3 Fun Winter Activities to Use After Break

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As much as I LOVE having a break in December, I get excited about going back to school in January. All of the craziness from winter holidays is over and it feels like we get a much-needed reset in the middle of the school year. You and I both know how important it is to review procedures after winter break… but I like to start out with some FUN first! What better way to welcome your students back than with a fun winter activity?

Keep reading to find out the 3 fun winter activities that I love using when my students return from break!

New Year’s Riddle Activity

One of my favorite simple activities to give to students are math riddles! Riddles are fun to figure out, but when they are paired with math questions, they also become self-checking. Win-win!

This New Year’s Division Riddle Activity is a FREE activity that is the perfect winter activity to have students work on for morning work or as an early finisher activity!

FREE New Year's Division Riddle winter activities

This activity is great for any upper elementary classroom because it comes with 3 levels of division practice:

  • Division facts
  • Dividing up to a 4 digit number by a 1 digit divisor
  • Dividing up to a 4 digit number by a 2 digit divisor

Not only does this activity come in 3 levels, but it also comes with both printable and digital versions! You can choose between printing it for your students to write on, or assigning it in Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or any other platform.

FREE New Year's Division Riddle winter activities

What’s the best part about this activity? It’s completely FREE! Click here to grab your free copy!

Snowman Escape Room

Escape rooms are hands-down my FAVORITE activity to use in my classroom! There are so many ways that they can be used and are perfect for in-person learning, as well as remote learning!

When my students come back after break, I love getting them back into math by using a winter-themed snowman escape room. Depending on my students’ needs, they can complete this activity independently, in partners, or even in small groups.

snowman escape room winter activities

Since this escape room activity comes with both printable and digital versions, it can be used for fully virtual, in-person, or even hybrid classrooms! It is available in 4 different versions:

Penguin Scavenger Hunt

Another great winter activity to use when returning from break is a scavenger hunt! This is a great way to get students out of their seats, helping to wake them up from all of that relaxing they did over break!

To use this scavenger hunt, hang or place the task cards around your classroom in any order. Have each student (or pairs of students) start at a different card and solve it. To find their next card, they should look for the answer to the previous card!

penguin scavenger hunt task cards winter activities

This activity is definitely most suited for in-person learning, but it is a great way to review with little prep. And nothing beats getting students up and moving!

This scavenger hunt activity is available in the following versions:

Whether you are returning from break virtually or in-person, it is always good to have some fun activities ready for your students! Before you break out the procedure review or go into your new content, give your students a chance to get back into the swing of things and to have some fun!

What’s your favorite winter activity to do with students after break? Let me know in the comments below!