As temperatures drop and the wind starts to blow, preschool and daycare classrooms transform into warm and inviting spaces ready to be filled with learning and fun. This isn’t just a cozy way to pass the winter months, but an essential part of early childhood education. From sensory play to hands on learning games, research at ZERO TO THREE shows that young children learn best through playful, interactive experiences that strengthen fine motor skills, build language, and support overall development. Let’s take a look at some engaging and educational activities that will support your little one’s learning this winter!
Come for a tour here at Bright Ideas Family and see how our childcare program makes winter magical!
Fine Motor Play
Fine motor skills such as grasping, cutting, zipping, and drawing, are all foundational for independence and school readiness. Strengthening these little hand muscles will later help children write, use utensils, and learn how to manipulate their own buttons and zippers without assistance. Parents.com agrees that fine motor activities like cutting, pasting, and drawing give preschoolers critical practice that strengthens hand muscles, improves coordination, and prepares them for future writing tasks. 
- Snowy playdough & “ice” sculpting
Rolling, pinching, and shaping playdough strengthens finger muscles needed for writing and cutting. Research highlights playdough as an effective early childhood fine motor tool (Source). Throw in some cute arctic animals for a nature-science edge to this play, as well! - Cutting paper snowflakes
Using scissors will engage a child’s bilateral coordination and concentration that will build skills for later handwriting success. - Practicing zippers, buttons, and mittens
Dressing for winter is a huge developmental workout! Not only will the practice support fine motor skills, but future independence, as well. - “Snow” sensory bins
Some cotton balls, rice, or kinetic sand and a spoon makes for easy-peasy play and learning! Scooping and pouring builds coordination, hand strength, and sensory regulation.
Here at Bright Ideas Family we intentionally plan activities around prepping for school readiness. Want to see what our early childhood educators have planned? Come for a visit and check out our well-thought-out lesson plans!
Building Language Skills
Winter is a language-rich season full of new experiences and vocabulary! Snow, winter clothing, holidays, and weather changes opens up a new world of learning. Daycare and childcare teachers as well as parents at home can use these natural moments as learning opportunities that build early childhood vocabulary!
- Dialogic reading during winter story time
Wondering what ‘dialogic reading’ is? Rather than reading a story straight through, teachers and parents alike stop to ask open questions, encourage predictions on where the story is headed, and invite children to retell portions of the story. Research shows that this helps children build vocabulary and narrative skills. - Seasonal songs and rhymes
Repetition helps little ones with memory retention as well as understanding sentence structure. The rhymes often found in songs and poems can help with reading readiness, as well! As Edutopia explains, playful rhyming and language games help children build phonemic awareness—a foundational early literacy skill—and support future reading success by training them to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. - Describing real winter experiences
The cold weather brings a host of new sensations! Naming the sensations children experience in the cold weather will challenge them to pay attention to and describe what they see/hear/feel/and smell out in the winter cold. Taking a moment for some connection and asking these little one’s to recount their snow adventures will strengthen their storytelling skills, as well.
Our language-rich classrooms provide an excellent environment for your child to build and grow their skills with new words and stories every day. Schedule a tour with us here at Bright Ideas Family and see our lessons first-hand.
Simple Winter Activities for Home
Children are learning all the time! Support your little one’s early childhood education at home with a few simple, cozy activities: Winter learning doesn’t end at school. Families can support preschool growth at home with simple, cozy activities:
- Keep talking and reading— Research from the Reading Rockets shows that children whose parents read aloud regularly and engage in conversation build stronger vocabulary, better listening skills, and improved readiness for reading and learning.
- Offer fine-motor jobs like stirring batter, peeling clementines, velcroing shoes, or rolling playdough “snowballs.”
- Snuggle up with winter books and ask simple questions that help encourage comprehension.
The cold weather brings about a slew of learning opportunities! We would love to help you take advantage of those and support your child’s early childhood education in the classroom and at home, as well. Join us here at Bright Ideas Family and ask our teachers for activities that you can implement from home to support the daily classroom learning!