Bring some winter fun into your phonics time with these Winter Phonics Mystery Picture Puzzles! Your students will love discovering each hidden winter scene while strengthening phonics and encoding skills. Perfect for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade students in literacy centers, small groups, or independent phonics review, these puzzles make Science of Reading-aligned practice both purposeful and playful!

✅ What’s Included

• This set features 5 fun winter-themed mystery puzzles for each of the 10 phonics skills:

  • CVC words

  • CVCe words

  • Digraphs

  • Welded/Glued Sounds

  • FLOSS rule

  • Beginning blends

  • Ending blends

  • R-controlled vowels

  • Vowel teams

  • Diphthongs

• Each puzzle activity includes two pages:

  • Puzzle Mat – pictures
    

  • Puzzle Pieces Sheet – features the words on pieces of the winter scene to cut and match to the puzzle mat

Students read the words, match them to the correct pictures, and reveal a mystery winter scene as they work!

• Optional Recording Sheets for Encoding Practice

  • To support multiple learning levels and writing needs, this resource includes 3 versions of a recording sheet:

    • Blank

    • Blank with primary writing lines

    • Sound boxes with primary lines for guided phoneme-grapheme mapping

• Answer key is included for easy checking!

✅ How are the activities set up?

• All phonics skills included are mixed, with the exception of vowel teams and diphthongs. This means CVC words, CVCe words, digraphs, welded/glued sounds, FLOSS words, beginning blends, ending blends, and r-controlled vowels have all vowels and spellings represented in each of the puzzles.

  • There are 5 sheets for vowel teams and diphthongs:

    • Vowel Team sheet one: ai/ay

    • Vowel Team sheet two: ee/ea

    • Vowel Team sheet four: igh/ie

    • Vowel Team sheet three: oa/ow/oe

    • Vowel Team sheet five: mixed

    • Diphthongs sheet one: au/aw

    • Diphthongs sheet two: oi/oy

    • Diphthongs sheet three: ou/ow

    • Diphthongs sheet four: ew/oo

    • Diphthongs sheet five: mixed

✅ Skills & Standards Covered

• Decoding and encoding phonics patterns

• Word recognition and spelling

• Fine motor skills through cutting and gluing

• Orthographic mapping and phonemic awareness

✅ Why Teachers Love It

• Perfect blend of fun and phonics fluency

• Great for centers, morning work, or intervention

• Differentiated options for independent or guided practice

• Supports Science of Reading-aligned instruction

• Keeps students engaged with hands-on, mystery-picture fun!

⭐ Teachers love how these phonics puzzles make decoding, spelling, and word mapping feel like a game—all while keeping phonics instruction intentional and effective!

* Note: This activity is not editable. *

✨ Looking for more resources like this? Check out The Sweet Life of Primary!