Free printable Valentine's Day coloring pages, crafts, worksheets, activities

At each holiday, there are a few good websites to check for free printable holiday greeting cards, crafts, party decorations and coloring pages. Here are the best free printable Valentines Day crafts, greeting cards, valentines for classroom exchanges and children's Valentine's Day activities.

Start at The Toymaker for whimsical, Victorian-inspired Valentine's Day crafts. This link takes you to the Holidays - Valentine's Day page, but be sure to check out all the free printable toys, stories, games, crafts, cut and paste, holiday activities and novelties for children. The Toymaker, whose name is Marilyn makes all these free printables herself. For Valentine's Day crafts, there are free printable valentines greeting cards, treat boxes, a cute elephant valentine holder, valentine ornaments, a Celtic Valentine's Day treat box, a pixie box, door hangers, party decorations and more. These free printable crafts are perfect for preschool, homeschool, classroom and nursing home craft activities. Remember senior friends at Valentines Day when you exchange greeting cards.

Free printable brings you the best of web in freebies to print. This links takes you to the free printable valentines, just perfect for children's Valentine's Day exchanges. There are cute valentines with animals, hearts, frogs, flowers, dinosaurs and more. There are Valentine games, puzzles, decorations and other crafts, too. Be sure to scroll around for the multitude of other free printables.

Free Kids Crafts is another great free printable crafts clearinghouse. Sign up for the newsletter to see what great new activities are available. The link takes you to the first page of free printable valentines and Valentine's Day crafts. This page has 12 different styles of valentine crafts. Note that this is just the first page--there are four more pages of free printable valentines greeting cards and crafts alone (not to mention all the stuff to print for other holidays. Print valentines with animals, cartoons, hearts, candy, toys and more. You can make free printable Valentine's Day bookmarks, treat holders, paper glasses, party decorations, games, activities and more.

Teachers and homeschool parents, bookmark these sites for free printable party crafts, but also for that student who may have forgotten (or couldn't afford) to buy valentines to share with the class. Don't let her miss out on the valentine exchange fun--print off some valentines for her to fill out and distribute. I worked in high school special needs classroom. On Valentine's Day, many students still wanted to participate in valentine exchanges, but were deemed "too old." They were delighted when I printed valentines for them to make when their classwork was done.

Free printable World War I lesson plans for Veterans Day, Armistice Day

Veterans Day is celebrated November 11. It's also called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day. We honor veterans, military and those who've died. We remember World War One, which truce was called on November 11, 1918. Here are free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. Images include American military, patriotic themes and WWI history.

Edupics has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages. There are also over 100 military pictures to print and color. There are images of soldiers, weapons, vehicles, sailors, uniforms and insignia. Pictures are realistic and detailed. They cover wars from different countries and times in history. There are sections on printable WWI and WWII coloring pages.

Apples 4 the Teacher has several sections with printable coloring pages for holidays. Veterans Day coloring pages are linked here. Here's the site's free printable Social Studies lesson plans page. There are printable coloring pages of flags, presidents, famous people, American symbols and history.

Raising Our Kids has a really nice assortment of free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. These could be used to make homemade cards for American national patriotic holidays like 4th of July and Memorial Day, too.

Coloring Book Fun has a free printable patriotic themed coloring pages. These simple images would make good preschool holiday activities. Little ones can color them for greeting cards to give to senior citizens.

DL-TK has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages and crafts. There are also mini booklets to use as coloring books. There are Veterans Day word searches and puzzles and poppy crafts. Coloring.ws has more Veterans Day coloring pages to print free.

Here are free printable GI Joe coloring pages from Educational Coloring Pages. 101 Coloring Pages has more GI Joe coloring pages to print free. Print a coloring book for kids to teach them what Veterans Day is and why we celebrate it.

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 Poetry Frames, Poem Patterns and Creative Writing Prompts

April is National Poetry Month and NaPoWriMo (an online poetry slam project). Here are poetry writing prompts for teachers. Poetry templates can help break the creative ice. 

ETTC has 30+ free printable poetry frames and poem templates on all different subjects and themes. Many relate to nature (a common theme in poetry), all about me and emotion and feeling poems. Many of these free printable poem template cover grammar, word usage and other English language arts concepts.

TSL Books has loads of free printable writing prompts, including frame poem templates, poetry prompts and story starters. There are poem templates available for preschool to upper elementary school. Check Students Handouts for more challenging printable poetry writing prompts. Use for personal narrative writing prompts, too.

St. Jean's an assortment of free printable poem templates, poetry frames and graphic organizers: couplets, triplets, quatrain, tanka, sonnet, limerick, cinquain, haiku, persona and many other poetry templates to print.

TNEllen has eight free printable poem templates with different variations on the basic "I am' and "All about me" poem theme. Examples are provided. Creative writing teachers can simply block out the example words and print the poetry frame. Students may refer to the example or fill in their own words like a Mad-Lib fill-in-the-blank activity.

Cape.k12 has about 20 free printable poetry frames grouped by grade level. Each link focuses on different types of poetry writing frames and templates. Free printable haiku, cinquain, acrostic, 5 Ws, alliteration and diamante poetry template plus several other poem activities are available.

Free Printable Chronicles of Narnia Lesson Plans Unit

 Educators and homeschool parents, are you looking for free printable lesson plans on fantasy literature? Then you need to check out the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. If you're teaching Chronicles of Narnia books unit studies, here are free printable Narnia coloring pages and lesson plans. Children have loved the Narnia books for decades. in the 1980s, PBS Wonderworks made some of the seven books into movies. Films have been made for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair as well. Check out the Narnia homepage for free printable Chronicles of Narnia coloring pages, lesson plans, games, puzzles, crafts and coloring pages to augment your book study. Get free teacher and homeschool resources, educational activities, printable Narnia maps, online games and more.

Here's a site with free printable Narnia coloring pages. Coloring Book has another set of free printable Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe coloring pages. Narnia coloring pages featuring the Pevensee children Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy, their cousin Eustace, Prince Caspian, Reepicheep, Drinian, Rince, the Dragon, Aslan and others. Websites feature detailed, realistic images from movies Prince Caspian, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movies. Here are Narnia crafts and Narnia coloring pages from the books series. Activity Village has free printable Narnia coloring pages and games galore! Print word search games--great for book study guides and tests--from each book in the Chronicles of Narnia series:

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Magician's Nephew (the first book chronologically in the series)
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Last Battle.

There are is also a free printable mouse mask for Reepicheep, free printable dragon crafts and coloring pages (no spoilers, but SOMEONE--not saying who--turns into a dragon in a wonderful allegorical twist!) There's a Many-Coloured Sugar recipe (such as Caspian ate at the feast), a shield craft, sword craft and a castle craft which could be Cair Paravel.

Homeschool Giveaway lists links for free printable Chronicles of Narnia lesson plans, crafts, worksheets, book study guides and games. Here are free printable vocabulary lesson plans from Narnia books. And here are lots more teacher- made lesson plans for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book study guides.

Free Printable Nelson Mandela Day Lesson Plans and Black History Month Activities

July 18 is Nelson Mandela Day. In the US, Black History Month is observed in February. Here are free printable Black History Month lesson plans to use in Nelson Mandela Day observances. Teach children about this hero.

To get lessons, visit Shmoop. There are 25-plus pieces of content available free on Black History Month. You'll find lessons on:
  Slavery
 
  Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance
 
  Jim Crow
 
  Civil Rights
 
  Desegregation
 
  "Black Power"
 
  Famous court cases impacting slavery, integration and civil rights
 
  Race issues in US wars: Revolutionary, Civil, WWII
 
  Ku Klux Klan and racial tensions
 
  Civil War
 
  Abolition
 
  Antebellum America
 
  Reconstruction
 
  FDR's New Deal
 
  Race in music history: jazz, blues, rock & roll
 
  Desegregation in schools, sports
 
  Woolworth lunch counter and bus boycotts

  Apartheid

There are teaching guides for poetry and books of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Phillis Wheatley, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain and Harper Lee. Read on.

Free Printable Science Chemistry Biology Lesson Plans

EcoKids is an ecology website for kids, students, parents and teachers. This site features online ecology mystery games that students can read and solve. Students must pay close attention and put their knowledge of the ecosystem into practice. Plus, there are free printable biology and life science coloring pages, worksheets, activities and lesson plans for Earth Day and Earth Month!

KidsKonnect has paid and free printable biology and life science worksheets, lesson plans, charts and diagrams. Life science activities are based around environments world wide. Enchanted Learning has a huge collection of free printable life science worksheets, coloring pages, charts and diagrams. There are also general science activities, crafts, mini booklets, puzzles and worksheets.

Ology is a kids' science website from AMNH, the American Museum of Natural History. Get free printable life science coloring pages, worksheets, posters, charts and diagrams galore. There free printable science activities for all earth science, chemistry and physics or physical science. LearningPage has free printable life science coloring pages, cut and paste science crafts, life science worksheets, puzzles, games, charts and diagrams.

TSL Books has free printable life science lesson plans organized by grades. A neat tidy homepage features a left column of links by grade and subject. Each grade page has free printable lesson plans for each subject. This site is free but they do ask that a donation of a few dollars per year will help keep it free.

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 Bible, Christian Craft Activities for Vacation Bible School

Parents, if you want your kids to grow up learning Bible stories, then you'll want these free printable Bible stories coloring pages. Calvary Chapel has free printable Bible stories coloring pages grouped by Old Testament and New Testament. You'll like how Bible stories are arranged by their familiar titles as you're used to hearing them at church. Papa Jan has free printable Bible stories coloring pages. I must admit to an old-fashioned love of these as Bible pictures are drawn in older styles. Here are general Bible coloring pages of religious images--praying hands, Jesus the cross, Bible, and others.

Sunday School Printables has hundreds of free printable Bible stories coloring pages. Most pictures are in cartoon form. Many come from the wonderful "Beginner's Bible" illustrations. First-School is a go-to for educational free printable coloring pages from Old Testament and New Testament Bible stories.

Jewish children can enjoy Old Testament Bible stories as they are contained in the Hebrew Torah. 

Free Printable Educational Travel Games, Puzzles for Summer Enrichment

Need educational car games for summer vacation and travel? Visit "How Stuff Works-- Parentables" for printable travel games. Fire up that printer because you're going to need it! Print travel-themed Scrabble, bingo, Memory, crossword, dot to dot, mazes, trivia, 20 questions, Mad Libs, hangman, tic tac toe, scavenger hunt, tongue twisters, story starters, word search, word games, word scramble, license plate games and more. 

Kidventurous has free printable travel games for children. You're going to love the Battleship game. Print license plate bingo, travel related question games, puzzles, car finder search, The educator in me sees learning opportunities in the printable travel math games.

MiniTime has free printable travel games and puzzles. Map games are listed by region of the United States (midwest, southeast, etc.) Kids will the love the Disney themed travel games. 

Free Printable Reading Response Journal Activities and Rubric for ELA (English Language Arts)

Kids get tired of doing the same ho-hum book reports and worksheets. The best way to teach any subject is with hands-on activities. Teach reading and literature study with interactive, personalized reading response journals. Get students interact with books, to take stories apart and live them, to explore characters, themes, symbols. Here are 50 printable activities to do that. They're multi-sensory, and employ HOTS (higher order thinking skills). I've included a template for a student activity calendar to organize response activities. Note. One of the activities is to create Facebook social profiles for characters. Optional Activities for an ELA (English Language Arts) Response Journal Rubric

Free Printable Memorial Day Worksheets, Crafts, Games, Activities, Lesson Plans

 Memorial Day, celebrated the last Monday in May--May 26 in 2014, is more than just a summer kickoff. It's Remembrance Day and we honor veterans and those lost in U.S. wars. It's also Decoration Day, when we commemorate loved ones lost by putting flowers on their graves. Teachers, homeschoolers, parents, use these free printable lesson plans to teach students about Memorial Day. Printables include history lesson plans, social studies worksheets, patriotic American crafts and games, military and United States coloring pages, puzzles, word searches, crosswords for party games and loads more. I've listed music and movie suggestions for a complete educational Memorial Day unit.

About.com lists pages of free printable patriotic holiday games, word searches, crossword puzzles, writing activities and coloring pages. Why not print the packet and use for homework. Or let kids complete it while listening to stories on American war history. They could also watch one of these Memorial Day movies. Check my blogs Film Femme Fatale for educational movies for Memorial Day.

Homeschool Deals links to several free resources for Memorial Day printables and activities. There are Medal of Honor and soldier coloring pages, history worksheets, holiday games, reading and writing lessons and patriotic printable crafts. There are poems and literature-based activities. When I was young, teachers would have us write out seasonal poems in our best penmanship and create our own illustrations. Then she'd mount poem and picture on construction paper. This made a nice take-home project.

Free printable Memorial Day activities are suitable for 4th of July and Veterans Day, DL-TK offers pages of holiday printables. There are greeting cards, coloring pages and crafts. My favorite is a printable mini-book on Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's stirring World War 1 poem "In Flanders Field." The poem is the basis for the poppies worn on Memorial Day. Print the booklet in black and white so students can color images.

* Patriotic Coloring Pages at Raising our Kids has dozens of free printable American history coloring pages featuring, military, national memorials and landmarks, soldiers, historic images, national liberty symbols and more. Have students use these as greeting cards. Assign them to color images and write a message on the back. Mail or better still hand-deliver to seniors in nursing homes. Memorial Day is particularly poignant for elderly who remember wars and lost so many loved ones.

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. 

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

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 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 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.