Free Snowy Day Printables and Montessori-Inspired Snowy Day Activities

Even though we don’t have snow in San Diego, I love snow activities in the winter. We just started a snowy day unit and are having lots of fun with it already! Here, you can get links to free snowy day printables used to prepare hands-on activities and a new Montessori-inspired snowy day pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library! (Note: I love The Snowy Day book and have an activity related to it here, but this unit is about any snowy day.)

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Montessori Shelves with Snowy Day Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired snowy day numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired snowy day pack isn’t designed as a complete snowy day unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)

You could mix your snowy day themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special snowy day themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Montessori Shelves with Snowy Day Themed Activities and Sledging Art Print

Notice the framed art print Sledging (1882) by Bruno Liljefors. It’s a free download from National Museum, Sweden.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop

Snow-Themed Books for Kids

Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. My seasonal books are now in that book basket, although I have many of my snow-themed books on shelves for this unit.

For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).

Books for a Snowy Day Unit

Top Shelf of Main Themed Shelf:

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.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a lovely book!
National Geographic Kids Little Kids First Big Book of Weather
Snow
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!
National Geographic Kids Ultimate Weatherpedia

Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:

The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder has an understandable explanation of snow crystals along with stunning photographs of actual snow crystals.
Snow Is Falling
Curious About Snow

2nd Shelf:

3rd Shelf:

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 Snowman
Snowmen at Work (My 4¾-year-old grandson, Caleb, absolutely loves this entire series.)

4rd Shelf:

Bottom Shelf

Snow
Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee
Pete the Cat: Snow Daze
Tracks in the Snow is a simple, sweet 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.

On the other side of the room, is a shelf with these books on the top:

Montessori Shelf with Snowy Day Books

S now Day
The Biggest Snowman Ever
Katy and the Big Snow
What Can You See in Winter? is 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 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.

Basket of Snowy Day Books

On the other side of the room, I also have a book basket with The Snowy Nap, The Mitten, and a number of our other favorite books from winter units.

You can also see snow books as they’re published here.

It’s Snowing Book with Tiny Snowflake Sight Words and CVC Words and Magnifying Glass

I love books by Gail Gibbons and often use them in my units for lots of easy-to-understand information. This time we’re using It’s Snowing!

Free Printable: Real Snowflake Photo on Black Background by Zdeněk Macháček at Unsplash (converted to PDF and printed out at 1%)

Snowflakes can vary a lot in size, but I used a tiny square paper with a common size of snowflake that we looked at through a magnifying glass.

Free Printable: Snowflake CVC Words – Seek, Find, and Color by Little Learning Lane at TPT

Free Printable: Snowflake Sight Words – Seek, Find, and Color by Little Learning Lane at TPT

These are simply fun ways to focus on sight words and CVC words. The printable includes a recording sheet, too. I’d use it as a do-a-dot page where the child records each word as it’s discovered.

Ten Ways to Hear Snow with Snowflake Compound Word Puzzles

Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a lovely book! It’s not designed to go with the snowflake compound word puzzles. They just happen to be on the shelf together.

Free Printable: Winter Compound Word Puzzles from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

These are simply a fun way to focus on compound words. I printed the main parts of the puzzle double sided so that the word is on the back. The complete snowflake on the right is a control for the compound word.

Winter Word Cards with Pages from the Little Kids First Big Book of Weather

Free Printable: Winter Word Cards by PreKinders

I like these for simple reading books. They can also be used for word wall activities.

The open book on the easel is National Geographic Kids Little Kids First Big Book of Weather

In the background are some fun snowy day books and activities! (See below.)

Snowy Day Salt Writing Tray and Movable Alphabet Spelling

Free Printables: “s” for sled for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printables: “ow” in snow and “ow” in plow (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

Work with “ow” in Snow and Plow

“Ow” Snow and Plow Phonogram Work

Free Printable: ow Sound with Letters from MontessoriSoul

Free Printable: Alternative pronunciation of ‘ow’ word building from MontessoriSoul

Free Printable: ow Grapheme Word Sort from MontessoriSoul (I didn’t use this printable with Caleb, but I used it with Zoey during our snowperson unit. Caleb loves vehicles (especially trucks), so I used the free snow plow “ow” word sort from This Reading Mama!

These activities are very simple to prepare, but they help children remember the phonogram when it’s paired with the unit’s theme. I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children (although I don’t introduce phonograms to very young children except in a word like “shark” that can’t be explained as starting with /s/).

Matching Cursive Snowball Alphabet Cards to Print Snowball Alphabet Cards

Using Cursive Tracing Board and Matching Cursive Snowball Alphabet Cards to Print Snowball Alphabet Cards

Free Printables: Snowball alphabet cards with (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

My 5-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, really enjoyed this activity. I introduced it with a cursive tracing board. I have the 2-sided version (with capital letters on one side and lowercase on the other), since capital cursive letters aren’t commonly seen on written materials.

Sophia traced each of the cursive letters on the cursive tracing board before matching it to its corresponding print letter.

Snowflake Shoveling Subtraction Activity

Free Printable: snow shovel numbers and symbols (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

My 4¾-year-old grandson, Caleb, loves shovels and tools of all kinds. I was excited to find some miniature shovels (dessert shovel-shaped spoons) to use as snow shovels! We used the number cards 1-12 and a pile of snow (12 small snowflakes). This works best on a rug because it’s easier to scoop up the snowflakes on a rug.

Working with Snowflake Shoveling Subtraction Activity

First, we used The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder to discuss real snowflakes.

Free Printable: Real Snowflake on Black Background by Zdeněk Macháček at Unsplash (converted to PDF and printed out at 1%)

Snowflakes can vary a lot in size, but I used a tiny square paper with a common size of snowflake that we looked at through a magnifying glass. The picture and magnifying glass are from the tray on our top shelf, but the activity is a good way for children to begin to understand how many snowflakes might actually be in a pile of snow.

After we studied snowflakes in general, Caleb tried to see how many snowflakes he could scoop up in one try. First, he got 4 snowflakes.

Completing Subtraction Equation for Snowflake Shoveling and Subtraction Activity

Then he got 5. Each time, we made a new subtraction equation showing how many snowflakes were scooped away and then how many were left from the pile of 12 snowflakes.

Of course, you can use thes snow shovel math cards in a variety of ways for simple counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or greater than, and less than. You can use whatever type of counters you prefer.

Mitten Color Word Matching and Practical Life Activity

Mitten and Color Word Matching and Practical Life Activity

Free Printable: Mitten Matching Color Words by Ginger Frierson at Teachers Pay Teachers

My grandkids have always been drawn to this lovely clothesline activity. Mine is from England, and it’s expensive to ship from there. Now you’ll also find some Montessori clotheslines on Etsy. Of course, you can also make a DIY clothesline pretty easily.

I won’t normally have the mittens hanging up. They’ll be on the wooden tray. I just wanted to show how they could be matched with the color words. For younger children, there are words in color in the printable. I would use those with younger children as a color-matching exercise.

For my 9-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, I’ll print the Spanish words on the backs of the mittens with the color words in English.

Shelf with Snowy Day Books and Snow-Themed Activities

Shelf with Snowy Day books, Artificial Snow, Snowy Day Printable, and Winter Book Pages

These aren’t free printables, but they’re fun! If you live in a snowy climate, you can bring in a tub of fresh snow. I ordered some Super Snow Powder, which all my grandkids have had a great time with already!

My grandson helped prepare miniatures for the basket, including some miniature evergreen trees, a small loader and dump truck, LEGO people he put together, a LEGO drinks cart he created, a small snowman, and the remaining 3 shovel spoons. This basket will probably vary throughout the month as my grandkids add other miniatures.

I have the books Snow, the classic book The Snowy Day, and National Geographic Kids Ultimate Weatherpedia on the shelf.

You’ll find a fun Snowy Day printable to go with the book here: The Snowy Day Eggshell Crushing and Pin Poking Activity

Free Snowy Day Pack

https://forms.aweber.com/form/50/773231250.htm

Montessori-Inspired Snowy Day Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

Snowperson Resources (and Posts with at Least One Snowperson Activity)

Montessori-Inspired Snowperson Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Winter Resources

Free Winter Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Activities

Don’t miss our themed monthly packs! You’ll get the link and password for the Living Montessori Now subscriber library with the current pack and all the past monthly packs if you subscribe to the Living Montessori Now weekly newsletter!

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout December and January, see my December Themed Activities for Kids and January-Themed Activities for Kids.

Wishing you a wonderful 2023!

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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