Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers for January

Each year when January rolls around, I am always shocked by how quickly the past year flew by. January can feel really long in the classroom. We come back from a nice break for the holidays but not long after, the weeks start to drag! Depending on where you live, it might be freezing outside causing the class to be stuck with indoor recess for weeks. The perfect way to tackle January is with these Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers.

It’s important we keep our students engaged and excited during this tedious month. Using these January learning activities and winter centers, we can make this long month fun! 

I love to play with “snow” inside using all of our snowman match-up activities and to study the science behind snow with this science unit. We can practice CVC words with this free snowball activity and our rhyming words with these puzzles. 

I’ve found the best way to keep my students engaged and interested in their learning is through centers. And these Kindergarten math and literacy center activities for January help me do just that! Your students will be having ‘snow’ much fun, they won’t even realize they’re learning!

January Math and Literacy Centers for Kindergarten

These January centers come with 20 kindergarten math activities and 20 kindergarten literacy centers. All of the centers are themed for January and winter. With adorable snowman, snowball, and winter clipart, these centers will make your classroom feel like a winter wonderland.  These winter centers for kindergarten can be used as centers, as whole group work, small group review, or even sent home for homework or extra practice.

These January centers are made for kindergarten, but are also available for Pre-K and First Grade classrooms as well. Some people like to utilize multiple grade levels of these centers in their classrooms to be able to successfully differentiate skills for their students.

One of the best parts of these themed kindergarten winter centers is that the category and style of the centers stay the same each month, but the theme and skill change to match the monthly themes and appropriate skills for that time of year. After using these centers a few times, your students will be familiar with the directions and routine and they won’t be asking, “What do we do again?”

Looking for non-themed centers? Check out our Zero Prep Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers.

Inside you’ll find: 

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

Adding up to 20 total kindergarten literacy centers for January!

In MATH you will get 4 weeks of:

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

Giving you 20 total kindergarten math centers for January! 

That amounts to 40 kindergarten winter math and literacy activities for you to use this January with your students!

Math Skills covered:

• Counting on, Addition, Number ID, 2D Shapes, 3D Shapes, Patterns, Comparing Numbers, Place Value, Decomposing Numbers, Subtraction, Number Order…and more!

Literacy Skills covered:

• Blends, Lowercase and Uppercase Letter ID, Ending Sounds, Sight Words, CVC Words, Onset and Rime, Vowels, Word Families, Poetry, Writing…and more!

Using the January Kindergarten Centers

These Kindergarten math and literacy center activities for winter can be intimidating at first glance. With 40 centers for the month, there is a lot to look at! Here are some suggestions that can help make things easier for you: 

• After purchasing the centers, we suggest prepping and planning out the January centers for kindergarten the month before. If you own our year-long bundle of monthly math and literacy centers for kindergarten, you have hundreds (yes, 480!) of centers and it can feel overwhelming. But take it one month at a time and once you go through a full year of them, you’ll have so much saved, stored, and prepped for next year that your future self will thank you!
• Look through the centers and make a list of which ones you want to use and what you need for each center. Print the centers and separate the materials into piles of what needs copying, laminating, cutting, etc. Get that done as you can, whenever you have time.
• When thinking about using the centers in class, you can give your students all of the options for the entire month, or you can break it down into one of each type of center per week. Maybe you’ll choose to set up a center for each activity, like one for dice games, one for partner games, etc. Or maybe you have math and literacy centers at the same time, so you can pick and choose which centers to use and where and when to use them, and then switch out when you see fit.
• We suggest introducing the directions ahead of time and modeling using the centers for your students. It is important to set clear expectations for each type of center. I like to do one quick whole-group explanation and demonstration for each center. If I feel like there may be a lot of questions, I’ll have the class do the activity as a whole group so that I can observe and answer any questions.
• There is no single “right way” to use these January center ideas for kindergarten! No matter what, these centers will keep your students learning and having fun throughout the long month of January.

Kindergarten Literacy Centers for January

Pocket Chart and Match-Ups

These pocket chart and match-up centers were designed to be used in a pocket chart center, where students can move around the pieces, or on the floor or a table – basically wherever students can spread out the different pieces. Your kindergarten students can practice sorting words that begin with “L” blends, sorting upper and lowercase letters, putting together sentences, onset and rime, and sight words this January with these centers.

Poetry

It can be difficult to find engaging, age-appropriate poems for our kindergarteners! These centers come with 4 different poems, 2 monthly themed poems and 2 nursery rhymes, that will have your students enjoying poetry this winter. These kindergarten winter poems are perfect for a poetry center but are also great for a whole group lesson this winter. Each poem comes with a poetry journal, notebook poems, and pocket chart poem activities for students to practice learning through poetry while working on other literacy skills.

Puzzles and Write and Wipe Activities 

Write & wipe and puzzle centers are perfect for laminating and pulling out year after year. Write and wipe activities can be laminated or placed into page protectors to make reusable. With fun winter clipart, students will have a snowy good time using these activities to practice their literacy skills this winter.

Kindergarten Write the Room for January

Write the room activities are so underrated! Students love being able to get up and move around the classroom independently, and I love that it’s an easy way to review skills. These January write-the-room centers will help your students practice blends, CVC words, sight words, and ending sounds.

Kindergarten Writing with a January theme

With four different January writing card topics and several different writing page options, your kindergarten students can have new words and topics to write about each week during the long month of January. Or introduce them all at the beginning of the month and see what they come up with! This month, your students will love writing with Winter words, Winter Clothes words, Arctic Animal words, and Chinese New Year words. I love to put the cards on rings so that they stay together, but a pocket chart or basket work great too.

Kindergarten Math Centers for January

Dice Games

Dice games are just the best. They take little-to-no prep, they’re easy to set up, and the students love rolling the dice! Some of the games, like the color by sum, come with paper die to build and use. Others can be used with just a regular ol’ die. Students can practice adding, graphing, 3D Shapes, and other math skills with these math dice games.

Winter Themed Match-Ups and Puzzles

Match-ups and puzzles are easy to prep and easy to use. Make our match-up activities work for you! Use them in a pocket chart, on a table, or on the floor. Laminate them to use repeatedly throughout the years. Your students will love practicing 2D shapes, number ID, subitizing, and subtraction with these math activities.

Partner Games

Do your students LOVE when they get to play or work in pairs? Mine sure do. Your students can work together to play a card game, a “Catch the Penguin” board game, a race to the top game, and a spin and cover game. Your students won’t even realize that they are practicing ten frames, adding and subtracting, counting to 20, and 3D shapes while playing these games.

January Write and Wipe

Write and wipe games can be laminated or placed in a page protector to be used repeatedly each year. My students love getting to use the dry-erase markers and erasers. With these January math write-and-wipe centers, your kindergarten students can practice place value, shape attributes, counting on, and comparing numerals. 

Winter Themed Write the Room for Kindergarten

Your students can get out of their seats and move around with these math write the room centers! Put the write-the-room cards in a basket or on a ring and use them as task cards in a center instead, if you don’t want to hang the cards around the room. The recording sheets offer differentiation options and can be used whether your students are moving around or sitting at a table! Students can practice adding, subtracting, number ID, and filling in a hundred’s chart with these activities.

Download Kindergarten 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 using these centers all January long!

Want more math and literacy centers for kindergarten?

Looking for more winter themed resources?

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

I hope you and your class have fun with these January math and literacy center activities for kindergarten!