Easy & Fun Winter Ideas for Your Transition Classroom
Just a few weeks ago, you were scrambling around looking for fall activity ideas and now, it’s time to check out some fun winter ideas for your transition classroom!
Yes, the wind has turned colder and winter is near! As the holiday season approaches, you’re given the perfect reason to bring excitement to your classroom. Winter activities can be so much fun!
However, keep in mind that the seasonal change plus sudden changes in routine can be overwhelming for students with special needs and sensory sensitivities.
The good news is there are many ways to enjoy the winter season with your students without changing routines too much! Whether you’re looking for indoor activities to keep your students engaged or creative ways to integrate winter themes into your lessons, we’ve got you covered.
These winter activity ideas are tailored for neurodivergent high school and transition students. They’re new activities that can bring fun to your classroom. Explore these ideas and feel free to adapt them to fit your students’ needs!
Winter-Themed Lessons
Let’s start with the easiest way to bring the magic of winter into your classroom—incorporating the season into your lessons! By adding winter-themed scenarios, examples, and worksheets to your regular curriculum, you can make your lessons more interesting.
Here are some examples of how you can add a winter touch to your lessons:
#1: Winter & Holiday Stories
When teaching comprehension skills, whether it’s listening or reading, you most likely use stories. Why not use winter-themed stories? Have your students read or listen to holiday stories, and books about snow, winter animals, or holiday traditions. This can be both educational and fun! Plus, it’s more relatable since it’s in sync with the season.
You can even create interactive story sessions where your students can share their thoughts and feelings about the story, which can help in developing their language and communication skills. This can help students with reading comprehension, storytelling, and creativity.
#2: Winter-themed Math Lessons
Make your functional math lessons more interesting by integrating the winter season into your teaching materials!
It can be as simple as using images of snowflakes, mittens, and other winter icons to decorate your digital presentations. You can also have your students work on math problems that relate to real-life winter scenarios, like calculating the cost of holiday gift shopping or answering winter-themed money math worksheets.
#3: Science Experiments
Winter is also a great time for science experiments! Try activities like observing how salt melts ice or creating indoor snow with baking soda and shaving cream.
These hands-on experiments are not only interesting, but they also teach scientific concepts like states of matter, temperature changes, and chemical reactions.
Winter-Themed Life Skills Lessons
This season is also perfect for developing essential life skills! Through the following winter classroom activities, your students will learn to handle real-world situations.
#4: Winter-Themed Social Skills Practice
Role-play different social scenarios that might come up during the winter. How do you greet someone at a holiday party? What do you say if you don’t like a gift?
Practicing these situations helps students feel more confident in social settings.
#5: Winter Illness Problem-Solving Scenarios
Winter often brings colds and flu, so it’s a great time to talk about what to do when you feel sick.
Create scenarios where students must decide whether to stay home, visit the nurse, or ask for help. This teaches the students to recognize when they are feeling unwell and also helps them make responsible decisions about their health.
Check out this digital and printable bundle of Feeling Sick Problem Solving worksheets!
#6: Holiday & Christmas Shopping & Budgeting Activities
Teach financial literacy and decision-making by teaching a Holiday or Christmas Shopping Lesson!
You can prepare simple lessons and worksheets that will let your students practice making a shopping list, compare prices, and decide how to spend their money wisely. You can even go on a community trip for an actual holiday shopping if you have the resources.
#7: Seasonal Clothing
Winter weather means layering up! Use this as an opportunity to teach about dressing appropriately for the season, including how to layer clothes and choose the right outerwear.
When teaching this lesson, you can use visual aids, hands-on dressing practice, or even a matching game where students have to pair the right clothing items for specific cold-weather scenarios. You can even use a set of task cards like this Seasonal and Weather Appropriate Clothing Task Cards which includes 60 questions!
#8: Winter-Themed Career Exploration
You can also teach vocational skills by exploring careers that are relevant to the winter season. Discuss jobs in retail, event planning, or even winter sports. Start by practicing reading comprehension skills using job postings and then proceed with teaching employment practices like filling out job application forms.
Here are some ready-made resources that you can use for this activity:
Hands-on Learning
Winter is the perfect time to get hands-on with activities that are both fun and educational. These winter-themed projects allow your students to learn important skills while staying engaged and creative!
#9: Winter Cooking & Baking
Cooking and baking are great ways to teach life skills while having fun. You could bake cookies or make something as simple as hot cocoa.
These activities can help your students learn about following directions, measuring ingredients, and even working together as a team. Plus, you can all enjoy the finished treats after making them!
#10: Winter Crafts & Holiday Decors
Help improve your students’ fine motor skills and creativity by doing winter crafts!
You can try easy winter crafts like making paper snowflakes, decorating foam snowmen, making holiday cards, or creating DIY holiday decorations. You can make these crafts more sensory-friendly by incorporating various textures or materials, such as soft cotton balls, sequins, and textured paper.
These projects allow students to express themselves while developing their attention to detail.
#11: Student-Run Businesses
Another way to engage your students is by doing hands-on business projects this winter. Student-run businesses are ideal activities for special education students who are transitioning to adulthood, as these can also help them explore careers that are related to business.
A coffee cart business is one business that’s great for winter! It not only practices food and beverage serving, but it also develops vocational skills like money handling, customer service, and time management as they make and deliver coffee to school staff and teachers.
Valentine’s Day is also celebrated in winter, so you can help your students start a Valentine’s Day delivery service for cards or treats! Just like with the coffee cart business, this activity can hone your students’ communication, organizational, and social skills.
With these student-run businesses, you’re making the winter season both productive and enjoyable!
Fun Indoor Activities
Keep the excitement going indoors with engaging activities that bring joy and creativity to your classroom. These fun options are perfect for those chilly days when staying inside is the best choice.
#12: Winter Games & Puzzles
When it’s too cold to go outside, bring the fun indoors with winter-themed games and puzzles. You could have a snowman-building contest using cotton balls or work on a winter-themed crossword puzzle together. These activities are great for teamwork and problem-solving skills.
Moreover, you can learn more about your students’ preferences and interests through fun, winter-themed games! For example, you can have them choose the winter activities they prefer using a Would You Rather Task Cards game as you teach about different things people do during the cold season.
#13: Holiday Movie
Watching holiday movies is also a cozy way to spend time together as a class. After the movie, have a discussion where students can talk about their favorite parts, characters, or lessons from the movie.
This activity encourages communication skills and group participation!
Community-Based Activities
If the weather permits, take your learning beyond the classroom! Engage the students in activities that connect them with the community.
#14: Winter-Themed Job Simulations
Set up job simulations that fit the winter season! Your students can practice wrapping gifts, stocking shelves with holiday items, or even shoveling snow.
These simulations give students a taste of the working world and help them prepare for their career exploration.
#15: Holiday & New Year Tradition
You can also help your students learn more about the community by exploring holiday and New Year traditions, not just in your local community but also around the world. This can involve research, presentations, or even a mini-celebration where students share what they’ve learned.
Here are ideas on how you can teach this lesson while also involving the community:
- Encourage your students to share their family’s holiday traditions by creating a bulletin board.
- Invite members of the community to talk about their holiday customs.
- Prepare festive dishes for multicultural holiday celebrations.
#16: Winter-Themed Outdoor Activities
When the weather allows, get outside for some winter fun! You could go on a nature walk, build a snowman, or even have a snowball toss. It’s even better if there’s an ice skating rink or skiing area nearby!
Outdoor activities are perfect for physical exercise and can help your students burn off some energy.
#17: Community-Based Outings
If possible, plan an outing that aligns with the winter season. Visiting a local holiday market, taking a trip to a coffee shop for hot cocoa, or volunteering at a community event are all great ways for students to participate in navigating the community.
These outings can also be a rewarding way to connect classroom skills to the real world. Just make sure you have prepared your students before they go out of the classroom! Check out this blog post about how to keep your students safe during community trips.
Have a Fun Winter!
Winter offers countless opportunities to bring joy and learning into your transition classroom. Whether you’re focusing on life skills, hands-on learning, or community engagement, these activities are sure to keep your students engaged and growing.
Remember, the most important thing is to have fun and make the season special for your students!
