If you’re searching for a winter theme day that blends snowy fun with meaningful learning, Sleigh Day is the perfect addition to your December or January classroom plans. This festive, highly engaging theme day brings the magic of winter straight to your students through hands-on literacy, math, writing, crafts, poetry, and word work activities. Designed to keep students excited and academically focused, Sleigh & Sled Day transforms your classroom into a cozy winter wonderland while supporting essential first-grade skills.
Sleigh Day Setup
This resource includes everything you need to set up a smooth, stress-free theme day, including editable parent letters, themed banners like “Our Class Sleighs!” and “Let’s Sleigh All Day,” center signs, organizational checklists, snack suggestions, and poetry activities.
Sleigh & Sled Read Alouds
Once the room is decorated and ready, students can jump into a full day of learning anchored by three engaging winter-themed read-alouds— Little Red Sleigh, The Old Sleigh, and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh! Each story connects beautifully to comprehension tasks that deepen student understanding and bring literacy to life.
Your students will practice predicting, identifying setting and characters, analyzing feelings, connecting text to self, sequencing events, responding to reading, determining main idea and details, comparing fiction and nonfiction, retelling stories, and examining problem and solution. These comprehension activities offer multiple options and levels, making them perfect for differentiation during small groups, centers, or whole-group instruction.
I’ve included Amazon links to these books above. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
Sleigh Day Math Activities
Sleigh & Sled Day also includes a wide variety of math games, scoots, and no-prep worksheets that keep students actively learning throughout the day. With activities like Plus One Bingo, Roll & Subtract Bingo, Add 3 Bingo, Spin & Subtract Four-in-a-Row, counting scoots, number order sorts, place value practice, telling time, number line addition, missing addends, and comparing numbers, students review essential standards in a fun and meaningful way. These math resources are designed for partner games, center rotations, or fast finisher bins, making them both flexible and highly engaging.
Sleigh Day Word Work & Phonics Activities
Word work and phonics stations are another highlight of Sleigh & Sled Day. Students practice nouns, adjectives, and verbs through scoot activities, ending digraphs, making words, syllables, ABC order, punctuation, word searches, and unscrambles. These tasks provide skill-building practice while keeping the winter theme front and center, helping maintain student enthusiasm during a busy season.
Sleigh Day Writing Activities & Sled Crafts
In addition to the academic stations, students participate in writing activities such as list making, opinion writing about sleighs vs. sleds, descriptive writing about “Santa’s New Sleigh,” and collaborative class book pages. These writing tasks naturally extend from the read-alouds and strengthen sentence structure, vocabulary, and creative thinking. To top off the day, students create charming winter crafts, including a sled craft, sleigh craft, sled ornament, and bulletin board pieces like “Dashing Through the Snow” and “Santa’s New Sleigh.” These crafts make adorable hallway displays and help bring the snowy theme to life.
Sleigh Day Snack
There’s even a fun snack activity to make and enjoy with your students! Gather (or have parents donate) pretzel sticks, white chocolate morsels, and holiday M&M’s to make this yummy snack.
Teachers love Sleigh & Sled Day because it combines the fun of winter with rigorous, standards-aligned activities that are easy to prep and enjoyable for students. Whether you’re looking for a special winter celebration, a December theme day, or a meaningful way to keep students engaged after break, Sleigh & Sled Day has everything you need to create a memorable and academically rich classroom experience.
Bring the wonder of winter into your classroom and keep learning on track with this cozy, magical theme day.
This theme day is included in my Christmas Theme Day Bundle 2 and my 12 Days of Christmas Theme Day Bundle. It’s also in my Bundle of Christmas & Winter Theme Days.
You can also read about more Winter Theme Days and activities here:
