The Winter Solstice in 2022 will happen on 21st of December and with all primary schools breaking for the Winter Break it is an opportune time to learn a little more about this beautiful festival! We are on the countdown so why not start preparing to teach this in December?
What is the Winter Solstice?
December 21, the winter solstice, is considered the first official day of winter. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year. The days get longer as winter progresses. In the Northern Hemisphere, it also marks the day when the sun is farthest to the south.
Winter brings up so many nice, cosey images of snuggling under blankets in front of a roaring fire while the snow softly falls outside. The Winter Solstice, therefore, is a perfect springboard for learning in the primary school. It integrates well into the curriculum subjects of Language, maths, science, geography, history, art, music, drama, ethical education and even Physical Education!
Winter Solstice activities in the primary classroom
I have scanned and scoured the web and found some excellent links and lesson ideas that will fit into all of your curriculum planning.
Read, write, think
This is just an excellent website for teachers to get their ideas on any topic really but they have a full overview of what the Solstice is and it details language and vocab activities with interactive Venn diagrams and Postcard creators for your students to enjoy while learning about the Solstice.
https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/winter-northern-hemisphere
National Geographic Kids
This article takes the Solstice from a history curriculum perspective and gives a child-friendly description of the Solstice with beautiful photos of ancient solstice sites including Newgrange.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/winter-solstice
Winter Festivals
Winter Festivals are really fun! National Geographic Kids gives a nice summary of winter festivals like the more well-known ones like Hanukkah and Christmas to lesser- well known ones like Kwannza.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/pages/topic/winter-celebrations
Picture Books
There are a huge amount of winter-y picture books out there nad Reading Rockets lists some of the nicest ones here that are not necessarily religion focused but more winter-themed.
https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/let-it-snow
Watch the Solstice!
Newgrange Visitor Centre runs a lottery every year for observers to watch the sun rise for the Solstice. I have often put this on with my class for them to see it.
https://www.newgrange.com/solstice-lottery.htm
All subjects covered
The Kids connect website gives a real SESE focus to what the Solstice is and then gives plenty of activities for art, music, language all connected with the Solstice.
https://kidskonnect.com/articles/winter-solstice-for-kids/
Last day dilemmas
The Little Bins for Little hands has you covered for those fun arty and STEAM activities that are great to have ready for the last few days of term before the Solstice and Winter break. They have art ideas like lanterns and snowflake activities along with colouring sheets to print out.
https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/winter-solstice-activities-kids/
Lesson plans
The Teaching English website has a wonderful lesson plan for 3rd to 6th Class. Really great for language inclusion with a really nice link to an online reading book and digital worksheets.
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/solstice
Science
If you want to approach the Solstice from a purely scientific lens, then the Guardian Teacher Network really hones in on this subject.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/dec/19/winter-solstice-teaching-sun-moon
PE
And finally, I said at the beginning of this article you can teach your PE lesson through the Solstice! Here is a website that gives you all the fundamental movements for the Solstice. Yoga and flexibility is key here!
Whatever way you choose to mark the Winter Solstice, I think you can agree it is an important and interesting one for the primary school!
And this is not enough, mash.ie have over 250 teacher-made winter resources in the area of Aistear and art to poetry! https://mash.ie/?target=search&mode=search&substring=winter&including=all You have no excuse really!