Winter activities – Creative writing & reading ideas for KS1 and KS2

Chilly mornings, frosty windows, the promise of snow – winter is a season full of atmosphere and inspiration for young writers. The following winter activities provide the perfect opportunity to meet national curriculum writing aims in meaningful, creative ways.

Focusing on the topic of winter encourages pupils to observe their surroundings, select precise adjectives and verbs, and experiment with figurative language to create vivid descriptions.

Below, you’ll find a collection of winter-themed reading and writing resources that help pupils:

• use expanded noun phrases and progressive -ing verbs to describe winter scenes (KS1)
• explore synonyms and antonyms to show contrast in descriptive writing (KS2)
• compose poems, descriptive passages and informative pieces, applying new vocabulary and sentence structures
• develop understanding of texts while learning about winter traditions and seasonal changes

KS1 winter activities

Descriptive writing pack

This KS1 cross-curricular writing pack helps pupils explore hibernation. Centred around a model poem, it guides children through:

• identifying -ing verbs
• developing vocabulary
• writing their own winter-themed poems

They'll also learn about how animals adapt and survive through the seasons.

Home learning challenges

This free sheet of 20 winter challenges offers fun, creative activities for KS1 children to enjoy at home while developing key skills. Ideal for homework or school holidays, it encourages pupils to explore, create and learn through the winter months.

KS2 winter activities

Descriptive writing pack

This KS2 poetry pack supports pupils in writing descriptive poems about a window view. They'll use a winter-themed WAGOLL model to explore imagery, metaphor, personification and verb tenses.

It includes planning sheets, tense cards, writing scaffolds and themed paper to help pupils structure stanzas, experiment with language and create polished, seasonal poems.

Synonyms and antonyms

This winter-themed writing pack helps pupils explore synonyms and antonyms to vary vocabulary and show contrast in their writing.

Using contrasting images, worksheets and prompts, pupils will collect descriptive words and write about a snowy walk, applying their understanding of word relationships.

Winter solstice reading comprehension

This UKS2 comprehension pack helps Year 5 pupils understand the winter solstice and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. It includes an explanatory text, diagrams and comprehension questions, supporting reading skills while linking to the science curriculum on Earth and Space.

KS2 winter home learning challenges

This sheet of 20 winter challenges offers creative, educational activities for KS2 pupils to enjoy at home, from going for a winter walk and describing it afterwards to visiting your local library.

Winter list poems

This KS2 poetry pack supports LKS2 pupils in writing winter-themed list poems using two high-quality WAGOLLs.

Focusing on expanded noun phrases, adjectives and prepositional phrases, it guides pupils through analysing model texts and planning, drafting and writing their own poems.

Acrostic poem

This KS2 resource pack helps pupils create seasonal acrostic poems, using the WAGOLL Winter Nights as a model. It includes planning sheets and seasonal images, guiding pupils to develop vocabulary, alliteration and imagery while structuring their own imaginative poems.

With these resources in hand, your pupils will be ready to write stories, poems and descriptions that sparkle like freshly fallen snow!