January Math and Literacy Centers for Pre-K

How do you feel about January? Do you ride into the month on a high after the holidays, excited for a new year? Or are you bundled up in a hundred layers trying to stay warm and hoping the month ends soon to get you one step closer to spring? I’m somewhere in between loving winter and longing for warmer days. My favorite thing about the new year is introducing new activities to our students like these January Math and Literacy Centers for Pre-K.

I love to make the month more fun with easy January pre-k activities like this Snowman Name Building Match-Up. It can be super interesting to learn about wintery animals during science with this Penguin Craft Activity or this Polar Bear Animal Study. We bring on the games with our Winter Bingo and enjoy reading our favorite books for winter. Nothing says January like our Avalanche Science Experiment! Our kids are amazed as we bring the “snow” experience right into the classroom.

And of course, I make every day engaging and exciting with our January math and literacy centers. These centers are the best winter pre-k activities for math and literacy. Plus, most of them I have prepped ahead of time from last year so all I have to do is pull them out; it doesn’t get easier than that! 

January Math and Literacy Activities for Pre-K

These winter math and literacy centers come with 20 literacy and 20 math centers for pre-k. The activities are most often used as centers but can also be great for whole-group instruction, small-group intervention or review, or even as a send-home activity. 

Covered with adorable winter-themed clipart, these centers are the perfect winter math and literacy teaching resources for pre-k. They will certainly help January run smoothly! The January Math and Literacy Centers are made for pre-k, but we also have January centers for kindergarten and first-grade classrooms as well. If interested, check out the kindergarten January centers in action here. Having multiple grade levels of these centers can help you differentiate to meet the needs of your students. 

Our monthly centers have familiar types and categories each month, but the skill of the center and the monthly theme change. So if you have other months of our centers, or own the year-long bundle, you’ll see the same types of centers each month, but the themes and the skills the students are working on are different. 

Included in the Pre-K Math and Literacy Centers for January:

In LITERACY you will get 4 weeks of:

• Pocket Chart and Match-up Centers
• Writing Center Activities
• Puzzle and Write & Wipe Centers
• Poetry Centers
• Write the Room Centers

Giving you 20 total January literacy centers for pre-k!

In MATH you will get 4 weeks of:

• Partner Games
• Write & Wipe  Centers
• Write the Room Centers
• Dice Centers
• Puzzle and Match-up Centers

Adding up to 20 total January pre-k winter math activities.

In total, when you purchase these winter math and literacy activities for pre-k, you’ll immediately have 40 January centers!

Math Skills covered in the Pre-K January Math Centers:

• Number Sense/ID, Equal Groups, Graphing, Counting On, 2D Shapes, Measuring, Counting, Counting On, Number Order…and more!

Literacy Skills covered in the Pre-K January Literacy Centers: 

• Poetry, Writing, Sequencing, Beginning Sounds, Uppercase and Lowercase Letter ID, Letters and Words, Rhyming…and more!

Using the January Math and Literacy Centers 

These January winter-themed activities and centers for pre-k is a large product. Once purchased, you’ll receive 40 pre-k winter centers; it’s a lot! So we have collected some suggestions and ideas to help make things easier for you. 

• My favorite thing to do with these centers is to prep and plan out which ones I am going to use the month before. Especially if you have our year-long bundle of pre-k centers, it is much easier to look at one month at a time and stay ahead of the game. Each year you use them it gets easier and easier, since you’ll be able to reuse what you’ve already prepped. 
• After looking through the month’s worth of centers, print the ones you want to use and decide what needs to be copied, laminated, cut, etc. and plan out when you’ll have time to do these tasks. 
• These centers are designed to be used throughout the month, but you can decide if you want to give students one of each center for each week of the month, or if you want to introduce all of the centers at the beginning of the month and use them for the entirety of the month. It’s up to you, there is not one right way to use the centers! 
• I like to introduce the new centers each week and model them for my students. I always try to set clear, simple expectations for each type of center. 

Materials suggested for the Pre-K Winter Centers: 

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

Pre-K Winter Literacy Centers

Pocket Chart and Match-Ups

Pocket charts and match-up activities can be used in a hanging pocket chart, or anywhere that students can spread out the parts and pieces, like on the floor or a table. With these January pre-k literacy centers, students can practice identifying letters vs. words, rhyming words, uppercase and lowercase letters, and beginning sound. 

Poetry

Do you struggle to find appropriate poems to use with your young learners? I sure do. That’s why I am obsessed with the 4 poems included each month with these centers. With two nursery rhymes and two winter poems, students can practice reading, retelling, and other language skills with these poetry centers.

Write & Wipe and Puzzles 

Write and wipe centers and puzzles are great activities to laminate and reuse year after year. With two pre-k winter literacy puzzles, students can practice beginning sounds and matching uppercase and lowercase letters. Write and wipe activities can be laminated or put into a page protector to be used with dry erase markers. Your pre-k students can practice rhyming words and letter sounds with the two January write and wipe centers.

Write the Room

Write the room activities can be used in many different ways. You can use them in the traditional sense, by taping or hanging them up around the room and having students walk around with the recording sheet. Or you can put the cards on a ring or in a basket in a center and have students choose one card at a time. The four January write the room activities cover the skills of beginning sound, rhyming words, letters in words, and letter ID.

Writing

Turn your writing center into a winter wonderland with these four January winter topics! Students can draw and write about winter, arctic animals, Chinese New Year, and winter clothing this January in your writing center. Use the provided writing materials to differentiate for your students. The word cards can be used in a pocket chart, on a word wall, on a ring, or in a basket in your center. 

Math Centers for Pre-K 

Dice Games

Your students will love rolling and learning with these dice games! With a color by code, a roll and build, a roll and cover, and a roll and graph, your pre-k students will practice several foundational math skills. 

Match-Ups and Puzzles

Match-ups and puzzles are great for an easy math center. Place the match-ups in a pocket chart or just on a table or the floor. Students can practice number sense and number ID with the two January match-ups. The two January puzzles will help your students review counting on and subitizing. 

Partner Games

Playing games with partners is important for our young learners. They help them learn and practice the social norms and behaviors that are necessary for successfully playing a game with others. With a card game, a gameboard, a race to the top, and a spin and cover, your pre-k students can practice their math skills while playing with partners. 

Write and Wipe

Write and wipe activities can be laminated and used with a dry erase marker. They can also be placed into a page protector if you can’t laminate them. These math centers for pre-k students will help them practice counting, measurement, number sense, and 2D shapes.

Write the Room

Just like the literacy write the room activities, you can choose how you want your students to use these materials. The four January math write the room activities cover the skills of counting, measurement, number sense, and number ID. 

Download the Pre-K January Math and Literacy Centers Now!

A Dab of Glue Will Do Store 

A Dab of Glue Will Do Teachers Pay Teachers 

January will fly by with these exciting activities! 

Want more Monthly Math and Literacy centers?

Looking for more January teaching resources?

Check out our curated collection of winter blogs, products, and freebies here!

These January pre-k learning activities will help your students stay on track while enjoying some fun winter-themed centers!