Depending upon where you live, winter may or may not be a big deal. But, either way, kids love to learn about winter weather because they’re fascinated by things that just happen. And, winter and snow are definitely two of those things. This free winter PK printable contains more than 40 pages of activities and worksheets designed to make important learning, such as directions, shapes, and more, a blast. Plus, it is easily adapted to kindergarten (K) and first-grade learners (1st), too. If you live in a place where the weather is terrible all winter, this is a perfect pack for having fun indoors.
Learning Focus
- Acquiring new winter vocabulary
- Introducing, practicing, and/or reviewing numbers 1-9
- Developing and improving fine motor skills, including tracing, cutting, gluing, etc.
- Introducing, practicing, and/or reviewing prepositions of place (up, down) and directions (left, right)
- Working with numbers via ten-cards, basic addition, and numbers-as-words versus numerals
- Introducing, practicing, and/or reviewing the alphabet and individual letters with a specific focus on the letter S and related words
- Conceptualizing and differentiating squares and rectangles both as stand-alone shapes and as objects
Vocabulary
This free winter printable for PK through early first grade can be adapted to student readiness. PK students usually need help reading directions and guidance with the activities. Kindergarten students may need a little less help, and first-grade students can often figure out what to do with little guidance. Here’s a quick look at the vocabulary covered.
- Winter vocabulary: boots, caps/hats, scarves, gifts/presents, reindeer, snowflakes, winter
- Numbers 1-9 and math: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, numbers, add/addition
- Fine motor skills vocabulary and directions, such as: cut, paste/glue, trace, scissors
- Relative directions/prepositions: up, down, left, right
- Alphabet/letters: letter s
- Shapes: square, rectangle, rectangular
What’s Included
The free winter PK printable is intended for budget printing and for coloring, if desired, so you’ll find all pages in black-and-white. Most kids have a blast coloring the pages, but if you’re in a hurry, you also don’t need to color a thing.
Basic Directions / Prepositions
Up, down, left, right. Learners usually master up and down first, and left and right come later. This pack is designed to help students practice key prepositions/directions both obviously and subtly. The bonus is that once students have mastered relational words, you can have a lot more fun with directions, games, and more no matter what type of classroom you have.
Numbers
Here we cover and work extensively with numbers 1-9. The practice is both implicit and explicit so that kids don’t get bored but still cycle through the numbers several times.
If you want to develop early math literacy, which is just a fancy way of saying number and math exposure, this free winter PK printable is a great fit. Ten-frames, tallies, visualizing numbers, and learning to count on hands are all included.
Fine Motor Skills
In the free winter PK printable download, you’ll find lots of important skills practice, such as tracing, finishing patterns, cutting, lacing, and more. You can even match this pack to the level of student or students you’re working with.
For example, you can target a PK, K, and 1st student with just one page, as in the winter puzzle pictures. PK students can practice letters and coloring with a full sheet. PK-K students can try to assemble the simple puzzle and color. And more advanced students can do a two-layer puzzle.
Square Versus Rectangles
Little kids often struggle with the difference between rectangles and squares. However, the more they practice and start to recognize the shapes in the objects around them, the earlier and easier they remember. This free winter PK printable starts with simple concepts, offers lots of fun practice, and ends with applying skills to one of kids’ favorite things: presents.
Winter Vocabulary and the Letter S
This pack covers the basics with words like winter while focusing on the letter S. Letter S is a both fun and a little tricky for kids to form. You can see an example from a real five-year-old in the picture.
You may notice that your students form the letter S backwards, more like the number 5, or even make it very big to compensate for the effort it takes for them to remember which way to put the curves in the letter. The more practice learners get with this letter in particular, the faster they master it.
You may also notice that learners mix lower and uppercase letters, write letters of various sizes, or when they run out of room, split words in the middle and then just continue elsewhere. This is all pretty typical for PK through kindergarten. With more practice, both letter S formation and some of the nuances of writing start to resolve in late kindergarten through second grade.
Ideas, Tips, and Tricks for the Free Winter PK Printable
Below we’ve outlined some ideas for this fun download. If you have a great idea to share, we’d love to hear from you or to read your comments below.
Pacing and Reusing
Winter vacation can be pretty long, so whether you use it in the classroom or for learning over the holidays, you might consider spreading the download out over a few days or a week. Learners need to get up and move around a lot in order to acquire new information and practice what they’re learning, so we find it helpful to move through vocabulary and lessons several times in small increments.
To reuse the pages, consider dry-erase markers and lamination, inexpensive sheet protectors like the ones that go in binders, or clear contact paper. This works especially well for classrooms and multiple students. Just write, swipe, and switch (or store and save for another learner, class, etc.).
Head Outside
Are you on team “I’m moving somewhere tropical” every winter? Most kids absolutely love being outside, and bundling up is one of the best ways to practice winter clothing vocabulary. With PK learners in particular, you have the opportunity to repeat the clothing vocabulary over and over again and to use the outside to create and explore the letter S. What lives outside? Snakes! But what do they do in the winter? They don’t hibernate; they brumate! Use a stick to form the letter S in the dirt or even the snow. The sky is literally the limit.
Also Available in Spanish!
Got Thoughts on Winter? Need More Printables?
We always love hearing from you or reading your comments below. Get in touch and tell us how you really feel about winter! What do your learners think about winter? Did you do something cool with the printables that worked really well?
Looking for more English-language freebies? Check out more more free stuff here. We’re adding new English and Spanish-language printables all the time.
Download the Free Winter Printable
