Free Crafts and Printables from Martha Stewart

 I maintain several highly-performing niche blog, the most popular ones involving printable crafts for children. Internet searchers are always seeking freebies and crafts. Click this link for loads of free printable holiday themed crafts. Look for free printable crafts for fall holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Diwali, All Saints Day, Halloween, Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, Epiphany. Perfect for lesson plans.

You probably know Martha Stewart is the DIY home goddess. What you might not know is that her website offers free printable Martha Stewart craft patterns to make her many amazing crafts. This craft guru literally has crafts, recipes and printables for every holiday, theme and occasion. Whatever holiday is coming next is featured on the homepage. There's a timeline of holidays along the banner menu, so you can scroll through and find printable craft patterns and templates for past or upcoming holidays. 

Free Printable Leaf and Tree Identification Charts for Science Lesson Plans

A popular autumn lesson plan is to assign students to make a leaf identification booklet. Here are free printable tree identification charts and leaf patterns and fall craft stencils. Parents, homeschoolers and teachers, make flashcards with these tree and leaf patterns. Use in hands-on Montessori style games for nature science study. Make tree and leaf books. Assign students to collect leaves, press them or make leaf rubbings. Students should label leaves and trees using identification diagrams.

About Forestry has free printable leaf patterns for tree and leaf identification from common trees around the country. The site also has textbook-quality, beautifully detailed free printable leaf coloring pages taken from naturalist Charles Sprague Sargent's leaf plate illustrations. Each page features a different leaf with its corresponding tree, berry, nut and foliage. These printable illustrations include cut-away drawings and other helpful identification data, plus the Latin classification for genus and species of the tree. The website gives the leaf and tree names in their American variation. Use these printables for taxonomy lessons on KPCOFGS (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus and Species) as developed by zoologist Carolus Linnaeus.

Arbor Day offers several printable nature science resources and online tree and leaf identification activities. Here's a link for About Forestry's leaf and tree identification homepage. From here, follow the links for different information about conifers, deciduous trees, hardwoods, and other assorted trees from different biomes and habitats. Don't miss these free printable forest map. Here are free printable leaf stencils for decorations and children's activities.

Free Printable 4th of July Crafts History Lesson Plans for Kids

With Memorial Day right around the corner, here are educational US history art projects and patriotic crafts. Use patriotic crafts for 4th of July holiday art projects too.

* Homemade dough, putty, paint. Kids in US history typically had few toys, so they made fun with found materials. Turn the back yard into an old-school chemistry lab. Here are recipes for silly putty, moon sand, play dough and other media for patriotic crafts and art projects. If you have a natural clay deposit, mine your own. Make clay pots or marbles (a favorite old-times game). Concoct homemade fabric paint mixing tempera and Elmer's School Glue or powdered milk. Teach chemistry and experimenting with paint recipes for Memorial Day and 4th of July art projects from Nate and Rachel (safe enough for toddler crafts).

* Decorate tote bags. In times past, kids art projects were learning activities. Use US history patriotic holiday crafts to teach simple sewing, math and life skills lessons. Repurpose fabric tablecloths, sheets, blankets, pillow cases, towels. Have kids measure and cut two matching squares. Sew three sides of squares together by machine or with needle and thread. Turn inside out. Fold and sew a hem around the top edge. Braid scrap yarn, rope, twine, into handles. Attach and decorate with homemade paint.

* Family tablecloth. Family was important, elders were respected and everyone worked together in olden times. Hand print a clean plain-colored flat sheet or polar fleece blanket with fabric paint (see recipe above). Get everyone involved--grandma, grandpa, grouchy Aunt Mildred, the baby, the cat--dips a palm (paw) in paint and hand prints. Then, they sign names in permanent marker near their print. Make patriotic holiday crafts do double duty as gifts and give as a keepsake to an elderly relative.

* Flag pencils. Cut white sheets or plain fabric scraps into 4x6 squares. Show world flags and play afree printable flag bingo game from Suitcases and Sippy Cups. Then let kids create a personal flag that represents their interests. Color with markers or crayons. Hot glue to new pencils. Wave your flag patriotic holiday crafts in Memorial Day and 4th of July parades.

* Personal logo T-shirts. Famous Americans--Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson--are known by mottoes like "Don't Tread on Me." The Gadsden flag was an American revolution symbol, Universities typically have Latin mottoes. Have kids create their own slogan and logo to reflect their ideals. Then transfer images to T-shirts with fabric paints or permanent markers. Recycle old shirts. Buy packaged T-shirts. Check dollar stores for good prices on supplies for patriotic holiday crafts and Memorial Day or 4th of July art projects.

Have a Memorial Day and 4th of July parade. Sing US history songs, display your patriotic holiday crafts and art projects. Wear US history shirts. US History leaps off boring textbook pages and comes to life with these educational US history art projects.

Free Printable Spring Seasonal Lesson Plans, Coloring Pages

March 20-22 marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in many countries. For those of locked in ice and snow and cold, this date can't come too early. Many have had a long winter and are pretty happy to hear those cheery little birds singing and see tiny crocuses bravely trying to poke their lavender heads up through the snow. How about some free spring coloring pages, Easter holiday activities and spring crafts to occupy those children who are sick of winter and school?

Coloring Book Fun free printable spring coloring pages are simple enough for the not yet seasoned colorers, and yet offer more challenging pictures for veteran colorers. This site has a huge stock of free printable spring coloring pages and spring crafts based on seasons, weather, Easter holiday activities, topics, Bible based pictures, multi-cultural and animals. You can find just about any cartoon character from G.I.Joe to Barbie to Pokemon to Rug-rats to Rainbow Brite to Dragon Ball Z to Dora, plus all your Disney favorites.

DL-TK provides all sorts of free printable spring coloring pages, seasonal spring crafts, lesson plans, puzzles, crafts, projects, scissor practice, sequencing practice, music, song sheets, stories, spring crafts and Easter holiday activities. DLTK has all kinds of pre-school activities that will reinforce pre-reading, letter and number recognition, fine motor practice, telling time, tying shoes, counting, tracing and other skill builders based around a theme. You will find printables for baby animals, new life, butterflies and other insects, plants, flowers, rain, and more. You'll find some really cute Easter holiday activities and spring coloring pages as well!

Print Activities has a really large data bank of banner and ad-free printables with educational themes, There's no sign up or registration, very few if any pop-ups and easy one click printing. I found many styles of cross-word puzzles, calendars, tracing, mazes, word scrambles, word sorts, connect the dots, connect the dot using math problems, Sudoku, fill in the blanks, color by numbers, color by math (students complete math problems and complete a code to color pictures. All these spring crafts and puzzles are themed on seasons, but you can find other topics with themed puzzles: Easter holiday activities, seasons, animals, It may take a moment to load, but it is worth it.

Free Printable Mother's Day Cards, Language Arts, Writing Lesson Plans

Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, on May 10 in 2015. Looking for free printable crafts to make with children for Mother's Day? Here are free printable cards that kids can color themselves and give to mom. Children free proud when they can make things for mom.

Parents magazine has free printable Mother's Day crafts and greeting cards. Some are designed in black and white so kids can color and personalize. Cards designed in color, can be printed in black and white and made into color-your-own for Mother's Day. Set your printer properties to "black cartridge" or "Print in grayscale" from the color option tab.

Parenting.Lee Hansen has about 25 free Mother's Day printables and graphics that can be made into cards. Free Printable has even more free Mother's Day greeting cards to print out. There are vintage images, classic pictures as well as lettered Mother's Day banners that would make nice table or room decorations.

Fisher-Price is an excellent place to find cute free printable Mother's Day greeting cards for children to color. Fisher Price has more free printable Mother's Day crafts here.

Coloring Castle has free printable color your own Mother's Day greeting cards. Cute little designs for children to color. Perfect for grandmothers, too.

Disney has free printable coloring page M other's Day greeting cards featuring Disney characters. Check out the Mothers Day page with a gajillion mom-themed crafts, cards, party decorations, recipes, printables, games, puzzle. 

Preschool Animal Alphabet Themed Snacks from A-Z Plus ABC Printables

Teachers, here’s a month-long menu of alphabet-themed snacks. Use these for interactive reading lesson plans. Use Alpha-Bits cereal, letter pretzels, cookies for letter shape. Make character sandwiches using any spread and leave open face. Use pretzels or matchstick carrots for whiskers. For eyes, use Cheerios, spray cheese, raisins, olives, banana or kiwi slices. Make ears, nose and mouth from apple bits, pimentos, pepper pieces, triangle chips or crackers. Use pretzel sticks for legs. For cookie creations, use candy or fruit to make faces.  

Free Coloring Pages to Print for Children

One of the many things I like about blogging is sharing freebies with my friends. Today's free thang is printable coloring pages. I'm kind of the coloring pages guru, the free printable princess. I thought I'd seen every printables site on the web. Then I found Pic Gifs ;yesterday, digging up animated clipart. Coloring pages make great lesson plans for preschool, perceptual development, fine motor skills, special needs. And kids love 'em!   

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 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. 

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.

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.

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 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.

Free Printable Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games

Super WHY! is an animated PBS preschool learning cartoon for kids ages 3-6. This interactive television show teaches children language arts, reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary and word skills. Use these free printable Super Why lesson plans, games, crafts, coloring pages and worksheets at home, in day care, at school or in summer enrichment. I've included companion activities.

* There are 44 pages of free printable Super Why games , coloring and crafts on the website. It's laid out similar to Webkinz, but doesn't cost anything to play. The activities page features videos and music. Kids learn best when they can see and do. I homeschooled my kids and they learned phonics using simple, repetitive songs set to motion and dance. Encourage preschoolers to memorize songs, sing along, dance and play with Super Why characters.  Scroll throught for the Free Printable Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games and check out free printable Super Why coloring pages on Parents magazine. 

Free Printable Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games

Super WHY! is an animated PBS preschool learning cartoon for kids ages 3-6. This interactive television show teaches children language arts, reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary and word skills. Use these free printable Super Why lesson plans, games, crafts, coloring pages and worksheets at home, in day care, at school or in summer enrichment. I've included companion activities.

* There are 44 pages of free printable Super Why games , coloring and crafts on the website. It's laid out similar to Webkinz, but doesn't cost anything to play. The activities page features videos and music. Kids learn best when they can see and do. I homeschooled my kids and they learned phonics using simple, repetitive songs set to motion and dance. Encourage preschoolers to memorize songs, sing along, dance and play with Super Why characters.  Scroll throught for the Free Printable Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games and check out free printable Super Why coloring pages on Parents magazine.