Free Printable Educational Crossword Puzzles

Looking for free printable crossword puzzles and word games for classroom lesson plans, homeschool and school homework. Here are thousands of free printable educational games, crossword puzzles, word games and word search puzzles. Teacher Vision has many free printable crossword puzzles on all sorts of subjects. You can print crossword puzzles for science, literature, social studies, math, fine arts, history, geography and other lessons. Education world has free printable math crossword puzzles.

Student Handouts is an awesome website with many educational games, puzzles school and homeschool printables galore. Here are free printable word search puzzles and word games for history, holidays, final exams content, art and other school subjects. There are also blank puzzle grids to make your own word search games based on specific content you're teaching. Speaking of making your own crossword puzzles, Discovery World offers free puzzle generator software for teachers and home educators. Education is mostly a pay website, but there are plenty of sample educational games and free printable word games and puzzles. Houghton-Mifflin Eduplace has free printable science crossword puzzles that correlate to textbooks.

TSL books offers a bunch of free printable word search puzzles, educational games and activities on different themes and content. Enchanted Learning has countless free printable puzzles on an assortment of subjects for grades preschool to upper elementary. Word games include crossword, word search, fill in the blank, cloze and a nifty kind you don't see very often--rebus. Rebus puzzles use pictures in place of words, like hieroglyphics. Rebus puzzles are educational games and excellent for teaching emergent reading skills.

Free Prinntable Kwanzaa Lesson Plans and Activities

Habari Gani? This is the Swahili greeting given at Kwanzaa, the least known but fastest-growing of the winter holidays. When you greet someone with Habari Gani? you are asking "what's the news?" Kwanzaa--meaning "first fruits of the harvest"--celebrates family, community and culture. Kwanzaa is celebrated for seven days, from December 26 to January 1. In the seven days there are seven principles that people aim for. Here's the list in Swahili and English, plus free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, Swahili worksheets, African crafts and games.

The seven Kwanzaa principles are--"umoja" meaning unity, "kujichagulia" or self-determination, knowing one's self. Ujima means working collectively and being socially responsible. "ugamaa" refers to cooperative economics and bartering for the common good (instead of selfishly undercutting for one's personal gain). "Nia" is sense of purpose and "kuumba" is creativity. Over it all is "imani" or trust and faith.

The symbols of Kwanzaa include seven candles or "mishumaa" in Swahili. There are 3 red, 3 green, 1 black cancle which together represent Kwanzaa's seven principles. These are placed in a kinara, a candle holder, representing a stalk of corn. This ceremonial holder shows people grow in families from the earth. The Kwanzaa candle holders look similar to a Jewish menorah.. The "mkeka" is a straw place mat, recalling tradition and history. Placed on the mat are a variety of fruit, symbolizing harvest called the mazao. The "vibunzi" is an ear of corn. One is given to each child, celebrating the child's potential (what they can become). The "kikombe cha umoja" is a cup of unity, which recalls the ancestors.

Children are given simple but significant gifts at Kwanzaa. The purpose is to develop creativity, potential and success. Gifts, in Swahili are called "zawadi." Use these free educational resources to explore Kwanzaa. Habari Gani? Offers a wonderful history, perspective and collections of free printable Kwanzaa activities and African crafts. About Homeschooling has a large selection of free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, games, Swahili puzzles and African crafts Kwanzaa.

ABC Teach has free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans for elementary subjects: math, reading, social studies, history and writing. Many are inter-disciplinary or cross-cultural. There are links for crafts, vocabulary, and more. Mr. Donn has developed a large collection of free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans Swahili worksheets and African crafts all focused upon Black or African American history. He has made many free printable lessons. Making Friends has free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, crafts and African crafts.

Free Printable Little House on the Prairie Lesson Plans

If you were a girl growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, you read and loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and her  Little House on the Prairie book series. Maybe you were lucky to have the handsome boxed set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Then you loved the Little House on the Prairie TV series when it came out. Long before "Pioneer Woman" and settler survival type reality TV shows, there was Laura Ingalls Wilder and her stories about life in the 1880s midwest.

But teachers and homeschool parents, you don't have to wait for that film. Now you can bring early American history into your social studies lessons with free printable Laura Ingalls Wilder book activities. Get free printable American history lesson plans book activities from the seven books in the series. The series begins with "Little House in the Big Woods" when Laura is five and was written over a period from 1932-1943. But going in chronological order "Farmer Boy"comes first. It's based on childhood memories of Laura's father Charles Ingalls. Next comes "Little House on the Prairie", "On the Banks of Plum Creek", "By the Shores of Silver Lake", "The Long Winter", "Little Town on the Prairie" and "These Happy Golden Years." "The First Four Years" (stories from Laura's early married life). didn't come out till 1971 and I clearly remember the big deal that was, and later when "West from Home" (not part of the original series) came out in 1974.

The publication of these books sparked renewed interest in early American history and pioneer lore. My mother first read Little House in the Big Woods to me when I was near Laura's age in the story. Laura Ingalls Wilder had a gift for story-telling to match her fascinating life. I purchased the rest of the series, one by one and read them. I later read the Little House on the Prairie books to my own children and used them in our homeschool. The Little House books make perfect American history activities and social studies lesson plans on the life of American pioneers.

The website Laura's Prairie House calls itself the Definitive Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. The site has dozens of free printable American history and book activities, crafts, recipes and coloring pages. These books help social studies teachers explore the difference between American pioneers and settlers. Pioneers were trail blazers who built new towns and settlements. Settlers moved into these areas and settled them. Laura Ingalls Wilder's family, both the her parents Charles and Caroline Ingalls and her husband Almanzo Wilder were settlers and pioneers. They brought customs and traditions with them from the New England towns they lived in and they formed many new traditions based on the areas they settled.

There are free printable Little House in the Big Woods lesson plans, crafts, games and book activities. There are free printable Little House on the Prairie book activities and free On the Banks of Plum Creek printables. There are recipes for maple candy, johnny cake, parched corn, cornbread, vinegar pie, horehound candy and other foods Laura features in her books. Other sites feature moreLittle House free printables You can print American history crafts, recipes, sheet music and lyrics from songs as well as complete episode guides and links from the Little House on the Prairie television show. Laura's Prairie Home features comprehensive biographical data on the Ingalls and Wilder families and links to historic locations and preservation sites where they lives.