Winter children’s books were an idea I mentioned earlier with this free coloring page of a juggling penguin. One thing I wanted to start sharing with you all were children’s books! My husband and I both love to encourage reading, and so far our two that are reading LOVE it, and the little two love being read to! Success. I have a lot of books I saved from my teaching days, we also have several from my sister’s classroom, and my mom is the queen of gifting books! We are very lucky to have filled bookshelves.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for supporting my blog by shopping the links at no extra cost to you!
Find Your Winter Children’s Books
I have not been the mom who rotates toys very well, but I have been pretty good about grabbing our holiday or seasonal books and pulling them out to enjoy! It is definitely something the kids love, and it also can help you if you’ve been stuck reading whatever their latest fav is over and over and over, ha! Not that thats a bad thing, but you know what I mean I’m sure. They might be able to find a new favorite for a little while.
I did end up putting away our Christmas books this week. A little sad. We have quite the collection, and it will be exciting to pull it down again next year. I was really excited to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to my older three this year. We read the The Best School Year Ever when school started, and the The Best Halloween Ever in October. They loved them so much. But, we have had a lot of sickness hit our house and reading the Christmas one just got totally derailed.
Reading chapter books to them is something my husband and I have both done from time to time, and it kind of seems to go in spurts. I think it is the ages and quantity of our kiddos, but it is hard to find a rhythm for that. I am thankful my older two are big readers and can do it on their own now, but there is something special about enjoying a chapter book together, don’t you think?
My mom reading to us is definitely one of my childhood memories. I was never a big reader (I like to write more ;)) and this was something that made me still love books. Now, I have found audio books to be very enjoyable! Especially when doing things like laundry which we are never in a shortage of!
Ok, back to point of this whole post! I encourage you to look through your bookshelves and find winter children’s books. Any books relating to winter, snow, winter animals, I even found one on soup, ha! Works for me. Frozen works too, why not!? Then gather them all into a basket or a special spot on your book case.
You can go about this two ways, you can do it with or without help! I have done it both ways and they definitely both have their advantages. It can be a challenge or something “to do” with them. Or it can be more of a surprise. It is also a good time to scan their bookshelves for anything you want to donate, or gift to a friend, or return to a friend (or the library, oops!), etc.
Just don’t grab the Valentine’s Day books yet! We will get to those later ;).
Book Party
This fall I tried something new from an Instagram account I have gotten lots of useful mom tips from, Begin At Home. She is big on book recommendations (also a former teacher). She has a little book breakfast party when she pulls a new collection of seasonal books together for her children.
I think it was a super fun and FREE idea and totally nothing to lose trying. So, we did it one day and it went pretty well. What I liked about it is it got my older two reading books they might not grab anymore because they are too old. It also encouraged a lot of reading together and reading to each other. My kids read to each other a lot and if it isn’t the sweetest thing I don’t know what is! Makes up for all the tackling.
Hank 
Elle
Emma 
Henry
What I didn’t love about it was trying to manage my youngest during it…again I think it goes back to ages and quantity of my children, but he just really tried his best to sabotage the whole thing! Sounds extreme I know, and probably funnier from the outside looking in, but whew! The funny thing is he has a long attention span and reading books is something we often do!? Anyways, you have been warned if you also have a sweet little 2 year old…
Needless to say we will not be having a cute little winter book party. They’re just going in a designated basket. By the way this basket is a Longaberger basket from my mom and I spray painted it. I think it looks cool! It actually could use another coat probably because of all the little nooks and crannies, but I got impatient and wanted to start using it in the fall for our seasonal books. Then we just haven’t stopped using it, haha! Baskets are so useful :).
Here are our winter children’s books! Again these have been collected in various ways and over several years. A few of these are even from my childhood, thanks Mom.
Winter Children’s Books
There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow is so silly, just like all the others. Please notice she is “cold” not “old” ;). We also own There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat. My kids have loved these books. In my student teaching the kindergarteners made adorable books remembering the order for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. I remember my students loving them, too. Have you read any of them?
Stetson is a special keepsake book for us. We had an extended stay in Park City, Utah one summer for Barry’s work. Henry was 4, Emma was 2, and Elle Belle was just a few months. It was something I will always remember, but it was also one of the hardest things I’ve ever done! The library was my best friend. Actually, it was my only friend there, ha! They had a wonderful person who did story time. She even played the ukulele. One day they had this author there and we received these books (there is one more). I always think it’s neat to have something to remember trips or vacations, a book is a pretty cool idea!
A Silly Snowy Day is a new to us book I grabbed from my sister’s classroom. This little tortoise, Shelley, doesn’t want to hibernate with his parents and sneaks out. Shelley goes through quite an adventure before returning safely home. I think my favorite part is that the tortoise is named Shelley, ha!
Snowmen at Night is actually a book we have on CD for the car, too. I bought a bunch of books with CDs from a preschool scholastic order when Henry and Emma were little. Super fun for that age before they can read, and also still fun when they can! This book actually has two other versions Snowmen at Christmas and Snowmen at Work. Snowmen at work was actually selected by my nephew to bring to read for Christmas, so it must be a fav! Be sure to check these out if you are curious what snowmen do while we sleep!
The Biggest Snowman Ever is too cute. Our preschool teachers have often gifted scholastic books to our children for Christmas. We love when they write their names in the front and we talk about them. We have some of the other books too and love them so much. Friendship and coming together are the big themes.
The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten is a book that was mine when I was little, my copy even looks different. The whole book is black and white except the little red mitten. The little girl in this book retraces her steps to try find her missing red mitten, and also imagines what could have happened to it. This is another author I remember and love. The Day the Goose Got Loose was a favorite and we have mine from my childhood, and How Much Is a Million was fun for place value and we have from my classroom.
Duck Soup came from my sister’s classroom so it is also new to us. A sweet student must have gifted it to her because the back of the cover says “this book will qack you up.” Precious! We love our books that have notes in them :). Ok but seriously this book will “qack” you up!!! It is so funny. Definitely one of those books to read aloud to your kids, and make sure you read it ahead of time first. I had a college professor who was very passionate about doing this. I can’t say I always do it… buuuuut it is better and you can really animate yourself and give a better performance, haha. Sometimes if I get too animated or silly it makes my kids uncomfortable! In the classroom though, my students couldn’t get enough of that!
Sneezy the Snowman is one of those books that got put on REPEAT last year. I have no idea how many times we read it. This year was no different. It is sweet, rhythmic, and repetitive. Of course the littles love it! We all find ourselves saying “I’m sneezing, and freezing, and shivering too” around the house.
Penguin Cha-Cha is a whimsical book where a girl becomes curious about some sneaky penguins at the zoo. It all becomes quite the dance! Penguins would be another great topic to search your shelves for winter children’s books! Don’t forget I have a cute juggling penguin coloring page for free, too!
A Snowman for Little Bear is another favorite we received from a preschool teacher. A ton of repetition in this one, which is great for growing little minds. There is also a sweet sock puppet craft in the back with templates.
The Mitten and The Hat by Jan Brett. I love this author and illustrator. I remember her and her books from my childhood. These just happen to be the ones we have, I think I grabbed them in school scholastic orders from the kids. I definitely remember Trouble with Trolls from my childhood!
Her website is pretty cool. There are a lot of coloring pages which I think is so neat! She also has this whole page with animals to print off to make an African Animal Mural and now I’m like ok we have to do this today LOL.
Her drawings are just incredible to me. Be sure if you check one of her books out you look closely, there are usually little clues within them. She has several books that would definitely fit into this winter children’s books genre including one of her latest, Cozy.
And You?
So what do you all think of these winter children’s books? Do you have any of them? What are some of your favorites? Are you all staying warm? Anybody try the soup!? Or another yummy soup?! We have been staying warm. In true Texas fashion some days the sun is so bright, parts of our house feel really warm! I think that is a good thing.
I hope you grab some of your winter children’s books to read with your kids. Or just grab any of your books and have your own book party! Free and fun and done. Read on!
