Free Printable Lesson Plans: worksheets

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Free Printable Chinese New Year Activities CNY 2016 Year of the Monkey

February 8 celebrates Chinese New Year of the Monkey 2016. Each year in the 12-year Chinese zodiac, a different spirit animal is honored as are people born under that animal sign (in 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956 and on back through the multiples of 12). Greet each other on February 8 with the traditional Chinese New Year blessing "Gung Hay Fat Choy!" Chinese New Year is part of the Spring Festival and ends with the Lantern Festival. Looking for free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities? Here are CNY crafts, coloring pages, greeting cards, Spring Festival lesson plans, Lantern Festival crafts and more. Print Chinese zodiac crafts, animal crafts, party decorations, CNY games and puzzles and lots more.

The best place to start is Enchanted Learning for free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities, crafts and more. Enchanted Learning is super-educational with free printable maps, social studies lesson plans, worksheets, mini-booklets to color cut and paste, coloring pages, history activities, animals of the Chinese zodiac crafts, to name a few.

How about a free printable coloring book of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac along with their Chinese symbol. Animals that represent Chinese New Year are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Ox, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig (in that order). 2017 will by Year of the Rooster, 2018 will be Year of the Dog (and so on). To find out which animal you were born under, count backwards or forwards from the current year or add or subtract multiples of 12. For example, if you were born in 1964, the closest Year of the Monkey is 1968, so count backwards four years to 1964, Year of the Dragon.

DL-TK has free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities, monkey crafts, games and CNY lesson plans. Then scamper like a monkey over to Activity Village for a banana tree full of printable Chinese New Year crafts, games, puzzles, Chinese lunar calendars, CNY greeting cards, jigsaw, stories and more. Click to find animal specific activity pages. Here's the Year of the Monkey page with monkey-themed prinatables. And here's the page with free printable Spring Festival and Lantern Festival crafts. Plus, help kids get organized with free printable 2016 animal calendars. Many of the animals of the Chinese zodiac are featured--mouse (rat), dog, sheep, chick (rooster), rabbit and a mischievious monkey, perfect for Year of the Monkey.

And no Chinese New Year is complete with free printable animals masks to monkey around with! The ones from Animal Jr. are totally adorbs!
Here are some nifty masks from ancient China to print for CNY. Printables 4 Kids has more cute Chinese New Year coloring pages, zodiac activities, animal masks, monkey crafts and masks and other goodies. For educational Chinese New Year printables, visit Apples 4 the Teacher. There are free printable Chinese New Year coloring pages, including animals of the Chinese zodiac, maps of China and a Chinese flag to color.
Learn all about the culture and history of China, the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival and other Chinese traditions with free printable games, puzzles, worksheets and word searches.

Teachers, parents, homeschoolers, religious educators, Sunday school teachers bookmark First-School and visit frequently. For Chinese New Year, First-School has free printable Lantern Festival crafts, Spring Festival activities, Chinese zodiac coloring pages, math games from China, Chinese history and literature lessons and so much more. Activities are geared from preschool to third grade.

Free Printable Hanukkah Crafts, Games, Puzzles

Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, spelled Chanukah, is not the 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 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 Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games

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

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

Free Printable Super Why Coloring Pages, Reading Worksheets, Games

Free Memorial Day Lesson Plans: Hands-On Cross-Curricular Lessons

Memorial Day, celebrated the last Monday in May, doesn't just kick off summer holidays. Also called Remembrance Day, the holiday honors veterans and those lost in U.S. wars. It's also referred to as Decoration Day, when family commemorates loved ones lost by putting flowers on graves. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday.

* Memorial Day Printables: 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.

* Free Memorial Day Resource Unit: 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.

* 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.

For more holiday printables visit my blog Free Printable Holiday. For more free printable lesson plans visit my blog of that name.

Free Printable Memorial Day Worksheets, Crafts, Games

Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday.

For more holiday printables visit my blog Free Printable Holiday. For more free printable lesson plans visit my blog of that name.

Free Printable May Day, Labor History, Union Organizing Lesson Plans

Spring is a poignant time in labor history. March 25, 1911 remembers 146 workers, mostly women, lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. April 16 mourns Ireland's Easter Rising of slain Feinians. April 28 marks Workers' Memorial Day, on which the organized labor movement pays tribute to the fallen in workplace accidents or in organized labor struggles. May 1 is May Day, honoring International Workers' Day. May 4 commemorates casualties at Chicago's Haymarket riot at a 1886 labor rally. May 19, 1920 is a day when the organized labor movement grieves the Matewan and Mingo County massacre of coal miners. On May 26, 1937 those who would from unions were assaulted at Ford's River Rouge plant "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.

Organized labor history is taught as part of American history, but there is no American (or world) history without labor history. Unions, collective bargaining--the fight for workers' rights impact every industry, occupation and person. Teachers and homeschoolers, you can educate students about unions with these free printable May Day and labor history lesson plans. These links include websites, activities, worksheets, movies and books on the organized labor movement.

The American Labor Studies Center offers a gamut of free printable organized labor movement lesson plans. It covers history, events, strikes, lockouts, workplace injuries, child labor, working conditions, collective bargaining, 8-hour workday, sweatshops, slavery, organizing, indentured servitude, socialism and labor, women's rights, African American labor issues, minority discrimination concerns, ULP (unfair labor practices). Lessons cover the Triangle fire (the worst workplace accident in history), West Virginia labor, Pullman Strike (1894), Lawrence Textile Strike (1913), Lowell Strike, Paterson Silk Strike, agriculture strikes and other events. Get free printable union labor worksheets, fill-ins, puzzles and study guides. There are links to films and books.

Modern Heroes of the American Labor Movement explores famous labor leaders: Noam Chomsky, Joe Hill, "Big Bill" Haywood, Pete Seeger, Jimmy Hoffa, Caesar Chavez, the Wisconsin 14 and others from the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), AFL-CIO, Teamsters and more. Here's another list ofbiographies of union organizers. This site has biographies of women labor leaders including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and more. To use in lessons, print the list of names on one side and short bios on the other side (mixed up). Students match person with details. Print photos and pin to a map at places they are associated with. Or make a time line along the wall. Plot images in history.

The National Endowment for the Humanities offers two companion lessons in its series The Industrial Age in America. "Sweatshops, Steel Mills and Factories" and "Robber Barons and Captains of Industry" define the problems faced by workers in labor history and the reasons for the organized labor movement. Use the worksheets and activities with middle school and high school students.

The Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit maintains the largest organized labor history archive in the U.S. It has an impressive collection of images in physical exhibits and digital archives on The Labor Movement and Organizations. It also maintains a labor history document base. The library is named for the leaders of UAW (United Auto Workers) and CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) unions Walter Reuther who was one of several injured at Ford's Rouge factory "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.

The United Farm Workers is the union begun by Cesar Chavez that tends to itinerant and agricultural labor issues. Along with labor movement, the UFW educates people about food safety, immigration, deportation, earth and green initiatives, pesticides and more. An important piece is the youth activism page. UFW seeks to take union and agricultural awareness beyond the classroom walls and into real life.

The Wobblies is a documentary about the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World). The IWW is a world-wide union that seeks to organize all workers regardless of occupation. This authoritative video is engaging and covers a broad labor perspective. It helps students understand the differences between business, trade and collective unions. The IWW honors May Day as the real Labor Day.

In honor of May Day, here's a quote from the Albert Shanker Institute. "Imagine opening a high school U.S. history textbook and finding no mention of-or at most a passing sentence about-Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise...Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark. Imagine if these key events and people just disappeared as if they'd never existed...That is what has happened in history textbooks when it comes to labor's part in the American story." Use these lesson plans to keep the May Day stories and message alive.

Free Printable May Day, Haymarket, Workers Memorial Day, Labor Union Lesson Plans

We celebrate Labor Day in the U.S., in September. But May Day (May 1) is world Labor Day. Socialists, anarchists and unions recognize commemorate achievements and contributions of organized labor. On Workers Memorial Day, April 28, we honor workers lost in workplace accidents or in the labor struggle. The UAW began this holiday in memory of disasters and incidents like Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and Chicago Haymarket massacre May 4, 1886. 7 people were killed and scores of others injured after a police officer was killed by a bomb at a labor demonstration.
April 16 mourns Ireland's Easter Rising of slain Feinians. April 28 marks Workers' Memorial Day, on which the organized labor movement pays tribute to the fallen in workplace accidents or in organized labor struggles. May 1 is May Day. May 19, 1920 is a day when the organized labor movement grieves the Matewan and Mingo County massacre of coal miners. On May 26, 1937 those who would from unions were assaulted at Ford's River Rouge plant "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit. For Catholics, May 1 or May Day is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Modern Heroes of the American Labor Movement explores famous labor leaders: Noam Chomsky, Joe Hill, "Big Bill" Haywood, Pete Seeger, Jimmy Hoffa, Caesar Chavez, the Wisconsin 14 and others from the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), AFL-CIO, Teamsters and more. Here's another list ofbiographies of union organizers. This site has biographies of women labor leaders including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and more. To use in lessons, print the list of names on one side and short bios on the other side (mixed up). Students match person with details. Print photos and pin to a map at places they are associated with. Or make a time line along the wall. Plot images in history.

Free Printable Brown Bear, Brown Bear Lesson Plans, Crafts, Worksheets

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" Thus begins a charming, eponymous children's literature classic by author Bill Martin. Via illustrator Eric Carle's pictures, preschoolers learn about colors, animals. patterns, math and also friendship. Here are free printable games, coloring pages, crafts, worksheets and learning activities from the children's literature classic, along with the companion Martin/Carle book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" Use these activities to celebrate Children's Book Week 2015--May 4-10.

DLTK-Teach has free printable activities from Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? There are pictures of book characters: brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, goldfish, mother (teacher), and children (students). Print in color and use for worksheets, reading booklets and lessons. Or, extend learning activities by printing in black and white and using as coloring pages. Have kids cut out animals to practice eye-hand coordination. Children learn color, pattern, rhyme, fine motor skills, spelling and writing in multisensory ways. Teachers and homeschoolers, use animals templates as felt board patterns. Trace image on appropriate felt color. Add each animal to board as you read the story. There are printable activities for Brown Bear in Spanish, too.

DLTK-Teach also has free printables from "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear?" Polar Bear, Polar Bear was written 25 years after Martin and Carle's Brown Bear came out in 1967. I remember how tickled our eldest was to find that her beloved Brown Bear had a friend. Images from this story include zoo animals: polar bear, lion, hippopotamus, flamingo, zebra, boa constrictor, elephant, leopard, peacock, walrus, zookeeper and children.

1+1+1=1 is a homeschool blog with mom-created a free printable Brown Bear, Brown Bear activitiespacket which includes reading and math games: matching, graphing, spelling, writing, 3-part cards, 1-10 counting puzzle, tracing and color by word.

This blog has other free printable kindergarten learning games and preschool activity packages. Themes include: ballerinas, princess, rainbow, ocean, pond life, love, Christmas, winter, spring, bugs, cats, baby animals, birds, construction trucks and machines, monsters, farm and more. There are printable reading packs on children's literature favorites: Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Noah's Ark, Veggie Tales, Word World, Nemo, Hermie, Tarzan, Word World, Doc McStuffins, Dora the Explorer, Octonauts, Little Einsteins, Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom, Five Little Monkeys, Dinosaur Train and Thomas the Train.

We homeschooled our four children from 1992-2005. Home education was pretty new and computer resources nil. Our kids now 28,26, 24 and 18, loved the Martin-Carle books in preschool. Our twin grandsons love these books thanks to their mama (she who loved Brown Bear so as a tot). The boys already have Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Polar Bear, Polar Bear on their bookshelves! It's good to pass these classics on to another generation!

Free Earth Day Worksheets, Environmental Science 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.

Printable Jewish Holocaust Memorial Worksheets, Yom HaShoah Lessons

Remember, remember the 17th day of Shevat. This day, which is January 27 on western calendar is one of days of yom hashoah or "days of remembrance." It isn't a holiday, but it is a holy day and commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, said International Business Times on Jan. 27. Jews observe Yom Hashoah, Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day, on the 27th of Nissan (April to May in the Western calendar). January 27 is the day the world remembers (or should) when it stood by while millions died--Pole, Slav, Catholic, Russian, red, disabled, dissident, gypsy, gay, and many, many Jewish--in the World War II Nazi genocide. The theme for International Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 is "Don't Stand By" and it comes from a confession of Pastor Martin Niemoller.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me."

"Don't Stand By" if you see injustice, persecution, bullying or marginalization. Speak out, whether you identify with those you are speaking out for or not. Don't stand by because an injury to one is an injury to all, says the union slogan. On Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day and all year long, fight against acts of anti-semitism, anti-life, anti-humanity. Don't stand by and let a great injury be repeated. Talk about it and educate yourself. Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has a free activity pack for educators and individuals, to remember.

Don't stand by--share the love. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers ways to share stories online and in person. Oral tradition is a time-honored way of preserving memories. Don't stand by and let the flame die. On Yom Hashoah, let the the voices of the dead speak. Most everything that remained of those horrible days are gone. Many holocaust survivors have passed on. But memory is enduring voice, if it's not shushed. Let Holocaust Remembrance Day be a song that keeps on playing your head, long after the music has died. Look at the Holocaust Remembrance Day poster from 2012. It shows, in shadow, the loved ones lost. It's evocative and eerie. It makes you wonder who these shadows were. Don't stand by and let them be forgotten.

Don't stand by--watch movies and read books for Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day. "Sarah's Key" is a translation of "Elle S'appellait Sarah" by Tatiana de Rosenay. It tells of a little girl taken in the Jewish Vel' D'hiv roundup in France and the journalist who uncovers her story. Read or watch "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"--that will put a face on Holocaust for you. Or how about "The Book Thief?" Children can watch this one and empathize. Don't stand by--teach your children that untold numbers of other children perished in the Nazi holocaust and stories like this are their voice. For a non-fiction Yom Hashoah read, try "Night" by Elie Weisel. But be prepared to be haunted for the rest of your life. Read Viktor Frankel's "Man's Search for Meaning"for a Holocaust Remembrance Day you'll never forget.

You can't bring back the deceased, but you can give them their voice. You can ask, "who are you? what were you like?" Because if no one talks about them, they are truly buried. When we speak for them, it's like they never died. Don't stand by this Jewish Yom HaShoah.

Free Catholic Lent, Holy Week, Bible Easter Printables

Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians observe Palm Sunday which celebrates the Biblical triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem one week before His crucifixion. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week and the countdown to the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday orEaster Vigil). Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday. Here are free printable Holy Week activities, Palm Sunday crafts, Easter printables and Bible coloring pages. Use as lessons in homeschool, Christian school, Sunday school or Catholic religious education.

DL-TK offers free printable Palm Sunday crafts. There are cut and paste crafts featuring Jesus, donkeys and palms. Sunday-School-Fun-Zone has several dozen free printable Holy Week coloring pages, Easter crafts, Bible puzzles and Catholic Christian holiday games. There are Bible verse memorization activities, images of people waving palms, a donkey and Bible character lessons. Print a countdown-to-Easter craft which for Holy Week.

Ministry-to-Children has eight free printable religious Easter coloring pages. These could be used as a Holy Week countdown. Give children one page color each day. When the pages are complete, they might be combined into a devotional prayer booklet. Catholic Mom has free printable Bible activities geared to each Sunday's gospel reading. All the guesswork for lesson planning and cross-curricular connections has been done for you. These printable units are useful for all ages from preschool through middle school. They're adaptable for special needs students, too. There are printable versions of the Bible reading, an accompanying coloring page, mass worksheets, fill-in-the-blank and crossword puzzles.

Catholic Mom is cross-referenced with specific webpages for holidays and feast days. There are links for crafts, readings, additional resources, printables and supplemental activities. Catholic Mom has printable activities for Palm Sunday, Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, including Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil (called Holy Saturday) and Easter Sunday.

Read Around the World with Nobel Prize for Literature Laureates

March is National Reading Month. March 21 is World Poetry Day (it's also a very special girl's birthday--our youngest daughter Emma Grace). Why not explore poetry and literature with lessons plans from the creme de la creme--the Nobel Prize laureates? Here are lesson plans for reading "around the world" with Nobel Prize for Literature Laureates. In middle school and especially in high school, use these lessons for literature, social studies, history, world religions and cultures classes. My one objection is that multicultural as the prizes are, there have only been 12 women literature laureates in the 112-year history of the Nobel Prize. Those are odds we ladies need to even. Here are famous women laureates and poets: Nellie Sachs, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emma Lazarus to name a few.

Since President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Americans have become focused on the Nobel prizes. Here are lesson plans for reading 'around the world' with Nobel Prize for Literature Laureates. In middle school and especially in high school, use these lessons for world literature, history, world religions and world cultures classes.

I've made a list of some former winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I have included Nobel Prize winners from around the world of all cultures. I recommend that students be assigned to choose a Nobel Prize winning author and read one or more of her works. If each students selects a different author, you can theoretically read your way around the globe as a class. Keep a large wall map with small Sticky Note arrows to point out the different places that the various Nobel Prize authors were born, lived and worked. I've arranged these authors in order from the present back to the inception of the Nobel Prize in 1903. As far as possible, I've tried to list volumes or works of literature for which these authors are best known.

2006:Turkey, Orhan Pamuk "The Black Book"
2004:Austria, Elfriede Jelnik "Lust"
2001:Trinidad, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul; "A House for Mr. Biswas"
2000:China - Gao Xingjian

; Soul Mountain

1998:Portugal -Jose Saramago; Balthasar and Blimunda

1997: Italy - Dario Fo; The Pope and the Witch

1995: Ireland - Seamus Heaney; Bog Poems

1990:
Mexico - Octavio Paz; The Other Mexico

1989: Spain - Camilo Jose Cela, The Family of Pascual Duarte

1988: Egypt - Naguib Maufauz; Sugar Street

1986: Nigeria - Wole Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel

1984: Jaroslav Siefert - Czechoslavakia: A Wreath of Poems

1982:Colombia - Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Leaf Storm and Other Stories

1979:Greece - Odysseus Elytis; The Sovereign Sun: Selected Poems

1971:Chile - Pablo Neruda; Twenty Poems

1968: Japan - YasunarI Kawabata; House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories

1967: Guatemala - Miguel Angel Asturias; The Bejewelled Boy

1965: USSR (Russia and now sovereign states) - Mikhail Sholokov; Tales from the Don

1961:Yugoslavia - Ivo Andric; The Woman from Sarajevo

1957: France - Albert Camus; The Stranger

1955: Iceland - Halldor Laxness; Salka Valka

1944:Denmark - Johannes Jensen; Myths

1939: Finland - Hans Emil Silanpaa; The Maid Silja

1951: Sweden - Par Fabian Lagerkvist ; The Dwarf

1913: India - Rabindranath Tagore; Red Oleanders

1911:Belgium - Maurice Maeterlinck; The Life of the Bee
Use these lessons in your world literature class.