After a long winter break, it can be tough for little learners to get back into the swing of school routines. That’s why I’ve created these January Centers for Kindergarten—to help your students re-engage with learning in a fun and meaningful way! With 20 hands-on, winter-themed activities, your kinders will practice essential math and literacy skills while staying motivated and on task. Whether you use them for centers, morning work, or early finishers, these activities are low-prep, engaging, and the perfect way to ease back into learning after the holidays!

10 Literacy January Centers for Kindergarten

These ten literacy January centers for kindergarten include kid-friendly ‘I Can’ visual direction cards, so students can work through each activity independently. Each center also comes with a printable response sheet for follow-up practice, giving students a fun and meaningful way to reinforce key literacy skills.

Take a quick peek at all ten literacy centers for kindergarten below!

Slippery CVC Words

Students will decode each CVC word, and then, match the penguin to the correct iceberg.

Skating Sentences

At this center, students will read 20 decodable sentences. To build comprehension, they will match the correct picture to each sentence.

Frozen Sounds

With this winter center, students will substitute the beginning sound to create a new word. First, they will read each word on the card and then they will complete each word with the correct beginning sound.

Snowy School Buses

Students will identify the middle sound by segmenting 15 CVC words. The students will place the missing snow pile vowel on the card to complete the word.

Rhyming Snowmen

Students will decode the CVC word and match the word to the rhyming snowman.

Hockey Word Families

For this winter center, the students will sort each hockey puck to the correct word family goal. this center focuses on the following CVC word families: -an, -at, -en, -et, -in, -ip, -og, -ot, -ub, and -ug.

Snowball Syllables

At this center, the students will identify the number of syllables in each word by clipping a clothespin to the correct number on the bottom of the card.

Fishing for Blends

For this center, the students will sort -l blend pictures. To complete, students will say the name of the picture on the fish, and then, sort it to the corresponding -l blend polar bear mat.

Colorful Winter Hats

At this center, students will sequence the words to build a sentence. The sentences use sight words, CVC words, and color words.

Blizzard Blends

In this center, students will decode 12 -l blend CCVC words by matching each word to the correct picture to make a pair of mittens.

10 Math January Centers for Kindergarten

Along with the ten literacy centers, this January centers for kindergarten set also includes ten engaging math centers. A standout feature of these twenty activities is the ‘Additional Options’ section included with each center, making it easy to differentiate and adapt for the diverse needs of your learners—whether they need extra support or an added challenge.

Check out all ten January math centers for kindergarten below!

Snow Globe Numbers

For this winter center, students will model numbers 11-20 on ten frames. To model each number, they can use any small manipulative, such as pom poms, linking cubes, mini erasers.

Graphing Winter Friends

Students will spin the spinner to determine which winter friend to color on the graph. They will continue to spin until one of the columns reaches the top of the graph.

Ordering Owls

At this winter center, students will identify what number comes before and after a given number 1-20. To complete the number sequence, they will place the missing owl number before and the missing owl number after the given owl.

Snowman Addends

At this snowman center, students will determine the missing addend to make 10.

Order the Winter Clothes

For this center, students will order three numbers from least to greatest.

Count the Pucks

During this center, students will practice 1:1 counting. They will count the number of hockey pucks on the raccoon cards and match the correct goal to each group of hockey pucks.

Waddle and Subtract

During this center, student will practice subtraction within five. To model each equation, the number sentence cards include penguins for students to cross off with a dry erase marker or cover with a small manipluative.

Winter Measurement

Students will use a unit of nonstandard measurement to measure the height of the winter items.

Snow Globe Comparison

At this center, students will compare two groups of objects by determining which group has more or which group has less.

Snowman Subtraction

Students will subtract one from each number to find the difference. They will match each number sentence with the correct snowman.

20 Winter-Themed January Centers for Kindergarten

Grab all 20 January centers for kindergarten, including 10 literacy and 10 math centers here!

FREE Center Activities

Grab these 14 FREE center activities for introducing manipulative by signing up for my free workshop: Kindergarten Centers Simplified!

More Winter Activities

Help your students create goals for the new year with this New Year’s resolution craft.

Make the most of your morning work with these January fine motor morning tubs!

Want more winter-themed kindergarten centers? Try these fun winter escape room centers!

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