Craft activities enable teachers to engage students in learning and fun, especially in winter when it's too cold to go outside. A bag of potpourri, small paper plates, safety scissors and glue sticks help students learn about different fragrances. Kids love taking these finished potpourri wreaths home as gifts for Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa. Cut out a wreath from the paper plate. Have students select and identify out loud a particular scented bit of potpourri. Glue onto wreath. Teach them that fragrance helps make houses smell good.
Valentine's Day finds students exchanging cards and teachers handing out treats. Let students decorate small paper bags with string, markers, various decorations like beads and confetti and glue. Use bags as valentine mailboxes.
Cupid's Arrow allows for indoor physical activity. Purchase a Cupid figure or draw one to adhere to the wall. Glue two hearts to the end of a drinking straw to make Cupid's arrows. Cover a round container the size of a frozen orange juice in valentine-themed paper. Allow each student to find a hidden arrow from around the room and put it in Cupid's quiver (the container).
Hide one golden arrow. Allow its finder to hand out treats.
Play "Stick the Arrow on Cupid," much like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Blindfold children and allow them to use a pinch of tacky putty on the arrow to adhere it to Cupid on the wall or inside Cupid's quiver.
Adaptations for other winter holidays include a snowman and brooms, a leprechaun and shamrocks, President Lincoln's hat or Washington's wig.
Snow excites children and teachers alike, whether they live in areas with frequent snowfall or no snow at all. Use snow as a theme for preschool activities. Cut out snowflakes and have students create a veritable blizzard in the classroom. Hang them from the ceiling, have students adhere them to walls and windows. Fill a cardboard box with white styrofoam-like peanut packing materials and allow students to hide snow treasure (toys, balls, holiday doo-dads and plastic letters of the alphabet). Let them dig for an item and use oral language skills to tell about what they found.
Sing songs with snow. Make up rhyming words with snow. Use alliterative words that start with sounds that relate to snow.