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Winter ELA Activities for Upper Elementary

This Upper Elementary Winter-Themed ELA Activities Unit gives your students engaging, skill-focused practice in figurative language, grammar, theme, main idea, inferences, and independent reading—all wrapped in festive, seasonal activities that keep them motivated throughout December. From winter songs and picture prompts to grammar practice and book choice activities, students practice real ELA skills while connecting to fun, familiar seasonal content.

 

Students will analyze figurative language in winter-themed sentences, determine theme and main idea through winter songs, build grammar knowledge through a winter Mad Libs activity, practice inference-making with seasonal picture prompts, and reflect on reading preferences through a winter “Would You Rather Read…?” novel activity. Each lesson includes teacher guides, scaffolded worksheets, and student pages, making meaningful instruction easy to deliver during the busiest month of the year.

Instead of surface-level holiday worksheets, this bundle helps students practice deep thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and foundational ELA skills in ways that feel relevant, fun, and accessible.

What They’ll Learn

📚 Winter Figurative Language Foundations
Students identify and explain simile, metaphor, idiom, personification, alliteration, hyperbole, allusion, and irony using winter-themed sentences and passages.

🎶 Theme and Main Idea Through Winter Songs
Students analyze curated winter songs to determine theme, central idea, tone, and figurative language using structured organizers and reference pages.

✏️ Grammar Review Through Winter Mad Libs
Students apply knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections to complete a humorous winter Mad Libs story.

🖼️ Making Inferences From Winter Pictures
Students examine winter-themed images and make detailed inferences supported by clear evidence, strengthening comprehension and critical thinking.

🎄 Independent Reading Through Winter Novel Choices
Students compare winter-related novels, analyze summaries, and justify their preferences using evidence-based reasoning.

⭐ Bonus: Winter Word Search
A festive vocabulary warm-up, early finisher option, or calm-start activity to bring seasonal energy into the classroom.

Why This Works

✨ Students think differently during December—energy is high, stamina is low.
✨ This bundle channels that excitement into structured, standards-aligned lessons.
✨ Activities feel festive without sacrificing academic depth or classroom structure.

Perfect For

⭐Teachers who want winter engagement without losing instructional rigor
✏️ Students who connect well with visuals, stories, music, and themed content
📘 Upper elementary ELA classes practicing figurative language, theme, inferences, and grammar

Flexible Pacing

Use activities across the week, mix them into your December units, or pull individual tasks for warm-ups, centers, sub plans, or early finishers. Works with any 30–60 minute class period.

What’s Inside

🎄 Winter Word Search (color + black and white + answer key)
📚Winter Figurative Language Teacher Guide + Reference Pages
📝 Student figurative language practice pages (color + black and white)
🎶Winter Songs Theme/Main Idea Teacher Guide + Playlist Suggestions
✏️ Student lyric/theme analysis pages (color + black and white)
🎁 Winter Mad Libs Grammar Story + Teacher Guide
📘 Student grammar practice sheets (color + black and white)
🖼️ Winter Picture Inference Teacher Guide
🔍 Ten picture inference prompts + student evidence/inference pages
📚 Winter “Would You Rather Read…?” Novel Choice Teacher Guide + Slides
📝 Student choice + written explanation pages (color + black and white)

This upper elementary winter bundle solves the biggest December challenge: keeping students academically engaged while embracing the magic of the season. With high-interest content and meaningful literacy practice, your classroom will feel focused, festive, 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!"