Snow Themed Preschool Unit
Brighten up cold winter days with this snow-themed preschool unit. Montessori-friendly and hands-on, this preschool unit theme is holistic and low-prep. Use the wonder of snow to help build essential preschool skills, including science, math, language, and geography.
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Little Snowflake from IglooBooks is a FANTASTIC introduction to the science behind snow. Written in verse form and from the perspective of an ADORABLE snowflake, this book introduces preschoolers to the idea of the water cycle without them even realizing they’re learning science.
My daughter LOVES searching for the snowflake’s little face on each page.
At the end of the book is a water cycle diagram if you’d like to do more direct teaching with it.
The book is available on Amazon here.
Language Activities
Writing Letters in “Snow”
This is a great, tactile way to help preschoolers work on forming their letters. All I did was grab a few letters from our sandpaper letter kit and poured in some fake snow that I found at Hobby Lobby into a bin.
I had my daughter first trace the sandpaper letter with her finger to get a sense of how to create the letter.
Then I had her repeat the same motions in the “snow.”
She really enjoyed working on the letters in the word snow. She also liked using a stylus to “write” as well. (I also found the stylus at Hobby Lobby, but a large preschool pencil would work great, too to help encourage proper pencil grip.)
Creating Snow-Textured Letter Cards
If you don’t have a set of sandpaper letters, you could easily make some and keep it snow-themed! Grab some cardstock, a thick marker, glue, and either fake snow or glitter.
Write the letters on the card, go over it with glue, and then have your child sprinkle the glitter or fake snow own.
Let it dry and voila, you have your very own set of wintery alphabet cards.
Snowball Letters
This activity is so much fun to get preschoolers up and moving about- while also learning! Write some letters on pieces of paper and ball them up. Have a “snowball fight” and challenge your preschooler to identify the letters written on each “snowball.”
Another fun variation would be to challenge your preschooler to pair up the proper uppercase and lowercase letters before a timer goes off or to race a friend or sibling in finding the most pairs.
Family and Service Activities
Shoveling a Neighbor’s Driveway
If you live in an area with snow, this can be a great activity to not only get some exercise and outside time, but to also help instill in your child a spirit of helping others.
Play in the Snow!
Such a fun family activity. Go out and play in the snow together! Sled, make snow angels, and come back into hot chocolate.
Go to an Ice Rink
And if you don’t have enough snow to play in, take a family outing to an ice rink.
Science Activities
Mixing Snow with Food Coloring
This might have been my favorite activity we did all of last winter. We gathered fresh snow from our yard and then mixed different food colorings into it.
My daughter absolutely loved the different color combinations she could make and loved seeing how the snow changed as she mixed it.
If you don’t have any snow though, shaved ice would also work.
It was a really fun way to not only teach about how different colors can mix to make new colors, but to also talk about permanent changes.
Exploring what Happens When Snow Melts
Once we were done with mixing in the food coloring, we then explored the snow as it melted.
In the easiest of experiments, we split the snow into two bowls. I placed one outside and one inside and asked my daughter to predict which one would melt first.
There’s also a thousand different variations you could do on this- placing a bowl of snow in the sun, placing it in the garage, placing it near a heating vent, etc.
It was a fun and easy way to get my daughter thinking about the scientific method a bit and to make hypotheses.
Observing Snowflakes with a Magnifying Glass
Easy enough- we gathered some snow from our yard and placed it on pieces of felt. Then my daughter observed it with a magnifying glass. All in the spirit of getting kids to really slow down, ask questions, and notice what they see.
Math Activities
Exploring the Symmetry of Snowflakes
Snow is such a fun way to introduce the idea of symmetry. I created these simple snow symmetry worksheets here that are available for free.
Here’s a few ways to use them:
- Have your child fold on the dotted line to show how they’re even.
- Have your child paint one side of the snowflake and then fold it to make the same pattern on the opposite side.
- Ask your child to draw another line of symmetry through the snowflake.
- Cut them apart to make puzzle pieces and have them match the snowflakes together.
Art Activities
Decorating a Snowflake
Either use the snowflakes in the activity above (which I totally did because I’m lazy efficient) or grab some pre-cut felt snowflakes from a craft store. Encourage your child to add paint or glitter glue or add a streak of glue for them and have them add on sequins.
Making Snowflake Ornaments Out of Salt Dough
We LOVE making salt dough. It’s cheap, easy, and is a great way to keep little hands busy when they’re getting a bit of cabin fever.
My favorite recipe for salt dough is here.
After you roll out the salt dough, use a snowflake cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Let the dough bake in the oven and then once cooled, they can paint their own snowflakes.
Coloring or Painting a Snowy Scene
On a canvas or sheet of construction paper encourage them to paint a snowy scene. Ask them what they notice about how snow can change colors depending on if it’s morning or evening. Use stickers to add in trees or birds. (Or even cut out tree shaped stamps out of sponges for them to add in the trees.)
Sensory/Fine Motor Activities
Sensory Bin with Snow
We LOVED this this past winter. We just gathered up some fresh snow (shaved ice would work as well), and then I set my kids up with scoops, measuring cups, and muffin tins.
I placed everything on our water-resistant picnic blanket to make clean up a breeze.
My kids absolutely LOVED playing in this.
If you wanted to go above and beyond, add in some penguin or polar bear figurines!
Pinpricking Snow Flakes
This is a GREAT way to help develop hand strength that is critical for proper pencil grip, as well as a sense of patience and accomplishment.
Print out some snowflake outlines and let your child decorate them. Then provide your preschooler with a pin prick (I found mine for about a dollar at Hobby Lobby) and place the paper over corkboard.
Help guide them on how to punch holes along the border of the snowflake until eventually, the snowflake will pop out.
This took my daughter several days as it was an activity she would repeatedly take a break from and come back to later.
However, she was SO PROUD when she finally finished.
Geography Activity
Putting on a Map Areas with Snow
This is a really basic way to help establish a strong geography foundation. I created a simple map where I roughly blocked areas where it does snow and areas where it hardly ever snows (or only snows in very high elevations).
I color coded the areas and had my daughter color in these areas to match the color coding.
I also asked her simple questions such as “What patterns do you notice? Why do you think that is?” This led to a great conversation about the equator being warmer than other parts of the world as it gets more intense sunlight than the poles do.
Nothing overly complex-just a simple conversation starter. (I also have those questions on the printable if you would like it.)
An alternative to this activity would be to take a very large world map and lay out white felt for areas where it snows for them to see the same pattern.
And if you would like the full-color, clear PDF of this activity sent to your email for free, you can grab that here. (Along with access to all of my other free resources!)
Additional Books
There’s nothing like reading on a snowy day. If you’re looking for more snow-themed books to read with your little ones, be sure to check out my post here.
Lastly, be sure to sign up for email updates for more seasonal preschool ideas and cultural preschool ideas!
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