Let's enjoy learning winter seasonal words! A collection of easy-to-use word ideas for elementary school students
Have you ever been told in a haiku or poetry class to “try using a winter season word,” and then felt unsure what to write? From familiar everyday things to natural phenomena, winter season words are full of expressions hidden in daily life.
In this article, we’ll introduce winter season words in a way that’s easy for elementary school students to understand.
We also explain their meanings and images, so it will surely help with homework or independent research.
Find your favorite season word and try creating your very own haiku!
- [Winter Haiku] A collection of poems written by elementary school students. Excellent works that skillfully use seasonal words.
- [Winter Haiku] A collection of poems composed by junior high school students: a beautiful and amusing anthology that vividly evokes scenes
- [For Elementary School Students] Turn Summer Memories into Haiku! A Collection of Fun Summer Haiku Ideas
- Picture Books to Read in Winter: A Collection of Story Ideas That Resonate with Elementary School Children
- Interesting four-character idioms for elementary schoolers! Words you'll want to use once you understand their meanings
- [Elementary School Students] Perfect for Kakizome! A Collection of Four-Character Idiom Ideas
- Recommended for elementary school students! Ideas for composing summer haiku
- [For Elementary Students] A Collection of Beautiful Four-Character Idioms to Know
- Learn the meanings too! Cool four-character idioms that elementary school students will want to remember
- Perfect for elementary school slogans! A collection of four-character idiom ideas you'll want to use
- For Elementary School Students: Four-Character Idioms You Can Use for New Year’s Resolutions — How to Set Cool Goals!
- Easy-to-remember, positive four-character idioms for elementary school kids! Words that brighten the heart
- A collection of gesture-game prompts for elementary school kids: fun ideas to liven up class parties and children's gatherings.
Let’s Have Fun Learning Winter Seasonal Words! A Collection of Easy-to-Use Word Ideas for Elementary School Students (21–30)
glovesNEW!
Gloves are items that warm your hands in the cold of winter and are often used as a seasonal word for winter.
On mornings when snow flurries fall or when you walk along roads turned white with frost, slipping on fluffy gloves makes your hands toasty and even warms your heart with a sense of comfort.
Children sometimes enjoy collecting various colorful gloves, too.
Used as a seasonal word in writing, it can express both winter’s chill and a cozy warmth.
Gloves are like a small winter magic that, along with the season’s cold, also brings back memories of warm moments with family and friends.
cold wintry windNEW!
The wintry wind known as kogarashi appears in the verses of many famous haiku poets.
Kogarashi is a cold, strong north wind that blows from late autumn into early winter.
It is said to have been named “kogarashi” because it scatters the leaves from the trees, making them look withered.
It can also be written as “凩” or “木枯.”
Although it was originally used as a season word for early autumn, its sound led to its establishment as a winter season word.
The haiku introduced here, “Kogarashi no hate wa arikeri umi no oto” (“At the end of the wintry wind, there it is—the sound of the sea”), is by the Edo-period haiku poet Ikenishi Gonsui, and depicts the kogarashi, having reached the unobstructed sea, turning into the roar of the surf and fading away.
Consider using it when writing about the cold of winter, the roughness of the sea, or the lives of people shaped by that wind.
icicleNEW!
Icicles are a winter tradition.
In kanji, they are written as “氷柱.” For those living in snowy or cold regions, icicles may be a familiar winter sight.
The word tsurara is said to derive from tsuranari (“a series/continuity”), evolving from tsuratsura, which describes things lined up smoothly.
In haiku, it is cherished as a winter season word.
“Ice pillars fall—after the sound, morning sun arrives” is a verse by the Japanese haiku poet Teijiro Shinoda.
The phrase “hyōchū otsu” (icicles fall) expresses the end of winter and the shifting of nature, letting us sense the approach of spring.
white breathNEW!
There are times in the cold season when your breath looks white, aren’t there? The scene of warming your chilled fingertips by breathing a warm “haa” into them in the biting cold is quintessentially wintry.
Shiroiki, literally “white breath,” refers to the way the water vapor in exhaled breath is cooled by low temperatures and cold air, making it appear white.
In the world of haiku, it is used as a winter kigo (season word) and is also rendered as “iki shiroshi” (“the breath is white”).
White breath captures both the wintry scene and the sensation of cold, and it’s a recommended, easy-to-use season word for haiku.
Beginning of WinterNEW!
The character 立 (ritsu) carries the meanings “to create anew” and “to begin,” and Rittō is a term that marks the start of winter.
Rittō is one of the 24 solar terms and falls around November 7 in the modern calendar.
Even though the colors of autumn still linger, the sunlight weakens, dusk comes earlier, and hands and feet feel chilly in the mornings and evenings.
This term is read “Rittō,” and on the calendar it signifies the beginning of winter from that day.
In the world of haiku, it is also used as a winter season word.
Why not use this kigo when composing verses about the transition from autumn to winter?