Time to cozy up with our list of winter-themed books to read in class. 

From delightful winter picture books to nonfiction titles about snowy animals, check out these winter and holiday-themed books in the Reading Eggs Library! 

We've even added post-activity ideas teachers can do after reading each book. 

Winter and Holiday-Themed Books for Early Readers 

Is That A Yeti? by Jane Clarke 

Book band: Yellow | Lexile Level: 150 

“There is a yeti in the snow. Can you see it? Where did it go?”  

Two children go on a hunt for a yeti only to discover that it’s someone close to them. A fun winter story to introduce young readers to adjectives such as tall, hairy, big, scary, and verbs jump, run, play and fun. Beautifully illustrated, Is that a Yeti? is a book for early readers, suitable for ages 5 to 6. 

Is There a Yeti? Follow-up Activity Ideas   

Plan a Yeti-inspired word hunt with your class. Print out labels of adjectives and verbs used in the book and hide them in the classroom before reading the story. Split your class into groups so students can work as a team.  

Once all words have been collected, encourage students to classify them according to the same word sound. This helps them to recognise rhyming words in the book, e.g., snow and go, hairy and scary, no and go, run and fun, tree and see. 

Quiggle Sees Snow by Katy Pike 

Book band: Green | Lexile Level: 250 

“Blink, blink. That’s very white,” Quiggle said.  

As Quiggle discovers snow for the first time, Meerkat comes along and shows Quiggle all the wonderful things they can do with snow. From leaving footprints to making snow angels, this snow-filled story is best for young readers aged 6 and above. 

Quiggle Sees Snow: Follow-up Activity Ideas 

Ask students what snow is, and what they like about it. Then embark on some art and craft. Just like Quiggle, get students to make their own snowmen or snow angels using ‘snow-like’ materials such as cotton balls, felt and wool. 

Building a Snowman by Carolyn Kisloski 

Book band: Green | Lexile Level: 260 

“Let’s build a snowman. I’ll roll a big snowball. You roll a little one.”  

This interactive book is about two friends working together to build a snowman using items that they have in their house. The book includes motivational tips for teachers at the start, and a list of vocabulary words that are used throughout the story. A great read for children ages 4 to 7. 

Building a Snowman: Follow-up Activity Ideas  

Print out labels of the words used in the book and bring some of the items used in the story to the class, e.g., coins, a scarf, bananas, sticks, and a wallet. Ask students to match the items to the right words and ask where each of these items can be found in their home. Or conduct an art activity, such as drawing a Christmas tree or snowman. 

Bella Does Christmas

Book band: Turquoise | Lexile Level: 370 

Follow Bella the ginger kitten as she prepares decorations, play games, sings Christmas carols, and bakes cookies. Packed with colourful illustrations, the adventures of Bella make wonderful read-aloud stories for preschoolers. Suitable for children 3 to 6 years old.  

Bella Does Christmas: Follow-up Activity Ideas 

Ask your little readers what their favourite Christmas activity is from the book and do it together as a class! Watch them make their own Christmas card or decorations to bring home. For music and movement, dance and sing along to Christmas songs. Or why not teach basic science and maths concepts through a Christmas cookie baking session in class?

Winter Books For Young Readers 

Tuva by Nick Gowar 

Book band: Purple | Lexile Level: 550 

Meet Tuva, the brave and bold sled dog! He pulls the packed sled through snowy blizzards and across mountains of ice, protecting his master and the other dogs in the pack from danger. Even when a great polar bear challenges him to a fight, Tuva doesn’t back down. This short fiction is suitable for newly independent readers, suitable for children 5 to 7 years old. 

There’s even a short quiz at the end of each book to assess your students' understanding. Students can earn golden eggs by doing these quizzes to redeem more games and activities within Reading Eggs.

All books from the Library come with a comprehension quiz at the end. These are short quizzes of 5 or 10 questions to assess if students have understood what they have read.

Tuva: Follow-up Activity Ideas  

Ask your class what they like about Tuva the best. Find out more about real sled dogs in Norway and the history behind it. Share videos on YouTube to watch with the class. For science ideas, why not learn about snow, i.e., how snow is made and why it only snows in winter.   

There are also rhyming words on each page, e.g., fight and night, bold and cold, learn and turn, sky and high. Get students to spot rhyming words on each page and talk about the sounds that make these words rhyme. At the end, print out the words and paste them onto the class word wall.  

Winter by Anne Rooney  

Book band: Turquoise | Lexile Level: 430 

“Winter is the coldest time of year. But there is always lots to see and do.”

An informational text about winter, this book teaches children about changes in the environment. For example, water freezes in the cold weather and turns to ice. It includes a longer, less structured text with a more flexible vocabulary. Suitable for ages 5 to 6.  

Winter: Follow-up Activity Ideas  

Conduct a fun science experiment with the class and learn about the different water states. Make colourful ice cubes by mixing water and food colouring and pour them in an ice cube tray. Ask your students how the water looks and feels.

When the water has frozen, ask them what happened to the water to spark their thinking. Place the ice over a piece of white cardstock/cardboard paper and watch it melt to create splashes of colour on the paper.  

Keeping Warm in Winter by Stephen Rickard 

Book band: Purple | Lexile Level: 450 

Keeping Warm in the Winter shows different animals and how they keep warm in winter. From penguins to monkeys, this factual text is accompanied with photographs of animals. An informative book you can use to introduce the animal kingdom to young learners. Suitable for ages 9 to 13. 

Keeping Warm in Winter: Follow-up Activity Ideas 

Learn all about the animal kingdom. Introduce the different types of animals such as mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles and fish. Split your class into groups to do research on a specific type of animal using the computer. Next, ask them how they can classify the different animals in the book accordingly and how these animals keep warm in winter.  

Case of the Christmas Concert Catastrophe  

Book band: Lime | Lexile Level: 630 

Lyra is so excited for the Christmas concert that she has a hard time focusing on anything else - that is until someone starts sabotaging the decorations needed for the concert! But who would want to get the concert halted? Join the Gumshoe Gang at Watson Elementary as they solve the latest mystery.  

Blending mystery and the magic of Christmas, Case of the Christmas Concert Catastrophe is a great read with nine chapters. Suitable for students aged 8 and above.  

Case of the Christmas Concert Catastrophe: Follow-up Activity Ideas 

Use writing prompts and encourage students to write their own mystery stories. They can start off by creating a mystery out of a nursery rhyme. Did Humpty Dumpty really fall off the wall? Or did someone push him? Create a list of words used in the book, and challenge students if they can use these words to write their own mystery story.  

Winter Classics for Mature Readers 

There is no Christmas without these classic tales by Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Anderson. Published by Blake Publishing, these Christmas tales are re-told in short chapters. Suitable for children 9 to 11 years old. 

The Snow Queen - Book band: Dark blue | Lexile Level: 810  The Little Match Girl - Book band: Dark red | Lexile Level: 970  A Christmas Carol - Book band: Black | Lexile Level: 1090 

Winter Classics: Follow-up Activity Ideas 

Ask your students to write a short review of the story. What did they like and didn’t like about it? If there was one thing they could change about the story, what would it be?  

Did you know? The Reading Journal in Reading Eggs allows students to write their comments and reviews of books they’ve read. This not only supports their comprehension of texts and understanding of their own preferences, it inspires them to trust and develop their opinions and ideas. 

Create Winter Book Collections 

Use Reading Eggs in school? Find these winter and holiday-themed titles and more using the advanced search and filter functions in the Reading Eggs Library or your Teacher Library.  

Here’s how you can create a winter book collection to send home with your students in five easy steps. 

Step 1: From your teacher console, click ‘Teacher Library’, then click ‘Find a Book’. 

Step 2: Search for a title using the search bar or filter by category, year or grade level, Lexile level and more.  

Step 3: Click the ‘+' plus button above the book then select ‘CREATE NEW COLLECTION’ and name your collection. This Collection will now appear in the dropdown list so you can keep adding more titles. 

Step 4: Share the Collection with your students! Select ‘My Collections’, find the Collection you wish to share and click the ‘SHARE’ icon.  

Step 5: Select individual students or ‘All’ then scroll down to choose when you’d like to share the Collection and for how long. Then hit ‘Share’. 

Now when your students visit the Library, they’ll see the Collection you’ve shared as a bundle of books on top of the librarian’s desk.