Winter Light Table Activities for Preschool, Pre-k, and Kindergarten

Explore all the things of winter with these winter light table activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. There are winter theme ideas for literacy, math, fine motor skills, science, and STEM. These activities are hands-on, educational, and so much fun for your little learners! The light table is a great center area for developing fine motor muscles while working on literacy and math skills.

Grab the Winter Math & Literacy Centers, Valentine’s Math & Literacy Centers, Snow & Ice Science Pack, or the Winter STEM I Can Build Pack for tons of winter resources.

Find more of my favorite light table play items on my Light Table Amazon List. 

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Winter Light Table Activities for Fine Motor

Polar Animals Lacing Light Table! Use these cute polar bear lacing cards to make a lacing game on the light table. Students will match the pony beads to the color on the bear. Then, lace the bead on the pipe cleaner scarf. Lacing is great fine motor work for early childhood education!

Snowflake Lacing Light Table! Make snowflakes with pipe cleaners and give students pony beads to lace around the outside. I use sparkly pipe cleaners to make it more captivating. Some students worked on just lacing, others worked on color sorting, and others worked on patterns. To differentiate even more, give students dice to roll and count. Then, they only add that amount of beads to the snowflake. Make it even more challenging by practicing addition with 2 dice.

Winter Collage Light Table! Give students an opportunity for an open-ended art project on the light table with a winter collage. I set out winter-colored papers, hole punches, scissors, glue sticks, and wax paper. Students cut, glued, and created beautiful winter collages on the light table.

Winter Light Table Activities for Literacy

Ice Names Light Table! Practice name spelling on the light table. I used blank lamination pouches to make name sheets by writing on the inside and then sealing them through the laminator. This way, students can use dry-erase markers for tracing letters in their names or use manipulatives to build their names on the light table. For winter manipulatives, I set out glass gems, cut pipe cleaners, icicle ornaments from the dollar store, and snowflakes.

Winter Word Building Light Table! Use the vocabulary cards from the Winter Math & Literacy Centers pack to give little learners winter words to practice spelling and letter recognition on the light table during those long winter months. In this photo, students used letter manipulatives made with stickers and water bottle lids. You can find more DIY Light Table Manipulatives here.

Ice Fishing for Letters Light Table! Don’t think that all your materials need to be on transparent material. These ice fishing letter worksheets are printed on regular paper. The icy pond is laminated blue tissue paper with wax paper on top. Then, I wrote letters onto glass gems. Students used tweezers to fish for the letters out of the pond and lay them on the matching letters on their paper.

Winter Butcher Paper Activities for Math

Valentine’s Color Sorting Light Table! Create a color sorting activity with heart cut-outs and these fun plastic ice cubes. I also set out pom poms and heart gems for the students to sort by color. I like to keep the chocolate heart candy trays for sensory play. Loose parts from around your preschool classroom work great for color sorts because there are different textures, items, and colors. 

Snowflake Roll & Count Light Table! Cut a snowflake from tissue paper and laminate it; now you have the perfect light table mat! This is a simple and fun idea to make your own cutouts for any theme you want to study in your preschool classroom. I gave students a die to roll, and they placed that many glass gems on the snowflake. To make it more complicated, give students 2 dice and have them practice informal addition.

Snowflake Count Light Table! Help students practice number identification, counting, and one-to-one correspondence with this simple math skills light table activity. To prep, I wrote numbers and dots on clear plastic plates. Then, I wrote numbers on glass gems. Students matched the glass gems to the correct number plate and counted that many snowflake beads onto the plate. I added tweezers for a great fine motor activity. 

Ice Number Graph Light Table! This is a great way to practice graphing skills, counting, and one-to-one correspondence with this fun ice cube graph. I used plastic ice cubes for the counting manipulative. Young children counted and lined up the correct amount of cubes to complete the graph.

Snowman Patterns Light Table! Add this one to your lesson plans for sure; have students practice building patterns by building snowmen. I set out pom poms, glass gems, tissue paper circles, and sticks to complete this math activity. If students are unable to make their own patterns, you can start some and have students practice continuing them.

Winter Shape Building Light Table! Create your own shape building templates by writing inside a piece of lamination and then sealing it through the laminator. Students can trace and build on it, and it won’t get destroyed. I gave students glass gems, icicle ornaments, and plastic ice cubes to build the shapes.

Snowman Roll & Count Light Table! Make some cute snowman by drawing a face on a clear ornament. I also use these in my sensory table. Students rolled a die and put that many pom poms inside the snowman. I added tweezers for more fine motor practice. Make it harder by giving students 2 dice to practice addition. You could also make this a color-sorting game by adding tape to the top of the snowmen, and students have to sort the pom poms by color in the snowmen.

Mitten Color Sorting Light Table! I made my own colorful mittens using tissue paper and then laminated them for durability. I gave students colored manipulatives to sort onto each mitten. The plastic ice cubes and snowflake beads are a favorite in the wintertime for a light table manipulative.

Shadow Shape Light Table! Set up a light table activity for Groundhog Day for your students to practice sorting shapes. I laminated black tissue paper and cut it into shapes. I made a small and a large shape so students could also talk about size. I had students use transparent pattern blocks to sort into the shadow shapes.

Winter Butcher Paper Activities for Science & STEM

Snow & Ice Science Light Table! My preschool students loved building snowflakes on the light table! You can find all the science printables here. For manipulatives, I gave students lots of options to encourage creativity and exploration: glass gems, snowflake beads, icicle ornaments, and translucent pattern blocks. Little learners will be talking about different shapes, exploring symmetry, and learning about science. 

Polar Animals STEM Light Table! Have students practice STEM skills at the light table. This may make your STEM time more engaging and encourage reluctant builders to participate! Grab these winter STEM I can build cards to give students ideas for what to create. I made a polar animal habitat set-up here. Students were encouraged to build habitats for the polar animals with the materials presented. I set out plastic cups of various colors and sizes, plastic ice cubes, glass gems, and icicle ornaments.

X-Ray Light Table! If you are doing a healthy eating or my body theme, you could set up an x-ray light table. Students can look at real X-ray images and build what they see with mini-bone manipulatives. Set out books, posters, and other skeletons for added interest and learning opportunities to up the benefits of light play in your preschool classroom.  

Winter may be drury, but you can brighten your learning environment with these simple ideas for fun winter light table activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students! If you don’t have these manipulatives, just use what you have, that are winter colors.

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