Winter is on the way! Although it still feels like we’ve just learned our Autumn songs, the snow will soon be falling and it’s time to get out your winter clothes. You’re going to need some fun songs about winter for your classes to help them practice all that new vocabulary and enjoy the new season. So here are my favorite EFL ESL winter songs for children. Learn all about snowflakes, winter activities, winter clothes and even some animals who live in the snow. Find lots of ideas for activities to use these songs in your lessons. Put on your warm boots, don’t forget your wooly hat and get ready to make a snowman, it’s time for my Top 10 EFL ESL Winter songs for children.
Winter Hokey Pokey by The Kiboomers
Let’s start by warming up and getting ready to go out in the cold. This fun version of the Hokey Pokey will get your kids dancing while they learn the names of their winter clothes. Make this into a fun practical activity by having lots of different clothes ready in the classroom. The kids can get dressed up while they sing the song. Find some colorful, funny hats and gloves; it doesn’t matter if they don’t match. You could get the kids to pretend they are making snowmen and dress each other up too so that the snowmen can dance.
This could also be a good way of getting children to get ready to go home at the end of a class. Little kids often take a long time to put on all their outside clothing so a way to make it more fun while still learning could be useful.
Little Snowflake by Super Simple Songs
The sweetest song in the Super Simple Songs collection. This is a lovely song for little children to learn the parts of the body. You can adapt it to learn different body parts or even change it to clothing or other vocabulary if you want. Super Simple Songs are so adaptable to different classes and this is no exception. You can find my other Super Simple favorites here. This is an easy song to sing even for the smallest children. It would be a perfect song to sing at a Christmas concert or open day for parents in the winter.
Let’s Make a Snowman by Fun Kids English
What do we need to make a snowman? This is a fun song to practice parts of the body and lots of snowman vocabulary. Get the kids in your class to make a list of everything they will need and then sing the song adapting it to their lists. You could do an mingle activity where they have to ask questions to each other. What do we need to make a snowman’s head? How many buttons do we need? Use flashcards like these or make your own with the different snowman parts based on the list you made. You could also cut out the snowman parts in paper and have the kids find them and build a paper snowman as you sing the song.
In the Snow by Kids Songs – Nursery Rhymes
A fun song all about winter sports and activities to do in the snow. This is a great way of starting to talk about all the fun you can have with snow and typical winter activities. You could use this as an introduction to a winter themed lesson and try out some of the activities in the classroom. Have a paper snowball fight or build a cardboard snowman. Or you could invent a plan for all the things you want to do. What will you do in the morning? And in the afternoon? This is a good general song about winter and you could adapt it to lots of different activities.
Welcome Winter Song for Kids by Puchku Kids T.V.
This is another song about things to do in winter but it is less about sports and more about weather and things to do that aren’t sports. So, drinking hot chocolate, sitting next to the fire and so on. What other activities can your class think of that are fun to do in winter when it’s cold and snowy? Do they prefer to go outside or stay inside? Maybe you’re in a country that doesn’t have a cold winter. If so, this would be a great way to introduce them to new activities that maybe they have never done before. Making hot chocolate together would be so much fun and quite easy to do in a class as a cooking lesson.
Counting Snowflakes by Maple Leaf Learning
If you need a winter counting song, this is my favorite. Count the snowflakes together with Marty and learn the numbers from 1 to 20. Perfect for smaller children to practice counting. Cut out snowflakes together and make them fall or pin them to the board as you count them.
Snow Day by Stephen Shearer
Hooray, no school today, it’s a snow day! This is a fantastic song for older kids to talk about snow and fun activities to do in winter. What would be their perfect snow day. Maybe you could write a story together about a snowy day. Or act out a role play. How do they feel when they find out that school is cancelled and they can go and play in the snow? What do they need to go out in the cold? Get them to really use their imaginations.
Learn Animals for Kids: Adventure Through The Snow by HiDino Kids Songs With Fun Stories
Which animals live in the cold and the snow? Something a bit different in this collection of EFL ESL winter songs for children. This song gives a huge selection of animals from both the Arctic and the Antarctic. It is a good way to introduce little kids to some different kinds of animals that they perhaps haven’t come across before. Go on an expedition in your class to the polar regions and see what you can find there. Have you got your map and your binoculars? What else will you need? You could make a whole lesson about an adventure to the North Pole and what you will do and see there.
It’s Winter Again by Deanna Cupolo
This would be a really good song to sing at a winter concert. It’s simple to sing and you could do lots of action to go along with it. Otherwise you could use it in a lesson about feelings and how your kids feel in winter. Are they happy or sad when it’s cold? How do they think animals feel when it’s cold and snowy?
The Penguin Dance by Pinkfong! Kids’ Songs
Penguins Attention! Penguins Begin! This is one of the favorite songs of the kids in my classes and it’s a really good way to start and warm up a class. Learn all about the different body parts of a penguin and do lots of penguin movements. I also use this as a call to get attention in class if it’s getting a bit noisy. You could adapt this to other animals that live in the cold too. Walrus Attention! Or Polar Bears Attention! Then change the body parts too to learn about different animals.
So that was my favorite EFL ESL winter songs for children. I hope you find something useful here for your winter classes. Don’t forget, if you have any particular favorite songs, to share them in the comments. If you’ve enjoyed this and want to see some more, you can find lots more of my favorite song collections as well as lesson plans and other teaching ideas. Look out for my favorite Christmas songs for kids too. If you want to keep up to date with what is happening on GoogooEnglish, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.