• 31 brain breaks
  • Checked October 2026

Winter Brain Breaks for Kids

Every press brings a winter sport to act out, a snow move or a snowman game, already timed.

Winter Brain Breaks for Kids

Show all 31
  1. Crack in the ice1 minute. You are crossing a frozen pond on tiptoe, on the spot. When the teacher taps a desk, that is a crack: freeze with your arms out and do not even blink. Move again only when the teacher whispers go. On the third crack, take one big leap to the shore.

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All 31 brain breaks

Winter sports 8

  • Cross-country ski 1 minute. Slide one foot forward along the floor while the opposite arm swings forward with its pole, then change sides. Make each glide long and smooth, 20 in all. For the uphill part, turn your toes out and take 10 short stamping steps. Then glide 20 more down the far side.
  • Curling sweep 2 minutes. In curling, one player slides a heavy stone along the ice and teammates sweep in front of it. Lunge forward and let a pretend stone go from one hand. Then sweep the floor ahead of it with fast, short strokes of a pretend broom for 8 steps on the spot. The teacher calls sweep and stop.
  • Fish through the ice 2 minutes. First drill the hole: hold a pretend drill upright and turn the handle 10 times, bending your knees lower as it cuts. Drop a line in. Wait for a count of 5 with your hands tucked under your arms. When the line twitches, pull it up hand over hand for 10 pulls.
  • Goalie saves 1 minute. Stand in the net with your knees bent and your hands out. The teacher calls where the puck is going: high left, high right, low left, low right, or between the knees. Reach or step to block it, then snap back to ready. Make 12 saves, and the last 3 come fast.
  • Hockey slap shot 1 minute. Hold a pretend hockey stick in two hands. Slide the puck from side to side in front of your feet 10 times, with your eyes up. Draw the stick back, swing it through and follow the puck with your eyes into the net. Raise both arms. Take 3 shots from each side.
  • Ski jump 1 minute. Crouch at the top of the ramp with your arms back and your chest on your knees. The class counts 3, 2, 1. Spring up onto your tiptoes, lean forward with your arms by your sides and hold the flight for a count of 3. Land with one foot ahead of the other and both arms out. Jump 4 times.
  • Snowboard turns 1 minute. Stand sideways with your feet wide and your knees bent, as if on a board. Rock back onto your heels for one turn, then up onto your toes for the next. Link 10 turns down the hill. At the bottom, hop a quarter turn and ride back up the other way.
  • Snowshoe walk 1 minute. Your pretend snowshoes are wide. Walk on the spot with your feet apart and your knees lifting high, 10 steps. Turn around in 8 tiny steps without crossing your feet. Walk 10 steps back.

Snow and ice moves 11

  • Blizzard walk 1 minute. Walk on the spot into a strong wind: lean forward, lift one arm to shield your face and take slow, heavy steps. The teacher calls which side the wind is on, and you lean into it. On the call of gust, hold the back of your chair with both hands until it passes.
  • Build a snow fort 2 minutes. Pack a block of pretend snow between your hands, lift it and set it down in front of you. Lay 4 blocks in a row for the bottom of the wall, then 4 on top of them and 4 on top of those, reaching higher each time. Duck behind your wall, then peek over the top.
  • Catch a snowflake 1 minute. Snow is falling all around you. Cup one hand and catch a flake high on your left, then one low on your right, then one behind you. Catch 10 without moving your feet. Look closely at the last one in your palm, count to 3 and watch it disappear.
  • Crack in the ice 1 minute. You are crossing a frozen pond on tiptoe, on the spot. When the teacher taps a desk, that is a crack: freeze with your arms out and do not even blink. Move again only when the teacher whispers go. On the third crack, take one big leap to the shore.
  • Frosty window 2 minutes. A pretend window in front of you is covered in frost. Breathe on it, then draw one simple picture on it with a fingertip, large and slow: a boot, a star, a fish. Your neighbor watches and names the picture. Wipe the glass with your sleeve and swap.
  • Ice sculptor 3 minutes. Work with a partner. One is a block of ice, standing still. The other is the sculptor, who never touches the ice but points to a part and shows how it should move: an arm up, a knee bent, the head tilted. After 6 changes, the sculptor names the statue. Then swap.
  • Mitten hands 2 minutes. Mittens keep four fingers together, so hold yours that way with only your thumbs free. Now try these with mitten hands: pick up a pencil, turn one page of a book, pull up a pretend zipper, give a thumbs up and clap. Count how many of the 5 you managed.
  • The scarf that is too long 1 minute. Pick up one end of a very long pretend scarf and hold it at your chest. With your other arm, wind the scarf around your neck in big circles over your head, 5 times. It is still trailing on the floor, so change arms and wind 5 more. Then pull it all off, hand over hand, for 10 long pulls.
  • Shiver and thaw 30 seconds. Shiver for a count of 5: first only your hands, then your arms as well, then your whole body. Now warm up. Rub your arms, stamp each foot 5 times and blow into your cupped hands. Finish with one big stretch toward the ceiling.
  • Snowflake drift 1 minute. Stand tall with your arms up, a snowflake high in a cloud. Drift down as slowly as you can, turning as you sink and fluttering your fingers, until you land on the floor without a sound. When the teacher blows like the wind, rise up and drift down again.
  • Snowplow 1 minute. Hold both arms out in front with your hands together as the blade of a plow. Push the snow forward for 8 small steps, leaning into it. Back up 4 steps with a beep for each one. Turn to face a new wall and plow again until all 4 sides of your spot are clear.

Snowman games 6

  • Carrot, scarf, buttons 1 minute. You are the snowman: hat is the top of your head, carrot is your nose, scarf is your neck and buttons are your tummy. The teacher calls two parts in any order. Touch both, but always the lower one first, the way a snowman is built from the ground up. Then come calls of three, and the last call is all four.
  • Melted snowman 3 minutes. The sun came out. Draw what is left of a snowman after it has melted: a puddle, and in it everything that did not melt. Think about the hat, the nose, the arms and the buttons. Then draw one clue about what the weather is doing now.
  • Roll three snowballs 2 minutes. Start crouched, pushing a small pretend snowball along the floor with both hands. With every push it grows, so rise a little each time, until after 8 pushes it is as high as your chest. That is the bottom of the snowman. Roll a middle with 6 pushes and a head with 4.
  • Snowman by ear 3 minutes. Pencils ready. The teacher describes a snowman one step at a time, and the class draws it without seeing it: three snowballs, a square hat, five buttons, a striped scarf, the left arm up and the right arm down. Hold the drawings up together and look for the steps that were missed.
  • Three torn circles 3 minutes. Tear three circles out of scrap paper without drawing them first: one large, one medium and one small. Lay them on your desk as a snowman. Swap seats with a neighbor and add a face, buttons and arms to their snowman with a pencil.
  • Three-person snowman 3 minutes. Get into groups of three and stand in a line, one behind the other, facing the class. The front child crouches as the bottom snowball, the middle child stands with knees bent, and the back child stands tall as the head. Add two stick arms. Each group holds its snowman for a count of 5.

Draw at your desk 6

  • A pair of mittens 3 minutes. Draw two mittens side by side with their thumbs pointing toward each other. Decorate the first with stripes, zigzags or dots. Then pass the paper to a neighbor, who has to give the second mitten exactly the same pattern, so that the two make a pair. Hold up the pairs that match.
  • Everything but the snow 3 minutes. Draw a snowy scene by drawing only the things that are not snow. The paper is already white. Add the top of a fence, a bare branch, a row of footprints, a red nose, smoke from a chimney. Leave the rest blank, and let a neighbor say where the snow is deepest.
  • One word for January 3 minutes. A new year has started. Choose one word for something you want to get better at before summer, such as listening, fractions or kindness. Write it in the middle of the paper in letters as tall as your thumb, and decorate around it. Tell a neighbor why you picked it.
  • Six-arm snowflake 3 minutes. A snowflake is drawn with six arms. Draw three straight lines that cross at one point, like an asterisk. Add a small V to one arm, then add the same V in the same place on the other five. Keep adding one detail at a time to all six arms.
  • Three ski trails 3 minutes. Draw a hill from the side, with a hut at the top and a finish line at the bottom. Draw three trails down it: an easy one in wide gentle curves, a harder one with tight turns and the hardest as a steep zigzag between rocks. A neighbor skis each trail with a fingertip.
  • Window frost 3 minutes. Draw a window with four panes. Fill each pane with a different frost pattern: feathers in the first, ferns in the second, stars in the third and swirls in the fourth. Start every pattern from a corner and let it grow toward the middle of the pane.

How it works

These winter brain breaks for kids are read aloud, with no video: winter sports acted out beside the desk, snow and ice moves, snowman games and drawings. None of these winter themed brain breaks is about a holiday.

Read the full guide

Sports that need a caller

The winter sports are acted out on the spot, and two need the teacher to call: sweep and stop in Curling sweep, and where the puck is going in Goalie saves. Read the line aloud first. Its length comes first in the line, and the timer over it runs for that long.

January brain breaks, after the holidays

Winter sports, the first kind in the menu, holds eight, from Ski jump to Curling sweep. For a snow brain break in a small room, Catch a snowflake and Shiver and thaw need no space, and One word for January suits the first week back.

  • Mitten hands is a good one to try with real mittens on a day when the class has them.

Questions and answers

What is a good snowman brain break?

Carrot, scarf, buttons: the teacher calls parts of the snowman and the class touches where they go, the lowest first. Snowman games also holds Roll three snowballs, Three-person snowman and three for a pencil, such as Melted snowman.

Do these mention Christmas?

No. Nothing here is about a holiday: the list is snow, ice, mittens, snowmen and winter sports, so it suits any week of winter. The Christmas list is a separate page.

Which ones work when recess is indoors?

Winter sports are the active ones. Cross-country ski, Snowboard turns, Hockey slap shot and Goalie saves are done on the spot beside the desk, and each takes 1 minute. Fish through the ice and Curling sweep take 2.

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