Free printable Advent crafts and Countdown to Christmas activities

We homeschooled our four children for over 10 years. As a Catholic Christian family, we celebrated Advent in the weeks before Christmas. In our homeschool, the entire month of December was devoted to Advent preparation and Christmas countdown activities. Advent begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas and counts down to the feast of Christmas. Christmastide extends through Epiphany. Here are Advent preparation and Christmas countdown activities.

First, let's look at the season of Advent, separate from Christmas. Advent means coming and refers to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as a baby born for mankind. Advent foreshadows Christ's second coming too. In preparation for that coming, Advent is a penitential season in the Catholic church, though not of the same magnitude as Lent in degree of penance. Advent, is a preparatory, anticipatory time. Advent focuses on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The four weeks of Advent center on themes of Hope, Expectation, Joy and Preparation (these themes may be referred to in different terms). Christmas countdown activities should follow those themes.

Pray the Advent Calendar. Catholic Christian Advent calendars aren't the cutesy ones where children get candy or toys. A Catholic Christian Advent calendar has Bible verses, prophecies from the Old Testament about the Messiah and gospel scripture readings. Make your own Advent calendar and have children search Bible verses that reference Jesus as the Messiah as homeschool history or social studies activities. The prophet Isaiah wrote extensively about the coming of Christ. Have them look up the gospel nativity story in St. Luke. Write verses on the Christmas countdown calendar. You could also pray an Advent novena.

Make a Catholic Christian Advent prayer grotto. Put up your manger scene or nativity set on a table. Place the Advent wreath nearby. Let each child make his own Advent wreath using artificial evergreen wreath and battery-powered candles from Dollar Tree. Or make green clay wreaths and burn birthday candles. Keep Advent candles glowing all week long. Pray your novena, do daily homeschool devotions and read scripture from the Advent calendar by the grotto. Children love bringing the sacred into their homes.

You might even set your grotto outside in the front yard so everyone in your neighborhood can enjoy it. Invite them to pray with you or just stop by and meditate. Keep lights burning at night to send an Advent message of joy, hope, expectation and love to neighbors. This is a great homeschool outreach lesson plan for children. You aren't shoving your beliefs down anyone's throat, just sharing the love of a Bible Christmas.

Make a Jesse Tree and place it in your Advent grotto. This daily devotional activity follows the lineage and birth of Jesus from Adam and Eve to the Nativity. You can create your own Jesse Tree with a simple evergreen tree cut from green construction paper. Have students research the family tree of Jesus using Bible verses. They might color images and hang them on the Jesse tree like ornaments. Add one per day as a Christmas countdown activity.

Perform Advent almsgiving activities. Do a Catholic Christian Christmas countdown with Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Write one good deed on each link of the Christmas countdown paper chain. Make every Christmas countdown activity part of your Advent preparation. Fill Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, write holiday letters, make Christmas greeting cards, create crafts to give as gifts, shop for Giving Tree gifts for church, go caroling, bake cookies and share with neighbors. Feed the birds. It's been since our children were in homeschool. But the happy memories remain; each of our children has carried these traditions into their adult lives.

Free Printable Gingerbread House Patterns, Recipes, Templates

Making holiday gingerbread houses is a favorite family traditions. Not being very artistic, I'd cheat and get the gingerbread house kit. But I've found a better way: free printable gingerbread house patterns, recipes and templates. Now, people approach gingerbread house making in one of two ways. The first is by painstakingly designing a work of art--not to be eaten, let alone touched. Then there's our youngest son's method: slap together a ramshackle gingerbread shed, lather in two inches of frosting, cover every inch in candy and devour immediately. Whichever school you subscribe to, you'll want these free printable gingerbread recipes, templates and patterns.
Ultimate Gingerbread is dedicated to the tradition of gingerbread house making. The site has dozens of free printable gingerbread patterns, recipes tips, ideas, suggestions, pictures. They even host an annual gingerbread house making competition. You'll need to register and create a free account. The website has a support forum as well, which would have really come in handy a few years ago when our gingerbread house's retaining wall gave way.
Tipnut list 12 free printable gingerbread house templates. There are several different styles from Hansel and Gretel cottage, manor house with dormers, frosted roof, etc. There are instructions and tips, too. King Arthur Flour offers a free printable gingerbread house recipe and instruction booklet with cake and icing recipes, tips and patterns. 
Mein Lila Park is a blog that links to free printable craft projects. This page lists printable paper houses to use for gingerbread templates. There are gnome, manor, town and farm houses. Many are already designed to be gingerbread houses. Botanical Paperworks has a free printable gingerbread house stencil with recipes. Sweetopia has another free gingerbread template to print. Patternsge has a detailed house pattern printout. Stefan Jansson at Flickr offers another printable gingerbread house. 
Sugar Craft has a free printable old-fashioned gingerbread house pattern. I've linked to the recipe page. Click the word PATTERNS on the right under the image of the house. Gingerbread Heaven offers two free gingerbread template printouts. Be sure to follow the instructions listed with the gingerbread house patterns for best results. 
I encourage family gingerbread house making for a bonding experience, but recommend that each person make his own gingerbread house. This spares debates/arguments over design that can end with the whole house on the floor! Not that my angels would ever do that! May your holiday season be as sweet as a gingerbread house. 

Free Printable Hanukkah Crafts, Games, Puzzles

Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, spelled Chanukah, is not the 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 Disney Frozen Activities

Ask any kid what he or she wants to be for Halloween and there's a good chance he or she will say "something from Frozen." Disney Frozen is the mind-bogglingly popular cartoon and it's taking highest honors for Top 10 Halloween costumes for 2014--kids and adults! Frozen is a popular birthday party theme too. Why not use the Frozen theme for Halloween or winter holidays? Here are free printable Disney Frozen crafts and games for parties. 
* Hale Grafyx has a free printable Pin the Nose on Olaf the Snowman game. Print on card stock or enlarge and attach to cardboard. Perfect for a Frozen-inspired birthday or Winter Solstice party. 
* Check Mom Endeavors for links to free printable Disney Frozen games and activities. Print Princess Elsa crown and Sven the reindeer antlers for a Frozen Halloween costume. 
* Strawberry Mommycakes has free Frozen party printables with Olaf the Snowman mask and other games and crafts. 
* Disney Family has free printable Frozen games and puzzles. Here's a Princess Elsa 3D paper doll to print. And next print a Princess Anna paper doll. 
* The Clever Pink Pirate offers a free printable Frozen bingo game and this site has cut, paste and color Olaf the snowman game dice to print. 

Check these sites for free printable Frozen party games and prizes: bookmarks, door hangers, decorations and Valentines. 

Free Printable Books for Kids to Make

Here's a perfect lesson plan for preschoolers and emergent readers--homemade books. Use these links for free printable books for kids. Print pages and let children cut and assemble books. Print in black and white and let kids color their books. Teach reading, math, scissors skills, fine motor, sequencing and other vital early childhood skills. Many subjects: ABC, numbers, shapes, patterns, holidays, animals, Bible, safety, nursery rhymes and more. Great for special needs students.

To print coloring books, visit DLTK-Teach. This page lists all the themes for free printable mini books and activity booklets. There are 26 alphabet mini books, one for each letter. They are titled "What begins with the Letter (A, B, C, etc.)?" Words are shown in one color and the letter being explored shows as a different color. If you print in black and white, the letter will appear in a different shade of gray. Ask the child to color the letter a different color than the other words to emphasize it. There are also suggested reading activities to teach each letter using the free printable mini books.

Other subjects for free printable coloring books include Bible: Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Creation, Life of Jesus and Men of the Bible. There is a series of free printable activity booklets for preschool lesson plans called "All About Me," in which the child personalizes to book to himself. There are booklets about "My family," too. These mini books work well for preschool lesson plans on social studies and health

Blackfish Documentary, Orca Whale Tilikum, SeaWorld Boycott Lesson Plans

My husband came home outraged about Tilikum, SeaWorld's killer orca whale. The film "Blackfish" explores Tilikum who has killed several people including trainer Dawn Brancheau. There's a lot of sad history that went before. SeaWorld has denied responsibility for the death despite a series of fails, violations and broken promises. Now Tilikum's fate hangs in the balance and all because of corporate greed. PETA is calling for SeaWorld boycotts. They've launched "Free Tilly" to get the orca back in the ocean and out of captivity. Use the film and associated lesson plans to encourage student activism in sea mammal protection.   

A-Z healthy school lunches recipes, monthly planner of alphabet foods

In 31 years, I've taught every age and subject, including homeschool, preschool, Montessori, special needs and adult ed. I make lesson plans hands on and fun. Food is a great teaching medium. Here are A-Z healthy lunches and snacks.

A

--apples and almond butter

--ants on a log (celery spread with cream cheese and raisins) 

B

--banana animal boat: Peel banana. Cut a slit; add animal crackers.

--bunny bites (baby carrots, broccoli)

--berry blue blaster (blueberry or blackberry yogurt) 

C

--cheese and crackers

--C3 crudités  (celery, cauliflower, carrots with cream cheese) 

--Cheery cherry cat cookies (frosted cookies with maraschino cherry eyes and nose)

D

--dill pickles

--dolphin crackers

--dog chow (square and round breakfast cereals--Life, Cheerios, Kix)

--duck duck goose (marshmallow Peeps, animal crackers)

E

--elephant eggs (deviled eggs) 

--Cadbury Eggs

To read the rest of the alphabet snacks and recipes, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers site. 

Autumn Leaf Crafts, Printables Fall Lessons

Michigan's leaves are getting a slow start turning colors this fall. I shudder to think what that bodes, winter-wise. Living on (darn near in) Lake Michigan, we have lake effect snow, marine conditions to contend with. But what better way to enjoy a fall day than with an impromptu party in the leaves. Here's a day of crafts, activities, games, printables and snacks to enjoy! Preschoolers and little ones will love it! Parents will love that its cheap and easy.

Autumn in Michigan means apples. Apples are a common theme for preschool and elementary school students. Teachers and homeschoolers, are you teaching a fall apple unit? Here's a sweet treat for you: 166 pages of free printable apple themed worksheets and lesson plans.

Northville Cider Mill in Northville, Michigan offers a free printable apple-themed activities booklet, There are printable coloring pages, worksheets, puzzles, games, word searches and crossword puzzles on apples. There are apple-themed cross-curricular science experiments, social studies connections, economics lessons, Michigan history activities, apple math problems and more.

Each lesson has a printable student copy and teacher answer key. Use this book for all ages from preschool to grade 8. It can easily be used with special education students, too.

Now scoot over to A to Z Teacher Stuff for more links to dozens of free printable apple lesson plans, crafts, mini booklets, games and worksheets. Most are geared to ages pre-K to grades 4.

Kinderplans has cute free printable apple themed reading and phonics lessons for preschool and kindergarten. There are other printables based on apples, too. Print apple math lessons on counting, addition and subtraction. Print reading activities and games for emergent and reluctant readers. Special education will love the bright, cheery apple activities geared no-fail fun.

Free printable animal masks for Halloween, animal coloring pages, crafts for Feast of St. Francis

October is a special month in the Catholic liturgical calendar. It's the month of Our Lady. Oct. 4 is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals). October 31 is the eve of All Saints Day, November 1. Here are printable coloring pages of saints to gear up for All Saints. There are printable Bible character activities for Christian-themed Halloween costumes. And I've included printable animal crafts and masks for the Feast of St. Francis. These would be good for Catholic or Christian school, especially preschool units.

Trick-or-treat is all about dressing up in Halloween costumes, right? So how about free printable Halloween masks for kids to color, cut and paste? Perfect for preschool, special education and school Halloween parties. For families who don't do Halloween, I included links for generic masks so kids can still enjoy craft fun. Masks are grouped by theme.

* Various: Colorbook Masks free printable Halloween masks in dozens of themes and styles. There are tribal masks from Africa, Bali, Native American, Aztec, Mayan, Inuit, Asian and more. Print animal, Mardi Gras, Harlequin, Tiki, calavera (skull) masks for Day of the Dead. To find the masks, you have to create a free account and log in. Click each mask image to get to different mask design pages.

* Animals: Activity Village has lots of free printable animals masks.

* Disney: Check Disney Family for free printable Disney Halloween masks. Print 3D masks of Winnie the Pooh, Ironman, Disney princesses, Hulk, Captain America, Frankenweenie and more.

* Famous people: Forbes publishes free printable masks of trending famous people, politicians and world leaders.

* Scary: Check Ravensblight for free printable monster masks. The Hannibal Lector iron jaw mask is downright horrifying.

* Samhain and fantasy: Phee Mcfaddel has free printable fairy masks plus other Wiccan-inspired designs. Some are rather eerie and some quite pretty and floral.

* Monsters, ghouls and zombies: Paper Marcos Front has free printable creepy monster masks and 3D paper toys.

* Doctor Who: Visit BBC for free printable Doctor Who villains masks. Dress as Ood, a Silurian, one of the Doppelganger twins, a Peg doll, a Weeping Angel or (creepiest of all) a monster baby cherub.

* Day of the Dead: How about free printable calavera masks? Happy Thoughts will email you free 3D skull mask printables if you submit your email. Here's another printable skull mask pattern from Instructables.

Many of the masks print in black and white so children can color them. Making homemade Halloween costume crafts means you keep antsy kids occupied productively as they await trick-or-treat.

Use Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries to Teach History, Free Printables

I became hopeless addicted to Phryne Fisher, the saucy, sensitive, savvy Jazz Age Aussie lady detective of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She's part tart, part humanitarian, part intelligentsia, all tough cookie. She's a motherly vamp, if that makes sense. And can she hold her Mother-of-Pearl revolver...and gin! Tres elegante! And this show would make superb lesson plans for history.  Anticipating Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries Season 2

Free archaeology activities, earth science printables

I was going to major in archaeology and minor in anthropology in college. Then my over-cautious self said (in best yente voice) "Bones, schmones. Pick something mahketable. You can't eat history." (That last part could have been my pragmatic Dutch grannie head voice). So I picked teaching. Ahahahaa, marketable. Such irony.

Till I can find a dig that accepts volunteers and is close enough to be doable, I have to get my archaeology fix elsewhere. Here are free printable lesson plans on cave-related subjects of fossils, bats, archaeology, paleontology, habitats, geology, spelunking and earth science.

The National Parks Service has free printable lessons on the U.S. national park at Carlsbad Cavernsin New Mexico. There's curriculum for elementary school in the free printable booklet About Bats, Caves and Deserts. For middle school students, the NPS Carlsbad Caverns website features free printable archaeology lessons on Caves, Canyons, Cactus and Critters. High school students explore geology, spelunking, Global Positioning Systems and orienteering in the Chihuahuan Desert Lab school. Materials are designed to be used with interpretive visits but some may be used as stand-alone lessons in class. Check out the cool activities on fossils, bats, paleontology and other cave phenomena.

Also from the NPS, are free printable materials on Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. There are free coloring pages, word games, puzzles and lesson plans in the Junior Ranger section. Kids will love the printable Trog Tour booklet (trog is short for super cool fossils called troglodytes) The Making Connections series from Mammoth Cave National Park features books for grades K-3, 4-5 and 6-8. There are 83 pages of free printable paleontology lesson plans for teachers and homeschool parents. And be sure not to let young archaeology students miss the free printable Fossil Identification Guide with coloring pages of fossils to label.

Free Printable Disney Crafts for Book Party

Yes, I know, Disney isn't exactly haute education. Nor are movies the best material for lesson plans. But preschool children (big kids too) LOVE Disney. Since the 1960s Disney has been a rite of passage. So why not capitalize on that mojo? Host a Disney story party in your preschool or elementary classroom or homeschool. Springboard from reading and watching with these foods, games, crafts and free printables. Lots of potential for learning activities. T

Start by gathering a pile of toddler appropriate books from your Disney book collection. Or visit the library. Now's a great time to teach youngsters library protocol and maybe get him his own library card. Select a few companion Disney cartoons or films. Make a list of Disney book party or birthday party food ideas from with children. Make Disney book party or birthday party snacks together. Here are some suggestions. Serve animal crackers for any animal themed Disney books.

The Jungle Book--tropical fruits, coconut

The Aristocats--Creme de la Creme ala Edgar (don't put sleeping potion in this one--just use vanilla pudding)

Lady and the Tramp--spaghetti

Disney princesses--tea party, wedding cake (or just fancy cupcakes or Little Debbie cakes)

The Princess and the Frog--gumbo

Winnie the Pooh--honey and peanut butter finger sandwiches

Toy Story--pizza

Frozen--ice cream sundaes.

Make crafts using free printables. Visit Disney Family crafts and Disney books printables for different activities from Disney books. Sing and dance to songs from Disney books! Play games from Disney movies using the Disney printables. 

Recycle Bin Crafts, Lesson Plans: Paper Houses, buildings with Printable Patterns

I'm a trained special education and Montessori teacher. I'm always looking for (or creating) hands-on lesson plans to boost higher-order thinking skills. I also like to save money and care for the earth. So my lessons feature recycled materials instead of bought ones. Today's recycle bin trash craft is paper houses. I got the idea from an article I read in which a child had made a paper house and displayed it in a tea shop. Lesson plans include free printable paper house models, miniatures and patterns.  This would make a great lesson for design, CAD, art, history and science.

Collecting dollhouse miniatures and scale model trains are passions shared by men and women, young and old alike. Designing scale model trains and dollhouses and making dollhouse miniatures can be a form of art therapy. And like many hobbies, dollhouse miniatures scale model trains and doll collecting can be very expensive. If you enjoy doll collecting, dollhouses, and dollhouse miniatures and you want to save money, here are links for free printable miniatures and doll house furnishings.

Each link explains how to print the dollhouse miniatures for dollhouses. The doll house furniture is typically printed on card stock, so that the furniture can stand up. You will also need a sharp Exact-O knife to score and cut out the dollhouse miniatures neatly. Jennifer's printables is a comprehensive website with many free printable dollhouse miniatures and dollhouse furniture. There are free printable household products, rugs, curtains, pictures, decorations and much more. Print Mini also has gobs of free printable dollhouse miniatures and even cut and paste paper models of dollhouses and scale model trains and scale model buildings,

About Miniatures has free printable dollhouses and scale model trains and scale model buildings for model train collecting and doll collecting. Scroll around for links to free printable dollhouse furniture in many styles and periods. Print chairs, settees, sofas, love seats, shelves, cupboards, tables, what-nots, end tables, lamps and dozens of other free printable furniture pieces. Paper toys has free printable scale model buildings for model trains and dollhouses.

Back to School Lesson Plans Fibonacci Number Patterns in Nature

Looking for back to school lesson plans that pop? How about a number pattern walk? Here are some materials to guide you. One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is demonstrating principles in action--not because concepts don't occur outside the printed page. The problem is that educators tend to be textbook-bound. "Growing Patterns," by Sarah C. Campbell, makes the concept of Fibonacci numbers visual, even hands-on for students. For adults, too. Campbell's book was featured on Fox's show "Touch , " in which a non-verbal, emotionally impaired boy, Jake, connects to his father using Fibonacci patterns.
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is demonstrating principles in action--not because concepts don't occur outside the printed page. The problem is that educators tend to be textbook-bound. "Growing Patterns," by Sarah C. Campbell, makes the concept of Fibonacci numbers visual, even hands-on for students. For adults, too. Campbell's book was featured on Fox's show "Touch" in which a non-verbal, emotionally impaired boy, Jake, connects to his father using Fibonacci patterns.

Shows like "Touch" are important in helping non-handicapped people understand the world of handicapped people, from the inside out. But it goes far beyond this. Instead of a "normal" person helping an "impaired" person, we learn that everyone has gifts. They're just not be as readily visible. Each person can reach out if one understands the language he speaks. In "Touch," Jake who is deemed "disabled," uses the Fibonacci sequence to express his vision of the world. He communicates using the language of pattern and touch.

The Fibonacci sequence, in which the two preceding numbers are added together to form the next number, is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, and so on. The principle was named for the mathematician Leonardo of Pisa who first demonstrated the it. Fibonacci numbers occur in nature as a spiral pattern. Campbell's book shows the phenomenon in pine cones, pineapples, flowers, nautilus seashells, galaxies and other natural objects.

Fibonacci numbers are closely related to the algebraic "golden ratio" (referred to by the Greek letter phi or "golden number") and "golden string" described by Euclid and Pythagoras. These concepts are used in diverse applications from architecture to market analyses. Shown numerically, the concepts may be arcane and confusing. Observed in nature, they are easily grasped. As in Jake's enigmatic world, nature often makes the mysterious clear.

As a teacher, I'm always looking for object lessons that make abstract concepts approachable, especially in nature. I once designed a unit on how symmetry appears in orchids. Several children's authors base their books on hands-on applications. Tana Hoban's picture books show how patterns occur around us. Jerry Pallotta uses nature patterns to teach math. Campbell's book is another excellent resource.

As a special education teacher, I'm also looking for ways to help special needs kids connect with their world and express themselves. Fox "Touch" is an excellent vehicle to do that.  Here are other free printable lesson plans using Fibonacci number patterns. 

Free Printable Summer Reading Activities, Book Crafts, Literature Games

March is National Reading Month, kicked off by "Read Across America." Schools abound with reading opportunities. But what about those long summer months? Here are summer reading enrichmentactivities to keep kids' noses in books year-round! Included are interactive reading response activities, ELA (English language arts) lessons, book-based crafts and literature response lessons. Use these multi-sensory, cross-curricular Montessori-based lessons for Readers Workshop, special education students, reluctant readers and divergent learners too.

Entrepreneurial reading. Research, plan and organize summer money-making or nonprofit fundraising ventures: yard sale, babysitting, lawn and pet services, knitting and craft sales, housecleaning. Host a lemonade stand. Lemonade Day shows how.

Book-based crafts. Scholastic has free printable book crafts, games and literature response activities. Access Scholastic publishers' vast data base of children's literature. Get games, crafts and printables from favorite kids' books.

DIY summer reading camp. Have kids start their own summer reading club. Education.com has free printable reading activities. Utilize materials and your local library. Host book club activities in your backyard! Discuss favorite books, make crafts, play games, act out stories and enjoy book-themed snacks!

Book recipes. Make foods described in books. Look for companion cookbooks to favorite books: American Girls, Little House on the Prairie, Haunted America, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs have cookbooks with recipes from the stories. Invent recipes based on books. We made Winnie-the-Pooh "haycorn" (pecan) pie and honey cookies.

Readers theater or puppet show. Make book character puppets. Have kids retell story. Or let them write their own stories using homemade puppets. My kids wrote a puppet show using puppets from Mercer Mayer's "There's a Nightmare in my Closet", Mike Mulligan's steam shovel (from Virginia Lee Burton's book) and "Word Bird" (Jane Belk Moncure).

Reading response journal. Have kids track reading and complete activities. Check my blog Free Lesson Plans 4U and Free Printable Lesson Plans and Kidz Literature for tips to make literature response journals and activity suggestions. Here's a free printable reading calendar from PBS.

Rewards and incentives. Participate with Pizza Hut Book-It program. The first week of March is the "Let's all Read" program, partnered with One More Story. Kids read and get pizza, plus they donate to RIF by reading! Double good! Incent reading with books. Join Scholastic--get free books for ordering. Give as prizes for completed reading.

Free printable outline maps for Geography Lessons

Remember the cute little Disney song, "It's a Small World" where children dressed in traditional costumes of their country danced around? I'm trying to re-create that feeling of inter-connectedness using social networking. And you can with students, too. Kids spend a lot of time online, in social networks like Facebook. They blog and useTwitter, Instagram, Pinterest. All these avenues can be used to teach geography. When I connect with someone on any social network, I always check to see where they are from. I'm building a virtual friend map. Here's how students learn mapping and global skills online.

Here are free printable outline maps as well. Use these to practice for the eNational Geographic National Geography Bee is heating up! Kids from all over are honing their geography skills to hopefully qualify. Teachers and homeschool parents, here arefree printable world maps for social studies lesson plans and geography bee activities. Eduplace has over sixty free printable outline maps for use in social studies class and geography lessons. Have students make free printable world maps for social studies homework and to study for tests.

There are about ten different world maps for geography lessons. There are also outline maps from each continent, country and region. Use free printable outline maps for world and local geography. There is one page with free printable historical maps to help students understand how areas were labeled at different times in history. US History also offers free printable world history maps from famous times and places.

All free printable world maps are outline maps, meaning that they're drawn as outlines of the country, continent or region. Free printable outline maps are labeled with cities and major landforms. You can print the maps with labels for students to use for practice and memorization. There are also printable maps without labels. Use these for practice, study guides, quizzes and tests. With or without labels, outline maps are identical so that there is no confusion between the two. Check the homepage for more free printable geography lessons, social studies activities and American history worksheets.

Assign students to trace and color code world maps for social studies. Coloring and tracing maps are great geography lessons for visual learners and special needs students. Tracing maps helps students conceptualize size, proportion relative area and distance. Teachers can laminate outline maps after students have colored and labeled them. Student can cut out different regions, states, countries or continents and reassemble pieces like a puzzle. Teachers can also laminate blank world maps for practice tools. Label the back with answers for self checking geography lessons.

Free printable colonial America Crafts and early American history printables

I'm a teacher, homeschool veteran and American history reenactor. I teach a 1700s-era dame school(here's a model one at Thursley in Surrey, England) at our local history museum "Feast of the Strawberry Moon" encampment. Here are free printable hands-on early American history lessons and historical crafts and free printable colonial America lesson plans.

Teach about school history. Explain that education wasn't compulsory in the U.S. colonies till 1852 and then only in Massachusetts. Kids might be taught in "dame schools." Then only basics. Women weren't deemed capable of teaching boys. They taught handicrafts, reading, writing and ciphering. Higher education was taught by men to families who could afford it. Here are free printable history lessons and historical crafts from Kidipede linked to the main page for the whole collection.

Reading in Colonial America. In 1647, reading, writing and Bible was mandated, under the Old Deluder Satan Act. The New England Primer was used starting in 1760. MacGuffey Readers came out in 1836. But that was the colonies. The Michigan territory was settled by Catholic French. Education came from missionaries, like Quebecois Ursuline nuns under Marie del Incarnation. Catholic or Protestant, instruction was religious and moral. Here are free printable selections from the New England Primer. Teach kids the famous alphabet poem beginning: "In Adam's fall." Here are morecolonial early American history lessons.

Colonial America ladder school. Teachers grouped students by age and ability. In math, the first row, the youngest, worked on counting. The next row, basic addition. The next, subtraction and so on. Spelling, reading, and handwriting would be taught this way, too. D emonstrate this with students. If students are agemates, assign some to play older kids and some younger. Arrange seats or benches in rows (ladders). Here are sample free printable early American history lessons like those teachers would have used.

Make homemade books. Vellum was a costly paper-like material made from animal membrane. This could be scraped down and reused. Few could afford it. But they would have saved and reused everything. Teach kids colonial America frugality. Make books from paper grocery bags (similar to parchment or butcher paper). Sew pages by punching holes and weaving with pieces of twine, rope, yarn or leather cording. Have students write the New England Prime Bible poem and illustrate. Here are other free printable colonial early American history lessons and historical crafts.

Hands-on math games: Give children pebbles for counting. Kids transfer one pebble from hand to hand as they count. Demonstrate simple operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I've used beans, but tell kids these were food stuffs and wouldn't have been wasted. Shells, feathers, sticks would likely have been used.

Writing in early American history. Make slate pencils. Children in early American history used slates and a stylus made of rocks. Gather rocks. Scratch on pieces of rock tile. Ask local rock or tile dealers for samples. See which kinds write best. Make quill and ink. Cut the end off the feather at an angle. Heat in flame to make a nib. Ink would have been too expens

Hands-On Homemade Reading Crafts, Book Activities, Literature Games

March is National Reading Month, starting with the NEA's "Read Across America." Looking for ideas to inspire a life-long love of books? Here are reading response activities, interactive ELA (English language arts) lessons, book-based crafts and literature response lessons. Book activities are hands-on, multi-sensory, cross-curricular Montessori-style. Use for interactive Readers Workshop, special education students, reluctant readers, divergent learners and summer reading enrichment.

Reading response journal. Have kids create personalized reading logs, respond to literature and complete book-based activities. Check my blog Free Lesson Plans 4U and Free Printable Lesson Plans for tips to make literature response journals and activity suggestions. Here are free printable reading activities and calendar tracker from PBS.

Homemade books. Cut book covers from cereal box. Cover with scrap wrapping paper or wallpaper. Cover with magazine picture collage. Decoupage by painting pictures with watered-down school glue, front and back. Cut lined paper pages (for text) and blank paper (for illustrations). Or use scrap paper and draw in text lines.

Book-based promotional materials. Have kids play marketer for their favorite book or author. Make posters, book covers advertising literature. Create 3-D sculptures, models or dioramas based on books. Make book-based merchandise: toys, snacks, food, games. In homeschooling, my 6th grade son designed a "Hobbit Holes" cereal box designed on his favorite J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

Book diorama. Create scenes from books using recycled products. Arrange scene in shoe box. Use small dolls (Lego, Fisher-Price, Little Tikes, Polly Pockets) as characters.

Story-reading audio/video presentations. Make audio recordings of kids reading books. Covert to mp3 files for iPod. Videotape students reading and story-telling. Upload videos to Youtube.

Story-telling. Students read aloud to younger students. Students act out children's books and present to younger or special needs classes. In high school, our oldest daughter acted out a Shel Silverstein's poem "Noise Day" for special education kids. They loved when she skateboarded across the stage!

Book-music connections. Create music playlists based on books. Select metaphorical songs. Kids will love choosing modern songs to represent story themes. Our family saw a production of "Macbeth." The play was set to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," "The Decemberists "This is Why We Fight" and "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant. It really resonated with students and helped them understand and relate to Shakespeare.For more reading response activities, visit my blog Kidz Literature.