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Showing posts with label religions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religions. Show all posts

Free Printable Easter Coloring Pages, Bible Stories


The Easter Triduum, including Holy ThursdayGood Friday and Easter Vigil (or Holy Saturday) represents the most sacred days in the Catholic liturgical calendar. I was a homeschool mom in the early 1990s, before the Internet. I made all our curriculum. During Lent, we counted down to Easter with Lenten crafts, lesson plans and activities.
Pope John Paul II spoke of the family as the primary educators of children. He encouraged parents and children to set up altars in their home. Create a niche with votive candles, crucifix and holy relics. Pray with children before the altar.
Use my article to get free printable Catholic Holy Week activities. Help children explore Easter beyond bunnies and Easter eggs. Here are printable Palm Sunday crafts to make with kids. Print donkeys, a palm basket and other child-centered religious lessons.
Pray the Via Dolorosa or Way of the Cross. Use these free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. The Stations of the Cross is one of the most important Lenten devotions. On Good Friday, the faithful gather to follow the footsteps of Our Lord to Calvary. These free printable coloring pages form a devotional booklet that helps children understand each station of the cross. You might make your own Stations of the Cross by arranging children's pictures in the hallway (we did this). Or kids' could make outdoor dioramas and arrange in a prayer garden.

Here are more free printable Lenten lesson plans for Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. Use these activities to practice the spiritual exercises of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. You can print games, crafts, devotional exercises and lesson plans. Have children color Bible Easter images. Think coloring is too worldy an activity for the holy season of Easter? Consider this: Children learn by doing. What better way to learn about their faith and experience it more deeply than by doing activities that focus their minds and hearts on God?

Free Printable Greek Mythology Coloring Pages and Lesson Plans

Greek mythology is an important subject to teach in school. But ancient Greek mythology and its partner Roman mythology, in fact mythology in general is often misunderstood, especially by fundamentalist Christians. Understanding ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt civilizations is essential as these cultures form the basis of the modern western world. Here are free printable mythology lesson plans and coloring pages from classical ancient Greece and Roman mythology.
The children's literature book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters made teachers give Greek and Roman mythology another look. The films Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans and the Legend of Hercules brought Greek mythology into vogue as well. Percy Jackson (Perseus) brought the pantheon of Ancient Greece into the 21st century. Percy Jackson has many adventure with the gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon. Explore Greek mythology, gods goddesses of Mt. Olympus and mythological creatures and monsters symbols with these free printable Greek mythology activities.
FantasyJr. has twelve free printable Greco-Roman coloring pages of the Olympians. Mystic Mills has 25 free printable coloring pages of the Greek gods and goddesses. Karen's Whimsey has dozens of free printable mythology and Ancient Greece coloring pages. Color the Olympians, gods and goddesses, heroes, mythological monsters, beasts and creatures. Color free printable famous works of art featuring the Greek pantheon, Satyrs, Circe, the Sirens, Odysseus and many more characters from Greek mythology. Print coloring pages from ancient Rome, as well gods in Roman mythology.
Coloring.ws has a complete free printable Greek mythology coloring pages on the Olympians of Ancient Greece. This site also contains free printable maps of Greece.  It is important to note that the Olympian deities have the same personality in Roman mythology, however they go by different names. 
Zeus= Jupiter
Poseidon=Neptune
Hades=Pluto
Hera=Juno
Hestia=Vesta
Aphrodite=Venus
Athena=Minerva
Ares=Mars
Hephaestus=Vulcan
Apollo=same
Artemis=Diana
Hermes=Mercury
Cronos=Saturn

If you continue scrolling and pressing next you will find coloring pages for lesser god, goddesses, heroes and creatures of the Greek world. This list includes; Herakles (Hercules), King Midas, Pan, Demeter (Ceres), Eos, Eros (Cupid), Hebe, Iris, Persephone, Nike and more. Free printable Greek mythology monsters and creatures include: centaur, Charon (River Styx ferry boat captain), Cerberus, Cyclops, giants (sons of Titan Uranus), griffin, harpy, Medusa, Minotaur, (battled Perseus), Phoenix (bird that rose from the ashes of fire), Sirens (lured Odysseus to his doom), Trojan Horse (employed by Greeks for entering Troy), Pegasus and unicorn coloring pages

Free Printable Lent Calendars for Homeschool, Family and Religious Education

Catholic Icing offers handmade free printable Lenten calendars. Children countdown Lent by coloring in each of the forty days and practicing prayer, fasting and almsgiving activities listed. Ash Wednesday, Sundays, holy days, Holy Week, the Easter Triduum, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday days are highlighted. Saint feast days occurring in Lent are listed. This Lenten calendar is undated and can be reused each year with a little tweaking.
Catholic Mom has free printable Lenten calendars and church liturgical calendars. Stop by the free printable Catholic crafts page. Print coloring pages based on mass gospel readings. Get free printable lesson plans and Catholic activities for parish leaders, homeschoolers, religious educators and families.
Catholic Relief Services' Operation Rice Bowl comes with Lenten calendars. Print one if you didn't get one at church. Check the website for daily Lent activities, crafts for kids, almsgiving suggestions, mass readings and more. These Forty Days blog has free printable Lenten calendar ideas, holy day and feast day crafts and Catholic activities. The Lenten calendar pattern makes a great lesson plan for homeschool families.

Crayola has a free printable Greek Lenten calendar for counting the forty days and seven weeks of Lent. Orthodox Education has free printable Greek icons to color. Katixitis-Zografies has more free printable Orthodox Christian coloring pages, icons, and Bible story pictures. The site is written in Greek but is easy to navigate. Just click on the images. These could be used to make a Lent calendars.

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans, Activities

Here are free printable Holy Week activities and Catholic Easter printables. Free printables includes coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, games, crafts, cut and paste activities and much more. There are liturgical resources: prayers, Bible mass readings, reflections, devotions, Lenten lessons on sacrifice, almsgiving, fasting, corporal and spiritual works mercy. There are so many activities in this resource guide, that you will probably not be able to finish these Holy Week activities during Lent or even Eastertide.
Catholic Mom has a free printable Lenten lessons and Holy Week activities in a resource guide. Bookmark Catholic Mom for loads of Catholic printables. Here's a free printable Journey to Pascha workbooks for kids covering the Passion, death, resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Childrens Ministry has free Holy Week activities, craft projects, games, Lenten lessons, family activities and Bible devotions. This link has nearly 100 free printable Bible word searches from Catholic mass reading in the lectionary. These word searches are challenging, interactive and fun! These free printables would make excellent follow up to the mass readings. Here is a very complicated and challenging printable Catholic Easter crossword puzzle. This link has free printable Catholic Easter games and puzzles.

Apples 4 the Teacher has three pages of free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages. Each link has ten free printables for a total of thirty Easter and Holy Week activities. Use these coloring pages for Lenten lessons. Color Jesus, the cross, the tomb, the Eucharist, palms, Bible story pictures and more. DL-TK has free printable Catholic Easter games, Lenten lessons, memory cards, craft projects, coloring pages and word games for Holy Week activities. And for the best online resource in free printable Catholic coloring pages, visit St. John the Baptist Religious Ed. You can print Catholic Easter coloring pages of Stations of the Cross (way of sorrows), Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, Bible stories of Easter, Catholic saints and loads more printables. 

Free Printable Advent Crafts, Christmas Activities


Are you looking for religious Bible Christmas crafts for children to make during Advent? You'll want these free printable nativity scenes. Children can color Bible characters and assemble an Advent manger scene. Here's a free printable Bible Christmas manger scene with cut and paste coloring pages to put on paper towel tubes. Catholic Icing has eight coloring pages that you can click and print directly from her blog. Each page features Mary and Joseph, donkey, angel, wisemen, shepherds, Baby Jesus, camels. Download the set from the website.
Hart of the Mountain has free printable nativity scenes with Bible character finger puppets. Activity Village offers free printable Bible Christmas nativity scenes that kids can color, cut out and assemble. Make a shoebox diorama stable. Scroll down for more manger scene crafts including a nativity mobile. words cards, and games.

Prudent Baby is a blog with a complete set of free Advent manger scene printables. Cute Bible characters people these nativity scenes. Love to Know has free printouts of Bible Christmas nativity scenes to color, cut and paste and assemble. Scrapbook Scrapbook has a darling free printable Advent manger scene with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, angels, animals, wisemen and shepherds. There's even a printable stable and manger.

Free Printable St. Lucia Day Activities, Christmas Around the World


Advent is the Christian period of preparation for Christmas. Several Catholic feast days fall during Advent: Dec. 6 is St. Nicholas, Dec. 12 is Our Lady of Guadalupe and Dec. 13 is St. Lucia (or Lucy) Day, says School of the Seasons. Here are free printable St. Lucia Day activities. Advent is a great time to learn about Christmas traditions around the world. St. Lucia was from Sweden. St. Lucia is the patron saint of Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark). So on her feast day, explore Scandinavian Christmas celebrations.
Reenact St. Lucia story. Legend tells of a period of great hunger and snow storms in Sweden. St. Lucia is said to have brought warm food and drink to the needy. She appeared dressed in white with a halo of light around her head. On St. Lucia Day the eldest girl dresses in white, wears a lighted wreath halo and serves sweet rolls and cocoa to her family and neighbors. You could reenact the story or bring baked goods, Christmas cookies and holiday treats to neighbors. Remember especially the elderly, unemployed, lonely or handicapped. Thrifty Fun shares traditional St. Lucia Day recipes.
Make St. Lucia Day crafts and games. Willow of Wonder has a free printable St. Lucia Day crownand recipes for sweets. Catholic Mom has Sunday gospel lesson plans for the entire liturgical year. The December page features printable activities for Advent and feast days that fall during that time. There are puzzles, games, crafts, wreath activities and more. Making Learning Fun has free printable St. Lucia crafts, coloring pages, paper dolls, puppets and 3D stand-up crafts.
Learn about St. Lucia Day. Here is a collection of free printable St. Lucia lesson plans from Bright Hub Education. Here a St. Lucia themed printable lessons from Lesson Planet. There are maps and activities on Sweden, too. PBSKids has an Arthur episode with activities featuring George and D.W. celebrating St. Lucia Day.
Celebrate St. Lucia Day as part of Advent. Pro Teacher has created a printable December Holidays unit. These activities focus on Advent and Christmas and take you though St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day and other December activities. There is a free printable Advent calendar, Advent house and other activities. Loyola Press has a plethora of free Advent resources and printables.


Free Printable Hanukkah Lesson Plans, Games, Crafts, Decorations, Activities

Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, spelled Chanukah, is not Jewish Christmas. It is also not the most important of the Jewish holidays. But it does have a special place in the history of the Hebrew people. Here are free lesson plans, coloring pages, puzzles, games and activities to help celebrate and understand this winter holiday. These links have free printable Hebrew activities for all Jewish holy days.
Bitsela has free printable Jewish greeting cards, clipart, even a free card-making function you can use free on your computer. You can print the Hebrew alphabet, numbers and other uniquely Jewish items. Tzivos Hashem offers great learning games and free Jewish activities for Hebrew school students and those want to explore Judaism. Check out the free printable Jewish holidays coloring pages.
Chabad Jewish Kids has an awesome assortment of Hebrew printables, coloring pages, crafts and activities. Torah Tots has a free printable Jewish holiday coloring pages for Chanukah and other lesson plans. There are Star of David crafts, dreidel crafts as well as games for all aspects of Hanukkah. There are educational puzzles and jigsaw puzzles and lot of great online gaming fun as well. Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable cut and paste Chanukah crafts, coloring pages, puzzles, games and other crafts. Check out the cut and paste Menorah.
Teach-nology features complete units of free printable Hebrew holiday lesson plans.. There are plenty on Chanukah, including free Jewish acrostic poems, crossword puzzles, worksheets, crafts, dreidel patterns, menorah cut-outs to help kids understand the Festival of Light.
Lee Hansen 
free printable Hebrew coloring pages, Torah paper dolls and Chanukah clipart. First School years gives a nice assortment of free printable lessons and follow-up activities introducing students to Hannukah.
The Toymaker has free printable Jewish paper dreidel, gelt (money) box, greeting cards, 3D paper menorah, Star of David, another Chanukah box and booklet to guide the menorah prayers. Here are free printable Jewish crafts from Free Kids Crafts. ABC Teach has free printable Hanukkah worksheets, coloring pages, featuring the menorah, dreidel, latkes, apples and honey and Jewish symbols. Make a countdown to Chanukah booklet with printable word searches, puzzles, word scrambles, color and write prompts, bookmarks and more.
DL-TK-kids has free printable Chanukah crafts, bingo games, decorations, greeting cards, Star of David crafts, Menorah crafts, coloring pages, domino games, memory games and more. Everything you need to celebrate the Festival of Light is right here. For more holiday crafts visit this author's blog at Free Printable Holiday.


Free Printable Christmas Around the World Activities: Germany

Looking for Christmas around the world activities? How about a global hop to Christmas in Germany? Here are German holiday activities. First a little history: Ancient Germans were druids that worshiped nature. They celebrated Winter Solstice or Saturnalia from which come many Christmas traditions.Then warring Saxon, Hunnic and Teutonic tribes brought their gods of Valhalla. From them come week day names--Thursday (Thor), Friday from his vengeful wife Freya and Wednesday from brother Woden (also known as Loki the trickster). They worshiped the sacred oak, which became a deity because it was so large.

Then in the 800s, St. Boniface (also called St. Winfred) brought Christianity from Ireland. Ireland was a world educational center in the 8th century, since the Roman bishop Patricus (St. Patrick) Christianized it in the 4th century. Boniface, a Benedictine monk went as a missionary to pagan Germany. At the Hessian village of Fritzlar, St. Boniface confronted pagan worshipers at a sacred oak dedicated to Thor. They planned to sacrifice a child and its mother pleaded with St. Boniface to save her child. Boniface took an axe to the oak and dared Thor to strike him dead if he could. As St. Boniface chopped, a mighty wind knocked the  tree over. From its roots sprang an evergreen tree, the symbol of Christ and everlasting life. Awed by the miracle, many converted to Christianity. 

Celebrate Christmas around the world with German holiday activities. Make Christmas tree ornaments from green felt. Stitch two pieces together and stuff. Decorate with sequins, ribbon, glitter, silk flowers, buttons and beads. Make Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies. Or mix marshmallows, butter, Corn Flakes and green food coloring. Shape like evergreen trees. Or buy Christmas tree Little Debbie cakes.

Gift-givers differ in traditions of Christmas around the world. In German holiday activities, St. Boniface isn't the Christmas gift giver. That task belongs to the more whimsical Kris Kringle with his assistant Black Pieter (also called Krampus or Ruprecht). He's a chimney sweep and an imp--good children get gifts, bad kids get coal or a switch for chastisement. Kris Kringle is good Christmas cop, Krampus is the bad cop. Kris Kringle appears fierce at first, but ends with a jolly laugh. Celebrate Krampus and make "coal cookies" Blend chocolate syrup, cream cheese, crushed chocolate-filled Oreos and chocolate chips. Form into lumpy balls. Leave them out for Krampus to sweeten his mood. Or wrap and give as gifts from Krampus!

Elsewhere in Germany, the Christkindl (Christmas angel) brings gifts. Children write to Christkindl for gifts and decorate their cards with sugar to make them sparkle. Have children make Christmas cards by folding blue construction paper and decorating with glue and glitter. Add sparkly colored sugar to Christmas cookies and leave out for the Christkindl.

Another Christmas around the world tradition says Martin Luther, a German monk. saw that snow and moonlight made evergreen tree glow. Luther was reminded of the light of God's love. He cut down a small tree and decorated it with candles. Martin Luther also wrote the Christmas carol, Away in the Manger. Have children thank God for his love as they decorate the Christmas tree. Gather and sing carols around it. Make chart of activities to practice loving kindness. Make cut paper snowflakes. Fold white paper in fourths then thirds, like an ice cream cone. Trim off excess to make a square. Cut designs using printable patterns. Cut part way through along the fold. Decorate with glitter.

Learn "Silent Night' in German "Stille Nacht." Legend says Father Joseph Mohr, of Oberndorff, Germany who was dismayed to find that mice had eaten through the organ bellows one Christmas Eve. There would be no music for midnight mass. Father Mohr went to baptize a newborn baby, and was moved by the sight of mother and child. He hurried home and penned this best-loved Christmas hymn. Kappelmaster Franz Gruber wrote the melody for guitar and it was sung Christmas mass. Make connections between English and German words--Stille (still) Nacht (night), Schlaf (sleep) Gottes (God) Sohn (son) Bruder (brother).
Make a gingerbread house. Read the Grimm Brothers' "Hansel and Gretel" print gingerbread house patterns and decorate your homes like the witch's cottage. Make you own gingerbread or glue graham crackers to a box. Decorate with candy. Make gingerbread men also. Make the stable in Bethlehem and decorate with animal crackers. For holiday greetings of Christmas around the world, learn to say "Froehliche Weihnachten' (froy-leek vine nahkten) meaning of course, Happy Christmas to all!


Free Printable Jesse Tree Pattern, Ornaments

 Advent is the Catholic Christmas liturgical season leading up to Christmas. For four weeks, we pray, fast, read Bible passages on the gospel Christmas story and give alms to the poor. The theme of Advent is to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. One way is to pray an Advent calendar. Another, related to the Advent calendar is to follow a Jesse Tree.
The Jesse Tree is an ancient visual aid the shows the lineage of Jesus. The basis comes from the Old Testament Bible passage "a root shall spring up from the stump of Jesse's lineage." This Bible foretells the birth of the Messiah and that He will come through Jesse, King David's father. . During Advent, symbols are hung on the Jesse Tree to represent Bible characters and people in Jesus's family tree.
Here are free printable Jesse Tree devotional activities. Each night, have children color one symbol place it on the Jesse Tree. Do this as you light candles on the Advent wreath and candles and read and pray from the Advent calendar. The Jesse Tree ends by adding images from the O Antiphons, another ancient Advent to Christmas series of prayers.
Life Your Way has a set of free printable Jesse Tree ornaments with Biblical symbols. ERIERCD has several pages of Jesse Tree coloring pages to print free. Print in black and white and have kids color. Jesse Tree ornaments include apple tree (Adam and Eve). Ark and rainbow (Noah), tent (Abraham), cradle (Sarah), coat (Joseph), stone tablets (Moses), Harp (David), ladder (Jacob), tambourine (Miriam), crown (Solomon), anchor (Ruth) lion and lamb (Isaiah), mallet (Deborah), trumpet (Joshua), lion (Daniel), well (Rebecca), house (Elizabeth), lily (Mary) hammer (St. Joseph) Chi Ro (Jesus). The Reformed Church in America has more free printable Jesse Tree symbols to color. Catholic Icing has more printable Advent Jesse tree crafts. 1+1+1=1 has a free printable Jesse Tree booklet with devotions, prayers and crafts to make.
The Jesse Tree can be made in many ways. In times past, it was a Christmas tree. Some families use a tree made of paper or a cloth banner with detachable ornaments. In our family I use a small table top tree with child-made ornaments and symbols. We add one each day.

Free Printable All Saints Day Lessons and Activities


Free Printable Catholic Saints Coloring Pages November 1 marks the Catholic holy day of All Saint's, making October 31 All Hallow's Eve (or Halloween). Use these free printable activities to explore Catholic saints, holy days and All Saint's Day and Halloween. read more

Free Printable Holy Week Activities, Lesson Plans


Here are free printable Holy Week activities and Catholic Easter printables. Free printables includes coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, games, crafts, cut and paste activities and much more. There are liturgical resources: prayers, Bible mass readings, reflections, devotions, Lenten lessons on sacrifice, almsgiving, fasting, corporal and spiritual works mercy. There are so many activities in this resource guide, that you will probably not be able to finish these Holy Week activities during Lent or even Eastertide.
Catholic Mom has a free printable Lenten lessons and Holy Week activities in a resource guide. Bookmark Catholic Mom for loads of Catholic printables. Here's a free printable Journey to Pascha workbooks for kids covering the Passion, death, resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Childrens Ministry has free Holy Week activities, craft projects, games, Lenten lessons, family activities and Bible devotions. This link has nearly 100 free printable Bible word searches from Catholic mass reading in the lectionary. These word searches are challenging, interactive and fun! These free printables would make excellent follow up to the mass readings. Here is a very complicated and challenging printable Catholic Easter crossword puzzle. This link has free printable Catholic Easter games and puzzles.

Apples 4 the Teacher has three pages of free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages. Each link has ten free printables for a total of thirty Easter and Holy Week activities. Use these coloring pages for Lenten lessons. Color Jesus, the cross, the tomb, the Eucharist, palms, Bible story pictures and more. DL-TK has free printable Catholic Easter games, Lenten lessons, memory cards, craft projects, coloring pages and word games for Holy Week activities. And for the best online resource in free printable Catholic coloring pages, visit St. John the Baptist Religious Ed. You can print Catholic Easter coloring pages of Stations of the Cross (way of sorrows), Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, Bible stories of Easter, Catholic saints and loads more printables. 

Free Printable Jewish Passover Lesson Plans, Hebrew Pesach activities


Passover, also called Pesach, is a high point of the Jewish year. Explore the passover celebration with these free printable coloring pages, crafts, party games, word searches, puzzles, crossword and worksheets. Great for Hebrew Passover or Pesach party planning also!

Passover or Pesach, is a high celebration in the Jewish Hebrew calendar. Passover is an eight-day holiday, beginning with two days of no work, four days of limited work and ending with two days of no work. The Passover celebration includes several Seder meals, with roast lamb, bitter herbs and matzo bread. Passover, or Pesach commemorates the passing over of the angel of death during the ten plagues of Egypt. God punished the Egyptians for the enslavement of the Hebrews. First born male infants were to die unless the blood of a lamb was put on the lintels and door posts. Passover, or Pesach, is part of Christian calendar as well; it was at the Passover meal that Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist or communion.
Passover doesn't fall on the same date every year. In the Jewish Hebrew calendar Passover falls in the month of Nissan. In the Gregorian or western calendar, Passover falls in March or April. In 2016, Passover begins at sundown on April 22 and runs till April 30. Here are free printable activities to explore the Passover. Start at Chabad for a guide to Passover. Here is the Jewish Kids Pesach site. Use these for classroom instruction, homeschool, religious education and Hebrew school. Here arefree printable Pesach greeting cards. Torah Tots has free printable Passover games, coloring pages, kids crafts, worksheets, lesson plans, greeting cards and more.

About Homeschooling has nine free printable Passover lessons, puzzles, word games, crossword, word search, DL-TK has free printable Passover kids crafts, Torah and Bible crafts, games and puzzles. Artists Helping Children has many printable Jewish Passover kids crafts. Fun Family Crafts has free printable Passover kids crafts for children on Torah and Bible stories of Moses, the Ten Commandments, the 10 Plagues of Egypt, the Exodus and more. Care has 10 very tasteful free printable Pesach kids crafts. Paper Crafts has a nice free printable cut and paste Hebrew menorahfor Passover and other holy day prayers. Free Kids Crafts has three pages of free printable patterns for Jewish Passover crafts (be sure to click through all three pages).

Free Printable Purim Lesson Plans for Jewish Kids


The Jewish celebration of Purim begins at sundown on 14th day of Adar in the Hebrew calendar. That's March 4, 2015. Purim celebrates the bravery and wisdom of a Jewish girl, Esther. Esther became queen of Ahasuerus, King of Persia. Here are free printable Purim activities and Jewish lesson plans to help children learn about Queen Esther.
Read the Purim story. King Ahasuerus's first wife Queen Vashti was very beautiful. One night the King demanded she parade naked in front of his guests. She refused and was executed. King Ahasuerus sought a new queen and liked Esther, niece of the leader of exiled Jews, Mordecai, Haman, evil prime minister to Ahasuerus, hated Mordecai. He connived to get Ahasuerus to decree that everyone should bow to the King. Jews bow only to Yahweh. Jews refused and Mordecai was to hang. Queen Esther pleaded with the king for her people (risky even for the Queen as it was forbidden to approach without a summons). Ahasuerus's heart was softened and Haman was put to death instead.
Throw a Purim party. Torah Tots is one-stop visit for Purim recipes, crafts, printables, lessons, books and films. Check out the Purim spiel (play) ideas to put on your own Torah presentation. Chabad has a complete Purim holiday guide for families. Kids will love making Hamantaschen (Haman Hats) and dressing up like Queen Esther, Mordecai, Ahasuerus and Haman.
Teach Purim with free printable Purim puzzles to reinforce story. Print word searches, crossword puzzles, word games and worksheets. Use for study guides. Teacher Planet has dozens of free printable Purim lesson plans, activities, crafts, unit ideas, games and puzzles.
Make Purim crafts. Chadis Crafts has free printable Purim craft projects, yarn crafts, coloring, puzzles and activities. Artists Helping Children always has neat craft projects. Check out their free printable Purim crafts, There are mask crafts too.

Each year Jewish observances fall on different days in the western calendar but it's the same in the Hebrew one. Whatever your religion or faith, Purim makes a cracking good story and kids will enjoy learning about it.

Free Printable Jewish Holocaust Memorial Lesson Plans


January 27 on western calendar is one of days of yom hashoah or "days of remembrance." It isn't a holiday, but it is a holy day and commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, sJews observe Yom Hashoah, Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day, on the 27th of Nissan (April to May in the Western calendar). January 27 is the day the world remembers (or should) when it stood by while millions died--Pole, Slav, Catholic, Russian, red, disabled, dissident, gypsy, gay, and many, many Jewish--in the World War II Nazi genocide. 

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has a free activity packThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers ways to share stories online and in person. Oral tradition is a time-honored way of preserving memories.