You can find a variety of picture books about winter and snow to read aloud to your kindergartners. After reading the story, extend the learning to include making a bulletin board. "The Mitten" by Jan Brett is a kindergarten classic. It is about a boy who loses a mitten, which many animals in turn make their home. Have the students color a mitten from a printout you provide. Place on the bulletin board the animals from the story and include students' mittens on the display. Also, read "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Wilson Bentley, or Snowflake Bentley, is a farmer from Vermont who is interested in snowflakes. He proves there are no two snowflakes that are alike. Provide students with paper snowflakes to paint, color and even decorate with glitter. Place the snowflakes on a dark background.
Kindergartners enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of poetry. Read poetry about winter as an inspiration for your bulletin board. Read "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Pass out gray-blue construction paper. Instruct students to draw a snowy evening in the woods. Put a copy of the poem on the board with the kindergartners' rendition of their snowy evening surrounding Frost's words. Other winter poetry activities can include making a winter tree bulletin board for "Where All the World is Full of Snow," by N.M. Bodecker. Have each child glue cotton balls to a evergreen tree they have painted.
Many animals hibernate in the winter. As part of your science curriculum, study the habits of animals during the winter. Create a winter forest scene on your bulletin board. On a blue background, put brown paper for large tree trunks, a grassy floor with some low-growing bushes, along with a few snowy patches of white. Provide students with templates of an animal that hibernates. Ask students to place their animal in hibernation on the bulletin board.
During the winter, there are many celebrations: Christmas, Hannukah, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, the 100th day of school, Groundhog Day and St. Patrick's Day. Focus on the most current holiday with one bulletin board in your room. For President's Day, ask students to tell you an important fact they know about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln after reading a story on each past president. The students can try to copy a silhouette of the presidents. Place the silhouettes on white paper along with the fact. On Valentine's Day, give students a selection of tissue paper in reds and pinks to cut out. Provide them with a larger heart to glue the scraps of tissue paper onto.