Activities and Ideas to Try in Your Classroom This January
Incorporating seasonal topics into our teaching activities is a great way to keep things fresh and exciting. A familiar center becomes fresh again with a seasonal makeover. A writing assignment is more fun when it’s going to be part of a holiday bulletin board. Not only do seasonal topics help bring interest into the classroom, but they frequently tie into the standards.
Each month brings its own set of holidays and season-specific topics. Here are a few popular teaching topics for January.
- Arctic Animals
- Winter Weather
- Snowmen
- Martin Luther King Jr.
If you’d like to incorporate some seasonal activities into your classroom, keep reading. First, I’ll share some suggestions for books, and then I share some activities, including a few freebies for these popular January topics.
January Book Recommendations
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Last weekend, I took my kids to the bookstore to hunt for some books for January. My favorite ones both connected to January topics and immediately gave me ideas for specific lessons they’d work with.
- A Dot in The Snow is a cute story written from a young polar bear’s point of view. When I first read the book, I could immediately imagine using it as a starting point for a lesson on point of view. Students could write their own stories from the point of view of another arctic animal.
- The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder is a great nonfiction book to explain how snow is formed. It has some excellent photographs of snowflakes too!
- Snowmen at Night: This fun story explains why a snowman looks droopy the next day. Clearly, it’s not because of any melting, rather it’s from all of the adventures the snowmen have at night.
- How to Catch a Snowman: This story would be a perfect segway into a STEM challenge to design a snowman trap. It’s all about a group of kids trying unsuccessfully to catch a snowman. It also has some great opportunities to discuss making connections to snowmen from other stories (think Olaf and Frosty).
- Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a great book for elementary school-aged students. It has gorgeous illustrations that really make this book special. (Pss…This isn’t a new one, but it’s still a great book for January.)
January Activities to Try
Arctic animals are a great January topic. They tie into world geography, winter weather, climate, lifecycle standards, and more. Plus, kids love animals.
Arctic Animal Resources
- Arctic Animals Sensory Writing Activity (grades 2-4)
- Free Arctic Animal Fact Cards With QR Codes (grades 2-4)
- Arctic Animal Craftivity Bundle (grades 1-3)
Winter Weather
Another popular seasonal topic is winter weather. Snow and ice connect to the water cycle, temperature, measurement, and more. Winter weather ties into many math, science, or social studies standards, including geography, graphing, maps, the water cycle, and states of matter.
Winter Weather Resources
- Free Weather Vocabulary Cards (grades K-2)
- Weather Informational Mini Book (grades 2-4)
- Water Cycle Information Mini Book (grades 2-4)
Snowmen
Snowmen are another popular January topic. Kids can draw them, write about them, measure them, build them with different shapes, and more.
Snowmen Resources
Martin Luther King Jr.
The third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He played a pretty pivotal role in U.S. history, and it’s important that our students learn about it.
Martin Luther King Jr. Resources
Do you need some more January-themed activities for your classroom?
Click on the links to explore these January activities.
Hopefully, you’ve found some ideas you can use in your own classroom this January. If this post was helpful and you’d like access to my growing collection of free resources, sign up for my newsletter below.
