Winter Break Learning Activities for All Ages

December 22, 2025 byConnections Academy

6 min to read

Mom and son making sugar cookies in the kitchen during the Christmas holiday.

While students often welcome winter break because it gives them time to take a short time away from school, many parents worry that these few weeks off could lead to unintended learning loss.

To help overcome those fears, we have compiled a list of fun winter break activities for students of any grade level to help keep them on track before starting classes again in the new year.

Why Learning During Winter Break Is Important?

Research shows that children can lose about two months' worth of learning over the summer break. While a short two or three weeks in December likely won't have the same impact as three months of summer vacation, some families may still be concerned about the impact winter break can have on a child’s reading, writing, math, and other learning skills.

By making time for winter break learning activities, families can help keep their student’s skills sharp while having fun and still taking a break away from formal class instruction.

Winter Break Activities for Elementary Students

Candy Science

Start by placing colorful hard candies around a plate. Then pour some hot water in the middle. Se sure there is enough water that it just reaches the candy but doesn’t drown them.

In a few seconds, the colors will start to come off, making beautiful rainbow art! Since the coating on hard candies is made of mostly sugar and food coloring, the warm water causes the color and sugar to dissolve and diffuse through the water. Families can encourage their child to try different patterns to challenge their student to make their own art.

Visit a Children’s Museum

Schedule a family day trip to a natural history museum, aquarium, zoo, or botanical garden. Families can let their student lead the trip to help spark their student’s natural curiosity. Find a museum locally or, if weather or time isn’t permitting, try a virtual field trip to a museum instead.

Bake Together

The holidays are a time for sweet and savory treats. Families can take advantage of delicious winter recipes to indulge in a little math and science with their elementary school students. While baking holiday cookies or making a family recipe, kids can try doubling the batch to help practice measurements, fractions, and logical thinking.

Winter Break Activities for Middle School Students

Attend a Winter Camp

Camp isn’t just for summer! Your local parks and recreation department or local library may offer short-term camps or activity days for children during their winter break. These can provide great opportunities to learn new skills while making new friends and to build their social, collaborative, and communication skills while engaging with their community.

Two young females on an ice rink in pink coats ice skating and enjoying a snowy winter day.

Make Handmade Holiday Cards and Thank You Notes

To help keep writing skills sharp, families can encourage their children to send holiday cards or thank you notes to family, friends, and other important people in their lives. Not only will this small writing practice help children with their vocabulary, organizing their thoughts, and work on their penmanship, but they can also use this time to express what they are thankful for from throughout the year and what they appreciate in others. Writing thank you notes and cards to the important people in their lives can help them feel more satisfied overall.

Go on a Family Hike or Explore Nature

Combine education and exercise in one activity by going on a hike. If the weather permits, families can take time to go out in nature and explore the plants and animals in the local area. Families can encourage their student to look up plants, birds, or historical landmarks beforehand and play tour guide for the day to help practice their speaking and presentation skills.

Winter Break Activities for High School Students

Try STEAM Projects

For high school students interested in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), winter break can be the perfect time to learn a new skill. While a few weeks may not be enough time to master a STEAM topic, but that is enough time to get a taste of a new topic that they may have always been interested in. Families can invest in small, inexpensive building kits that can allow students to create their own robots, learn coding basics, or build model kits. Alternatively, there are also online courses through platforms like Coursera or Credly that let students earn micro-credentials online to boost their college resumes or find new career passions.

Read a Book for Fun

When school is in session, students are busy reading for their classes. Why not encourage them to read for fun during winter break? Let them choose a book that interests them and have them devote time each day during their break just to read. Families can even get involved themselves by creating a winter break reading bingo challenge or other reading game to make independent reading more fun.

Develop a Personal Curriculum

Personal curriculums are a way for students to give themselves small, short-term assignments to learn or improve at anything that interests them but are structured in a way that is similar to what they would experience in school. A personal curriculum could be anything from learning to play chess to practicing the alphabet in ASL—the choice is entirely up to the student! To develop a personal curriculum, students can work with their families to find books, videos, or other resources to learn more about their chosen topic. At the end of winter break, students can show their family and friends all they have learned.

Tips for Parents and Learning Coaches

It can be hard for families to create a balance between letting their student take a break and keeping up with their regular learning routines during winter break—and that’s okay.

The key to preventing burnout and learning loss is to make sure students are having fun while they learn.

Allow students to take the lead. If they need to rest, let them rest. If they are bored, guide them toward fun activities to build their skills.

Don’t leave planning until the last minute. Before winter break begins, work with the student to create a list of fun activities they would like to do, as well as activities in the community to put on the calendar.

Keep a regular schedule. To make sure students start the new semester on the best foot, try to encourage them to keep to their normal routine, including scheduling time for studying, moving around, and waking up and going to sleep around the same time as they would during the school year.