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 Valentine's Day Countdown Calendar

Countdown calendars are becoming very popular to help children count down the days to special events and holidays. Here are free printable valentine countdown calendars to number the days till Valentine’s Day. These cute cut and paste craft works well for preschool, special needs kids, elementary classrooms, homeschool and Girl Scout troop activities.

Make free printable valentine countdown calendars reusable by laminating or printing and pasting to the inside of a file folder or recycled cardboard. There are a variety of ways to label days till Valentines Day. Here are religious Christian valentine countdown calendars with Bible verses. Print in black and white and let children color them. To print in black and white set your printer "preferences" to "black ink cartridge" or "print in gray scale". Children should cut them out and arrange in order 1-14. They can also do a backwards valentine countdown calendar to learn counting backwards. Holiday themed activities for kids are always a hit!

Here are more Valentine Day countdown calendars and activities for kids. Pinterest has several free printable valentine countdown calendars, too. This website also has an assortment of Valentines Day calendars to print free. Kids might do one of the free printable valentine crafts activities for kids or make recipes from Disney Family each day till Valentines Day to countdown to the holiday.

Valentines Day countdown calendars and crafts activities for kids are great for practicing math, fine motor and scissor skills. Calendars are ideal for use with younger preschool, kindergarten and special needs students. They're simple and user-friendly making calendars ideal for children who are easily frustrated. Countdown calendars are also great for teaching math skills like counting, sequencing, patterns and calendar skills.

Free Printable Mayan, Aztec, Incan Lesson Plans

The Mayan calendar predicted the world would end December 21, 2012 (12-21-12). It didn't, but it does raise interesting questions on how time calculated. And it drew attention to the fascinating Maya civilization and other ancient pre-Columbian Mesoamerica native cultures like Inca, Aztec, Toltec and Olmec. Here are free printable Mayan calendars, lesson plans on time measurement and Mesoamerica culture study activities, hieroglyphics and lifestyle lessons Aztec, Inca and Maya civilization.

Printable Colouring Pages has six free printable images of Mayan calendars, referred to as Tzolkin or Haab, in the ancient tongue of the Maya civilization. Click here for another set of free printable Mesoamerica coloring pages. Be sure to teach students that Mesoamerica refers to a geographical region--around Mexico, Central America including Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador--and to the pre-Columbian historical time period when the ancient Aztec, Zapotec, Teotihuacano, Olmec, Mixtec, Toltec and Maya civilization flourished. The ancient Inca civilization grew up around Peru in South America.

How-to-Draw has free printable Mayan calendars. Words for each symbol listed near Mayan calendars. Here's a free printable decoder tools for Mayan calendars. Click here for free printable Maya civilization coloring pages. Here are more math lessons based on the Mayan calendar. Here are lesson plans on the 20 day cycle of the Tzolkin or Mayan calendars, with inscriptions and codec hieroglyphics (picture symbols) used in the Tzolkin calendar, plus names and translations from modern Yucatec, classic Maya and English. Here are free printable math lessons, calendar converters and hieroglyphics from the solar Haab Mayan calendars.

Edupics has free printable coloring pages from the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Aztec, Inca and Maya civilization. Look for pictures of famous pre-Columbian works of art, hieroglyphics and ancient religious sites of Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlan and Chichen Itza or the Temple of Kukulkan (now listed in the new revised wonders of the world). Check out these links for free printable paper models of Chichen Itza and Machu Picchu and Tenochtitlan.

Here are lesson plans on the monolithic Olmec heads and Toltec statues. Here's a free printable 161-page booklet of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica lesson plans on the Maya civilization. J.Q.Jacobs gives a detailed descriptions of the Haab and Tzolkin Mayan calendar along with images of their codices and instructions for use.

Free Printable New Year Craft Activities, Lesson Plans

Planning a New Year's Eve or New Year's Day party? Are you finding it hard to keep kids happily productive and as you prepare for the party? Why not involve children in the holiday decoration making? Here are free printable New Year crafts, party decorations, games and activities. For the most economical printing, set your printer to "draft" and "black ink cartridge only." Printing activities in black and white turns them into coloring pages which kids can color--value added! You can save lots of money on printing ink and still get a nice quality print-out.

Making Friends is a charming website offering free printable paper crafts, templates, patterns and craft activity how-to guides for children. Print New Year's Eve party decorations that kids can make. Make party noisemakers, party hats, banners, a time capsule and journal covers. There's even a make-your-own New Year's Eve ball craft project.

Apples 4 the Teacher is a great website for parents, teachers, homeschoolers, librarians and activity coordinators. Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable New Year lesson plans and worksheets for students. Print New Year's Day crafts, calendars, games, word searches, jigsaw puzzles, history activities, coloring pages, trivia games and party decorations. Homeschool families might use these for New Year's Day lesson plans. Teachers, print New Year worksheets for fun back-to-school activities after winter vacation.

Free Kids Crafts has a whole page of links for free printable New Year's Eve party decorations, crafts, games, lessons and activities for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day parties. Free Kids Crafts also has an interactive calendar that is updated daily with a new craft for the day. You can access the archived crafts for days past, also. This is definitely a craft website to bookmark and check daily.

The Toymaker has two free printable vintage New Year paper craft activities for kids to color, cut and paste. There is a free printable New Year resolutions penny box to make. Children can use it as a piggy bank and practice the value of saving. There is a also a New Year booklet to print, assemble and read together.

Disney Family is an excellent resource for free printable Disney crafts, games, greeting cards, party decorations and activities for any holiday. The New Year activities are listed under Winter printables. There are New Year's Day coloring pages and holiday decorations to print, color and assemble. For more fun with printables for holidays, visit Free Printable Holiday.

Free Printable Advent countdown to Christmas Activities

Advent is the Catholic Christian season leading up to Christmas. For four weeks, prior to Christmas, Catholics practice Advent values prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Each week focuses on hope, expectation and joy. Here are free printable advent calendars for kids to make, to guide advent to Christmas devotions. 

Many involve candy or treats and while there's nothing wrong with a little treat, materialism defeats the Advent purpose: to focus on God. Constantly receiving teaches children (and adults) to be even more aquisitory than they already are at Christmas. If they're getting all season long, where's the magic of Christmas morning? Advent is about preparing for the coming of Christ with acts of charity.

Advent observances should be spiritual. Here are templates from Loyola for free printable Bible Advent calendars. Children read Bible stories and practice the gospel values of prayer, fasting and charity.

Have children make their own Advent calendar. Here's a printable calendar with Catholic feast days listed. Print Bible clipart from Clipart Pal or free Christian Christmas images from Web Weaver. Write Bible verses and gospel passages on the back of clipart. Have children list daily acts of kindness: visit the elderly, pass out cocoa at Christmas parade, wrap Giving Tree gift.

Mr. Printable has free printable Advents calendar crafts. They're not religious. but they could be made that way adding Bible gospel readings and works of mercy.

Here's are free printable Jesse Tree ornaments patterns for kids to color. The Jesse Tree is a visual aid that tells the genealogy of Jesus. It takes children through major Bible stories. Each night, children color a symbol to add to the tree, taking them to the O Antiphons (and ancient Advent prayers said before Christmas).

Sign up for ZonderKidz from Bible Gateway and get a free Jesus Storybook and Bible verses Advent calendar to print. Spiritual Advent calendars teach children that the best gift doesn't come in a wrapped box. The very best Christmas present, the reason for the season, was born in a rough manger.

ESRS creatives has a printable Advent calendar that looks like Christmas ornaments hanging from a tree. There's a printable contemporary Advent calendar. Check this site for a free printable whimsical styled Advent calendar. For a modern Advent calendar click here. Here's an advent calendar that looks like a 3D town. Here is another town shaped Advent calendar printout.

Yellow Bliss Road has an Advent calendar styled like treat bags hanging from a line. O Happy Day has a similar printable Advent calendar. And Petit Lapin has yet another printable bag-style calendar.

This site has printable advent calendars in different styles. For printable child-themed advent calendars, check this site for a Santa Claus Advent calendar. Here's a stocking Advent calendar. Or here's an advent calendar with tags that look like ornaments.

Here are some printable window advent calendars. Here's a cute geometric one. Here's a vintage calendar. Here's a religious advent calendars from Loyola. All Crafts has advent calendar printables. And here are more Advent calendar to print. Here's a site with links to more printable Advent calendars.

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans, Lenten Calendars

The Catholic church enters the Lenten season of preparation before Easter. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Easter is about more than just bunnies and candy. Easter celebrates the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Christians ready themselves for Jesus's coming with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The date of Ash Wednesday changes each year as Easter is a "movable feast." In 2015, Ash Wednesday is Feb. 18.Here are free printable stations of the cross, rosary, saints and Easter bible story coloring pages.

Lenten season runs for 46 days up to Easter. Lent "follows" Jesus's during forty days of fasting in the desert when He was tempted by Satan. in preparation for His sacrifice on the cross. During Lent, we try to imitate Jesus. We follow the "Way of the Cross" or Stations of the Cross and pray the rosary.

St. John the Baptist Religious Education has nearly 100 free printable Catholic Lenten coloring pages. Categories include:

20 free printable rosary coloring pages

--Joyful Mysteries from the Bible story of Jesus's life: the annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, the Presentation and Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple

--Sorrowful Mysteries from the Bible story of Jesus's life: the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, Carrying the Cross and the Crucifixion

--Glorious Mysteries (heavenly events) in Jesus's life include the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption and the Crowning of Mary Queen of Heaven.

--Luminous Mysteries: the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana (Jesus's first public miracle), the Proclamation of the Kingdom and the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. These are Bible events from the life of Jesus.

There are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages, one for each of the 15 stations. SJB has nearly 20 free printable Apostles Creed coloring pages. You can print free saints coloring pages of St. Patrick, Mary Mother of God, St. Joan of Arc, St. Philomena, St. Tarcisius, St. Clare, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Valentine and other saints. There are several of Pope Francis.

Use these free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages for Ash Wednesday, Lent devotions, Holy Week, Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and finally Easter Sunday. Make a Stations of the Cross coloring book for mass and to keep little ones quiet during devotions and to reflect during your stations prayers. The images are beautifully drawn. Many were created from stained glass windows in various churches. These coloring pages make great lent devotional activities to prepare children for Easter. For more free printable Catholic Christian printables, please visit my blogs Catholic Activities and Lent Activities.

Free Printable Food Journals, Online Calorie Counters for Health, Science

To address growing children's health concerns--diabetes, nutrition, obesity, fitness and general wellness--several groups have developed health programs written at kid level. They offer free printable food journals, online fitness trackers and nutrition planning tools. Geared for elementary to high school age kids, these programs teach self-sufficiency and basic life skills related to health.

  Choose My Plate , a service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, offers kids meal planners, free online food journals, free printable nutrition trackers and other helpful resources. The site is designed for adults but has materials adapted to children, too.


  Chartwells (a school nutrition program) has an initiative called "Eat Learn Live" which provides free printable food journals and diet trackers and other health tools for kids, parents and teachers. Many schools across the U.S. partner with Chartwells and use the program in their food service program. This link explains how Eat Learn Live works in schools and how it can be adapted for home use.


  Chartwells offers nutrition data personalized to specific school breakfast and lunch menus. Kids can track food intake using menus they actually eat from. Using this tailored data, kids can plan their eating and measure their nutrient intake. You can also access this information from your school's food service link on the school website. Chartwells Eat Learn Live resources page has information on carbohydrates, calories, vitamins and minerals, fat, sodium, protein and other food data.


  Of particular interest is the Kidnetic webpage. This site gives kids free printable activities, online health games, online food journals and fitness trackers and healthy recipes. Kids often eat less healthy foods because it's easier and quicker. They come home hungry and want to eat immediately. The food tips and recipes on Chartwells give kids healthier eating options. Snacks can be made quick and easy with little parent supervision. This is especially good for kids who are home alone after school.


  Another useful student health website is BAM! Body and Mind (a service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This site cover all areas of child health: nutrition, fitness, dental care, illness, immunity, drugs and medications, substance abuse, weight problems, depression, emotional health, bullying, peer pressure, relationships, family health and social skills. Written in cartoon graphic novel style, kids can play games and interact online. BAM! offers kids free printable exercise calendars and food journals.


 

Free Printable Winter Solstice Activities, Lessons

Among the high profile holidays­­ Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa­­there is the lesser known, sometimes forgotten winter solstice. Thewinter holiday is an ancient pagan rite, celebrated around December 20­23, in connection with the shortest day of the year.

Here are free printable winter solstice activities, snowflake crafts, holiday games, winter science and solstice social studies lesson plans. Pagan Druids and Wiccans commemorated winter solstice. This winter holiday also marks the first day of winter so it's a great time to teach calendar skills, marking time, changing seasons, the solar system, astronomy and constellations.

Apples for the Teacher has a whole unit on winter and pagan winter Solstice. You get free printable winter solstice activities, snowflake crafts, puzzles, mazes, word searches, poetry, crossword puzzles, short stories, jigsaw puzzles and worksheets to study the winter season. Cutting paper snowflake crafts teaches math, geometry and measurement activities. Snowflake crafts are perfect for hands­on winter holiday math lessons These free printable winter solstice activities and snowflake crafts are geared to preschool, general education and special needs classrooms.

ABC Teach has gobs of free printable winter holiday worksheets, writing, counting, reading, numbers, letters, math and science activities. You'll find free printable coloring pages with winter scenes, snowmen, snow sports and more. Scroll down the page for free printable preschool and elementary winter puzzles, cryptograms, mazes, shape books, rebus puzzles, matching games, cut and paste crafts, Venn diagrams, writing prompts, winter word wall, word search, snowy story starter and winter worksheets.

The Teacher's Corner has free printable pagan winter solstice activities to fill your homeschool or classroom with winter fun and learning. Print many free printable worksheets, reading, writing, crafts, games and science activities. Artists Helping Children has many free printable winter solstice craft activities for kids. Children will love learning about holidays from around the world. Winter Solstice is one of the oldest pagan winter holiday celebrations in the

Free Printable Back to School Organizers, Planners and Welcome Back Crafts

Back-to-School shopping has become quite the marketing catch phrase. We all know how to spend, but how about ideas to save on back to school? One cost-cutter is to print your own and skip buying a student planner or homework organizer. Here are links for free printable student planners, homework organizers and 2015 children's calendars. Homeschooling parents, use free printablelesson planners and personal organizers.

Free Printable.net has loads of free printable calendar templates, seasonal and holiday themed lesson organizers, dated personal planner pages and blank student planners. There are also free printable games, crafts, greeting cards, classroom activities and more. Why not print out a back-to-school welcoming packet for students?

Family Fun has free printable back-to-school organizers and summer crafts activities, photo frame crafts, homework charts with stickers, classroom and family organizers, monthly and weekly planner pages, student personal organizer calendar and charts. There are also teacher welcome letter templates.

Blessed Beyond a Doubt is a mom-blog with free printable student organizers and homework planners. There are links for free printable school activities, activity booklets with games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Printable Planners has customizable free students planners, calendars and homework organizers to print. TLS Books has design-your-own organizers and free printable color-your-own children's calendars.

Scroll around these websites for more school themed printables. Look for games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Print free pencil topper crafts, teacher and student stationary, incentive stickers, book and binder labels, book and binder label stickers, book marks and book covers. These cute crafts are guaranteed to please preschoolers, kindergarteners and elementary students. Even middle school and high school students would, truth be told, love these fun crafts.

For more free printables, visit me at Free Coloring Pages 4U, Catholic Activities and DIY Homeschool.

Free Printable Clocks, Telling Time Lesson Plans

Telling time using an analog clock is one of the most difficult concepts to teach. It's hard to explain to children how clock hands moving around a dial mark hours and minutes. It helps to use interactive telling time worksheets and hands-on clocks to make time math lessons easier. Here are free printable clocks, clock faces and telling time worksheets.

Have Fun Learning has several free printable telling time worksheets, time math lessons with clocks with fill-in-the-blank numbers. Some are numbered in hours and minutes already. There are real-life applications story problems to teach telling time plus printable telling time games. Lucy Learns is a great website with all sorts of free printable lessons and activities. The section on clocks and telling time has over 15 free printable clock faces with all sorts of styles. Free printable clocks, clock hands and clock faces make excellent hands-on time math lessons for teaching children to read a clock. Print one clock for each student.

has cute blank and partially numbered free printable decorated clock faces. Great for young children and preschool. K-3 Teacher Resources has several free printable clock faces in different styles, plus free printable telling time math lesson. Senteacher has several free printable clocks, clock face printables, cut and paste clocks and clock lesson plans. Print Free offers basic free printable clock faces with hands to cut out and attach (use a paper fastener).

Donna Young's website is find of the day! Chock full o' clocks, there are free printable cut and paste clocks, clock face activities and telling time worksheets and lesson plans. Enchanted Learning is always a great teacher resource website, Enchanted Learning probably has more free printable educational lesson plans, crafts, cut and paste, coloring pages, activity booklets and teacher resources than any other website. You can print free, or pay a $20 donation and get complete member services and banner free printables. The telling time page has free printable clock faces,cut and paste clock activities and telling time worksheets. A-Z Teacher Stuff has dozens of free printable telling time math lessons and activities, including free printable clock faces.

Free Printable Stations of the Cross Activities, Catholic Coloring Pages

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday continues for 40 days up through Holy Week, the Easter Triduum and Easter. Catholic Christians try to imitate Jesus with prayer, fasting or sacrifice and almsgiving (charity). A Catholic prays the rosary and Stations of the Cross on Friday (and as often as possible).  Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages to guide Lenten devotions.  Print a booklet for CCD, VBS, religious education classes, Catholic school, homeschooling and family devotions.
Catholic Mom offers free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books and prayer devotional guide. This is a fifteen page booklet covering each of the 14 Stations of the Cross. The liturgical prayer used at station is printed on the front cover and is repeated at each station. Children may color all the pages in their coloring books at once, or you may use Stations of the Cross coloring books as daily Lenten calendar countdown to Easter activities. Children might color one page each day for Lenten devotions. Here are other free printable Stations of the Cross activities.
Web Archive has free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages drawn like Victorian church stained glass.  These images are quite small, but could be printed for a flip book or enlarged and printed as quarter or half page coloring pages. Traditionalists will love the neo-classical black and white artwork. St. John the Baptist Religious Ed has loads more free printable Catholic coloring pages for the mysteries of the rosary (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Lumious Mysteries), Easter, Lenten, Bible and other Catholic themed coloring pages). 

Free Printable Lent Devotional Coloring Pages

The Catholic church enters the Lenten season of preparation before Easter. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Easter is about more than just bunnies and candy. Easter celebrates the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Christians ready themselves for Jesus's coming with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The date of Ash Wednesday changes each year as Easter is a "movable feast." In 2015, Ash Wednesday is Feb. 18.Here are free printable stations of the cross, rosary, saints and Easter bible story coloring pages.

Lenten season runs for 46 days up to Easter. Lent "follows" Jesus's during forty days of fasting in the desert when He was tempted by Satan. in preparation for His sacrifice on the cross. During Lent, we try to imitate Jesus. We follow the "Way of the Cross" or Stations of the Cross and pray the rosary.

St. John the Baptist Religious Education has nearly 100 free printable Catholic Lenten 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 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 Math Manipulatives, Hands on Activities

The best way to teach math is with real-life applications. The best way to demonstrate math concepts is with hands-on materials that are multi-sensory. These tools are called manipulatives because kids can touch and interact with them. 

They're not just paper and pencil activities or textbook lessons. Math manipulatives include real or play money (for market math), clocks for telling time, fraction bars, pattern blocks, parquetry blocks, peg boards, base ten blocks, Unifix cubes and Cuisinaire Rods. Here are websites with free printable math manipulatives for homemade materials.

Mason has a webpage with dozens of links for free printable math manipulatives, Print pattern blocks, geometry shapes, Base Ten blocks, color tiles, XY blocks and fraction bars. These tools are commonly used in preschool, kindergarten and special needs classrooms, but should be used in all grades to teach geometry, algebra and other maths.

Sparkle Box from the United Kingdom is jam-packed with free math manipulatives and printables. There are free printable PDFs of clock activities for telling time, fraction pies and bars, coins and play money for learning about money math and many free printable math games. Math games include spinners, dice, game board, pieces and accessories, all free printable cut-out activities.

Making Learning Fun has hundreds of free printable math games and manipulatives. This website is organized according to theme, such as Cats, Apples or different children's literature books. Each theme or topic has free printable math lessons, crafts, cut and paste, puzzles and more.

Teacher Resources Galore is huge clearinghouse of educational materials, including free printable math lesson plans. Each math curriculum content area has dozens of free printables listed. Search for the math content area that you are teaching to find what manipulatives you can print. Just click to open the PDF and print.

Jimmie's Collage is a neat homeschool blog with gobs of mom-teacher-made math manipulatives to print. 

Free Printable Organizers, Charts, Planners, Graphs, Calendars

One way to save on school shopping is to print your own planner pages and skip buying a student planner or homework organizer. Here are links for free printable student planners, homework organizers and 2015 children's calendars. Homeschooling parents, use free printable lesson planners and personal organizers.

Free Printable.net has loads of free printable calendar templates, seasonal and holiday themed lesson organizers, dated personal planner pages and blank student planners. There are also free printable games, crafts, greeting cards, classroom activities and more. Why not print out a back-to-school welcoming packet for students?

Family Fun has free printable back-to-school organizers and summer crafts activities, photo frame crafts, homework charts with stickers, classroom and family organizers, monthly and weekly planner pages, student personal organizer calendar and charts. There are also teacher welcome letter templates.

Blessed Beyond a Doubt is a mom-blog with free printable student organizers and homework planners. There are links for free printable school activities, activity booklets with games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Printable Planners has customizable free students planners, calendars and homework organizers to print. TLS Books has design-your-own organizers and free printable color-your-own children's calendars.

Scroll around these websites for more school themed printables. Look for games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Print free pencil topper crafts, teacher and student stationary, incentive stickers, book and binder labels, book and binder label stickers, book marks and book covers. These cute crafts are guaranteed to please preschoolers, kindergarteners and elementary students. Even middle school and high school students would, truth be told, love these fun crafts.

For more free printables, visit me at Free Coloring Pages 4U, Catholic Activities, Free Printable Lesson Plans and DIY Homeschool.