Winter is now in full swing and with the holidays behind us, the days can feel kind of  long and cold. Furthermore, students may be feeling a little less than enthusiastic about coming back to school after the holiday break. Now is a great time to re-energize the kiddos with some fun activities and lessons.  

If you know me, you know I love to connect all of my lessons to a good book. It’s just so engaging to introduce my students to a great new book and then do an exciting activity related to the story.  In the winter, I like to read books with a winter theme and then do a fun winter STEM activity to go along with it. STEM time is a time when students get to use their creativity to design and engineer new things. The combination makes for a memorable and fun lesson!

Here are some of my favorite winter books to connect to winter STEM activities

1. How To Catch A Snowman by Adam Wallace
2. Snow by Uri Shulevitz
3. The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll
4. The Sneezy Snowman by Maureen Wright
5. Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner
6. Snowflakes In Photographs by W.A. Bentley
7. Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
8. The Story Of Snow: The Science Of Winters Wonder by Jon Nelson
9. Curious About Snow by Gina Shaw

You can check out all of these fantastic winter reads here! 

I follow up these stories with a snow or snowflake themed winter STEM activity

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My Snowflake STEM Challenge connects to the books Curious About Snow by Gina Shaw,  Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, and Snowflake Bentley by Martin.

This Snowflake STEM Challenge will give students the opportunity to research the snowflakes as they design and create snowflakes. You can even use this resource for distance learning with Google Slides. Your students will love designing, creating, and engineering beautiful winter snowflakes. Students will problem solve and think critically as they complete their challenges.

Included with this resource, you’ll get: 

• Teacher Pages
• Lesson Plans (Day 1-4) 
• Google Slides Link 
• Next Generation Standards and Common Core with Material List
• Website and Resources
• Snowflake pictures
• Vocabulary Cards
• Design a Snowflake Challenge
• Snowflake Research and Writing Pages
• Engineering Design Page 

Everything you need for winter STEM lessons! 

If you are looking for more winter STEM challenges, you can check out my Winter STEM Challenges for the month of January. This project based learning resource includes glove experiments, bird feeders, winter road safety, and cable cars. 

What winter activities do you like to do in your classroom? Let me know in the comments!