Free Printable Winter Lessons, Activities

The winter season is a popular theme in preschool and early elementary school classrooms. Winter is a great time to explore science concepts of chemistry, physics, earth and life science. In social studies, students could learn winter-themed holidays and religious celebrations, like Yule, Saturnalia and the December solstice. Here are free printable winter-themed worksheets and lesson plans that are adaptable across different curricula: writing, math, reading, literature, art and crafts. Most are interactive, hands-on project-type activities.

ABC Teach has a plethora of free printable winter lesson plans for every content area. There are free printable worksheets, puzzles, coloring pages, writing prompts, mazes, crafts, connect the dots, reading and language lesson plans. Here is just a sampling of free printable activities:

Felt board letter shapes with winter
Winter season word wall lists (some also have picture cues)
Letter to Santa writing prompt (which teaches personal, informal letter-writing skills and creative writing)
Winter-themed borders, bulletin board trim, classroom newsletter paper
Printable mini-booklets with winter themes (snowman, snowflake, Christmas stocking, mitten)
Snow-themed cryptograms, glyphs, flashcards
Graphic organizers: Venn diagrams, KWL charts (Know-Want to Know-Learned)
Winter holiday dot-to-dot puzzles
Science report worksheets for ice, snow and snowflakes
Winter-themed math: word problems, skip counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, telling time
Winter poetry frames and templates
Preschool winter-themed worksheets for sequencing, sorting, organizing, matching
Language activities: alphabetical order activities, color and write prompts, winter solstice prompts, metaphors

Marcel's Kids Crafts features free printable cut-and-paste snowflake templates. To create the snowflake, click on the desired design, print and fold on the lines as shown. The design should be on top. Students should cut out the shaded areas, leaving the white areas. These activities make excellent math lesson plans. Students can practice hands-on geometry principles. Special needs students often need to practice perceptual integration. Folding and cutting snowflakes builds fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.

Enchanted Learning has more free printable winter lesson plans than any one teacher could ever use! There are crafts, worksheets, mini booklets, science charts and graphs, animal activities, holiday activities to name just a few.

Free Printable Green Environmental Science Earth Day Lesson Plans

There are many reasons to celebrate April. April bids farewell to winter and ushers in spring. Easter and Earth Month are celebrated in April. April 22 is the official Earth Day. Here are environmental science worksheets and lesson plans to explore this "green" month of April.

Maine.gov has a free printable earth science activities. There lessons on different environmental features. Teach them as parts of the body.

Rocks (igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary). Rocks are the bones of our planet.

Minerals (quartz, silica sand, crystals, MOS Hardness Scale, cleavage, color, mineral identification). Minerals are earth's tendons.

Water (ground water, aquifers, watershed, water cycle, precipitation, percolation, wetlands, acid rain, bodies of water, oceanography, polar ice caps). Water is our earth's lifeblood.

Soil (structure, layers, decomposition, fossils, fossil fuels, composting). Soil is the muscular system.

Geophysics (geology, plate tectonics, magnets, earthquakes, volcanoes, the Ring of Fire, thermodynamics, geysers). Geophysics is the endocrine system. Given the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan, these lessons are even more vital and significant.

Ecology (land use, deforestation, slash and burn farming, fallow periods, water testing, soil evaluation). Think of ecology like health. Caring for the earth is like caring for our bodies. What we put into or do to our bodies heal and sustains or hurts and destroys. Likewise, what we do to our earth either helps or harms it. Environmental groups are like the earth's physicians.

This booklet provides hands-on activities, games, simulations, map reading exercises, field trips, treasure and scavenger hunts, experiments and extensions for social studies, reading and math. It gives interactive practice applications for Point-Slope formula (y=mx+b). That's helpful for S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, math) connections. In keeping with earth month, don't waste paper printing. Use recycled paper or scraps from your recycling bin. Print with biodegradable ink.

For more printable science lessons, visit my blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Free Lesson Plans 4U and Science Experiments and Chemistry Lessons.

Free Printable Earth Science and Geology Lesson Plans

Earth science is a fascinating subject. To help you teach earth science, either in public school or in homeschool, here are free printable geology lesson plans and earth science worksheets. Look for charts, graphs, maps, activities and printables to explore geology, rocks and minerals and earth science.

Geology has free printable geology lesson plans and earth science worksheets. You can print charts, geographical maps, geologic maps, periods of the earth, rocks and minerals, earth structure and diagrams that demonstrate plate tectonics. Look for earth cut-away models, soil layers, volcanoes, ring of fire, the relationship between volcanoes and earthquakes, carbon dating, how fossils and fossil fuels develop, rocks and minerals and more.

National Geographic Kids is a superb resource for worksheets and lesson plans on earth science, rocks and minerals and geology. Scroll around to find specific earth science activities you need. Teachers and homeschool parents don't miss the huge assortment of geology and earth science printables awaiting you!

Next, spelunk (that's explore in geo-speak) your way over to the Geological Society of America for dozens of free printable geology lesson plans. Who better than the GSA to teach kids about earth science, geology, rocks and minerals, ages of the earth models and other earth-friendly topics? Visit Discovery Education for free printable earth science lesson plans. Click the age/grade you need and then click "science" to find free printable geology worksheets, activities and printables.

Mining USA has some useful educational free printable resources geared specifically to coal mining. National Geographic is the best, hands-down, all around site for earth science lesson plans, geology worksheets and rocks and minerals information. Look for many free printables for teachers and homeschoolers.

Free Printable Environmental, Ecology, World Poverty

Visit the Teach UNICEF water and environmental science page for the Climate Change lesson plans. There are many free printables, teacher resources, students activities, worksheets and lesson plans. There's a free 117 page teacher's manual with global warming and environmental science activities connected to world poverty and hunger. HIV, disease, nutrition, man-made and natural disasters and more. These printables provide content connections, core curriculum standards, textbook connections, study guides and scope and sequence.

Free Printable Rainforest Activities, Natural Resources 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. Oxfam has a free printable lesson plans on ecology and environment, pollution, world poverty and hunger and more. 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.