Winter Math and Literacy Centers Your Students Will Love

Wintertime is in full swing. The fall leaves have changed colors and temperatures are now dropping across the board. Classrooms are full of excitement with winter activities and holiday fun. I like to tap into that excitement and incorporate the seasons into my lessons. Winter math and literacy centers are an easy and fun place to do this. Here are some of my favorite winter math and literacy centers!

7 Winter Math & Literacy Centers 

These activities are among my favorites for winter in the classroom. If you're looking for low-prep, engaging math and literacy centers your students will love, you're in the right place!

#1 Addition and Subtraction Related Facts

This is a fun Task Poke Card activity that focuses on missing numbers in equations.  The card will include two equations with a missing number and 3 answer choices. Students will decide which number will correctly solve both equations. Students can use a coffee stirrer, a thin straw, a pipe cleaner, or even a sucker to "poke" the hole of the correct answer. Then, they'll turn the card over and see if their stick is in the correct spot. Sometimes I have them use a recording sheet as well so I can go back and see how they did. 

My students always love completing winter math and literacy centers activities like this one.  There's something about telling students they get to poke that really engages them. I love them too because they are self-checking! There's nothing better than the immediate feedback students get with a self-checking activity. Any task card activity can easily become a self-checking center with some quick and easy adjustments. I find that it is well worth the little extra time to provide my students with feedback that helps them practice skills correctly. 

To turn your task cards into a self-checking center you just need to print your cards on card stock, laminate, cut, and use a hole punch to punch a hole on each answer choice on the bottom of each card. Then, circle the correct answer on the back of the cards and you're good to go! These Addition and Subtraction Poke Cards are so much fun if you're looking for a math option to try!

#2 Winter Place Value Math Games

Games are such a fun way to practice math skills. The students love playing them and are so engaged in the activities. My students have so much fun playing these games that they don't even realize they are learning! That's a win-win for both of us! These winter math games are no exception.

Hot Cocoa Individual or Partner Activity Game

This is an old-fashioned board game where students will roll dice and move their game pieces around the board. Students will practice reading a number in the square like "3 tens four ones" and find the matching number of 34. It's great practice and reinforcement of important place value skills.

I like to use seasonal erasers as their game piece. It adds a little extra winter fun to the activity! 

Fishing for Numbers

This game includes a game board and a deck of cards to help students work on place value with tens and ones. Partners will take turns drawing a card from the deck and then matching it to a fish on the game board.  For example, the card may say something like 90 + 5. Then they'll have to find 95 on the game board and cover it with their game piece.

Frosty Four in a Row Game

This is a fun partner game with a spin on Bingo. Partners will have a deck of cards and a game board. They will take turns pulling a card from the deck and finding its match on the game board. The first player to get 4 in a row wins!

Snow Much Fun Tic-Tac-Toe

These place value and number sense tic-tac-toe games are "snow" much fun!  Sorry, I just had to!  Played like a traditional game of tic-tac-toe, students will answer the question in the space they want to cover.  If they answer correctly they get to mark the space, if they answer incorrectly they don't and the next player takes a turn.  The first player to get 3 in a row I create my tic-tac-toe boards with different items. 

One board may contain base ten blocks, another may have math facts, while a third board might include a mixture of both. Each board contains a spinner. Students will use a paperclip to spin and land on a number that is the answer to a problem on the game board. Then they have to put their game piece on a problem that matches the answer they spun. Whoever is the first one to get 3 in a row wins!

Counting on a Snowman

This partner game is a student winter math and literacy centers favorite year after year! The game board is in the shape of a snowman and we know our students love a good snowman!  This game helps students focus on number sense and counting by working on missing numbers. 

Each square includes 2 numbers plus a missing one like 88, 89, ___.  Students will take turns rolling their die and moving that number of spaces. They say the missing number of the square they landed on. If they're correct, they get to stay. If they aren't, they have to move back to the beginning. My kids always get a kick out of this fun winter center.

Winter Bunny Place Value Puzzles

These cute winter bunnies provide our students with some great review and practice with base ten blocks.  Students will practice matching numbers with their picture representation in these hands-on puzzles. These winter-themed math puzzles are great for students to work on during centers, small group teaching, or as an early finisher activity.

You can get all of the Winter Math Games in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Your winter match centers will be "snow" much fun.  Sorry, again! 

#3 Write the Room Winter Edition

I absolutely love a good write the room activity. It allows my students time to move around while experiencing some hands-on learning.  And . . . if there is ever a season where we need to incorporate some movement into our activities it is winter!

For this Winter Write the Room Math center, I begin by taping task cards to the walls around my classroom. I give each student a clipboard with a response sheet to use as they move from card to card.  They move around the room writing the number that matches each set of place value blocks on the response sheet.  

While Write the Room makes a great center activity, you can also use it with the entire class at one time by playing a game of Scoot!  However you use these cards, you can be confident knowing that your students are using a little energy while practicing important math skills.

#4 Long Vowel Winter Poke Cards

Remember those addition and subtraction poke cards earlier?  Well, poke cards are great for any skill or concept, including phonics! Your students will love working on long vowels with these winter-themed poke cards.

This resource focuses on long vowels formed with Silent "e" and the vowel teams "ee" and "ea."  It's a great way for students to practice spelling patterns and identify correctly spelled words.  This long vowel poke card activity makes a great word work center.

Remember, the cards are self-checking so students can self-monitor their progress along the way. There's just something about these Long Vowel Poke Cards that always gets them excited about learning. 

#5 Math and Literacy Winter Activities Combined

If you are looking to fill your winter math and literacy centers, then this is the bundle you want to check out.  This Winter Math and Literacy Centers Bundle includes 10 centers (5 math and 5 literacy).  I combined some of my favorite winter centers in this bundle so that you don't have to spend time piecing together center activities. The activities were designed for first-graders and skills that first-grade students would typically be practicing this time of year. But they will work great as an introduction for kindergartners and a review for second graders as well!

The winter math and literacy centers can be used over and over again and will get you through all of the winter months. This bundle includes 5 math centers and 5 literacy centers, so you'll have plenty of variety. Your students will absolutely love all of these winter center activities! The best part? They are done for you. You can find this Winter Math & Literacy Center Bundle in my store. 

#6 Winter Place Value Centers and Worksheets 

Looking for another fun way to reinforce place value skills this winter? These activities are just what you need! This resource provides an engaging way to practice counting tens and ones. Students will work with no-prep worksheets as well as poke codes to identify numbers represented in different ways. Students will work with graphics of base ten blocks, tens frames, and grouped numbers to count numbers to 100. 

There are 32 poke cards, 4 recording sheets, and 3 practice worksheets included. I really like using these activities during center time since they're so easy to prep. They're a wonderful way to sneak in a little extra practice to help your students master place value this winter!

#7 Winter Phonics Worksheets 

Last, but certainly not least, I've got a no-prep hero for you! These Winter Phonics Worksheets will save the day when you need something quick and easy to fill a few minutes in your day. Students will work on decodable CVCe words, digraphs, short vowels, and more with these pages. To use, they will write the letter for each picture in the box. Once they have all the letters filled in, they read the secret word. Finally, they color the code accordingly to reveal a fun winter picture. 

Since there are multiple phonics skills included, you can differentiate these by skill level in your classroom. Simply pass them off to your students after they finish up with you in small groups for a discreet way to ensure everyone gets the level they need. I love having these copied and ready to go for my students. That way we can use them anytime we have a few extra minutes before our next block! 

Add Some Winter Fun to Your Classroom

I hope all of these winter math and literacy centers give you an idea of how to effectively fill your classroom and instructional time. They are sure to bring tons of engagement with some hands-on learning too! Be sure to take advantage of all of the winter resources in my TPT store to save yourself tons of time and energy. After all, isn't winter about resting and resetting? 

Save these Winter Math and Literacy Centers

Be sure to save this pin to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily come back when you need fun and engaging winter activities for your classroom.