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Winter ELA Activities for Middle School

Bring academic rigor and festive engagement together with this Winter-Themed ELA Activities Bundle for middle school. Perfect for helping students stay focused during December, this resource blends seasonal fun with essential literacy skills—including figurative language, rhetorical appeals, mood and tone, theme, and independent reading.

 

Students will analyze winter commercials, study theme through winter songs, explore tone and mood using winter-time media, and reflect on reading preferences through a winter “Would You Rather” novel activity. Each activity includes teacher guides, scaffolded worksheets, and answer keys, making it easy to deliver meaningful instruction during the busiest time of the year.

Instead of superficial holiday worksheets, this bundle helps students practice deep thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and analysis in ways that feel relevant, familiar, and enjoyable.

What They’ll Learn

  1. Winter Figurative Language Foundations
    Students identify and explain simile, metaphor, hyperbole, idiom, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, allusion, and irony using winter-themed sentences and passages.
  2. Rhetorical Appeals in Winter Commercials
    Students study curated commercials to determine how companies use ethos, pathos, and logos. They analyze how advertisers rely on emotion, nostalgia, and credibility during the winter season.
  3. Mood and Tone in Winter Media
    Students analyze how imagery, sound, pacing, and language work together to create tone and mood in winter commercials.
  4. Theme and Main Idea Through Winter Songs
    Students determine theme, central idea, figurative language, tone, and mood in winter songs using structured graphic organizers and reference pages.
  5. Independent Reading Through Winter Novel Choices
    Students compare winter-related novels, analyze summaries, and justify their choices using evidence-based reasoning.
  6. Bonus: Winter Word Search
    A festive vocabulary warm-up, early finisher activity, or community builder to start class with seasonal energy.

Why This Works

Students think differently during December—energy is high and focus is low. This bundle channels that excitement into structured, standards-aligned lessons that feel fresh and festive without sacrificing academic rigor.

Perfect For

  • Teachers who want winter-time engagement without losing instructional depth
  • Students who connect well with real-world media and seasonal content
  • Middle school ELA classes practicing theme, figurative language, tone, and media literacy

Flexible Pacing

Use activities across the week, integrate them into your December units, or pull individual tasks for stations, warm-ups, or sub plans. Works well in 45–60 minute classes.

What’s Inside

  • Winter Word Search (color + black and white + answer key)
  • Winter Figurative Language Teacher Guide + Reference Pages
  • Student practice pages (color + black and white) + Answer Key
  • Winter Mood and Tone Teacher Guide + Reference Pages
  • Student mood and tone worksheets (color + black and white)
  • Winter Commercials Rhetoric Teacher Guide + Curated Links
  • Ethos/Pathos/Logos reference pages + Student Worksheets
  • Winter Songs Theme/Main Idea Teacher Guide + Playlist
  • Student lyric/theme analysis pages (color + black and white)
  • Winter “Would You Rather” Novel Choice Teacher Guide + Slides
  • Student choice + written explanation pages (color + black and white)

This winter bundle solves the biggest December challenge: keeping students academically engaged while embracing the festive season. With high-interest content and meaningful literacy tasks, your classroom will feel focused, joyful, and productive all month long.


TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Kingdom A. says, "This resource cost me money! After reading this, the students couldn't wait to read some of these novels. I had a bunch in my library, but I ordered the rest quickly. When they came, my students couldn't wait to get their hands on the new books! That made my teacher heart happy!"

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rebecca L. says, "My students were so excited to have theme work on Halloween! I loved that I was still teaching them importan content, but also they didn't feel overlooked on a day younger students were doing Halloween activities." 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Christian B. says, "I love all of Martina's resources, so when I heard she was making a Halloween DIGITAL activity, I had to jump on it! This was perfect for my students to do remotely. They got to choose which activities they wanted to do, so I love the variety. Plus, most of these topics were already covered in class (thanks to her other units), so I didn't have to reteach anything!"