I LOVE circle time. I get very excited about circle time when I have thought of a great lesson to pair with a lovely book. For my class of 3-year-olds, we start the year off with very short circle times. We read short books and have an even shorter related activity. As the year progresses, I read longer books and have longer lessons knowing any day may be the day where all plans must go out the window to meet the needs of the students in my care. Always be flexible – even if you were super excited to share this lesson it’s more important to meet their needs than stick to the plan.
Whenever possible include movement ( even if it’s just getting up and putting a magnet on the board) and don’t shy away from reading the same book multiple times over a short period.
**To print the printables, please click the highlighted link and the PDF will pop up ready to print.**
This post of winter circle time lessons includes affiliate links.
Circle Time Lesson Plans
Book: The Mitten 
Activity: Mitten Matching ( color matching)
Activity Set Up:
- Print out this mitten matching printable by clicking this link. Print out multiples if your class is large. If you have more than ten students color in the snowflakes on the 2nd sheet to make the mittens unique.
- Cut the mittens out.
- Laminate if possible, you’ll get more wear and tear out of them.
- Find a large mitten to place half of the pairs in for the lesson.
- A toque ( which is a winter hat for those of you who aren’t Canadian).
Lesson:
- Read the book.
- Talk about what mittens do, what are they for?
- Hand out a mitten to each child and show them the large mitten with all the other mittens inside. Talk about how the animals were inside the mitten in the story.
- Ask the children for help matching up the mittens pairs. When a pair is together, they will go into the hat.
- Pull a colored mitten out of the large mitten and ask what color it is. If the snowflake is colored in, ask what color it is too. Let the children shout it out. Invite the child who has a matching mitten to come up and place them both in the winter hat. Continue until all the matches are found. Be dramatic about pulling them from the hat to keep the children’s attention.
- If the children are still engaged, count the pairs of mittens.
Snowmen at Night
Book: Snowmen at Night
Activity: Sorting Photos Of Daytime and Nightime
Activity Set Up:
- Read the book.
- Print out this printable by clicking here.
- Print these sorting sheets out as well.Click on each here to print out —> Night and Day.
- Cut the photos out and laminate.
Lesson:
- Pass the photos out if you have one for every child. If not do this as a group or find more photos to use.
- Place the sorting sheets on the board, on a bowl (cut the title out and tape onto a bowl), or simply place them on the floor.
- Talk to the children about how the snowmen in the book did different things during the day and night. Ask for examples of different things we do at night vs. the day. Skip this with young or wiggly classes.
- Invite each child one at a time to show the class their picture and place it either in nighttime or daytime groups.
Jack Frost
Book: Here Comes Jack Frost
Activity: Find & Count The Snowflakes
Activity Set Up:
- Print this sheet out by clicking here. Use multiple ones if need be.
- Cut out and Laminate.
- Hide the snowflakes around the classroom.
Lesson:
- Read the book.
- Talk about how the weather is changing. Talk about snow.
- Tell the children that Jack Frost came to your class and left snowflakes everywhere. Their job is to find them and bring them back to the circle. Then together you will count them to see how many Jack Frost left for you.
- Let the children explore and go ( this is great for cold days when recess is shorter due to cold weather).
- When all are back, count them together.
- If the children are still engaged sort them by color and count each color to see if one color has more or they are equal.
Snowman
Book: The Biggest Snowman Ever
Activity: Sorting Snowballs By Size
Activity Set Up:
- Cut out large, medium and small white circles. Enough for each of your students to have one either small, medium or large.
- Use black paper to make three circles slightly larger than each of the white ones write Large, Medium, and Small on them in white chalk.
Lesson:
- Read the book.
- Ask the children if they have ever made a REALLY large snowman. Ask the children what they need to make a snowman. If no one suggests snowballs, suggest it. You need three snowballs, one large, one medium, and one small.
- Hand out the snowballs.
- Tell them that your snowballs are all mixed up, and you need help to sort them.
- Invite the children to come up and place their snowball on the correct circle.
Merry Christmas Mouse
Book: Merry Christmas, Mouse! (If You Give)
Activity: Decorate the Christmas Tree – color matching, or letter or number matching.
Activity Set Up:
- Print out these sheets by clicking on the underlined text – the tree and ornaments.
- For color matching simply use as is matching the circles on the tree with the ones you cut out. For letter or number, matching write in letters or numbers on the tree and on the coordinating circles.
- Cut out the circles.
- Laminate if you want – I prefer to tape the trees to my board ( or wall) then tape clear contact paper over each one. I leave the circles unlaminated as they stick better that way. You can always print more out next year.
- A container for the ornaments ( the cutout circles).
Lesson:
- Read the book.
- Talk about decorating and ask your students if they have decorated their tree yet.
- Tell them that today you will be decorating a tree just like mouse did. But that you need help making the right matches. Demonstrate how to.
- Invite each child up to reach into the container, grab an ornament and place it on the tree.
- The next class day have this as a free choice option. You may want to print out more circles.
Holiday Counting
Book: 10 Trim-the-Tree’ers (Holiday Counting Books)
Activity: Shape Matching
Activity Set Up:
- Print out the three tree printables print out by clicking on all three –> here, here, and here.
- Print out the shapes to sort by clicking here.
- Cut the shapes our and laminate them and the tree sheets if you want – I prefer to tape the trees to my board ( or wall) then tape clear contact paper over each one. I leave the shapes unlaminated as they stick better that way.
Lesson:
- Read the book. Ask the children if they have a special ornament that they place on their tree. This is a great circle time to come before making ornaments if you plan to.
- Tell the children that today you are going to decorate three trees, but there are no ornaments for them, just shapes! The tricky part is that the shapes have to go on the right tree.
- Hand out the shapes ( one or two per child).
- Invite the children to take turns coming up and decorating the trees.
Want more preschool lesson plans and circle time activities? Our Build Preschool Thematic Units have tons of great ideas!
More great lesson plan ideas:
corrie says
Great ideas! Thanks so much for sharing!
Kyle says
Thanks for sharing. This is the second time I have used them.
Allison McDonald says
That is awesome to hear!
Linda says
These are wonderful! I can’t wait to use them. Thank you for sharing them.