10 Engaging Winter Reading Activities

Welcome to the winter wonderland of reading! As the snow falls outside, let’s warm up our imaginations with these 10 Cozy Winter Reading Activities designed to make reading a delight for your third-grade students. From captivating read-aloud sessions to engaging reading challenges, these activities will bring the magic of winter into your classroom.

Snowy Speed Reading Relay:

Turn reading into a thrilling race with Snowy Speed Reading Relay. Create a set of winter-themed sentences or short paragraphs, ensuring they are at an appropriate reading level for third graders. Divide the class into teams and set up a relay course. Each team member reads a sentence or paragraph fluently before passing the baton (or a winter-themed object) to the next teammate. The first team to complete the relay with accurate and fluent reading wins.

Snowman Sequencing Challenge:

Challenge students’ sequencing skills with the Snowman Sequencing Challenge. Provide students with a set of cards featuring events from a winter-themed story. Students must arrange the cards in the correct order to recreate the story’s sequence. This game enhances comprehension and helps students grasp the concept of chronological order in narratives. Furthermore, the Snowman Sequencing Challenge doubles as an inspiring writing prompt, encouraging students to explore their creativity by crafting their own winter-themed stories.

Winter Mad Libs

Get ready for a fun vocabulary ride where laughter and creativity come together, giving third-grade students a cool way to amp up their language skills. Jump into the awesome world of winter wordplay as these little word wizards fill in the blanks, whipping up hilarious and totally unique stories. It’s like a language party in the snow – and everyone’s invited!

Encourage children to become storytellers by crafting their very own winter tales. Leave blank spaces within the narrative and prompt them to insert the corresponding part of speech, such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives. For added fun, have students exchange their stories with peers for an amusing twist on creativity. Alternatively, educators can tailor-make Mad Libs or, for those pressed for time, explore our pre-made Winter Mad Libs.

Winter Wonderland Trivia Quest:

Transform reading comprehension into an exciting Winter Wonderland Trivia Quest. Create a set of winter-related trivia questions based on stories or passages that students have read. Divide the class into teams and have them navigate through a “Winter Wonderland” by answering questions correctly. Each correct answer moves the team forward, and the first team to reach the end wins.

Frosty Book Charades:

Combine reading comprehension and dramatic play with Frosty Book Charades. Choose winter-themed books, and write down characters or key scenes on slips of paper. Students take turns acting out the characters or scenes while their classmates guess the book. This game encourages students to recall and understand the details of the stories they’ve read.

Winter Vocab BINGO

Give the classic BINGO game a winter twist with Winter Word BINGO. Create BINGO cards with winter-related words or vocabulary instead of numbers. Call out definitions, synonyms, or sentences related to the words, and students mark the corresponding word on their cards. This game reinforces vocabulary and comprehension in a fun and interactive way.

Snowball Spelling Relay

This game works great as a review session too! Split the class into teams and hand each team a batch of winter-themed words. Position buckets or baskets a bit away from the teams. Now, it’s spelling time! Players take turns spelling a word right and then tossing a “snowball” (a soft, lightweight object) into the assigned bucket. The team with the most accurately spelled words in their bucket conquers the relay and the spelling fun!

Hot Cocoa Reading Incentive

Combine the joy of sipping hot cocoa with reading comprehension practice. Create a “Hot Cocoa and Reading” station where students read winter-themed passages and answer questions to earn marshmallows or toppings for their hot cocoa. This delicious incentive makes the reading experience even more delightful.

Frosty Book Reports:

Give traditional book reports a wintry twist. Ask students to choose a winter-themed book, read it, and then create a creative book report. This could include a snow globe diorama, a winter-themed poster, or even a short play based on the book. This not only encourages creativity but also allows students to showcase their understanding of the story.

Winter Reading Games

Infuse enjoyment into your reading sessions with winter-themed games! Begin the literary adventure with Winter Reading Scoot, diving into concepts like main idea, author’s purpose, inference, and more. Transition to the digital realm using Google Sheets for entertaining games like Lucky Lotto, Spot the Difference, and Pixel Art. If you’re up for an active challenge, consider playing Capture the Snowman, blending fun and learning to review reading skills such as cause/effect, author’s purpose, and vocabulary.

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