January Classroom Activities – New Years, Winter Ideas, Snowmen & More!
It’s January, and that means a fresh start to the year! For teachers, that often means trying out new activities and lessons in the classroom. We asked some of our favorite teachers about their favorite January classroom activities, and here’s what they had to say.
From tried-and-true classics like snowmen-themed activities and New Year’s resolutions to more unique ideas like winter scavenger hunts, there’s something here for everyone. So grab a cup of hot cocoa and read on for some great January activities and ideas from your fellow educators.
Reestablish Routines and Procedures: Revisit Classroom Management
The first week back after an extended break is hard! This is the case for students and teachers! The alarms wake us up so early. Then, the school day begins, and more exhaustion sets in as students return to following routines and working on assignments.
This is exactly why the first week after winter break is about easing back into learning and reestablishing rules and routines. A few low-key January activities allow teachers time and space to revisit classroom management strategies, rework their end-of-the-day routines, and start goal-setting activities.
Below are some ideas for New Year activities, winter crafts, snow-themed activities, and winter animals that will keep your students engaged!
January Classroom Activities about New Year and Personal Reflection
January is all about personal reflection. People spend a lot of time thinking about the past year and making positive changes for the future. Adults are not the only ones benefitting from reflection and improvements! This is an incredible opportunity to talk with your students about how to set goals!
The New Year Goal Setting Flap Book Craftivity is a great activity to guide students through goal setting. They will reflect on the previous months of school and make goals for the remaining months. Additionally, they will reflect on life outside of school and make personal goals.
Books about New Year’s and Making Resolutions
Books are a great way to engage students in the classroom, and they can be especially helpful when it comes to teaching about the New Year. From fun stories that celebrate resolutions and reflect on past experiences to more serious tales of perseverance, there is no shortage of books teachers can use to help their students understand this important time of year.
Whether you’re looking for something lighthearted or a bit more meaningful, these picture books are sure to provide your students with an enjoyable learning experience as they enter the new year.
On the first day of school, a young boy named Stevie falls asleep in class. His teacher assigns him and his classmates to find one word to help them have their best year ever – a word to define themselves. Following his father’s advice, Stevie embarks on a journey of discovery – looking inward, upward, and outward to uncover what he loves and holds dear. Stevie discovers more about himself than he ever expected as he searches for this special word.
Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolutions by Pat Miller
It’s New Year’s Day, and Squirrel is on a mission to learn what resolutions are all about. She visits her friends in the forest to find out how they make their resolutions and help them begin theirs. Now she just needs to figure out one of her own! Join Squirrel as she journeys through the forest in search of a resolution that will make this new year her best!
New Year Resolution Craft, Winter Art Activities & Reading Passages
The New Year’s Craft is perfect for the first week back from the holiday break, making it a great January bulletin board that focuses on a growth mindset. With this winter craft, you get both a craft activity and an opportunity to write out thoughtful goals all in one! Your students will love setting ambitious goals as they look forward to the New Year.
Pair the January writing craft with a set of New Year’s Reading Passages to help students understand the New Year’s history and traditions from around the world. Students read two engaging articles and participate in a variety of comprehension activities.
Fun January Writing Prompts that Students Love
Infuse winter activities into daily writing with these writing prompts. The winter season offers a perfect opportunity to incorporate fun and creative writing activities into our lessons.
There are endless possibilities for winter-themed prompts, whether it is snowball fights, ice skating, or building a snowman. These prompts spark students’ imagination and allow them to practice their writing skills meaningfully.
January CLOZE Reading Vocabulary Building Activity
If you want to increase your student’s vocabulary and grammar skills and work on January reading comprehension, consider adding these CLOZE reading passages to your January lesson plans. They are ideal for 3rd grade through 5th grade students.
In Cloze reading passages, words are selectively removed so that students can determine the best-fit word. There is no word bank, and multiple answers may fit the space, requiring students to rely on context clues and their understanding of syntax to determine the suitable options. While there is no one right answer that can fill the space, there are words that fit better than others.
Topics for January include ice storms, Chinese New Year, and snowflakes. Nonfiction and fictional texts are included.
Snow and Snowmen January Activities
January is a wonderful time to bring snow and snowmen into the classroom to make learning fun! With this selection of activities, you can keep your students engaged and learning during these winter months. From constructing snowmen to exploring the science behind why it snows, your students can develop their creative skills, learn new things, and engage in winter science experiments. Make January fun for your class with these snow-themed activities!
Read Books about Snow and Winter Activities
Snowman stories have been delighting children for generations! From Frosty the Snowman to The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, these stories capture the magic of a snowy winter day in a unique and captivating way. Books about snowmen are often filled with fun and adventure while touching on important themes like friendship, family, and the power of imagination.
They can also provide valuable lessons to inspire readers to believe in their potential or take initiative when faced with adversity. Whether you’re looking for a cozy tale to cuddle up with at night or an exciting romp through the snow, these books about snowmen will surely make your winter days that much brighter. Let’s explore some of the best snowman-themed picture books around!
Snowman at Night by Caralyn Buehner
Have you ever seen a snowman with a mischievous grin and wondered what he got up to at night? Caralyn Buehner’s Snowmen at Night is the perfect winter read for children and adults alike, offering an imaginative and entertaining look into the secret life of these icy creatures. With a delightful verse from Caralyn, combined with charming illustrations from Mark Buehner, this book has won many fans since its release. Whether it’s for a cozy winter day or a special MLK Day celebration, Snowmen at Night will surely bring big smiles!
In 1962, a little boy named Peter stepped into the imaginations of millions of readers when he put on his snowsuit and ventured out into the world. With universal appeal, this story illustrates a timeless childhood spirit full of hope and joy as Peter embarks on small adventures in the deep snow. This classic tale captures and keeps the wonder of new experiences alive, perfect for reading together on a winter day.
Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright
With the winter season in town, Sneezy the Snowman feels the chill. He searches for a way to warm up by drinking cocoa, dipping in a hot tub, and standing near a fire. Unfortunately, his attempts have comical consequences, leading to him melting! Don’t worry – the children know how to put him back together and make him feel “just right.” Stephen Gilpin’s playful mixed-media illustrations bring plenty of hilarity as Sneezy discovers what happens when temperatures get too high!
The Snowglobe Family by JaneO’Connor
The little family living inside a snow globe longs for a snowstorm, but it’s just out of reach until Baby notices the tiny family. When they’re all alone during a snowstorm, will Baby be able to pick up the snow globe and give it a shake? Find out how the snow globe family get their chance to go sledding in this delightful story full of whimsy and wonder!
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Wilson Bentley’s curiosity about snowflakes began at a young age but was seen as an odd fascination. Supported by his parents, he obtained a camera and microscope to explore the delicate patterns of each snowflake. With dedication and patience, Wilson captured hundreds of photographs, presented his findings in slideshows, and even wrote a book about them when he was 66! His work serves as the foundation for our current knowledge of these amazing wonders of nature – unique snowflakes!
Snow and Snowmen Classroom Activities
Books, science, and math activities can all be used to bring the snow indoors for students. Studying the effect of snow and ice on our environment, analyzing data from local weather reports, or reading stories about winter adventures that involve snow can be fascinating for curious minds.
Make Borax Snowflakes – Winter Science Experiment
Making snowflakes with borax is a fun and easy winter activity that kids will love. You only need a few simple materials, such as Borax, pipe cleaners, scissors, and water; some creativity; and a little patience.
Start by having kids twist the pipe cleaners into different shapes – circles or stars are great places to start – or get creative and create their own designs. Then, attach the two ends of the pipe cleaner to form a snowflake shape.
Dissolve some Borax in warm water and let the snowflake ornament hang in the solution for at least eight hours. Finally, remove it from the mixture and allow it to dry independently. Afterward, your kids will have created beautiful snowflakes like what might fall from the sky!
With a little bit of creativity and thoughtfulness, teachers can turn simple snow tasks into meaningful learning opportunities to engage their students in lessons that include collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving, even during the coldest months of the year.
Make a Melting Snowman – Winter Science Experiment
Making a melted snowman craft is a fun and creative way to celebrate winter! Start by gathering the materials you’ll need – shaving cream, white glue, plastic cups, googly eyes, orange felt, pipe cleaner, and cardstock.
First, mix equal parts of shaving cream and white glue in one cup. Then, spoon this mixture into other cups to make the body segments for the melted snowman. Add eyes and an orange triangle for a nose to the tallest cup. Wrap a piece of pipe cleaner around the outside of each cup for arms and legs. Finally, use cardstock to create a snowy background under your melted snowman.
To finish off your craft project, show what happens when temperatures get too high! All you need is some watercolors or sprinkled salt over the melting snowman to get that melting effect! This also makes a great winter art project!
Place Value Snowflakes – Winter Math Activity
December may have come and gone, but January offers the perfect opportunity to make fun place-value snowflakes! Have students pick a double-digit number, then cut out paper tens rods and one’s cubes to represent that number.
Glue the pieces together into a snowflake pattern on blue construction paper and watch their snowflakes come alive, with some of them as falling snow. It’s an educational winter activity that will keep them engaged during math!
Have a Snowball Fight
Math can be a blast in the classroom, especially with a snowball fight!
Start by dividing your class into two teams and having them stand on opposite sides of the room – this will be their home base. Give each team a basket of ‘snowballs’ made of paper balls with math facts written on them. When you say ‘Go,’ have each team throw the snowballs at one another.
Every time someone catches or dodges a snowball, they must answer the question written on it correctly before they can move to the next person. The first team to finish all their snowballs wins!
STEM Snow Activities
Snow can be the perfect backdrop for a range of STEM activities! Here are a few ideas:
- Build an igloo – use basic engineering principles to design and construct a miniature igloo.
- Measure snowfall – use measuring tools, such as rulers and thermometers, to record snow depth over time.
- Make a marshmallow catapult – build a catapult out of everyday objects like cardboard tubes and rubber bands, then launch mini marshmallows at targets!
- Design snowshoes – create shoe-like objects out of wood or plastic that can help you traverse snowy terrain.
- Create ice crystal art – observe and document different shapes and structures created by freezing water droplets on surfaces like leaves or windows.
January Activities about Animals
Students are often fascinated by animals! Therefore, they are a great aspect to bring into lessons. This is especially helpful when students return from winter break or are tired during a cold, snowy January.
Learn about Penguins
Are you ready to take your students on a journey of discovery and learning about penguins? This All About Penguins blog post provides an informative and engaging lesson plan about penguin activities covering key facts about penguins while helping students practice their literacy skills.
Students will learn important information, such as their appearance and behavior, plus have fun with worksheets and summarizing activities. This educational and entertaining lesson plan lets your students explore the wonderful world of penguins!
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Learn about what Animals do in Winter
Students also love learning about winter animals! What Animals Do in Winter helps students explore animals’ unique adaptations to survive winter! This blog post provides information about migration and hibernation, along with educational books and videos to bring this topic to life. Students will develop a deeper understanding of how animals survive during the cold winter months, plus enjoy a selection of fun activities to help them learn. Dive into this exciting lesson plan about animals in winter!
Read Paired Texts about Owls
Combining fiction and nonfiction is an excellent way to engage students in the winter. By pairing the children’s book Owl Moon with a nonfiction article about owls, teachers can open up a world of possibilities for their learners. Sharing the story of a young girl’s journey to finding a great horned owl on a snowy night inspires and encourages imagination, while using the nonfiction article to discuss topics like animal adaptations, diet, and habitat helps deepen understanding and appreciation for these majestic creatures. This activity could be extended further by having students design snow-filled environments for their unique owl adventure.
Animal Article Collection for More Animal Reading and Research
Are you looking for engaging and high-interest text for elementary students to read? Do you need resources that can be used during reading, writing, and science lessons? The Animal Article Collection provides a range of animal articles and resources that are perfect for scaffolding reading comprehension and writing. With these tools, you can give your students access to quality materials about animals with plenty of choices for research.
Martin Luther King Jr. Teaching Ideas
As the world continues to remember the legacy and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr, it is important that we carry on his legacy with engaging teaching ideas for our children. With MLK Day just around the corner, now is a perfect time to explore creative and impactful ways to honor this great leader and use his life’s work as an example for future generations. From book recommendations to interactive activities, here are some of our favorite ideas for teaching kids about Martin Luther King Jr.
Winter Online Activities for January
Depending on your school, some students may still be learning at home. Or, some are just at home temporarily as illnesses and germs continue to spread. The Winter Online Activities offers plenty of ways to help! There are ideas for all content areas to ensure students learn no matter how long they are at home. Many of these ideas even work for in-person learning!
Sliding into winter can really go two ways. It can be smooth or bumpy for teachers and students. Since no one wants a rough transition to the New Year, these activities are fantastic ways to ease students back into learning. Best of all, they include ways to keep the excitement going throughout the winter!
Keep reading for more engaging ideas to make January learning fun for students! Feel free to leave a comment with some ideas of your own!
I like to make place value snowflakes in January! Students choose a double digit number, cut out paper tens rods and ones cubes to represent that number, then glue the tens and ones into a snowflake shape on blue construction paper, with some of the ones as falling snow. The display is beautiful.
My students and I love to have hot chocolate parties and read, make snowglobe crafts, and learn about the New Year traditions. Great ideas here! Thanks!
I love coming back from break and setting new goals with the kids. It is a time to give them a fresh start over.
I teach kindergarten, and I love studying penguins in January. It’s fun to learn about them, walk around with “eggs” on our feet, take turns huddling up around one person in the middle, and all of the fun craft activities 🙂
The January cold and snow is the perfect time to read aloud the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle story about Tattle Tails. Third graders often start tattling about this time and the story becomes a great way to let them know if they are tattling.
I also use the freezing cold to do a unit on the Titanic. By comparing our cold weather to the temperature in the ocean as the boat sank. I provide lots of reading material and opportunities to write and reflect. Inevitably, the kids vote to make our Valentine’s Day party into a Titanic party!
The first day back from break, I have students draw or write a “snapshots of my winter break” paper for morning work. Then we share it during morning meeting. It is a pretty generic paper (not holiday specific), so it is accessible for everyone!
I love reading Sneezy the Snowman and talking about what makes snow melt. We then make a melted snowman craft using shaving cream and glue and then write how our snowman melted.
I love doing team building activities with my students after winter break!
Our SEL topic for the month of January is kindness and I love to do a variety of activities to demonstrate how we can show kindness. Last year we created a video (based on the kindness boomerang video “One Day”…google it; it’s great) that shows how one act of kindness passes from one person to the next until it ends where it started. We presented it at our monthly community meeting and it was a huge hit. I have to find something to outdo it this year!
We love to do penguin activities. We read both fiction and nonfiction books about penguins. We also do math and stem activities!
I love doing an Ezra Jack Keats author study in January. My focus book is Snowy Day, of course.
Reviewing math skills, snowball fights during math and reading and learning about New Years around the world.
Reviewing 1st semester data followed by goal setting. My other favorite is incorporating snowman art. I don’t always read the same snow-themed books every year, nor do the same instructional activities. But for sure I figure out a way for us to paint snowmen.
I love doing a snow and polar animal unit.
We like to do lots of goal-setting, reflection, and SEL related activities to refresh/reset the classroom climate after break!
I like to read Owl Moon aloud and cover inferences throughout. Our local national Park has an Owl Prowl scheduled and I let parents know to encourage them to attend.
During the month of January in the classroom we focus a lot on our goals for the rest of the year, reconnecting after a long break, and reviewing everything we have covered so far. I think this is a pivotal point of the year for sure!
We love to make borax snowflakes, have snowball fights with sight words and word families, learn about polar animals,
I enjoy starting our fresh and increasing the expectations. We set our own goals, find great books for independent reading and start our weekly response logs.
I like to teach mindfulness and yoga to get back to the school routine in January.
I love being able to work 1:1 with students.
I love to revisit my students individual goals from the beginning of the school year. This way we can keep working towards these goals, or we can adjust as the student sees fit.
I love doing a makerspace activity for students to create snowflakes after we read about Snowflake Bently.
I love to celebrate the independence and maturity students gained over the winter break. It’s also great time to reflect on how much growth students have made since the beginning of the year, and set goals for the second half of the school year.
In January I enjoy teaching story writing with the story Snowmen at Night. We also do informative writing about penguins! Fun winter activities!
Instead of the traditional resolutions or goals idea for the New Year, I provide my students with a 2023 template that will be a “flip book”. Under the first 2, students are asked to plot 2 nouns that they love and/or appreciate. Under the 0, they write something they will NOT change about themselves, as it is something they enjoy or are proud of. Under the second 2, they write/draw their 2 closest friends and under the 3, they are asked to write down the 3 things/qualities/parts of themselves that they love or appreciate the most.
(Some ask to swap 2 friends for 3 and/or 3 things about themselves for 2) So far, it’s been a hit. This gives me a chance to show them, or to help them see for themselves how wonderful and valuable they already are, not what they need to improve upon or change.
I am from Argentina . January is a summer month. My favorite activity is a scavenger hunt to be done outise the classroom .
Celebrate Chinese New Year by writing Chinese characters and making paper lanterns.
Penguins, The Snowy Day, Snowflake Bentley, and other snow stories.
We begin with reviewing the classroom rules. We will be completing a flip book about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For art, we will complete a snowman drawing.
My favorite thing to do in the beginning of the year is to read the One Word book and focus on New Years. I feel like it’s a great reset as we push through the second half of the year.
I love to start back with New Year’s Resolutions. This is a great opportunity to talk about goal setting and what the students want to learn or do in the new year. I then move into everything Snowmen!! We do a lot of great books together that focus on snowmen and then do a lot of retell and sequencing.