Winter Poetry Warm Up Part 2: Cold-weather Poetry Collections

 On cold winter days, why not warm up with some poetry? Fill your classroom with a flurry of winter cherita poems written by your students. (Find lesson here). Or share a poem or two while students defrost and settle in after recess. Here are some of my favorite winter-themed poetry collections to get you and your students in the cold-weather mood. (Click on each image for more information). 

WINTER BEES

by Joyce Sidman

This book is on my TOP POETRY MENTOR TEXTS list (a resource you can download for free when you sign up for my newsletter.) It's a wonderful companion text for a study of animals adaptations. Use it to inspire students to write their own poems about animals they’ve researched.

SNOW, SNOW

by Jane Yolen

A book for snow lovers. Each poem was inspired by the photograph that accompanies it, capturing snow in all its breathtaking forms. After enjoying the photos and poems in the book, students can take their own winter photographs and write poems to describe the scenes.

WINTER: AN ALPHABET ACROSTIC

by Steven Schnur

Twenty-six acrostic poems celebrating the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of winter. Inspire students to write acrostic poems with more specific, sensory details with this mentor text.

WINTER POEMS

by Barbara Rogasky

This anthology presents a "universe of sky and snow." Enjoy lesser known poems from well known poets like Shakespeare, Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson, Richard Wright, and Robert Frost.

WINTER EYES

by Douglas Florian

Like all of Florian's poetry collections, Winter Eyes is filled with delightful wit and word play. The poems "What I Love About Winter" and "What I Hate About Winter" make great mentor texts for writing list poems. Try writing one class collective list poem (where every student contributes a line) about the positive aspects of winter. Then write a second collective poem about the negative aspects of winter.

IGUANAS IN THE SNOW

by Francisco Alarcón

The poems in this collection celebrate winter in Northern California. Each poem is presented in English and Spanish. This is an excellent mentor text to share with English language learners, a bilingual class, or anyone who wants to appreciate the beauty of the Spanish language.

WINTER LIGHTS: A Season in Poems and Quilts

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

This book is one in a series by author/illustrator Anna Grossnickle Hines in which she writes poems to accompany quilts she's created. Winter Lights looks at a the ways light is enjoyed and celebrated during the dark winter months. As the book includes poems about Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, and other celebrations involving light, it's a great companion text to a study of diverse winter holidays.

A SNOWFLAKE FELL: Poems About Winter

compiled by Laura Whipple

This collection looks at winter through a variety of perspectives: from trees shedding their leaves, to deer mice scurrying to gather food, to children playing in the snow. One of my favorite ways to use this book with students is to have them go on an "onomatopoeia hunt." From the "rustle" of animals across snowy fields, to "whistling" winds, to the "swish, slash" of ice skate on a pond, the poems are filled with words that echo the sounds of winter.

SNOW BIRDS

by Kirsten Hall

For backyard bird watchers! Snow Birds celebrates winter birds, from cardinals to snowy owls, who adapt to survive the coldest months. After reading the poems, have students complete their own backyard bird watch and turn their observations into poems.

About Michelle Schaub

Michelle Schaub is a language arts teacher and award-winning children's poet. She is the author of the picture book poetry collections Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market, (which won the 2018 Growing Good Kids Award and 2019 Northern Lights Book Award,) and Finding Treasure: A Collection of Collections. She is also the author of two picture books in verse, the bedtime STEM book Dream Big, Little Scientists and Kindness is a Kite String: The Uplifting Power of Empathy. Her poems appear in several anthologies, including The Poetry Anthology for Celebrations and Great Morning! Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud. Michelle loves visiting schools and speaking at conferences on the power of poetry to boost literacy. Find out more at www.michelleschaub.com.