9 Winter Picture Books for Upper Elementary Classrooms

9 Winter Picture Books for Upper Elementary Classrooms




No matter how old students get, they still love to gather in the reading corner and get lost in a good book, especially during the cold winter months. 

Navigating the holidays in the classroom can be tricky, and if your school is like mine, they encourage seasonal activities over any holiday-specific activities. When December approaches, I dive deep into winter, snow, and ice activities to keep the students engaged and learning all through the winter months. Connecting learning to what is going on outside of the classroom is not only critical but the best way to keep students engaged and completely hooked during each lesson. 

These winter read-aloud books are perfect to share during reading and writing mini-lessons, after recess, before dismissal, during morning meetings, or anytime you want to stop and read a good book. These stories are the perfect way to welcome winter into your upper elementary classroom in a meaningful way, while providing content-based lessons and addressing the standards, too!

Below are my favorite tried and true, seasonal winter read-aloud picture books to share with students during the winter season.  Some new favorite titles have been just added, too! Read to find out more about each book and grab the FREE winter book activities at the bottom of this post.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen


winter mentor text Owl Moon
Owl Moon is the perfect read-aloud for so many different language arts activities. This book tells the story of a young child spending time with their father on a midnight stroll owling, lending itself as the perfect mentor text for personal narratives and memoir writing activities and units. It is also chock full of figurative language: personification, similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia, making it a great read-aloud to share for revising student writing. Since this book talks a lot about shadows, have students go outside, and create their own shadows. Then have students work with a partner to measure and write a descriptive paragraph to describe their shadows. My favorite activity to do with this book is focused on point of view. Grab it for FREE in this post.

Grab the Owl Moon companion activity set HERE.


Brave Irene by William Steig


winter mentor text brave irene
If you have never read Brave Irene, now is the time to read it with your students! This book is about a young girl who goes out in a blizzard to make a delivery to help her mother the dressmaker. I use this read-aloud book to discuss character traits. The main character changes throughout the story, showing different traits and feelings as the story progresses. The descriptions of the character make it easy to make connections with Irene, as well as, compare and contrast her with other characters students have encountered in their readings. This book is also filled with figurative language and varied word choice, making it perfect for synonym and revision lessons. Your students will be on the edge of their seat, cheering for Brave Irene to meet her goal. The suspense in the book, lends itself to lessons on building suspense within student writing, too! The possibilities are truly endless. 


The Five Dog Night by Eileen Christelow


If you are looking for a 
winter mentor text for kindness
book that your students have not heard before, this is it! The Five Dog Night is the book that I look forward to reading each winter season. It tells the tale of two neighbors who help each other throughout the long and cold winter months. I love the themes of kindness and friendship that are woven throughout this story. Each time I read this book, the students always worry for the well-being of the characters, kicking off great empathy discussions in our classroom. I use this book to discuss character traits, making connections, themes, and most importantly, kindness. Grab a FREE kindness activity to use with this book in this post.

Grab the Five DogNight companion activity set HERE.



Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin


snowflake bentley activities
Wintertime is not complete without a read-aloud of Snowflake Bentley. This sweet biography-story highbred is perfect to tie together seasonal activities with reading strategies. Whether you are studying informational texts, biographies, or fiction and character development, this book can help you meet your objectives. After a read-aloud of this book, I always have my students complete a Venn diagram comparing themselves to the main character Mr. Bentley. This simple activity helps the students identify something that is of great interest to them, just like studying snowflakes and ice crystals was of interest to Snowflake Bentley. Grab a FREE writing activity to use with this book in this post.

Grab the Snowflake Bentley companion activity set HERE.


Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes


descriptive winter writingThis short but sweet book is a great way to welcome winter into the classroom! It is filled with vivid word choice, strong verbs, and figurative language, making it a great read-aloud for any classroom. Because the text is short, it naturally lends itself for visualizing activities. Have students fold a blank piece of white paper into fourths and number each box. Read aloud the book without showing students the illustrations. Pause throughout the book frequently to allow students enough time to create their own illustrations to go along with the words that they hear.  Reread the book again, this time sharing the book's pictures with students so that they can again compare and contrast what they drew with the illustrator's drawings.  Grab a FREE follow-up figurative language visualizing activity to use with this book in this post.


BONUS Recommendations...

The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen



the mitten tree kindness winter activities



The Mitten Tree is a must-read in my classroom! It focuses on one kind deed that is done just for the joy of helping others. The main character looks for nothing in return but smiles on the children's faces that she helps. This book is a great kick-off to completing a kindness challenge in your classroom and discussing random acts of kindness. Kindness is always a year-long focus in my classroom and this book helps to support that!
Grab the Mitten Tree companion activity set HERE.


Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor


snow globe read aloud and writing activities



We love reading this one right before we dive into our winter descriptive writing snowglobe projectIt really sets the scene for winter setting and descriptive writing activities. The surprise concept of the story helps students to put themselves into the story, and the snow globe, and get excited for the season of winter. This one is just perfect to help celebrate the first day of winter!



Snowflakes Fall by Patricia MacLachlan


snowflakes fall winter read aloud




This sweet and touching story tells about a small town that I once lived in for many years: Newtown, Connecticut. Written to honor and remember the 26 students and educators killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, this story celebrates children and how beautiful and unique they are. This book is illustrated by a former Newtown resident, Steven Kellogg. This one brilliantly describes winter and sets the scene for the winter wonders that await us as the new season begins. I love this book, its meaning, and having students celebrate each other after reading this book.


Yetis are the Worst! by Alex Willan


yetis are the worst read aloud



This brand-new picture book won my heart over quickly and is adored by the kids, too! I love all the books by Alex Willan in this series, but this one about yetis is definitely my fave! If this series is new to you, it follows a small goblin who learns about different mythical creatures. It is extremely fun to read with engaging illustrations, diagrams, and funny language. It has two underlying themes: not judging people before you get to know them and friendship. This is one that is fun all winter long! Your students will ask you to reread it again and again!



The Stranger written by Chris Van Allsburg 




On a drive one night, a family accidentally hits a man with their car. The family loads him up and brings him home to be checked by the family doctor.  The students have to think about who the man is given all the things in the story that make the man “strange”. He cannot talk, animals flock to him, and he seems confused by very common and simple items. Through class discussion and context clues, see if you can infer who thisnameless man isGrab some no-prep materials to go along with the story here







When it comes to engaging students don't overlook the power of a great read-aloud book, especially a great seasonal read-aloud. 


winter mentor text



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Grab highly engaging winter activities HERE.


Winter Activities for Upper Elementary




                                           Spread kindness this winter!


9 Winter Picture Books for Upper Elementary Classrooms





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winter activities for kids







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