Free Printable Earthquake Lesson Plans, Earth Science, Emergency Preparedness Lessons

April and May kick off severe weather season in the northern hemisphere. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, hail, lightning and thunder storms are all in the spring forecast. Here are educational movies on earth science, severe weather phenomena, geology and natural disasters. Use these great educational movies for science lessons and severe weather exploration? Educational movies include links for free printables to follow up earth science lessons. These educational movies cover many aspects of earth science in an exciting, visceral way.

"Twister" (1996, Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt) This is one of the action-adventure educational movies on severe weather. In heart-pounding action from start to finish, Twister uses mid 1990s computer generation to show the action of tornadoes in a believable way. Twister shows two storm chasing teams compete to develop accurate tornado tracking and monitoring devices. The cheesy little back-burner love triangle between storm chasers doesn't detract from the main concept of this geology thriller, For free printables on earth science lessons and follow up activities from Twister, click here. Here's are more free printables on tornadoes.

"Vertical Limit" (2000 Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Scott Glenn) In Vertical Limit, climbers attempt to scale K-2 one of the largest Everest mountains peaks. When one team gets separated and trapped the others must attempt a rescue during a brutal storm. Vertical Limit shows severe weather conditions a top the mountains as well as the effects of high altitude on the human body. Vertical Limit in earth science lessons on geology and avalanches. For free printables of earth science lessons on Vertical Limit and click here.

"The Day After Tomorrow" is one of the sci-fi severe weather educational movies. But kids can still learn about global warming and how it causes severe weather and natural disasters. Students can learn vital earth science lessons on the water cycle and development of severe weather patterns.

"When the Levees Broke" and other Hurricane Katrina documentaries show the devastation of natural disasters on an urban area. Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 25-29, 2005, was one of the worst natural disasters in the U.S. Students learn earth science lessons on hurricanes, storm surges and floods. Here are earth science lessons and printables on Hurricane Katrina and other severe weather natural disasters. Click here for other Hurricane Katrina lesson plans.

"The Perfect Storm" (2000 George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly) The crew of a small fishing boat is caught off the shores of Glouchester, Massachusetts between two huge storm systems, The Perfect Storm filmography is intense. This is one of the best action educational movies on the use of radar in severe weather study. Preview The Perfect Storm to edit out superfluous and crude parts that are not necessary to the plot. The Perfect Storm in based upon the book by the same name by Sebastian Junger. Here are free printables on earth science lessons from The Perfect Storm.

Free Printable Day of the Dead Crafts, Lessons and Activities

El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, commemorates the lives of beloved dead. Day of the Dead is the Latino version of Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day, November 1 and 2. Dia de los Muertos traditions include creating family altars to honor the dead, visiting loved ones' graves and having picnics at the cemetery to be near the departed. Human skulls and skeletons are integral Dia de los Muertos symbols. Items are designed to look like skulls: candles, food and sugar skulls. People paint their faces to represent a skull (called a calavera). Some Halloween traditions developed from Day of the Dead but unlike Halloween, Day of the Dead isn't about scaring people. It's a religious holiday, culminating the Catholic holy days with pre-Columbian Aztec, Mixtec, Olmec and Toltec rituals of Mexico. If you need free printable Day of the Dead lesson plans to teach students about this popular cultural holiday, read on. Use the for homeschooled, public and parochial schooled kids.

Tiki Chris at Flickr has designed awesome free printable skull patterns from one basic skull template. Print these in black and white for students to color. Or print the basic skull template and have a calavera skull decorating contest! This would make an excellent art or social studies project. Using one basic pattern, students can exhibit their creativity in design. Kids will love making connections with this beautiful heritage art from Mexico.

QuestConnect.org has free printable Dia de los Muertos lesson plans and activities to thoroughly explore the Day of the Dead. Make papel picado banners, sugar skulls and skeleton crafts. Kids can learn the geography and culture of Mexico with an Oaxaca puzzle. Arty Ness has free printable Day of the Dead coloring pages, art projects, crafts with skeletons and skulls and more. Mr. Donn has a plethora of free printable Dia de Los Muertos lesson plans and activities. Use these for history, culture, geography and social studies lesson plans for middle school age kids.

Enchanted Learning has free Day of the Dead lesson plans to print. A-Z Central has a whole website devoted to Dia de los Muertos activities. Print and make crafts. Listen to music. Learn about the culture of Mexico. Play games. Learn to make recipes and foods from Mexico. National Geographic has vocabulary lessons on Day of the Dead. There's an awesome picture gallery.

Many parents, particularly Christian parents, don't celebrate Halloween. But don't mistake Day of the Dead skull for Halloween and ignore this rich, cultural festival. And don't let the skulls and skeletons freak you out. They show honor to the dead, not ghoulish fascination with death. These are as reverently handled as the nativity scenes at Christmas. And educators, if you teach ESL, please consider hosting a Day of the Dead party for students. It's good to learn about each other's cultures plus it makes Hispanic students feel more at home.

Free Printable Sukkot Lesson Plans for Jewish Kids

Sukkot is the Jewish harvest holiday. It starts in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, four days after Yom Kippur. In the western calendar it begins early fall and lasts for seven days. In 2015, Sukkot begins at sundown on September 27 ends October 4. It's also known as the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. Based on a Biblical injunction, during Sukkot, Jews build outdoor huts called "sukkahs. They live, eat, pray and perform ceremonies using the "four species"--etrog (citron or lemon), lulav (palm fronds), willow twig (aravot) and myrtle twigs (hadassim). Here are free printable Sukkot lesson plans, Jewish activities to teach children about Hebrew holidays.

Torah Tots is a good place to start for things Jewish for kids. It has free printable Succot activities, crafts, lesson plans, coloring pages, recipes, songs, prayers and Parsha (scripture) readings. Children will enjoy playing online games, too. Look for all Jewish holiday activities here. The fall ones include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, then Succot (another spelling), Shmini Atzeret, Simchat Torah and Chanukah. DLTK has free printable Jewish crafts for younger children based on general Hebrew themes. The Lookstein Center for Jewish Studies has a comprehensive list of free printable Sukkot lesson plans for older children.

Chabad is another great resource for Jewish families. Here are free printable Sukkot coloring pages, prayers, recipes, games, crafts and activities. Tips for building a sukkah are included, as well as activities to explore Sukkot and other Hebrew holy days. Jewish Homeschool has a plethora of free Hebrew holiday printables, including some for Sukkot. There are homeschool helps, too. Judaism 101 has free printable Sukkot prayers and kaddish (blessings) to observe a proper festival.

Free Printable Columbus Day Activities, medieval maritime, navigation lesson plans

Columbus Day is celebrated on October 12. In school, kids study the voyages and exploration of Christopher Columbus. But you can study American history on any U.S. holiday--Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July or Labor day. Re-discover American history--or discover it anew if you've never paid attention before. 

The best place to start is at the beginning, which usually assumed to be with the discovery of the "New World" by Christopher Columbus. The land now called "America" didn't start when the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus stumbled upon it. Christopher Columbus wasn't even the first European to find it and he certainly wasn't the first world traveler to. 

St. Brendan and the Vikings beat him to it. Christopher Columbus is credited with discovery of the New World because he brought attention to it as no one had before. Here are free printable Christopher Columbus lessons on world explorers, colonial expansion, early mapmaking and navigation.

Garden of Praise says that Christopher Columbus was from Genoa in Italy. He was part of the massive push by world explorers to discover unknown regions. Columbus's real skills lay in mapmaking and marine navigation. Check out these awesome free printable medieval navigation tools like the ones Columbus would have used. 

Experiment with the sextant, astrolabe, kamal, cross-staff and quadrant. Bear in mind, these tools were the keys to unlocking the secrets of the unknown world. Many world explorers were looking for a new trade route to the West Indies. And the only way to get the spices, silk, opium and trade goods was to sail east. This was a long, hard trip and 99 percent died trying. So Columbus decided to do something new and (most agreed) crazy.

As navigation and mapmaking expert, Columbus studied geography inside and out. He would try going west to get to the east. He would avoid the whole Straits of Magellan mess and try getting to the West Indies through the back door. But people believed that the world was flat. No one knew what was in the west sea. People thought Columbus had gone berserk. "You'll fall off from the earth!" they said. (Students, if you like to be different, like Columbus, check out those earlier links for free printable navigation and mapmaking his way.)

Ocean voyages also cost a lot of money, so Columbus needed a royal patron to sponsor the trip. But no one wanted to invest in his nutty scheme and he had a hard time convincing anyone to lend him the money. Finally, Columbus asked Queen Isabella I of Spain. That good lady wanted more land for her empire so even though everyone thought Columbus was wrong to sail west, the queen agreed to help. Columbus assembled three ships with crew and supplies. He named them Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria after the Blessed Virgin and Child Jesus. He hoped they would bless his journey.

The three ships set sail from Palos, Spain on August 3, 1492. On October 11, Columbus got a major surprise when he bumped smack dab into a chunk of land he hadn't expected to be there. Where his navigation predicted the West Indies, was a previously unknown land which today is called the Bahamas. Still thinking he was somewhere in India, he decided this must be the East Indies. He called the native people "indios" or Indians. The myth persisted and the name stuck. That's why native American peoples are referred to and still refer to themselves sometimes as American Indians.

But not finding the West Indies and finding this New World instead wasn't all bad for Columbus Part of the agreement with Queen Isabella was that Columbus would get 10% of everything he discovered. Imagine owning 10% of North, South and Central America?! Of course as the magnitude of his find reached European ears, his piece of the pie was drastically reduced. But Columbus was made governor of Hispaniola, the name for the New World. That was a better deal that most world explorers got!

However some complained that Christopher Columbus was cruel to the local people whom he ruled. Columbus returned in chains to Spain and was put on trial. He was acquitted and allowed to return, but was not allowed to govern Hispaniola again. Christopher Columbus made four voyages in all. He died on May 20, 1506, believing he had found and should own "East India." The U.S. celebrates Columbus's voyages on October 12. For free printable Christopher Columbus lessons and world explorers, mapmaking and navigation activities, click the links in this article.

For more free printable social studies lesson plans, including a whole unit on American history activities, scroll around this blog Free Printable Lesson Plans or Free Lesson Plans 4U.

Free Printable Columbus Day Activities, medieval maritime, navigation lesson plans

Columbus Day is celebrated on October 12. In school, kids study the voyages and exploration of Christopher Columbus. But you can study American history on any U.S. holiday--Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July or Labor day. Re-discover American history--or discover it anew if you've never paid attention before. 

The best place to start is at the beginning, which usually assumed to be with the discovery of the "New World" by Christopher Columbus. The land now called "America" didn't start when the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus stumbled upon it. Christopher Columbus wasn't even the first European to find it and he certainly wasn't the first world traveler to. 

St. Brendan and the Vikings beat him to it. Christopher Columbus is credited with discovery of the New World because he brought attention to it as no one had before. Here are free printable Christopher Columbus lessons on world explorers, colonial expansion, early mapmaking and navigation.

Garden of Praise says that Christopher Columbus was from Genoa in Italy. He was part of the massive push by world explorers to discover unknown regions. Columbus's real skills lay in mapmaking and marine navigation. Check out these awesome free printable medieval navigation tools like the ones Columbus would have used. 

Experiment with the sextant, astrolabe, kamal, cross-staff and quadrant. Bear in mind, these tools were the keys to unlocking the secrets of the unknown world. Many world explorers were looking for a new trade route to the West Indies. And the only way to get the spices, silk, opium and trade goods was to sail east. This was a long, hard trip and 99 percent died trying. So Columbus decided to do something new and (most agreed) crazy.

As navigation and mapmaking expert, Columbus studied geography inside and out. He would try going west to get to the east. He would avoid the whole Straits of Magellan mess and try getting to the West Indies through the back door. But people believed that the world was flat. No one knew what was in the west sea. People thought Columbus had gone berserk. "You'll fall off from the earth!" they said. (Students, if you like to be different, like Columbus, check out those earlier links for free printable navigation and mapmaking his way.)

Ocean voyages also cost a lot of money, so Columbus needed a royal patron to sponsor the trip. But no one wanted to invest in his nutty scheme and he had a hard time convincing anyone to lend him the money. Finally, Columbus asked Queen Isabella I of Spain. That good lady wanted more land for her empire so even though everyone thought Columbus was wrong to sail west, the queen agreed to help. Columbus assembled three ships with crew and supplies. He named them Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria after the Blessed Virgin and Child Jesus. He hoped they would bless his journey.

The three ships set sail from Palos, Spain on August 3, 1492. On October 11, Columbus got a major surprise when he bumped smack dab into a chunk of land he hadn't expected to be there. Where his navigation predicted the West Indies, was a previously unknown land which today is called the Bahamas. Still thinking he was somewhere in India, he decided this must be the East Indies. He called the native people "indios" or Indians. The myth persisted and the name stuck. That's why native American peoples are referred to and still refer to themselves sometimes as American Indians.

But not finding the West Indies and finding this New World instead wasn't all bad for Columbus Part of the agreement with Queen Isabella was that Columbus would get 10% of everything he discovered. Imagine owning 10% of North, South and Central America?! Of course as the magnitude of his find reached European ears, his piece of the pie was drastically reduced. But Columbus was made governor of Hispaniola, the name for the New World. That was a better deal that most world explorers got!

However some complained that Christopher Columbus was cruel to the local people whom he ruled. Columbus returned in chains to Spain and was put on trial. He was acquitted and allowed to return, but was not allowed to govern Hispaniola again. Christopher Columbus made four voyages in all. He died on May 20, 1506, believing he had found and should own "East India." The U.S. celebrates Columbus's voyages on October 12. For free printable Christopher Columbus lessons and world explorers, mapmaking and navigation activities, click the links in this article.

For more free printable social studies lesson plans, including a whole unit on American history activities, scroll around this blog Free Printable Lesson Plans or Free Lesson Plans 4U.