You might already be moving on to spring books, but I want to share some of my favorite books from our recent winter unit. These are perfect if you’re looking for books to focus on late-winter weather or books for next winter. Of course, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, your winter is still coming up!
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Just choose books based on your child’s age and what you think will engage your child’s interest. I recommend checking out the “Look Inside the Book” feature on Amazon and reading reviews there. Another place to learn about a book is on YouTube. You can typically see the entire book there.
Montessori-friendly books use photos or realistic illustrations. They don’t have talking animals or a lot of fantasy. But many books that have fantasy and talking animals are wonderful books, and I love sharing them with children who understand the difference between fantasy and reality. I typically have a majority of Montessori-friendly books for a theme, but I include a variety of books that might not be Montessori-style books but that are simply lots of fun or are classic books that I consider an important part of cultural literacy.
Favorite Winter Books for Kids
Winter Books for Babies and Toddlers
Baby Beluga (Raffi Songs to Read) Board Book isn’t designed as a Montessori-style book, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it with my kids and grandkids! It’s great for winter with its Arctic theme, although we’ve used it year-round. You can sing along to the song or sing a capella using the lyrics in the book. You can see how we’ve used the book in my post with Montessori-inspired toddler geography activities with Baby Beluga.
Thats ‘notmysnowman….,an Usborne touchy-feely book, isn’t a Montessori-style book. But it’s a fun book with a variety of textures for babies and toddlers to touch.
The “If I Were…” books by Jellycat aren’t Montessori-style books, but I still love them. They’re fun sensory books, and you can even get a Jellycat stuffed animal to match. On Amazon, just search for “jellycat penguin stuffed animal” (or whichever animal you’re searching for. The Jellycat stuffed animals are sooo soft. Giving a Jellycat book and stuffed animal is actually one of my favorite baby gifts to give. Jellycat has books with a huge variety of animals, but the penguin and polar bear are the best ones for winter.
Follow the Trail: Winter Wonderland
is probably my toddler grandkids’ favorite winter book. It’s best for older toddlers and young preschoolers, although you could adapt it for babies. It’s a Montessori-friendly book with fun trails for children to follow with their fingers and interesting facts about the Arctic and Antarctic animals.
Winter by Gerda Muller is a beautiful, wordless book for babies and toddlers. Preschoolers could enjoy it, too.
Montessori Book Basket and Shelves with Winter-Themed Activities
We started our winter unit with a scavenger hunt featuring the Montessori-friendly book Over and Under the Snow. The book is a realistic story with a bit of the science of hibernation. It’s a great way to start a discussion about why certain animals aren’t seen in winter in various parts of the world.
Another of the wonderful Montessori-friendly books we used is The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder. It has an understandable explanation of snow crystals along with stunning photographs of actual snow crystals.
Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley was the first known photographer of snowflakes, and the inspiring book Snowflake Bentley won the 1999 Caldecott Medal.
Montessori Book Basket with Winter Books
I have a book basket beside the shelf with a variety of winter books. Most are Montessori-friendly non-fiction books.
My 2-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, loves What Can You See in Winter?
It’s a simple emergent reader with photographs of a variety of things traditionally seen in winter, such as “You can see snow. You can see snowballs.” Each page has one photograph and one sentence. It’s recommended for ages 4-6, but especially like it for toddlers, young preschoolers, and readers who will benefit from an emergent reader.
Winter Wonderland is a Montessori-friendly National Geographic book with gorgeous photographs. It’s recommended for ages 4-8, although I like it best for ages 3-5 or 3-6.
Animals in Winter (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out-Science) is an easy-to-understand Montessori-friendly book recommended for ages 4-8.
I often include Gail Gibbons’ books in my unit studies. It’s Snowing!, like Gail Gibbons’ other books, is gives a lot of information in an easily understood way.
Snow Is Falling is from another easily-understood science series I often use.
It’s recommended for ages 4-8.
Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold is a fabulous book for elementary-age kids 6-9. In addition to beautiful illustrations and poems, there are facts about the subject of each poem.
The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice has lots of science and history information about the Winter Solstice. Recommended for ages 6-9.
The Shortest Day has information about the Winter Solstice plus beautiful artwork. It’s recommended for kindergarteners on up.
Book Basket with Winter Books
Reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is one of my favorite ways to reinforce the concept of winter. This classic multicultural story won the Caldecott medal in 1963. It’s a wonderful book for children ages 2-5. I enjoyed using it when I owned a Montessori school in the 1980s and with my now-adult kids. I still have the copy from when my kids were little. Now my grandkids are enjoying it!
Tracks in the Snow is a simple, sweet Montessori-friendly book about a little girl following the tracks outside her window. It’s recommended for ages 2-6, although I especially like it for older toddlers and young preschoolers.
Winter is Here is recommended for ages 4-8, but I prefer it for ages 2-5. It’s a sweet, Montessori-friendly book that gives a gentle, rhythmic introduction to winter.
I grew up in South Dakota, so I’ve loved the Montessori-friendly “My First Little House Books” series for 
preschoolers. A number of the books, such as Winter Days in the Big Woods are great for winter.
For older kids, The Long Winter from the Little House Books complete set is an amazing story. Update: The Laura Ingalls Wilder books have been called out for racist depictions of Native and Black Americans. Even though my kids are now adults, I always used those instances in the books to have conversations with my kids about what was said and what was happening at the time. You may want to use the books to have important conversations with your child about racism, or you may want to avoid the books. Here are two ideas about how to use the books: “What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books?” and “Tackling Racism in Children’s Books: Little House on the Prairie.”
Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter is a Montessori-friendly book from a series that I love. It’s recommended for ages 3-6 and tells the story of a brother and sister who walk through their town and welcome the signs of winter. When you near the end of winter, don’t miss Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!
The Wonderful Gifts of Winter is from a Montessori-friendly Christian series I really like for its messages of gratitude through the seasons.
Owl Moon is a gorgeous Montessori-friendly book that won the Caldecott Medal in 1988. It’s recommended for ages 3-7.
This is another beautiful book I’ve had since homeschooling my now-adult children. A beautifully illustrated version of Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening
is a Montessori-friendly book illustrated by Susan Jeffers for ages 4-8.
Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year is a gorgeous book of 366 nature poems … one for each day of the year, including Leap Year. It’s recommended for ages 7 on up, although the poems are generally short and could be shared in a family or in multi-age classrooms. We started using this for our months and seasons unit. Zoey still loves to bring the correct page to me. We enjoy discussing the day’s poem together.
We’ve enjoyed so many great winter books that I couldn’t cover them all in one post. Here are some other posts with winter books I recommend:
Free Snowperson Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Activities (for snow and snowman books)
Favorite Black History Books for Kids (for Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month … or any month)
The Best Heart Books for Kids {Human Heart, Love, and Valentine’s Day Books}
- Free Mitten Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mitten Activities
- Free Penguin Printables and Montessori-Inspired Penguin Activities
- Free Inuit Printables and Montessori-Inspired Inuit Activities
- Montessori Winter Activities Printables for Preschool Through Elementary from Every Star Is Different
- Montessori Hundred Board Extension
- Christmas Book Basket for Those of Us Who Just CAN’T Do a Christmas Book Countdown
- Promote Peace with Montessori Holidays Around the World Resources
Look here for more winter books for kids to see new books when they’re published.
In case you like to start each season with general seasons books, you’ll find my favorite months and seasons books here:
More Winter Resources
- Free Winter Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Activities
- Montessori Winter Resources for Classroom or Home
- Montessori Winter Activities Printables for Preschool Through Elementary from Every Star Is Different
- Free Winter Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time
- Free Winter Songs and Educational Videos
- Free Winter Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Winter Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Snowman Color Activities Using Free Printables
- Montessori-Inspired Snowman Letter Activities Using Free Printables
- Montessori-Inspired Winter Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Winter Playdough Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Winter Math Activities
- 25+ Snow-Themed Sensory Tubs
- Free Mitten Printables and Montessori-Inspired Mitten Activities
- Simple Snowman Sensory Bin {A Fun Way to Work on Essential Skills for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Free Snowman Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowman Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Winter Themes and Activities
- Teaching Toddlers about Winter with the Montessori 3-Period Lesson and Activities
- Free Snowflake Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowflake Activities
- The Snowy Day Eggshell Crushing and Pin Poking Activity
- Montessori-Inspired Winter Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
- Free Winter Playdough Math Pack (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Playdough Math Activities for Winter {Free Printables}
- Simple Winter Practical Life Activities
- How to Prepare a Simple Winter Playdough Tray with Super-Soft Playdough
- Free Winter Sports Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports Activities
- Free Winter Sports Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Winter Sports Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Kids’ Winter Activities Pinterest Board.
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