If you are looking for books about winter for kids in your classroom, then you have come to the right place. Here are 11 of my favorite books about winter, and each has a slightly different message to keep students engaged learning about this often snowy season. (They are in no particular order.)
1. Over and Under the Snow, by Kate Messner
This is a great winter book for your animal lover. A boy and his father go for a walk in the woods. There, the boy learns about all the different animals who live above the snow and those who live beneath it. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map of animals that live in the forest
- Sorting animals that live above or below the snow
- Matching the footprints on the snow to the animal who made them
- Write a story about what it would be like to live above or below the snow
To save you time, I have put all these activities into a literacy unit that contains both print and digital activities. You can see this unit here: Over and Under the Snow.
2. Ten Ways to Hear Snow, by Cathy Camper
If you are working on figurative language, this winter book is filled with great examples of onomatopoeia. This book about winter for kids follows a young girl who travels through the snow to help her grandmother make a special dish with grape leaves. Along the way, she notices all the new sounds she hears now that there is snow on the ground. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on all the sounds the girl hears in the snow
- Sorting winter and summer sounds
- Turning simple sentences into those using onomatopoeia (with a snow theme)
- Write a story (using onomatopoeia) about what you hear in the snow
You can check out this literacy unit here: Ten Ways to Hear Snow.
3. The Biggest Snowman Ever, by Steven Kroll
This book about winter is great for teaching cooperation and working together. Clayton and Desmond are two mice who decided to work together to win first place for building the biggest snowman. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on what you need to build a snowman
- Word map to show what the word cooperation really means
- Identifying jobs that are easier to do with 2 people rather than alone
- Write a story about building a really big snowman
You can see this 5-day literacy unit here: The Biggest Snowman Ever.
4. The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, by Shirley Neitzel
When it comes to winter books for kids, this was my daughter’s favorite when she was little, so it is a special one for me (she is 23 now.) This is a fun book and supported with lots of pictures that makes it perfect for special education. A little boy’s zipper on his jacket gets stuck while playing in the snow. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on things that have zippers
- Sorting clothes you can wear in the summer or winter
- Matching the body part to each item of clothing
- Writing a story about what you like to do in the snow
This super fun literacy unit can be found here: The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.
5. The Snowy Day, by Jack Ezra Keats
This classic winter book about winter for kids won the Caldecott Medal in 1963. It is still a relevant and wonderful story today about a boy who explores his city neighborhood after a snowfall. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on winter
- Matching sounds to objects Peter hears in the story
- Sorting things that would and would not melt
- Write a story about your favorite season
This literacy unit can be found here: The Snowy Day.
6. The Story of Snow, by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson
This book about winter will appeal to your science kids. It is filled with information on how a snowflake is formed from just a tiny speck. It looks at the different shapes snowflakes come in and why. All of this detailed information is presented in a way younger students can understand. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on snowflakes
- Sequence how a snowflake is formed
- Sort the different shapes snowflakes come in
- Write a story about becoming a snowflake from just a speck
This fun, science-based literacy unit can be found here: The Story of Snow.
7. When Snow Falls, by Linda Booth Sweeney
I love this book because it is a simple story about a family spending the day playing in the snow. It is written in more of a lyrical format and has beautifully drawn illustrations. This winter story has some great noun-verb pairings that make it perfect for learning about or reviewing parts of speech. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map on things that fall
- Sorting nouns and verbs from the book
- Matching verbs to nouns from the book
- Write a story about what you like to do when snow falls
To see this literacy unit head here: When Snow Falls.
8. The Wolf in the Snow, by Matthew Cordell
This is such an interesting book about winter for kids. It is a variation on Little Red Riding Hood and won the Caldecott Medal in 2018. A little girl gets lost in the snow while trying to rescue a wolf pup. This is also another great example using onomatopoeia. Here are some activities you can do with this book:
- Circle map about wolves
- Sorting examples and non-examples of onomatopoeia
- Create a maze helping the lost girl find the wolf pup (easy to do at this site: Maze Generator)
- Write a story using onomatopoeia
You can check out this literacy unit here: The Wolf in the Snow.
9. No Two Alike, by Keith Baker
No Two Alike is a great book about two birds exploring the snowy forest looking for things that are exactly alike. Many things are almost, but not exactly alike. This is a good choice to practice visual discrimination and 2D matching. Here are some things you can do with this book:
- Circle map on things that are almost alike in the book
- Word map on what “unique” means
- Finding two items that match
- Write a story about why you are unique
This literacy unit can be found here: No Two Alike.
10. Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen
This classic story is a great book about winter to use in your classroom. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1988. Students will follow along as a father takes his daughter owling in the forest late one winter night. There are lots of new things to learn in this book, especially about owls. Here are some things you can do with this book:
- Circle map on owling or just on owls
- Identifying places and situations where you need to be quiet
- Sorting birds that can and cannot fly
- Write a story about what you saw in the forest
This literacy unit can be found here: Owl Moon.
11. The Mitten, by Jan Brett
And, I saved this classic winter book for kids for last. The mitten is a story about a boy who loses a white mitten that his grandmother had knit for him. While it is lost, the mitten becomes a home to many forest creatures as the mitten stretches to an impressive size. Here are some activities you may not have thought of that you can do with this classic story:
- Circle map on things that make you sneeze
- Sorting things that are and are not white
- Identfying how various animals defend themselves
- Write a story about the day you lost your mitten
You can find this literacy unit here: The Mitten.
I hope you have been inspired and found some new activities you can do with these books about winter for kids.
You can find literacy units for all these books about winter for kids here on my website and in my TPT store (CLICK HERE). I also have them bundled together in a Winter Literacy Bundle where you can save 20%.
My favorite 11 books about winter for kids
- When Snow Falls
- Ten Ways to Hear Snow
- No Two Alike
- The Mitten
- The Biggest Snowman Ever
- The Story of Snow
- The Snowy Day
- The Jacket I Wear in the Snow
- Over and Under the Snow
- Wolf in the Snow
- Owl Moon
