Free Printable Coloring Pages of Children Around the World in Traditional Native Dress

The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts designated Feb. 22 World Thinking Day. This day is dedicated to multicultural awareness of children around the world. Little girls growing up in the 1960s may remember a coloring book called "Dolls of Many Lands" with children around the world in traditional costumes and native dress of different countries. Here are free printable coloring pages of children around the world in native dress. Students in social studies can use these coloring pages on World Thinking Day to explore the ceremonial, cultural and traditional costumes of other children around the world. Because as the world gets smaller and more global, it's important that children know and remember native heritage.

Visit Activity Village free printable world lesson plans for social studies. Print pictures landmarks, games, crafts, post cards, maps and flags from around the world. Use these as culture studies worksheets. Get free printable World Thinking Day coloring pages of children around the world in native dress and traditional costumes: explore cultures from Australia, India, China, Japan, Africa, England, Russia, South Africa, Africa, Scotland, New Zealand, Brazil and Wales. There are also free printable coloring pages of pilgrim (or puritan) children, Ancient Egyptian, native American Indian and settler (also called pioneer) children in traditional dress.

Activity Village wishes says these free printable childrens' traditional costumes may be somewhat fanciful and not historically accurate. These world coloring pages imitate the vintage images from old coloring books. Traditional costumes show how children would have dressed for ceremonies or in times past. Here are free printable World Thinking Day coloring pages of children around the worldin traditional costumes. Each child is featured with a country flag in the background. Countries represented are Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Hawaii, Guatemala, France, Brazil, Spain, China, Costa Rica and the Netherlands (Holland). Raising our Kids has a free printable children around the world coloring pages.

There's a fun little game you must play to use the website. The names of the countries are written in French. Parlez-vous Francais? Bonne. Vous ne parlez pas Francais? Then use the flags on each of the coloring pages to help you figure out which country is represented. Some are easier than others to decode, so use Google Translate. Here are more free printable children pages of childrenaround the world in traditional costumes. DL-TK has tons of free printable children around the world crafts, games and activities. Happy World Thinking Day!

Free Printable Fire Prevention Week, Fire Safety Lesson Plans

Fire Prevention Week runs the first full week in October. FPW is October 5-9, 2015. Here are fire safety printables and emergency preparedness lessons for Fire Prevention Week. Use free printablefire prevention activities, worksheets, coloring pages, stickers, games, puzzles and crafts to help kids learn vital life-saving skills. Here are free printable family activities for Fire Prevention Week. Across the country, fire fighters, public safety officers, schools, communities and families will be teaching kids about safety this October, just in time for the holiday season.

National Fire Prevention is an organization dedicated to teaching people about fire safety and fire prevention. This link takes you to the Fire Prevention Week page. Look for free printable emergency escape plans, home maps, charts, phone numbers lists, safety check-lists and other fire prevention resources. Activities are printed in English and Spanish. Check your local community fire station for details on events they may be hosting.

Print smoke alarm safety sheet, family safety checklist, smoke alarm tutorial poster, family fire escape grid route and classroom unit on fire prevention. Use for back to school science lesson plans. It's a good idea to teach a safety unit as soon as you begin classes in the fall. Educators and homeschoolers there are packets of printable information to use in lesson plans. Scroll through for grade and language appropriate lesson

Sparky the Fire Dog has his own website kids can play on. Print a Sparky origami dog. Play interactive games with Sparky, while learning important science lessons. Kids can learn fire safety in a safe non-threatening, hands-on activities. They'll love the fire role play games and simulations.

Free Printable American Patriotic RWB Crafts Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day

Several US national holidays center on patriotic events in American history--Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Presidents Day. So here are free printable patriotic crafts and red white and blue crafts and art projects. These free printable activities might easily be used as lesson plans for school or homeschool to teach American history, government, civics, social studies, geography, current events, US history and other similar classes.

All Crafts has a blowout of red white and blue crafts projects to use for major US national holidays. Use these free printable patriotic crafts for US national holidays like Memorial Day and 4th of July but also for lesson plans on Presidents Day, Constitution Day or even Election Day. Pecuniarities has a cute free printable toy soldiers crafts, perfect for Presidents Day and military holidays and US national holidays. Print toy soldiers, cut them out, wrap around toilet paper tubes and glue. Free Kids Crafts offers free printable patriotic crafts, games, activities, puzzles, paper dolls and paper airplanes. Use these for American history or Presidents Day activities!

The Toymaker has free printable patriotic crafts, red white and blue crafts and American history art projects. Making Friends always has lots of great crafts, including free printable patriotic crafts and RWB activities. You'll like the games,puzzles and mazes for US national holidays too. Teacher Vision has a bunch of educational free printable patriotic crafts. DL-TK has a loads of free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects and patriotic crafts for American history and US national holidays. Activity Village has free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects for all US national holidays. Here's the Presidents Day page but check the side menu and home page for season by season holiday activities.

Free Printable Paper Hats

Lids, bonnets and berets, oh my--Jan. 15 is National Hat Day. So if you've got a derby, don it! You don't have a hat? Well, make one out of paper. When I was a kid, my grandfather, who was newspaper pressroom foreman, showed me how to fold paper hats from newspaper. Can I remember now? No. But fortunately, there's internet for printables galore! Here are free printable paper hats, paper hat patterns and activities for Hat Day (or any day!)

Enchanted Learning has all sorts of free printables for paper crafts, hats, masks, games and learning activities. Print without a banner for a $20 site donation. Access thousands of free printable lesson plans, classroom paper crafts, charts, booklets, diagrams and activities. Check out this page for dozens of free printable paper hat patterns for Hat Day.

SS42 has lots of free printable paper hats in several styles--baseball hats, hats with monster heads (zombies, vampire, spider web and pumpkin). There are free printable paper animal hats with noses and bills to go with animal costumes and a paper bucket hat to design and color yourself for Hat Day. Here are free printable paper hat patterns like the pointy party paper hats that attaches with a rubber band. Paper hat patterns make fun DIY birthday party paper crafts printables.

Paper Glitter has gobs of super adorable free printable party supplies, gift tags, labels for treat bags, party invitations, envelopes, to-do lists, greeting cards, paper dolls and yup, a free printable party hat to cut and paste. This site specializes in Bible and holiday paper crafts printables. Click each holiday link for free printable paper crafts including paper hats. In "Curious George Rides a Bike" George shows an easy way to make paper hat patterns or paper boats from newspaper. Missed Hat Day--no worries--you can declare any day Hat Day with these fun printables.

Free Printable Halloween Craft Activities, Games

Halloween is creeping up and children of all ages, even the young at heart are getting ready for the fun. In many schools, activities are planned around Halloween. Educators know that when children enjoy something and have fun with a lesson, they learn better. Here are free printable Halloween activities for school classrooms, homeschool or scout troop. Use with old folks in nursing homes or anyone who needs some Halloween printables.

Count down the days to Trick or Treat with dozens of free printable Halloween activities, coloring pages and crafts from Making Friends.com. Print free craft projects for all sorts themes. Making Friends has a really holiday activities, coloring pages, cut and paste, paper dolls, Trick or treat wrappers, worksheets, Halloween puzzles and mazes. Print word searches, crossword puzzles and word games, perfect for Halloween language arts lessons. Print Halloween card games, flash cards, dioramas, masks and pumpkin carving patterns and stencils.

Here free printable Halloween lesson plans, worksheets, games, coloring pages, activities and puzzles. Use for Trick or Treat themed math, reading, writing, literature, science, language, social studies and crafts. All Free Printables has free Halloween crafts, greeting cards, party invitations, decorations, cut-outs, coloring pages, masks, party invitations, name tags, treat bags, pumpkin cut-outs, book marks, picture frames and lots more. Puzzlemaker lets you create templates for printable Halloween worksheets, puzzles, mazes, jigsaws, dot to dot, Soduku, crosswords and activities galore.

Print Activities is another mega site for all your school and family activity printing needs. Look for units, printable worksheets and lessons focused around Halloween and trick-or-treat. Disney Family offers a plethora of free printable Halloween Disney activities, crafts and coloring pages. Coolest Holiday Parties has free printable Halloween party supplies. You'll find cards, invitations, treat and punch bowl printables, banners, place cards, name tags, wall hangings for a ghoulish party.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Legend of the Guardians Book and Movie Activities

The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a movie based on the books called the Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lansky. The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole depicts stories about the fabled owl warriors, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a fictitious land. The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole opened in 2010 and featured voices of Helen Mirren, Miriam Margoyles, Hugo Weaving, Geoff Rush, Sam Neill, Abbie Cornish, David Wenham, Richard Roxbourgh, Emilie de Ravin and Jim Sturgess as the protagonist Soren.

This magical, mythical, mystical Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series has many volumes and is still popular in schools. Here are free printable Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole activities. Scholastic has a free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole activity pack. Author Kathryn Lansky has researched owls and shares her work in games, puzzles and crafts. Play the Battle of Ga'hoole with owls as allied and axis powers.Here are free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole lesson plans for teachers. There is a beautifully illustrated owl mobile featuring characters from the books. Cut and paste and assemble this mobil while you explore the books. There is also a link to free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole collectible character cards. Print and collect all the character cards. Turn them over to create a wall poster puzzle.

There are also free printable owl posters from the books and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole movie. There are two free printable owl words games as well. Print and owl word search and an owl jumbled words sheet. These free printable coloring pages on owls. These activities would make excellent resources for a school unit on owls. These printables work well as classroom or bedroom decor, party crafts, party games and Guardians of Ga'hoole theme party. Here are posters and biographical facts on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole--Soren, Digger, Twilight, Eglantine, Glyfie, Kludd, Boron and Noctus. For more free printable learning activities, visit Free Printable Lesson Plans and Kidz Literature.

Free Printable Memorial Day Lesson Plans

* Remembrance Day Printables: 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 Easter Crafts for Classroon Party

Easter is the highest season in the Christian church and the second largest national holiday in most countries. Easter has taken on a secular side. If you celebrate Easter with eggs, bunnies and Easter baskets here are free printable Easter crafts and activities. Get free printable Easter coloring pages, greeting cards, Easter party games, Easter craft projects, printable Easter baskets, Easter bunny coloring pages, puzzles, mazes, plus a whole lot more. You can print Easter eggs, bunnies, baby animals and cute spring and Easter decorations.

DLTK is always a great resource for educational holiday activities for kids. DLTK has free printable Easter crafts. Easter bunny memory games, Easter bookmarks, Easter party decorations and place cards, Easter greeting cards, dominoes, chore charts, calendars, Easter bingo cards, three Easter mini-books to color, Easter treat holders, Easter worksheets and more.

No article about free printable holiday crafts is complete without a mention of Disney Family. Get free printable Easter crafts and art projects with all your favorite Disney characters. Print holiday crafts for Disney Frozen, Pixar pals, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Disney princess friends and even Star Wars The Force Awakens! Get free printable Disney Easter baskets, games, greeting cards, puzzles, coloring pages, color your own photo frames and (my favorite kids game) connect the dots. Be sure to bookmark and visit often.

First School has a great assortment of free printable religious and secular Easter crafts for kids. There are stained glass window Easter coloring pages, Easter egg shaped greeting cards. First school has free printable animal craft projects: baby chick and chicken, donkey for Palm Sunday, Easter bunny rabbit, lambs, ducks and geese. These are only a few of the free printable Easter crafts, spring crafts, lessons and activities. Be sure to check out First School for a complete, nicely organized website.

The Toymaker may not have quite as many free printable Easter crafts but what she has are utterly unique. The Toymaker specializes in handmade holiday crafts with an old world Euro flavor. Her free printable vintage Easter crafts feature spectacularly hand-drawn, watercolor art work. Print Easter bunny greeting cards and a 3D Easter bunny paper model. The sweet little Easter baskets will satisfy a lover of Art Deco and the inner child. Genuinely little kids will like making Easter baskets to collect their eggs and candy too. 

Free Printable Lent Devotional Coloring Pages

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

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

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

Free Printable Where the Wild Things Are Lessons, Activities and Crafts

March is National Reading Month and it's good time to pay tribute to beloved children's authors. In the category of picture books authors/illustrators, the late Maurice Sendak reigns on high. His most famous book is "Where the Wild Things Are" which Spike Jonze made into a movie in 2009, using giant animatronic wild things from the late Jim Henson's creature shop. It was a match made in heaven and Where the Wild Things was "wildly" popular. Here are free printable Where the Wild Things Are coloring, games, activities, lesson plans and book activities.

Start with the free printable Where the Wild Things Are coloring pages, because that's what children want most. This Grand Rapids Holidays Examiner loved coloring, Maurice Sendak, Max and Where the Wild Things Are as a child and her go-to is Coloring Book Info, which has 20 coloring pages from the Where the Wild Things Are book. Next is Making Learning Fun which has not only free printableWhere the Wild Things Are coloring pages, but also Maurice Sendak book crafts and puzzles. A-Z Coloring has a super nice set of wild things coloring pages too. Here are a few more printable coloring pages.

Here are free printable Where the Wild Things Are lessons plans, worksheets, word games and crossword puzzles. Maurice Sendak uses such delicious words like gnashed, rumpus and terrible teeth. There are free printable book activities and lesson plans based on the Maurice Sendak book here. Here are more Where the Wild Things Are printables.

The Warner Brothers Where the Wild Things Are movie website Downloads page has wallpapers and movie posters that you can print and color. The pictures are shown in color. To print as a coloring page, choose one of the size options and left click it. When the poster or wallpaper opens in a new window, right click on the image. Choose "print image" and then set your printer preferences to print in Grayscale. This will print the image in black and white which you can then color. Wild, huh? There are images of Carol, Alexander, Judith, Ira, The bull, Douglas, KW and of course, Max Records himself. There are pictures of Max's boat also. You could print a complete 22 page coloring book from Where the Wild Things are movie. For more book activities visit this authors blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Kidz Literature.

Free Printable Hanukkah Lesson Plans, Games, Crafts, Decorations, Activities

Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, spelled Chanukah, is not Jewish Christmas. It is also not the most important of the Jewish holidays. But it does have a special place in the history of the Hebrew people. Here are free lesson plans, coloring pages, puzzles, games and activities to help celebrate and understand this winter holiday. These links have free printable Hebrew activities for all Jewish holy days.

Bitsela has free printable Jewish greeting cards, clipart, even a free card-making function you can use free on your computer. You can print the Hebrew alphabet, numbers and other uniquely Jewish items. Tzivos Hashem offers great learning games and free Jewish activities for Hebrew school students and those want to explore Judaism. Check out the free printable Jewish holidays coloring pages.

Chabad Jewish Kids has an awesome assortment of Hebrew printables, coloring pages, crafts and activities. Torah Tots has a free printable Jewish holiday coloring pages for Chanukah and other lesson plans. There are Star of David crafts, dreidel crafts as well as games for all aspects of Hanukkah. There are educational puzzles and jigsaw puzzles and lot of great online gaming fun as well. Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable cut and paste Chanukah crafts, coloring pages, puzzles, games and other crafts. Check out the cut and paste Menorah.

Teach-nology features complete units of free printable Hebrew holiday lesson plans.. There are plenty on Chanukah, including free Jewish acrostic poems, crossword puzzles, worksheets, crafts, dreidel patterns, menorah cut-outs to help kids understand the Festival of Light.
Lee Hansen free printable Hebrew coloring pages, Torah paper dolls and Chanukah clipart. First School years gives a nice assortment of free printable lessons and follow-up activities introducing students to Hannukah.

The Toymaker has free printable Jewish paper dreidel, gelt (money) box, greeting cards, 3D paper menorah, Star of David, another Chanukah box and booklet to guide the menorah prayers. Here are free printable Jewish crafts from Free Kids Crafts. ABC Teach has free printable Hanukkah worksheets, coloring pages, featuring the menorah, dreidel, latkes, apples and honey and Jewish symbols. Make a countdown to Chanukah booklet with printable word searches, puzzles, word scrambles, color and write prompts, bookmarks and more.

DL-TK-kids has free printable Chanukah crafts, bingo games, decorations, greeting cards, Star of David crafts, Menorah crafts, coloring pages, domino games, memory games and more. Everything you need to celebrate the Festival of Light is right here. For more holiday crafts visit this author's blog at Free Printable Holiday.

Free Printable Christmas Around the World Activities: Germany

Looking for Christmas around the world activities? How about a global hop to Christmas in Germany? Here are German holiday activities. First a little history: Ancient Germans were druids that worshiped nature. They celebrated Winter Solstice or Saturnalia from which come many Christmas traditions.Then warring Saxon, Hunnic and Teutonic tribes brought their gods of Valhalla. From them come week day names--Thursday (Thor), Friday from his vengeful wife Freya and Wednesday from brother Woden (also known as Loki the trickster). They worshiped the sacred oak, which became a deity because it was so large.

Then in the 800s, St. Boniface (also called St. Winfred) brought Christianity from Ireland. Ireland was a world educational center in the 8th century, since the Roman bishop Patricus (St. Patrick) Christianized it in the 4th century. Boniface, a Benedictine monk went as a missionary to pagan Germany. At the Hessian village of Fritzlar, St. Boniface confronted pagan worshipers at a sacred oak dedicated to Thor. They planned to sacrifice a child and its mother pleaded with St. Boniface to save her child. Boniface took an axe to the oak and dared Thor to strike him dead if he could. As St. Boniface chopped, a mighty wind knocked the  tree over. From its roots sprang an evergreen tree, the symbol of Christ and everlasting life. Awed by the miracle, many converted to Christianity. 

Celebrate Christmas around the world with German holiday activities. Make Christmas tree ornaments from green felt. Stitch two pieces together and stuff. Decorate with sequins, ribbon, glitter, silk flowers, buttons and beads. Make Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies. Or mix marshmallows, butter, Corn Flakes and green food coloring. Shape like evergreen trees. Or buy Christmas tree Little Debbie cakes.

Gift-givers differ in traditions of Christmas around the world. In German holiday activities, St. Boniface isn't the Christmas gift giver. That task belongs to the more whimsical Kris Kringle with his assistant Black Pieter (also called Krampus or Ruprecht). He's a chimney sweep and an imp--good children get gifts, bad kids get coal or a switch for chastisement. Kris Kringle is good Christmas cop, Krampus is the bad cop. Kris Kringle appears fierce at first, but ends with a jolly laugh. Celebrate Krampus and make "coal cookies" Blend chocolate syrup, cream cheese, crushed chocolate-filled Oreos and chocolate chips. Form into lumpy balls. Leave them out for Krampus to sweeten his mood. Or wrap and give as gifts from Krampus!

Elsewhere in Germany, the Christkindl (Christmas angel) brings gifts. Children write to Christkindl for gifts and decorate their cards with sugar to make them sparkle. Have children make Christmas cards by folding blue construction paper and decorating with glue and glitter. Add sparkly colored sugar to Christmas cookies and leave out for the Christkindl.

Another Christmas around the world tradition says Martin Luther, a German monk. saw that snow and moonlight made evergreen tree glow. Luther was reminded of the light of God's love. He cut down a small tree and decorated it with candles. Martin Luther also wrote the Christmas carol, Away in the Manger. Have children thank God for his love as they decorate the Christmas tree. Gather and sing carols around it. Make chart of activities to practice loving kindness. Make cut paper snowflakes. Fold white paper in fourths then thirds, like an ice cream cone. Trim off excess to make a square. Cut designs using printable patterns. Cut part way through along the fold. Decorate with glitter.

Learn "Silent Night' in German "Stille Nacht." Legend says Father Joseph Mohr, of Oberndorff, Germany who was dismayed to find that mice had eaten through the organ bellows one Christmas Eve. There would be no music for midnight mass. Father Mohr went to baptize a newborn baby, and was moved by the sight of mother and child. He hurried home and penned this best-loved Christmas hymn. Kappelmaster Franz Gruber wrote the melody for guitar and it was sung Christmas mass. Make connections between English and German words--Stille (still) Nacht (night), Schlaf (sleep) Gottes (God) Sohn (son) Bruder (brother).

Make a gingerbread house. Read the Grimm Brothers' "Hansel and Gretel" print gingerbread house patterns and decorate your homes like the witch's cottage. Make you own gingerbread or glue graham crackers to a box. Decorate with candy. Make gingerbread men also. Make the stable in Bethlehem and decorate with animal crackers. For holiday greetings of Christmas around the world, learn to say "Froehliche Weihnachten' (froy-leek vine nahkten) meaning of course, Happy Christmas to all!

Free Printable Literature Lessons from Scholastic Book Clubs

Scholastic Books - the Clubs, the Website and the Products Run, don't walk to find your nearest Scholastic Book Fair or catalog or go online to http://www.scholastic.com/ . If you haven't accessed the deluge of great inexpensive and free resources at Scholastic, then what are you waiting for? Review of one the finest companies dedciated to promoting literacy, education and learning. Read More

Free Printable Halloween Masks for Preschool Trick or Treat

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 Kevin Henkes Lesson Plans

Kevin Henkes has given the world of children's literature some wonderfully endearing stories. Most Kevin Henkes kids' books feature anthropomorphic mice facing typical issues that children face. Beloved Kevin Henkes characters include Sheila Rae the Brave, Chrysanthemum, Julius, Owen, Lilly, Chester, Wemberly and Wendell. His kids' book "Kitten's First Full Moon," won the coveted and prestigious Caldecott book medal for best illustrations in children's literature.

If you like this lovable children's literature author, you will want to visit his website and explore thefree printable Kevin Henkes book activities he's made based on some of his beloved characters. The website has free printable word games, puzzles and coloring pages. These are useful for summer enrichment activities, day care fun, children's literature lesson plans and homeschooling activities. Or parents might want to print them just for fun at home.

Kevin Henkes' publisher, Harper Collins has put some of the free printable activities on their website. You might like the free printable activity book for "Lilly's Big Day" Lilly eagerly awaits the best day of her life, being a flower girl in a wedding. She encounters the usual fears and drama. This activity book would be great follow-up or preparation for any event that your child is anticipating. Bibliotherapy, or problem-solving using literature is especially therapeutic for young or special needs children who struggle to find their own voice. Seeing a funny little mouse experience similar events and feelings is tremendously reassuring.

Lilly is the same mouse who so charmed with her purple plastic purse in the book of the same name. Scroll down the page here for all the Lilly and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse printables Teaching Heart has free printable "Wemberly Worried" and "Chrysanthemum" activities. There are lesson plans from the Kevin Henkes book "Owen" too. Read these books your kids, parents, and you'll see why everyone loves them so.

Free Printable Captain Underpants Activities, Dav Pilkey Coloring pages

March is National Reading Month--time to celebrate kids' books and their authors. Today's featured book guy is Dav Pilkey, a very silly man with a middle school juvenile sense of humor. Who is Dav Pilkey you ask? Well, adults might not know the name, but kids will recognize him as the author/illustrator of graphic novels and kids books, notably Captain Underpants.  Pilkey has many well-loved kids books and graphic novels to his credit. But his most enduring is the supremely ridiculous "Captain Underpants" stories. Oh and grownups, graphic novels are stories told in cartoons or comics, not dirty books! Jeff Kinney author of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series is another graphic novels writer.

So Captain Underpants is a farsical superhero, but then anti-heroes are kind of en vogue right now with Deadpool. And Kylo Ren--kids love that Star Wars bad guy almost as much as his evil dad Darth Vader. People must be tired of the schmaltzy superhero good guy. Captain Underpants is a good--but very weird--guy. Along with his sidekick, Super Diaper Baby he battles The Wicked Wedgie Woman, The Lunch Ladies from Outer Space, Bionic Booger Boy (!) and Professor Poopypants. Children (especially boys) adore the title alone. As you might suspect the Captain Underpants stories are filled with (gross, just heard it!) puerile humor so loved by lower elementary school students. So how about some free printable Captain Underpants fun, to get your "fill" of silly, slightly sickening second grade comedy?

Dav Pilkey has several another popular series stories: Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot, The Dumb Bunnies, Big Dog and Little Dog, Dragon and two which are almost as popular as Captain Underpants--Kat Kong and Dogzilla. Pilkey uses pictures of his pets in these books. They too are very immature and goofy. The author has written and illustrated quite a few non-series serious books that are well-loved also. His book The Paperboy was chosen as a runner up for the prestigious Caldecott picture book award.

His website is full of fun stuff to do. Web pages are laid out like graphic novels and feature his messy handwriting font. There are fun Dav Pilkey kids book games. There are severalfree printable flip-o-rama kids book games that show how a movie is made from scenes or sketches. Best of all, Dav has put about twenty free printable Captain Underpants coloring pages and coloring pages and other kids book games. on his website. This site has a free printable Captain Underpantsbookmark.

Dav Pilkey gets some cr*p for his potty humor (pun intended) but maybe children's literature needs more silly stories, to un-stuffy it. It's good to see authors not only writing and but creating kids book games and activities based on their works. Enjoy these free printable kids book games activities and read his books. For more free printable kids book games, crafts, activities, coloring and lesson plans visit the Grand Rapids Parenting Examiner blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Free Coloring Pages 4U and Kidz Literature.