Fairfax County Public Schools encourages students to take advantage of fun learning opportunities during winter break and snow days. Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid invited the FCPS community to share ideas for winter learning at home and received many recommendations from teachers and families.

Consider using the activities below, organized by grade level, to blend education and play for your children during weather-related school closures. These activities are optional. Feel free to use them if you’re looking for something extra for your student to do. Or, delight in your own ideas for a wonderful winter day!

Varsity Tutors

During snow days, students may still access Varsity Tutors or complete any supplemental learning opportunities recommended by their teachers. Educational programming provided by FCPS is available virtually and on public access television channels:

• Elementary school instruction: Red Apple 21
• Middle school instruction: Channel 25
• High school instruction: Channel 99

Activities 

Elementary

• Sharpen math skills by finding out how many snowballs it takes to measure your family and friends. Visit PBS Parents for more ideas.
• Learn about an animal that hibernates in your neighborhood, where does it go, how does it survive the winter?
• Build a snowman. How tall is it? What else can you build? Estimate how long it will take to build it.
• Create a store with items around your home. Set a budget and have children shop and pay for the items with play money without going over budget. Make your own play money by cutting paper into pieces and writing the amount on each piece.
• Make a memory game. Use markers, paper, and scissors to draw sets of matching images. Cut them out, flip them over to hide the design, and try to match them all. If you don’t have crafting materials, use a deck of cards!

Middle

• Create a winter scavenger hunt with a list of items to find inside or outdoors. Examples include a pine cone, holiday lights, icicles, a hat, boots, animal tracks, a wreath, or a greeting card. 
• Write about your snow day observations. Are the flakes big or small? How much snow do you predict will fall? (Check back later to see if you’re right.) 
• Describe your perfect snow day. Write about what you would want to eat, what activities you would do, and who you would want to share it with. Be descriptive.
• Read your favorite winter books and pay attention to the characters’ actions. What would you want your favorite character to do? Write about it or see if you can dress up as them and recreate it. 
• Using all your senses, go outside and experience the snow. Then come inside and write about it. Be descriptive.

High

• Consider the physics of sledding down a hill. Do you go faster with more or less weight?
• Create a resume or draft ideas for items to capture in your resume. Examples include work, volunteerism, awards, and community service.
• Brainstorm ideas for how you can give back to your community, then make a plan to follow through with your favorite idea.
• What’s your favorite comfort food? If you have all the ingredients, try making the recipe. 
• Create a short story or make a journal entry based on a prompt such as:
  • What is your favorite memory of a previous snow day?
  • Write in the perspective of a snowflake. What would you do or say?
  • Write a monologue from the perspective of one of your favorite characters in a book. 

All Ages

• Paint/draw a snowy landscape.
• Write a poem.
• Read! Choose a book from home or check out Fairfax County Public Library’s Libby app. In the app, you can download e-books or audiobooks at no cost! 
• The Fairfax County Public Library is hosting a Winter Reading Adventure through January 31, 2024. Participants earn prizes for reading books or completing activities. 
• Fairfax libraries also have a Winter Reading Events webpage to learn about laser tag, movie nights, crafting sessions, book discussions, and an event with Newberry Award winner Amina Luqman Dawson.

Thanks to the teachers and parents/caregivers who submitted their ideas! If you would like to suggest an activity to add to the list, please email your submission to [email protected]. 

We are unable to share every submission, but we appreciate all of them!