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Circle time game – ‘snowball fight’ pass a
snowball (a tightly scrunched up paper ball)
around the circle. When the adult rings a bell the
child chooses to throw it to someone else in the
circle.
Use this Winter Themed Editable Board Game to
create a turn taking game for use in a small
adult-led group.
Circle time game – pass a ‘magic snowman’
around the circle. When a child is holding the
snowman, it is their turn to speak. Can the
children say where they would like the magical
snowman to take them?
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for supporting social and emotional
development. They can be found in this Winter
Themed Adult Input Planning Pack and Resource
Pack:
o Labelling a Penguin.
o Build a Snowman Game.
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Provide a camera or mirror and some Winter
Photos. Encourage the children to choose a
picture and make a face to show how that
picture makes them feel.
Use these Snowman Picture Cards to make a
matching pairs game and encourage the children
to play it together, great for developing turn
taking.
This Winter Themed ‘I Spy with my Little Eye’
Activity is great for children to play in pairs.
Encourage the children to work together in
teams to create igloos or snowmen in the
block/construction area.
Have a snowman party and encourage the
children to play a range of snow themed games
and taste some snow themed food! Try this Pin
the Nose in the Snowman Game!
Encourage children to work together to build and
decorate this Large Snowman Template
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Encourage the children to work together to build
a large scale igloo, shoeboxes covered in white
paper make great ice blocks. (see EAD)
Have these Polar Region Role Play Masks
available for children to use when constructing
their igloo and encourage the children to work
together to build a narrative.
Hide polar region soft toys or laminated Polar
Animal Posters around the outdoor area.
Encourage the children to work as a team to find
them.
Set up a polar area role play, this Polar
Explorers Role Play Pack may come in handy
(see EAD).
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Use The Snowman Story Sack with the children.
Put this Large Blank Snowman Template in the
centre of the circle the children take turns to
add the features of the snowman, following
instructions which use prepositions such as
‘under’, ‘on top’, ‘next to’. This Snowman
Decorating Pack may be useful.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for developing listening and communication
skills. They can be found in this Winter Themed
Adult Input Planning Pack and Resource Pack:
o Five Little Snowmen Fat Rhyme.
o The Little Snowman Listening Game.
o Is it Snowing Action Rhyme.
o Penguin Ice Jump.
Play a listening game ‘snowman says’, where
the leader is a snowman and gives instructions
such as “Snowman says, touch your buttons.”
“Snowman says, touch your carrot nose.”
“Snowman says clap your mittens.”
Play a matching pairs game with small groups of
children to develop their vocabulary around the
theme of winter. These Winter Words and
Pictures Flashcards would be perfect.
Winter Scene and Question Cards are great for
small group activities to encourage children to
talk about what they can see and to listen to
each other’s ideas.
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Have these Snowman Role Play Masks available
for the children to retell the story in their own
words.
In the listening area, have an audio copy of a
winter themed book, along with a hard copy and
related props.
Provide the Winter Scene Can You Find Poster
and Prompt Card Pack within provision and
encourage the children to talk to each other
about what they can see.
Hide these Polar Regions Story Stones in some
pretend snow or sand with sparkly glitter and
encourage the children to find the stones and
talk about the animals.
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Construct an igloo outside and encourage the
children to go ‘under’, ‘on top’, ‘behind’ etc.
Have these Polar Region Role Play Masks
available for the children to act out a narrative.
Create a specially decorated chair with the
children. This then becomes a special storytelling
chair for the children to retell their favourite
winter themed stories to each other.
Fill a tray with salt and glitter or white sparkly
fabric and put these Winter Story Stones out,
encourage the children to talk about the pictures
as they find them.
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Re-enact the story of The Snow Queen with the
children and encourage them to experiment with
different ways of moving.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for developing physical skills. They can be
found in this Winter Themed Adult Input Planning
Pack and Resource Pack:
o Paper Snowflakes.
o Snowman Fruit Kebabs.
o Snowman Buttons Throwing Game.
o Marshmallow Igloos.
Make these Winter Snow Globes using modelling
clay to mould the characters.
Develop fine motor skills with this Snowflake
Threading Craft Activity.
Talk about different clothes to wear when it is
cold outside. Encourage the children to practise
putting on jumpers, boots, gloves, hats and
scarves and also putting on and fastening coats.
Make some Salt Dough with the children and use
it to create some snowman models. Provide
paint or small decorations for the children to
decorate their snowman model.
This Ice Jump Game makes a great warm up
game for PE lessons.
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Use these Winter Playdough Mats to encourage
children to shape and mould winter themed
models.
These playdough recipes help to add a winter
theme to your malleable area:
o Snowman Dough EYFS Messy Play Plan.
o Winter Fairy Tale Playdough Recipe.
o Gluten Free White Playdough Recipe.
Have these Pencil Control Sheets or Pencil
Control Path Sheets in the writing area.
These Winter Themed Cutting Skills Sheets could
be available in the creative or workshop area
and are ideal for scissor development.
Have some winter fairy tale dressing up outfits
available in the role play area, if they have
buttons and zips all the better!
Fine motor skills – these Snow Queen Stick
Puppets could be available in the creative area
for children to cut out, colour and decorate.
The Snowman Threading Finger Gym activity is
great for developing fine motor skills.
Sugar cubes can be stacked to make mini igloos,
which is great fine motor skills practice.
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Make glittery play dough and provide Winter
Play Dough Mats.
Provide lots of twigs of different sizes and
encourage the children to make towers with
them, stacking them in rounds and criss-crossing
them.
Use this Snowman Dough Messy Play Recipe
with the children.
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Read The Snow Queen eBook to the children.
Encourage them to think about the characters
and setting.
Ask the children to use their knowledge of the
story to sequence it using these Story
Sequencing Cards.
Compare The Snow Queen story with other
winter fairy tales that the children are familiar
with.
Hot seat characters from the fairy tales (with
either a confident child or an adult). The children
can use their knowledge of the story to ask
relevant questions.
Model writing simple letters with the children.
This could be letters from characters in The
Snow Queen or other winter fairy tales. These
Snow Queen or Winter Fairytale Page Borders
might come in handy.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for developing literacy skills. They can be
found in this Winter Themed Adult Input Planning
Pack and Resource Pack:
o What’s in the Suitcase Activity.
o Describing a Snowman Activity.
Use these Letters on Snowflakes to add a
winter theme to your phonics activities.
Teach the children these Winter Themed Songs
and Rhymes.
Read a variety of winter themed stories, some
suggested books can be found on the Winter
Book List.
Use the Build a Snowman Alphabet Activity to
add a winter theme to your phonics sessions.
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Set up small world versions of the stories. This
Snow Queen Small World Background or this
Winter Fairytale Small World Background might
come in handy.
Also have these Winter Stick Puppets available
in the small world area.
You could also have snowflake booklets available
for the children to use. These Display Snowflakes
would make lovely front covers for winter
themed booklets.
Initial Sounds Winter Peg Matching Game
Provide Winter Photo Page Borders, Winter
Page Borders or Winter Tree Page Borders in
the mark making area. These Word Mats may be
useful too.
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Have a selection of writing tools available near
the polar regions role play area (see EAD), along
with paper on clipboards. These Polar Animal
Fact Files might be useful.
Create a winter reading cave outside using
white blankets and cushions covered with white
sheets or tarpaulin. Have a selection of winter
themed stories available for the children to use.
Provide a tray of salt and glitter along with
some mark makers and a selection of these
Snowflake Letters, encourage the children to
write the letter and say the sound and name.
Place a child safe mirror under the salt for an
even more wintery effect.
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Print out and laminate Numbers 0-10/20 on
Woolly Hats. Play ordering games, missing
number games, matching and counting games
etc.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for developing mathematical skills. They can
be found in this Winter Themed Adult Input
Planning Pack and Resource Pack:
o Footprints in the Snow.
o Matching Winter Clothes.
o Polar Icicle Size.
o Sorting Winter Clothes.
o Making footprints.
o Snowman Shapes.
o Snowman Beetle Drive.
o Pass the Ice Cube.
Explore 3D shapes, particularly cubes and
cuboids, using them as ice blocks to build an
igloo with. It provides a great opportunity to
discuss the different forms that cuboids can
take.
Use the Patterned Winter Clothing Cut-Outs as
part of a large or small group carpet activity. Put
one item from the set in the centre of the circle
the others into a feely bag. Children take turns
to pull an item out of the bag and match it to an
item in the centre of the circle.
Learn this 5 Little Snowmen Counting Rhyme
together. The children could take turns to be the
snowmen in the rhyme using these Snowman
Role Play Masks.
Look at this Winter Themed Shadows
PowerPoint and encourage the children to think
about the shape of the objects.
This Winter Size Ordering Flipchart Activity is a
great activity for large or small groups.
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Encourage the children to use the language of
size whilst using these Winter Size Ordering
Pictures.
The Winter Themed Counting to 10 Peg Matching
Game is great for consolidating counting skills
whilst developing fine motor skills.
Print out and laminate the Snowman Building
Sequence Cards for children to put into the
correct order.
Cut out and laminate these Snowman Number
Bonds to 10 to add challenge to the maths area.
This Snowman Buttons Finger Gym Activity
encourages children to match numerals and
quantity whilst developing their fine motor skills.
Use this Interactive Poster Plan and Resource
Pack to support your learning of the 5 Little
Snowmen rhyme during child-initiated learning.
Consolidate counting skills with this Snowflake
Wheel.
Cut out a variety of 2d shapes that the children
can use to ‘build’ a snowman. For example,
circles for the body, rectangles and squares for
the hat, triangle for the nose.
Provide this Winter Themed Editable game in the
setting to consolidate one-to-one counting skills.
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Print out Numbers 0-10/20 on Snowflakes . Ask
the children to order them on a washing line
outside.
Use this Mitten Matching Activity to encourage
children to look carefully at patterns and then
peg the matching pairs onto the washing line.
Winter Maths Challenge Cards encourage
children to practise number recognition, counting
and shapes.
Children use hoops covered in paper or
wrapped in tinsel to build a snowman. Other 2D
shapes can be provided to use as the hat, nose,
scarf and buttons.
Hide these The Snowman Display Numbers
around the outside area or in a shallow tray of
pretend snow. Challenge the children to uncover
and identify the numbers they find.
Decorate some empty plastic bottles to look like
snowmen and penguins. Encourage the children
to play ‘Snowy Skittles’ and count how many
skittles they can knock down and how many are
still standing! This activity could be extended by
putting numbers on their tummies, the children
could then add up the total of their score.
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Use this Winter Themed Shadows PowerPoint as
a springboard to finding out more about light and
shadows.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for learning about the world around us.
They can be found in this Winter Themed Adult
Input Planning Pack and Resource Pack:
o Exploring Ice.
o Filter Paper Snowflakes.
o A Winter Walk.
o Winter Vegetable Soup.
o Winter Explorer.
Take the opportunity to learn about the different
winter festivals that are celebrated around the
world, helping children to understand the
similarities and differences among communities.
Look at the Winter Photo PowerPoint or these
Winter Display Photographs with the children
and encourage them to share their own
experiences of winter.
Use food technology to explore how materials
change. This Winter Recipes Resource Pack has
a selection of ideas.
This Winter Information PowerPoint provides
facts about winter.
Make bird feeders to encourage children to take
care of living things. These How to Make Bird
Feeders instruction cards may be useful.
This Hibernation PowerPoint is a useful starting
point to find out more about animals that
hibernate. This Hibernating Animals Photo Pack
would be useful for any small group activities
that follow.
Use this Ice Ornaments Science Experiment to
investigate the effects of the freezing
temperatures outside.
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Have a selection of child friendly ICT equipment
available for children to record themselves
retelling winter themed stories.
In the listening area, have an audio copy of the
some winter themed books, along with a hard
copy and related props. The children can explore
operating the CD player independently.
Use a paint/drawing program on the IWB for
children to draw winter themed pictures.
Encourage children to think about the
differences between the seasons by providing
this Winter and Summer Clothes Sorting Activity.
Freeze ice into different shapes with a variety of
different materials inside. For example, freeze
water with sequins, feathers and glitter in
rubber gloves to make sparkly ice hands.
Make a Snowman Jacket for the Bee-Bot and
provide within provision for the children to
explore.
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Put a CD player outside with wintery music
playing. Encourage the children to operate the
equipment in order to choose the music that
they would like to dance to. (‘Winter’ from The
Four Seasons by Vivaldi, ‘Walking in the Air’ by
Howard Blake or ‘The Skaters’ Waltz by Emile
Waldteufel would be perfect. For a more
contemporary feel, use the soundtrack to winter
themed fairy tale films)
Provide this Winter Hunt Checklist on clipboards
in the outdoor area to encourage children to
look closely at their environment.
Make ice balloons or freeze trays of water for
the children to explore using magnifying glasses.
Laminate these Icicle Display Photographs or Ice
Display Photos to display alongside.
Leave some different sized blocks of ice around
the outdoor area along with a note from ‘Jack
Frost’ asking the children to try to stop the ice
from melting. Provide different materials (wool,
tinfoil etc.) for the children to use during the day
to investigate how they could do this.
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Using a simple script of The Snow Queen Story,
read it aloud whilst the children move and act it
out.
The following are lovely adult input activities,
ideal for developing creative skills. They can be
found in the Winter Themed Adult Input Planning
Pack and Resource Pack:
o Making Snow Dough.
o Winter Sounds.
o Frost Patterns.
o Snowman Freeze Game.
o Look and Act Winter.
o Winter Snow Globe Craft.
o Snowflake Bead Threading Craft.
o Footprint Snowman Craft.
Explore the different ways of moving in the
winter time. Encourage the children to move in
different ways, ice skating, skiing,
snowboarding, sledging, moving through deep
snow, pushing a large snowball to make a
snowman.
Use the winter section of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
and pretend to be moving through a snowstorm,
encouraging the children to listen to the music
and move in ways that match the tempo and feel
of the music.
In small groups, listen to the winter section of
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons whilst using cold colours
to paint a picture. Encourage the children to
paint whatever the music makes them feel. This
activity could be extended by listening to the
other seasons and painting pictures using
appropriate colours. The children could then
compare the different paintings.
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Have a range of junk modelling available for
children to create their own winter vehicles.
Sledges, snowmobiles and 4x4 vehicles are just
a few ideas.
Put mitten shaped paper in the painting area and
encourage the children to design mittens with
different patterns. Hang real pairs of mittens
above the easel as a stimulus or if there are
none available, use pictures from this Mitten
Matching Activity instead.
Use the Colour Matching Snowman EYFS Busy
Bag Plan and Resource Pack to support the
children with colour matching and recognition.
A winter themed small world will help to
encourage lots of imaginative play. Use existing
resources such as playgrounds, or even
dinosaurs, and give them a wintery makeover
using fake snow, desiccated coconut or simply a
white fabric base. This Small World Background
may come in handy.
Add these Snowman Role Play Masks to the role
play area.
Use Iced Edible Paints in the creative area.
Provide a selection of silvery collage materials
for the children to stick onto a dark background.
Watered down white paint with silver glitter
added, the children put drops of it onto dark
blue or black paper and then blow them with a
straw.
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Have some small world figures from the Polar
Regions available in the water area. Also include
ice for the children to explore.
Provide a variety of large construction materials
(crates, hollow blocks, planks etc.) and white
drapes for children to use to construct winter
dens.
Provide a variety of musical instruments, silvery
tinsel streamers and some winter inspired music
for the children to dance to. (‘Winter’ from The
Four Seasons by Vivaldi, ‘Walking in the Air’ by
Howard Blake or ‘The Skaters’ Waltz by Emile
Waldteufel would be perfect.)
Set up a polar areas role play, this Polar
Explorers Role Play Pack may come in handy. You
could use white sparkly drapes to create a
snowy background and cover large construction
equipment such as crates or hollow blocks in
white lining paper. Covered shoe boxes also
make good ice blocks and are light enough for
the children to stack. Plastic milk bottles can be
used by staff to create igloos large enough for
children to play inside!
An alternative to building an igloo is to create an
ice cave by draping material over furniture or
hanging from the ceiling. Add polar animal soft
toys or winter clothing as props.
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Polar animals.
Ice with small world animals trapped inside.
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Polar Regions Story Stones.
Winter Story Stones.
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Winter Playdough Mats.
Snowman Dough EYFS Messy Play Plan.
Gluten Free White Playdough Recipe.
Winter Fairy Tale Playdough Recipe.
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Create a winter themed reading cave.
Listening station and winter themed stories.
Winter Themed ‘I Spy with my Little Eye’ Activity.
Winter Themed Songs and Rhymes.
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Provide a camera or mirror and some Winter Photos.
Encourage the children to choose a picture and make
a face to show how that picture makes them feel.
CD player and winter themed music.
Provide variety of musical instruments, silvery tinsel
streamers and some winter inspired music for the
children to dance to. (E.g. ‘Winter’ from The Four
Seasons by Vivaldi, ‘Walking in the Air’ by Howard
Blake or ‘The Skaters’ Waltz by Emile Waldteufel).
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Junk modelling materials to make winter vehicles
such as snow mobiles, sledges and 4x4’s.
Silvery collage materials and dark paper.
Put blobs of watered down white paint onto dark
paper and then blow them with straws.
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Polar Region Role Play Masks.
Snowman Role Play Masks.
Winter fairy tale dressing up clothes.
Polar Explorers Role Play Pack.
Snowman Role Play Masks.
Make ice in different shapes using balloons, rubber
gloves, trays and containers.
Leave a note from ‘Jack Frost’ to encourage children
to investigate ice and frost.
Winter Scene Can You Find Poster and Prompt Card
Pack.
Winter and Summer Clothes Sorting Activity.
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In snowy weather use spray bottles filled with
diluted water-based paint to make designs in the
snow.
Use paintbrushes dipped into salt water to ‘paint’ on
frosty ground.
Paint designs on mitten shaped paper.
Iced Edible Paints.
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Winter Small World Background.
North Pole Small World Background.
Arctic Small World Background.
Winter Fairytale Small World Background.
Antarctic Small World Background.
Winter Stick Puppets.
Make a snowman or penguin skittles game by
decorating empty plastic bottles.
Winter Size Ordering Pictures.
Winter Themed Counting to 10 Peg Matching Game.
Snowman Building Sequence Cards.
Snowman Number Bonds to 10.
Winter Themed Editable Game.
5 Little Snowmen Interactive Poster Plan and
Resource Pack.
Numbers 0-10/20 on Snowflakes.
Mitten Matching Activity.
Winter Maths Challenge Cards.
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Pencil Control Sheets.
Tray or tuff spot with rice, tissue paper, pom-poms,
tweezers and scoops.
Pencil Control Path Sheets.
Snow Queen Stick Puppets.
Winter Themed Cutting Skills Sheets.
Pencil Control Path Sheets.
Snowman Threading Finger Gym.
Snowman Buttons Finger Gym Activity.
Snowflake Wheel.
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Building Igloos, winter caves and dens with large
construction equipment and white fabric.
Using sugar cubes to build mini igloos.
Use these Display Snowflakes as the front cover of
some winter themed booklets.
A salt tray, mark makers and Snowflake Letters.
Initial Sounds Winter Peg Matching Game.
Winter Photo Page Borders.
Winter Page Borders.
Winter Tree Page Borders.
Word Mats.
Polar Animal Fact Files.