5 Cozy, Winter Picture Books for Language Development
I don’t know about you, but there’s just something about winter that makes me want to cozy up in front of a fire with a good book. And since the reader-clinician’s dream is obviously to build up future generations of readers dreaming of their own fireside reads, I thought I’d share some of my favorite winter picture books to help you gin up those cozy vibes with your students (or the other children in your life!) this season.
And, of course, no list of picture books from an SLP would be complete without language extension activities! These activities can be used with as many or as few materials as you like—perfect for busy school days or just language-stimulating discussion around the fireside. I’ve also shared some helpful stats to help you in your decision making, including the number of pages, how long it takes to read aloud, and my best estimates at read-aloud and independent reading levels.
Grab your favorite warm drink and let’s chat winter picture books.
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A Day So gray
A Day So Gray by Marie Lamba is a lovely little story about exploring color. While one child can see only the dull colors of winter, her friend invites her to explore the nuances and variations of color that you can find if you just look. It’s also a wonderful, but simple, story that encourages you to look at things from a different (more positive!) perspective. And it ends with the friends finding all things cozy for them to enjoy at the end of a winter day. Just delightful!
The Stats
- 32 pages
- Read-aloud level: 4+
- Independent reading level: K-1
- Read-aloud time:
Vocabulary to Target
- Color words: gray, brown, blue, silver, yellow, orange, black, red, tan, white, purple, green, pink, yellow-green, tangerine
- Adjectives: deep, soft, shining, bright, blah, boring, warm, sizzling, cozy
Language Extension Ideas
- Go for a seasonal color walk. Encourage students to find as many colors as they can.
- Print a variety of winter (or winter-adjacent) items for students to sort by color. Be creative and choose items that go a little beyond expectations!
- Practice describing winter items using colors and other descriptors. This book is perfect for working on getting really creative with descriptions as it’s full of inventive ways to describe objects and colors.
- Work on forming simple sentences (“The snow is white.”) and expanding those sentences to add descriptors (“The snow is bright white.”) or verb forms (“The snow is shining brightly.”).
the winter bird
The Winter Bird by Kate Banks is a beautiful story about community and nature. When the nightingale hurts her wing before winter migration, the winter animals take her under their wings and teach her to become a winter bird. This story is bustling with generosity and growth, as well as opportunities to talk about the winter season.
The Stats
- 32 pages
- Read-aloud level: 3+
- Independent reading level: 3rd Flesch-Kincaid
- Read-aloud time:
Vocabulary to Target
- Action words: lumbered, dove, prepared, watched, welcomed, build, crouched shared, gathered, forage, readied, flapped
- Animal homes: nest, perch, burrow, den
- Weather: snow, rain, squalls, blizzard, iciles, frost, buds, winter, spring
Language Extension Ideas
- Explore animals, their homes, and their eating habits. Discuss animals that hibernate or migrate during the winter and those that thrive during it. Match animals to their homes or foods.
- Describe a variety of animals based on their habits. You can focus on written or spoken descriptions.
- Work on sentence structure or expanded MLU by forming sentences based on what they’re learned about animals (“The rabbit sleeps in a burrow.”).
- Work on seasonal vocabulary words. Match vocabulary words to the appropriate season or learn descriptive words for types of seasonal weather (thunderstorm, blizzard, etc…).
the mitten
The Mitten by Jan Brett is a classic for a reason! This well-known story tells of a little boy who loses his white mitten in the snow, allowing a whole host of creatures to move in. The mitten stretches and stretches as each creature moves in until… kiddos will want to keep reading to find out what happens next!
The Stats
- 32 pages
- Read-aloud level: 4+
- Independent reading level: 600L/3rd
- Read-aloud time:
Vocabulary to Target
- Animals: mole, rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, bear, mouse
- Animal parts: the rabbit’s feet, the hedgehog’s spikes, the owl’s talons, the badger’s feet, the fox’s teeth, the bear’s anything, the mouse’s whiskers
- Action words: tunneling, burrowed, hopping, wiggled, snuffling, swooped, climbed, trotting, poked, lumbered, stretched, sneezed, shot, scattered
Language Extension Activities
- Use the pictures on the side of each page to predict what animal is going to move into the mitten next
- Discuss each animal’s feature (talons, spikes, teeth, etc…) and why it made them intimidating to the other animals in the mitten.
- Describe animals by their unique features. Play a barrier or guessing game to match animals to descriptive features.
- Script a conversation between Nicki and Baba when she ses how stretched out the mitten is.
we’re going on a bear hunt
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is classic fun for read alongs! With its repetitive and melodic structure, it’s perfect for choral reading and predictions. Children will love traipsing through rivers and mud and forests in search of a big scary bear—until they find him that is.
The Stats
- 36 pages
- Read-aloud level: 4+
- Independent reading level: 280L/1st
- Read-aloud time:
Vocabulary to Target
- Nature words: grass, river, mud, forest, snowstorm, cave
- Position words: through, over, under, up, down, into
Language Extension Activities
- Discuss the effects of going through each of the scenarios. For example, what might happen if you go through a river (you’d get wet) or through the mud (you’ll get dirty). Compare those to the sound effects in the story.
- Sequence the events of the story using the grass, river, mud, forest, snowstorm, cave, and house.
- Talk about feelings, particularly the feelings of the family at the beginning of their journey (not scared), in the middle (scared), and at the end (relieved).
- Discuss where you live, what kind of animals you could hunt for, and what kinds of places you would go through to find them.
little mouse finds a friend
Little Mouse Finds a Friend by Gaby Goldsack is a bit of a take on Aesop’s The Lion and the Mouse. Cold and hungry, trying to make it through a cold, harsh winter, Little Mouse is scared of the inhabitants of the farmhouse—the dog, the farmer’s wife, and most especially, the ferocious cat. But when he reaches a point of hunger he can’t deny, Little Mouse finds himself in a situation to show and recognize kindness in unexpected places.
The Stats
- 26 pages
- Read-aloud level: 3+
- Independent reading level: 2nd Flesch-Kincaid
- Read-aloud time:
Vocabulary to Target
- Action words: shivered, scare, creep, cut, quake, guarded, chased, stamped, crept, leaping, spitting, scamper, howled, flopped, sneak, tug, hissed, twitched, swished, gnawed, purred, licked, flee, pounced, gulped, smiled, groaned, screamed
- Descriptors: cold, hungry, deadly, huge, ferocious, snarling, terrifying, dagger like, sharp, large, small, scared, kind, brave, glistening, playful, friendly, frightened
- Animal foods: horse/oats, chickens/grains, cows/feed, pigs/scraps
Language Extension Activities
- Play with descriptions of animal actions. Let students come up with different actions or match actions to different situations.
- Compare and contrast descriptions of animals (like cats and dogs!) from a mouse’s point of view and from a human’s point of view.
- Work with synonyms and antonyms. There are a variety of words with the same connotations in this story—playful/friendly, scared/frightened. Find pairs within the story or introduce new words to match to words from the story.
- Create a story about unlikely friends. This story is similar to Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse. Encourage students to create their own narrative for this familiar tale.
final thoughts on cozy, winter picture books
I hope these winter picture books will get your student or child excited to read during this long, dark season. Whether you’re cuddling up at the end of the school day or looking for a fun story to take student’s minds off an indoor recess, these stories are sure to inspire and provide plenty of opportunities for language development.
In addition to the vocabulary and language extension activities I’ve shared above, don’t forget that these books are great for interactive and dialogic reading!
So tell me, what are your favorite winter picture books?
