1st Grade Math and Literacy Centers for January

What is January like where you live? Is it freezing cold and snowy? Rainy and warm? Hot and dry? No matter what the weather is like in January, you probably make the inside of your classroom a winter wonderland, or at least I do! And to kick off the new year right, we have the best centers and activities for January to help your students practice key 1st grade skills with a winter theme.

After discussing so many holidays during the months of November and December, I use January as a month to focus on snow and everything that has to do with winter! And you can’t think about January without exploring all about Penguins. We bring crafting and language arts together with this Penguin Puffy Paint Craft and Writing Prompt.

You can find my classroom covered in snowmen, snowballs, polar bears, penguins, icicles, hot cocoa, and lots of other wintery decor. I love teaching my students the science behind snow with this science unit and making sure our classroom is decorated with these plastic icicles. And to keep the fun and games going we play winter bingo and discuss all the things we enjoy about these colder months.

And since January in the classroom happens to come after a long holiday break, I always spend time reteaching skills, giving the kids a lot of practice and review. These first grade math and literacy centers with a January theme are perfect for that!

January Math and Literacy Centers for First Grade

These January winter activities for elementary are covered in adorable winter clipart and will transform your classroom into a winter wonderland in no time. With 20 first grade literacy centers for January and 20 January math centers for first grade, you will be able to teach and review math and literacy skills with your first graders all month long. Use these 1st grade winter ideas in your centers, as whole group activities, small group review work, or even send them home for extra practice. 

And if you are looking to differentiate, you can check out our Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers for January, or even our Pre-K Math and Literacy Centers for January, to receive similar centers that focus on different skills. 

Included in the First Grade Math and Literacy Centers for January:

In LITERACY you will get 4 weeks of:

• Match-Up and Pocket Chart Activities
• Writing Center Cards and Materials
• Write & Wipe Activities and Puzzles
• Poems and Poetry Activities
• Write the Room Activities

Giving you 20 January literacy activities!

In MATH you will get 4 weeks of:

• Partner Games
• Write & Wipe Activities
• Write the Room Activities
• Dice Game Activities
• Match-Up Activities and Puzzles

Adding up to 20 January math centers!

All in all, after purchasing this resource, you’ll have 40 exciting first grade winter hands-on activities for your classroom!

Math Skills covered:

• 3D Shapes, Place Value, Graphing, Fractions, Subtraction, Money, Telling Time, Addition, Subtraction…and more!

Literacy Skills covered: 

• Poetry, Writing, Adjectives, Sequencing, Nouns, Verbs, Trigraphs, Vowel Teams, Digraphs, Blends, Contractions, Prepositions…and more!

Using these First Grade Winter Activities

With 40 of the best winter math and literacy centers kids will love, it is easy to get overwhelmed. But let me give you some suggestions to make using these first grade teaching resources easier for you:

• Stay ahead! Prep these centers ahead of January and plan out what you are going to use so that you can laminate, copy, and cut everything that needs to be done. Remember, the first time you do this will be a lot, but if you prep well, you can save most of these materials for many Januarys to come. 
• Decide if you’re giving your students all of the centers at the start of the month, or one of each type a week. Or maybe you’ll use some for whole group and small group instruction too. Figure out what works for you! 
• Whatever you do, make sure to model the centers explicitly and set clear intentions for your students, especially when using the write the room literacy and math first grade centers. Moving around the room can be chaotic if the expectations aren’t laid out and practiced!

Materials suggested for these First Grade Math and Literacy Centers: 

• Copy Paper
• Laminating Sheets
• Dice
• Dry Erase Markers
• Erasers
• Write the Room Clips 

January Literacy Centers for First Grade

Pocket Chart and Match-Ups

Your first grade students can work on adjectives, contractions, prepositions, sentences, and sequencing with these pocket chart and match-up activities. The activities are meant to be used in a pocket chart or wherever they can be spread out, so a table or the floor work just fine too. 

Poetry

With two nursery rhymes and two winter poems, your students can fall in love with poetry this January. The poetry journals and notebooks come with different activities that can be used as a whole group activity or in small groups during centers. They also make great sub activities because everything you need is there!

Write & Wipe and Puzzles 

Your first grade students can practice blends, digraphs, vowel teams, and trigraphs with these two write & wipe activities and two puzzles. I like to laminate the write & wipe centers and give the kids a dry erase marker, and they’re off to work! The puzzles are great early finisher work or morning work as well. 

Write the Room

I know I’m always looking for a reason to get my kids up and moving this winter, which is why we enjoy doing these write the room activities. The four write the room literacy activities for January cover skills such as digraphs, parts of speech, trigraphs, and vowel teams. 

Writing Center

See what fabulous winter stories your students come up with this month when you give them Winter, Arctic Animals, Chinese New Year, and Winter Clothes writing cards. With different writing materials provided, you can meet the needs of all your learners with these first grade writing centers. 

January First Grade Math Centers 

Dice Game Activities

Dice games are so easy and fun! They take practically zero work to set up. Your students can practice subtracting from 10, graphing, 3D shapes, and fractions with these simple dice games. 

Match-Up Activities and Puzzles

Covering skills such as fractions, money, place value, and telling time, your first graders will be so busy with these match-up activities and puzzles that they won’t even realize they’re learning! 

Partner Games

It is always fun to give the kids a chance to play learning games together! With these partner games, your students can work on math skills like place value, money, adding, subtracting, and 3D shapes, all while having a blast with their friends. 

Write & Wipe Activities

Get the laminators or the page protectors ready! With just a dry erase marker, your students can practice comparing numbers, number sense, place value, and addition while doing these write and wipe activities. 

Write the Room Centers

Again, I’m always looking for any excuse to get our kids out of their seats and moving around this winter. These four winter math activities will have your first graders practicing fractions, money, subtraction, addition, and telling time. 

Download the First Grade Math and Literacy Centers for January Now!

A Dab of Glue Will Do Store 

A Dab of Glue Will Do Teachers Pay Teachers 

Your students will love learning with these 1st grade winter-themed math and literacy centers!

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We hope you have a snowy good time with these exciting winter activities for the 1st grade classroom!