Free printable ecology lesson plans from George Washington Carver

Earth Day is April 22 and all month long we celebrate earth awareness. I can't think of a better person to introduce children to in honor of Earth Month, than Dr. George Washington Carver. This African American scientist came from humble roots to literally
reinvent agriculture. Use this free printable George Washington Carver science activity booklet to learn more about this famous African American--and Nobel Prize winner--for Black History Month.

In this free printable activity booklet, learn how George Washington Carver was born into slavery and orphaned as an infant. Despite unspeakable poverty and oppression, this courageous young African American got an education and went on lead the nation in agricultural research. Service to mankind was Dr. Carver's mission. Raised in slavery, George Washington Carver learned to be resourceful and creative. Slaves were forced to make do with very little. They learned to improvise. George Washington Carver developed hundreds of new uses for many local products that had heretofore been considered junk. He invented countless uses for the peanut and sweet potato, which up to this point were used only as animal fodder. Dr. Carver referred to his simple laboratory as "God's Little Workshop."

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created a free printable activity booklet based on the life and work of Dr. George Washington Carver. This activity booklet has coloring pages, word search, puzzles, science charts and diagrams, science experiments and biology lesson plans to help students explore Dr. George Washington Carver. This activity booklet includes several free printable charts that show the many products that Dr. Carver created based on native plants like the peanut and sweet potato. He developed textiles, building supplies, cosmetics as well as food products.

This hardworking African American is the prefect focus for Black History Month lesson plans bur also for any science unit. Dr. Carver revolutionized antiquated, hurtful farming practices. He taught farmers to practice crop rotation and to plant nitrogen-producing plants which George Washington Carver was instrumental in improving not only agricultural methods, but also the economy of the rural south. By teaching farmers new ways to use native crops, Dr. Carver built up commerce and trade after the Civil War, in impoverished southern states. Explore this famous African American using free printable resources on Earth Day or during Earth Month in April.

Free printable endangered species coloring pages and lesson plans for Earth Day

 

Earth Day, which replaces the original holiday Arbor Day is celebrated in the United States on April 22. Here's a free printable environmental science booklet, Save our Species, with information, activities and coloring pages exploring endangered species in the US. The purpose of Earth Day is to celebrate the earth, educate people and explore ways to protect natural resources. Protecting our earth include supporting our animals, plants and habitats. Earth Day reminds people that they rely on the earth for sustenance and the earth relies on them for care and safety. Exploring and understanding endangered and threatened species helps us to learn better ways to care for our environment as a whole.

The EPA has developed a free printable 28 page environmental science activity and coloring booklet entitled Save Our Species. This free printable endangered species resource book is perfect for Earth Day. It has been developed for and provided to the public as an educational information guide. On Earth Day, and all Earth Month, students can explore endangered and threatened species in the United States, by coloring the animals, plants and habitats. This free printable environmental science activity book can be used as a field guide or zoo field trip planner. This booklet includes free printable coloring pages of endangered species and threatened species (species whose habitats are being encroached upon and destroyed). It explores 16 species of endangered animals in the United States and five threatened species.

Save our Species is available to download and print online or may be ordered free of charge as a bound booklet. Further environmental science and endangered species lesson plans are available at EPA. This free printable environmental science resources makes an excellent Earth Day tool for classroom, homeschool, scouting, 4H and any organizations dedicated to the preservation of natural resources. The website includes a free printable Save Our Species poster and lesson plans for teachers and homeschoolers. Decorate the school hallway for Earth Day by assigning each student to color a certain number of endangered species images. Place a large map on the wall and arrange endangered and threatened species pictures around the map with arrows pointing out areas to which the endangered species is native.

Free printable spring science crafts, Earth Day recycled trash crafts, weather unit activities

Spring is here, "Weather" or not the temperature agrees (LOL, get it?) How about free printable spring science crafts and weather unit activities to spring into the new season? As always, this Montessori teacher mama--now teacher Omi (grandma)-- shares hands-on, cross-curricular learning activities.  To welcome Earth Day, we'll use recycled trash for weather crafts. The age level for this unit is preschool to first grade. 

First, visit DL-TK for a rainbow of printable weather science craft projects. Make windsocks, windchimes, suncatchers, picture frame crafts and more from recycled trash. Use recycled paper to make free printables. 

To welcome spring, Earth Day, Easter, a new baby, how about making a giant greeting card on front walk? Bust out the sidewalk chalk and get busy decorating! No sidewalks? Use the patio or unfurl a roll of paper outside! Here's an easy, super cheap recipe for sidewalk chalk. 

Next, make pet baby tornados! Here's a Montessori activity for practical life learning centers. Have children wash glass jars and lids, to teach life skills of dishwashing. Next, children will fill glass jars almost to top with water and add a drop of dish soap. To create the baby tornado, shake jar with swirling motion. A funnel shape or vortex will appear. Use these science activities to demonstrate a vortex, tornado, funnel and even the sink drain works. You could discuss clouds, precipitation, wind.

To extend these hands-on science activities to language arts and creative writing, have kids think up names and make up stories for their pet tornado. Next, extend into math lesson plans making books from cereal box cardboard. Teach geometry, measurement, scissor skills cutting recycled paper to cover books. Next alternate writing and blank paper. Have children write on the lined paper and illustrate on the blank pages. 

Sing weather songs in circle time. Enjoy spring themed snacks (stay tuned for recipes to follow). For quiet time, read weather and spring science books like "The Year at Maple Tree Farm" "The Little House", "Ox-Cart Man", "The Carrot Seed" "The Lorax" "The Tiny Seed" and "Frog and Toad are Friends."          

Free printable boats, ships, maritime, pirates, navy and navigation lesson plans

Ahoy matey! Are you looking for activities to explore boats, ships, maritime lore, navigation, lighthouse history, shipwrecks or pirates? Then look no further. Here are free printable model boats and ships, navigation activities, maritime lesson plans, coloring pages, crafts, games and toys. (There's even a section on pirates because I love Pirates of the Caribbean and Capt. Barbosa. Shhh don't tell Jack Sparrow or Her Majesty's navy) 

Boat-Links is subtitled "The Mother of All Maritime Links," and it's rightly named. The site is a comprehensive collection of hundreds of free printable maritime and lighthouse activities, resources about nautical science, navigation, sailing, maritime history, merchant marine, the U.S. Navy, naval history in other countries, naval warfare, maritime museums around the world, nautical music and boat images.

Celestial Navigation offers free printable vintage maritime activities. Before modern navigation, pirates and sailors relied on the sky to guide voyages. Ancient instruments such as the sextant, astrolabe, cross-staff, quadrant, kamal (latitude hook) and nocturnal were indispensable. This site shows how to make old navigational tools.

US Lighthouse Society has free printable lighthouse lesson plans, crafts, coloring pages, worksheets and educational materials. You must create a user Id to access. Boats, Ships and Subs has dozens of links for free printable paper boat models. There are sailing vessels from all periods in history, including clipper ships, Chinese junks, Roman warships, Coast Guard boats, viking long boats, pirate ships and models of the Titanic and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.

Disney Experience has free printable nautical toys and crafts from maritime-themed Disney movies. There's a Spanish galleon, Capt. Nemo's Nautilus, Jack Sparrow's compass, dead man's chest, Cortez's treasure chest, a Mark Twain riverboat and several other models. The Toymaker has a free printable puppet theater in which children can act out the adventures of Florimel the Magnificent. Florimel is a rabbit sailor who has adventures on the high seas in a boat that looks very like Sir Francis Drake's "Golden Hind."

Yes, Coloring has has dozens of realistic free printable coloring pages of boats, ships and submarines for many periods in history. There are also coloring pages of pirate ships.

Free printable Greek mythology coloring pages

Mythology is an important subject to teach in school. But ancient mythological systems like Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic, Egyptian, Teutonic are often misunderstood, especially by fundamentalist Christians. Ancient civilizations and cultures are how we frame our own modern world. The children's literature book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters made teachers give Greek and Roman mythology a modern twist. Percy (Perseus) Jackson has many adventure with the gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon. Explore Greek mythology, gods goddesses of Mt. Olympus and mythological creatures and monsters symbols with these free printable Greek mythology activities

FantasyJr. has twelve free printable Greco-Roman coloring pages of the Olympians.  Karen's Whimsey has dozens of free printable mythology and Ancient Greece coloring pages. Color the Olympians, gods and goddesses, heroes, mythological monsters, beasts and creatures. Color free printable famous works of art featuring the Greek pantheon, Satyrs, Circe, the Sirens, Odysseus and many more characters from Greek mythology. Print coloring pages from ancient Rome, as well gods in Roman mythology.

Coloring.ws has a complete free printable Greek mythology coloring pages on the Olympians of Ancient Greece. This site also contains free printable maps of Greece. The link provided takes you to the twelve Olympians, the Immortals, each with biographical data and coloring pages both of the god or goddess and his or her symbol. The Olympians are arranged as a family tree. The Twelve Olympians include: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis and Hermes. It is important to note that the Olympian deities have the same personality in Roman mythology, however they go by different names. Here are the Greek Immortals with their Roman names, which the planets are named for. Constellations and star signs also take their names from mythology.

Zeus= Jupiter

Poseidon=Neptune

Hades=Pluto

Hera=Juno

Hestia=Vesta

Aphrodite=Venus

Athena=Minerva

Ares=Mars

Hephaestus=Vulcan

Apollo=same

Artemis=Diana

Hermes=Mercury

Cronos=Saturn

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

Free printables ESL and Spanish lesson plans, language activities, worksheets

Spanish is quickly becoming America's second language after English. Many jobs now require that employees be bilingual in Spanish and English. I'm a former ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. One of the best conversational language activities was to role-play dialog games.

Here are
free printable Spanish lesson plans, ESL activities and Spanish-English translation. Print ESL worksheets, games, flashcards, matching games, puzzles, crossword, word games, projects--in short interactive activities! Here's a neat concept website in English as a Second Language printables--a user-supported site where teachers have to upload and share their ESL worksheets in order to download and print others.

Spanish Sponge has dozens of free printable Spanish to English flashcards and flashcards for English to Spanish lessons. Print foreign language flashcards for vocabulary, verbs, conversation and other language and translation activities. Use the flashcards to play games involving the entire class. This helps to reinforce pronunciation, diction, dialog and fluency in a learning a foreign language.

ABC Teach is a pay site for educators, but has many free printable ESL worksheets and foreign language lessons to sample. They print in full page pdf printables and have many Spanish lessons geared toward younger students and those who are new the Spanish or English language. This links you directly to the languages pages so that you can choose whether to use the English as a Second Language materials or the Spanish activities for speakers of English. visit EL Civics for ESL worksheets, workbooks and learning games to print free.

Free printable handwriting worksheets, penmanship activities for cursive and print

One of the lesson plans that has virtually disappeared in this digital age is penmanship. Arguably, handwriting, especially cursive, is less important with the advent of computers. Older people (like me!) remember spending hours practicing manuscript and cursive. Now although kids type more, they do still write and should learn to do so neatly. 

There are different methods for teaching penmanship. Zaner-Bloser style is the older handwriting style in which printed letters are written vertically with no slant. D'
nealian manuscript (printed letters) are written at a slant with rounding of letters. D'nealian is more comfortable to write and works with the curves of the hand and body. D'Nealian print also transitions to cursive writing better. Here are free printable penmanship lessons for both styles of handwriting worksheets.

Writing Wizard has many free printable handwriting worksheets and writing practice pages for manuscript (print) and cursive writing practice pages. There are upper and lower case letters. You can print pages with single letters to practice. Kids Zone has really nice free printable handwriting worksheets and writing practice pages. The letters are grouped according the movements needed to write them. For example, there are the "rockin" round' letters and the "up the slide letters." This site is very kid-friendly. There are gobs more free printable writing and reading lessons on printing, tracing, alphabet, Dolce sight words, phonics, poetry and more.

Handwriting for Kids has a collection of free printable penmanship writing practice pages and handwriting worksheets. Look for cursive writing practice pages on this site.. Each of the cursive handwriting worksheets has a coloring picture on it. Children love to color the pictures when they have finished their handwriting practice. Make the coloring page a reward. When they have shown you their five best examples of the letter, they get to color the pictures.

Free Printable Earth Day lesson plans on ecology, environment, poverty, world hunger

Looking for Earth Day science lesson plans? How about social studies lesson plans to teach students global awareness? Here are activities to show how poverty is rooted in habits that are unfriendly to the environment like pollution, deforestation, destruction of natural resources and rainforest exploitation. . The Hunger Site offers free printable lesson plans to build global awareness. The Hunger Site and partner sites support the rainforest, animals, literacy, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer's and veterans. Clicks and purchases at fair trade stores enable The Hunger Site to donate to those in need around the world.

The Hunger Site and partner sites provide free printable global awareness resources for teachers and homeschoolers. Click the tab "literacy and education." Get free printable ecology and environment lesson plans to teach students about the dangers of global warming, rainforest exploitation, expansionism, imperialism, urban sprawl, pollution, deforestation, water shortage, poverty and hunger. These activities are perfect for Earth Month or Earth Day lesson plans. 

Here are more free printable ecology and environment lesson plans help students explore world hunger, poverty, disease and famine from a social justice perspective. Smithsonian Education offers free printable conservation, ecology and environment activities on pollution, world poverty, famine and disease.  Why Hunger has free activities on natural resources, world hunger, distribution of wealth and poverty.

Feeding Minds helps teachers and students explore world hunger and poverty inside out and provides many free printable educational resources. Rain-tree has free printable rainforest, ecology and environment activities. Students learn about deforestation, wildlife preservation, pollution, depletion of natural resources and more. Eduweb offers students online games and free printable resources to explore the Amazon rainforest and the environment. There are lessons on food webs and natural resources. Teach students about world hunger and poverty in a proactive ways, by building global awareness of natural resources, ecology and environmental science

Free printable educational car games to color, cut and paste

Need some free educational activities to keep kids busy in the car? Mom's Minivan has dozens of free printable travel games for car trips. There are different styles and game themes. Many of the car games do double duty as teaching materials, too. As a teacher and former homeschooler, I really appreciate that value-added benefit.

 

Some games are wordless and rely on pictures. This means new and emergent readers can join in the fun, too. My personal favorites are the roadside car bingo games . There are four different printable games with pictures of things kids might see looking out the window (cow, road construction markers, clothesline). Even two and three-year-olds can play if the non-driving parent or an older sibling marks the items spotted by the child on his bingo card.

 

There are four printable vehicle identification bingo games, too. I recommend these be played with older children who are better able to spot vehicle details. Older kids will enjoy the silly songs and license plate games. Kids of all ages will enjoy the free printable themed coloring pages of cars and animals.

 

The site offers printable dot games, puzzles, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, Battleship and tic-tac-toe as well. There are free printable scavenger hunt games with words and pictures shown (like a rebus). Learning to connect words and pictures helps children practice reading, spelling and vocabulary skills. These games can be tailored to the age of the children.

Free printable make your own reading booklets with coloring pages

Educator Jonathon Holt says children learn best when they are actively involved. So here are free printable mini books, miniature coloring books and preschool activity booklets for children to color. Subjects in mini books include letters, words, seasons, animals, science, Bible, holidays and lots more. These coloring books make excellent preschool lesson plans for classroom and homeschool lessons for ages 4-7 years old. These free printable activity booklets are especially good for special needs children.

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

There are several science-themed free printable activity booklets, too. Subjects include: birds, farm life, nutrition and vehicles. Use the free printable seasons booklets for science, too. "Fall" explores leaves and trees; "Winter" covers water and ice: "Spring" looks at new life and seeds and "Summer" covers plant growth.

Seasonal topics for free printable coloring books for preschool lesson plans include: Halloween (gentle, non-scary images of pumpkins), Veteran's Day, (patriotic), Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, St. Patrick's Day and Earth Day. These work well as preschool lesson plans too. Each of the activity booklets weaves in reading skills and some basic counting activities. Activity booklets are 10 pages long. Pages print half-sheet (two pages on each printed page). Each page can be printed in color or black and white. If you print the booklet in black and white, the child can color each page. This extra exposure will help to reinforce the concept begin taught. As she colors, you may ask her to repeat the words printed on the page.

Some of the mini books are available for Spanish speaking children also. You'll like that these preschool lesson plans multitask. As children cut and paste, they learn eye-hand coordination. Coloring helps build fine motor skills. As they make their books, they learn to read and follow directions. Assembling the booklets is good for sequencing and organization. There's lots of learning going on when children make these free printable books.For more free printable reading activities visit Free Printable Lesson Plans.

Free Printable Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities, Lesson Plans, Coloring Pages

 "A told B and B told C, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree." And so begins the beloved children's book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. Kids love the zaniness that ensues when the other letters of the alphabet follow! This best-loved ABC book tops preschool reading lists. 

Here are free printable Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities, lesson plans and coloring pages for kindergarten and early childhood classrooms. 1+1+1+1 has a booklet of free printables with alphabet, reading and counting math lessons. Kids can extend lesson plans using the activities as coloring pages. 

Making Learning Fun is always a must-stop for free printable preschool activities. Check out the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story felt board pattern printables. There are free printable crafts, games, puzzles and other educational preschool activities. 

Here's a pdf with free printable ABC patterns and templates from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom from KIDZClub. Super Coloring has several free printable coloring pages from this children's literature favorite also. 

Use these activities to create a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit or host an ABC party. Assign each child a letter of the alphabet and have them create costumes. Act out the story. Play Race to the coconut tree. Use alphabet shaped cookie cutters to make ABC sandwiches or cookies to celebrate! 

Free Printable Algebra, Geometry, Calculus Math Lesson Plans, Online Scientific Calculators

Algebra, geometry, calculus and trigonometry are challenging subjects for parents and students. Here are free printable algebra worksheets, trigonometry homework help, calculus tutorials and online geometry lessons to help. Links are included for free online scientific calculators and graphing calculators. Use these higher math tutorials, reference (cheat) sheets, tools and homework help online or print for home and school use. 

Web Calc has free scientific calculators for homework help, including online scientific calculators. Meta-Calculator has free online graphing calculators, statistics calculators, scientific calculators and matrix calculators, unit converters and financial calculators for consumer math classes. These sites have free math tutorials as well. 

Free math help has free printable math worksheets and homework help in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics and calculus. Check out free printable charts, printable online tutorials, sample problems, references, explanations and study guides. Students can play online math games too. Webmath has free math worksheets, printables and tutorials on higher math like algebra, trigonometry, calculus and geometry, too. Mathway offers free online scientific calculators, online math tutorials and problem solving functions. 

Purple Math provides free algebra homework help for logarithms, equalities, inequalities, formulas, equations, integers, exponents, properties, radical numbers, rational numbers, absolute value, quadratic equations, parabola, ellipse, hyperbola, circle, linear function, polynomials, factoring, square root and more. Geometry math lessons covers solids, spheres, cubes, triangles, angles, formula, Pythagorean Theorem, theorems, postulates and more. The trigonometry math lessons cover sines, cosines, tangents, Mollwied's Formula and all the various trigonometry functions and identities. Calculus math lessons cover integrals and substitutions.

Free printable preschool felt board patterns

The felt board is one of the most versatile and useful teaching tool for preschool lesson plans. Here are free printable felt board patterns for a host of preschool themes and subjects. Print patterns for math, children's literature, alphabet, pre-reading and reading, science and other content areas. 

Making Learning Fun has free printable felt board patterns in such preschool favorites as Dr. Seuss, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, birthday, Valentine's Day, other holidays, nursery rhymes and many more. You can make these into calendar activities, skip counting, math facts, rebus stories and more. Use for word walls and language lessons also. 

DL-TK is a superior resource for educational activities. Print free felt board templates for preschool lesson plans from alphabet to zoo! There are also great DIY tips for making and using felt boards. I just read a nifty trick for saving money on the velcro used in felt boards. But I'm not going to give it away! Check this site out! 

Enchanted Learning is just about the best resource in preschool lesson plans. But it doesn't stop at early childhood! There free printable activities, cut and paste lessons for K-8 on social studies, science, history, geography, literature, math, reading and more. You can print free with banners or pay a low user fee of $20 a year for homeschool families or $125 for a whole-
school subscription. I heartily recommend that option. 

Winter party planner with snow games, free printable snowflakes and coloring pages

Raise your hand if you’ve had it with winter. Between Covid 19 pandemic and quarantine and winter conditions of Biblical proportions, I'm with you! Parents and teachers must be especially tired of dealing with bored kids stuck inside. So what do we creative homeschooler teachers do when we're bored? Throw a party!

Here’s a winter blues buster snowtastic party. Host your own Winter Olympics and extend the fun with improvised playground game variations. Plus, I've included educational extensions, literature based activities and for grades K-8! Here are safe, easy snow activities requiring no fancy equipment. 

Boot skating:  Sweep off an icy patch of pavement, or hose it down to make an ice rink. Demonstrate how to speed or figure “skate” by sliding in boots. Watch figure skating videos and then try some of the simpler posed. I remember in second grade, teachers letting us “skate” down the halls after we watched a figure skating documentary. I really thought I was Janet Lynn. Bundle kids so if they fall they won’t get hurt. 

Broom Hockey Use boot skating and play with old brooms or shovels. Use any old playground (basketball, 4-square, volley) balls for a puck. Tennis balls work well too! Allow no fighting. No need to imitate pro hockey that closely. 

Shovel Races: See who can shovel snow the fastest or make the neatest, clearest walks. Use snow shovels like shuffle board. Push playground ball toward a goal. Kids get a good workout and you get cleared walks! 

Snow Golf: Use old brooms as in hockey. You can also do a snow frisbee golf. Dig holes in the snow and sweep tennis ball toward holes. Make literature connections to books you are reading in class. For example: for Lord of the Rings, label golf holes with "Shire" and "Mordor." 

Snowball Skeeball: Kids love to make and throw snowballs, but getting hit can really hurt. So have kids aim at a target instead of each other. Paint water color initials on snowballs so kids know whose ball landed where. Mark four concentric rings in the snow, like Skeeball. Have kids aim for the center.  Award more points depending on which ring it lands in nearest target. Or just play for fun. 

Snow Sculpture Walk: Allow kids create 3D snow sculptures along a sidewalk or pathway. Have them design placards with the titles. Allow them to spray with food colored water if desired. Encourage visitors to view the art walk, comment on the pieces. No need for competition. This gives less athletic kids a niche at which to shine.  Do text-to-life literature tie-ins, using Children’s Books as a theme.

Cardboard sleds : Dump the recycle bin in the middle of the room and let kids design sleds from recycled cardboard boxes and goodies. Just add markers, scissors, box cutters and duct tape. Provide paraffin (sealing wax). Show kids how to apply wax to waterproof and make the sled go faster.

Literature Tie-In Have students design sleds after famous vehicles from literature. Wikipedia lists fictional vehicles and sailing vessels with images. Edupics has free printable vehicle coloring pages to use as models. Do a library treasure hunt. List vehicles/vessels and have kids research what book each comes from. Here are examples: Dawn Treader, Trojan Horse, Nautilus, Pequod, HMS Pinafore, Millennium Falcon, Polar Express, TARDIS, African Queen. 

Sled run: Simulate a luge or bobsled run. Pile up snow and make a hill or use an existing tree-free hill.  Rate kids on style, landing, distance, speed. Assign group sledding to help kids learn to work as a team. Or just freestyle. 

Snow-robics: Have children pretend to be different animals. Make butterflies (snow angels), snow snakes, snow alligators, snow fish, snow dolphins.  Have them make footprints trails and “track” each other by identifying individual print. Have them “walk” letters in the snow to write their names. Let the imagination run. This will occupy the youngest children for a long time. 

Make a coloring book of vehicles represented, using these free printable coloring pages. Younger children can be in charge of coloring the booklet. This can be your memory book. You might also link to science making snowflakes. Here are free printable snowflake patterns.  Serve cocoa and snacks at the afterglow party! Read snow stories (stay tuned for a list of winter themed books). 

Free printable Covid 19 Coronavirus lesson plans: health, safety, hygiene activities

The Covid 19 or coronavirus pandemic has made radical changes to our education delivery services. Classroom structure and activities have changed dramatically. How do you, as a teacher, help children understand these impacts? How do you even begin to explain a pandemic for that matter? Here are free printable lesson plans on Covid 19, to explore the science behind it. Lessons cover hygiene, health, disease epidemiology, vaccines, historical and social perspective. Printables are available for all ages preschool to high school and are suitable for homeschool students as well. 

National Geographic Cengage is a perfect place to begin planning your Covid 19 lesson plans. This site offers K-12 interdisciplinary lessons on spread of disease, science, vaccines etc. There are free reading, writing, math and science printables. Use these activities to further understanding on coronavirus prevention. 

Try Engineering offers free Covid 19 teacher resource kits. Pair this with free printable health lesson plans from Kids Health. Click the For Kids link to get free printable health activities, including worksheets, games, puzzles, coloring pages and more. Subjects include: How the Body Works, Puberty & Growing Up, Staying Healthy, Staying Safe, Recipes & Cooking, Health Problems, Feelings, Health Helpers, Healthy Habits and more. Within those categories are science lesson plans on drugs, emotional health, illness, virus, gun safety, feelings and emotions, sexual health, hygiene, nutrition and more. There is also a section for teachers with many free health and safety printables. 

Free Printable St. Patrick's Day activities and lesson plans: Catholic, religious and secular

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17. A lot of folks think it's just about green beer, shamrocks and leprechauns But that's just commercial blarney. The real Saint Patrick was a Catholic Roman Britain taken as a slave by Irish raiders. Patrick later returned as a missionary to convert Druidic Ireland. Here are St. Patrick's Day lesson plans, crafts and activities to explore the saint behind the legend and the religious beyond the secular. I've included some non-religious printable activities for St. Paddy's Day fun too. 

Read the story of Saint Patrick on Incredible Art. Then keep reading for free printable St. Patrick's Day activities, some religious and some secular. Next check out Homegrown Catholics, a blog with religious Saint Patrick printables. Real life at Home has free printable lesson plans on Saint Patrick and Irish heritage activities. Catholic Icing is a blog with all Christian St. Patrick's Day activities to print. Catholic Mom has Saint Patrick lesson plans that are religious.

Now for the secular stuff. Coloring has loads of printable Saint Patrick's Day coloring pages. DL-TK has many free printable St. Patrick's Day activities, games, puzzles, dot to dot, crossword and crafts. ABC Teach has free printable math and reading and writing lesson plans based on Saint Patrick's Day.

A-Z Teacher Stuff has lots of free Catholic Christian Saint Patrick activities and some secular ones with leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold etc. Education has free printable St. Patrick's Day lesson plans. They're secular but at least educational--with shamrock math, etc. First-School has mostly secular St. Patrick's Day printables, but a few religious activities also. 

Use these free activities in your homeschool or classroom to help children explore the real meaning of the holy day. Slainte! ☘

Super Bowl activities, football lesson plans to print free

Super Bowl Sunday is almost national holiday so teachers, here are free printable Super Bowl lesson plans for students. TSL Books has free printable football lesson plans and Super Bowl math worksheets. Activities are based on football plays, player averages and statistics. How cool is that? Connect football and the Super Bowl with the classroom. Kids are learning while they enjoy the game. There are even some football and Super Bowl history lessons.

Edupics has an awesome collection of printable football coloring pages.There are coloring pages of other sports too. You could use these for any sports-themed birthday party. Or they would work for tailgate parties, too. Are you a New England Patriots fan or are you Team Seattle Seahawks? Look for coloring pages of your team.

DL-TK is a learning website for kids. There are scads of Super Bowl Sunday crafts, games, educational activities, coloring pages to print. Check out the awesome football themed printables, too. Look for Super Bowl games, word puzzles, word search, crossword and fill-in-the-blank. Use for half-time activities with adults.

Weather science printables, natural disasters lesson plans

Winter means means severe weather hazards of snow, ice and cold. And with spring comes increased concern for natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Here are free printable weather science lesson plans on natural disasters, fire safety, emergency preparedness and other severe weather issues. I'll give you some freebie and then link to my Teachers Pay Teachers if you want to buy the rest of the packet.

NOAA, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, has free printable severe weather science lesson plans.  You can print free materials from the NWS (National Weather Service) and the Red Cross. You'll love the series of free printable severe weather science booklets from Owlie Skywarn. Owlie is the Red Cross owl who teaches children about different kinds of weather like thunder storms, tornadoes, lightning, floods, hurricanes and winter storms. Print activities and coloring pages of storms, lightning, hurricanes, fire safety and emergency preparedness. Check out severe weather printables, puzzles, word searches and weather experiments.

But that's only the beginning of the educational activities available on my Wild and Wonderful Weather Unit on TPT

Free Printable animal kingdoms coloring pages for science lesson plans

Why not kick off the school year with a unit on animals? Special needs and preschool kids will love it and you'll teach valuable science lessons too. Here are free printable animal coloring pages to help. 

Visit Real Life at Home for free printable St. Francis lesson plans in a packet. Print games, coloring pages, activities and worksheets of saints. Learn connections to Pope Francis, who is a Franciscan and has taken his name from Francis of Assisi. Print a liturgical calendar of Catholic saints, including Saint Francis, free from Catholic playground. For free printable animal coloring pages, visit Coloring Book Fun. National Geographic Kids has realistic animal coloring pages from A-Z to print. This link opens on the animals A-I page but click the link at the bottom for coloring pages of animals from J-Z.

For more detailed, educational animal coloring page printables, don't miss Edupics. There are over 1,600 animal coloring pages: some are even suitable for middle school and high school biology and science lessons! Hello Kids has hundreds of free printable animal coloring pages. Some are easier and geared for preschool or special needs students. Some are more challenging. Coloring.ws, from children's learning printables giant DL-TK has free printable coloring pages of animals from A-Z.Print every animal kingdom and phylum: insects, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

Free printable eclipse lesson plans, astronomy activities, star charts, constellations, earth science coloring pages

Teachers and homeschooling families, are you looking for a great unit to kick off the school year? Why not welcome kids back to school with an astronomy party to celebrate the recent solar eclipse? Earth science and astronomy are fascinating subjects to teach kids. Children can enjoy stargazing anywhere and everywhere and it costs nothing. Use free printable star charts, astronomy activities and constellation patterns to teach kids about space science. Here's a galaxy of star charts, constellation coloring pages astrology and horoscope zodiac signgs and night sky maps plus lesson plans on the eclipse, planets, meteor showers and more.

SFA Observatory offers free printable star charts divided by region of the sky. Each constellation is labeled with Latin name and star shape. There's a handy guide to help stargazers orient themselves and their telescope for best viewing.

Kids Astronomy has a free printable night sky map and star chart that can be customized by date and time. Kids Astronomy has entire interactive webpage for kids. Look for free printable earth science lessons, night sky activities, star charts and astronomy games. Homeschoolers and teachers, be sure to visit the educator resource page for free printable astronomy coloring pages, solar system vocabulary lessons and space science worksheets.

Sky Maps has free printable night sky maps based on latitude and hemisphere. Each month, users are sent a new edition of the sky maps reflecting the current month's constellations. Classroom, Jr.has printable constellation charts for Sagittarius, Virgo, Scorpio and Libra. Check this website for scads of free Earth Day printables.

NASA Space Place is an interactive astronomy website for children from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Kids can learn to make their own paper-folded star finder. This will help locate major constellations for each month. There are also free printable constellation patterns for each month. Download and print to use as coloring pages, star patterns and star finders, too.

Athropolis offers a collection of links to free kids' astronomy activities, simulation games, printable activities, star names, pronunciation guides and more. Children will love Star Child with a kids-club web design and easy astronomy activities. There are two sites--one for kids under 14 and one for those older than 14.

Print a star chart for each student. Encourage them to trace the constellations on tracing paper. This will help them learn the star arrangements. They might use the charts as connect-the-stars activities.