste precious time teaching students how to do a whole new batch of brand-new activities each season. Instead, students will already know what to do and they can get right to work on these familiar-but-fresh seasonal activities.
Just click below to learn more about how the Kindergarten Writing Toolbox can help you build confident writers without the overwhelm!
Save These Kindergarten Winter Writing Activities
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board of kindergarten ideas. You’ll be able to quickly find these writing activity ideas when you’re working on your winter lesson plans.
