Earth Day activities, free earth science lessons, astronomy activities, solar system printables

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. In fact, the entire month of April is devoted to Earth Month. Here are hands-on, interactive, student-directed earth science activities to make lessons come alive. Use free printable earth science booklets, games, word searches, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, coloring pages, science crafts and printable dioramas and 3D models. Topics includes astronomy, solar system, earth's poles, sun, moon and magnetism.

Windows to the Universe a website of the National Earth Science Teachers Association offers loads of free printable earth science worksheets, earth science games, crafts, cut and paste activities and lesson plans. Scroll down the page to the "Coloring Books and Paper Activities" section. Here you'll find a printable seven-page cut-and-paste mobile to color on animals of the arctic. There's another printable science activity on magnetism and the magnetic polar forces.

Print a free scientists coloring booklet. This activity makes a good resource for biography study or living history museums. Students might use to portray famous scientists. Biographies include Tycho Brahe, Ada Byron, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Evelyn Granville, John Glenn and Sally Ride.

Here are free printable solar system coloring books at easier and more challenging reading levels. There's a page for each of the nine planets, the sun, asteroids and comets. Scientists from the University of Michigan have created free printable science flip books to demonstrate different solar phenomena in action. Included is an aurora, aurora oval, several coronal mass ejections (CME) a solar eruption and a solar flare. Students learn how processes occur by drawing and coloring them.

Free printable geometry worksheets, free printable math games, math worksheets for Pi Day

Happy Pi Day! Pi is a Greek symbol that represents a math quantity of about 3.14 used to solve equations and find circle measurements. Pi Day celebrates geometry. Now geometry is a fascinating subject but gets a bad rap because it seems boring and complicated. So teach it in hands-on ways. Here are free printable math and geometry worksheets and lesson plans. Print interactive math games, flash cards, matching activities, diagrams and and activities.

Helping with Math offers free printable geometry units, worksheets and lesson plans. Print matching activities and games.

ABC Teach provides a complete free printable geometry bingo game that teaches geometry vocabulary by having students connect pictures on a bingo or GEOMY card with terms called. Print the 13 page game including vocabulary list, six different unlabeled cards with geometry figures and another set of six cards with angle measurements labeled on them. Print the entire game, laminate and cut out.

Kidz Zone has free printable math worksheets and units to teach money math, adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents, plus geometry.

Pro Teacher has math printables, worksheets, units, games and geometry activities. There are loads of free printable activities to follow the well laid-out syllabus.

Classroom Confections is cram-packed with free printable geometry lesson plans. Dr. Mike's Math page has loads more math and geometry game printables.

Pre-K to 8 offers free printable geometry activities on angles, congruency, shapes, triangles and lots of other cool activities. I love the looks of these activities; they are totally interactive and hands-on. Check out this site and book mark.

Teaching-Tools offers a free geometry vocabulary worksheet generator. Select terms that you are teaching and develop a practice page, test study guide, quiz or test. You can make free printable activities for terms, vocabulary, definitions, picture matching, angles, shapes and much more. Check out the menu on the left hand side for other worksheet generator topics like fractions, algebra and more math concepts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black History Month printables, worksheets, lesson plans, book activities

Complaints about why there's a Black History Month infuriate me. If you have to ask, you clearly don't get American history period. The revisionists aren't the ones teaching black history, they're the ones who wrote it out in the first place. Slavery, segregation, Jim Crow stole an entire peoples' past. Black History Month can't replace that. But it can renew the future, It can revive traditions, restore voices and reinvest in the heritage that was denied. I've always felt intense solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized. But recently, I experienced it in a new way. I sat in Rosa Parks' bus seat. 

Over Christmas, we took the family to Detroit and visited Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Since our last visit, the museum had acquired the Montgomery bus upon which Rosa refused to surrender her seat to a white man. Henry Ford Museum purchased the Rosa Parks bus from an Alabama family who'd used it for storage.  

Looking to profit, the family claimed, despite proof, theirs was the bus. An auctioneer found journal clippings and matching serial and coach numbers. With a bid of roughly $429,000 the museum won it from the Smithsonian and the city of Denver. 

The bus required extensive restoration The museum placed it in the "Liberty and Justice for All" exhibit. This ironically-named collection pays tribute to oppressed Americans who enjoyed no such liberty and justice--blacks, women, Latinos, native Americans. The chilling display features a "whites only" drinking fountain, Ku Klux Klan robe and Klansman's oath. Images show suffragette hunger strikers being force fed through the nose and mobs assailing black Woolworth's Lunch Counter. It's a gruesome reminder that freedom isn't free. 

Sitting in Rosa's seat was both eerie and exciting. Her act of defiance on December 1, 1955, spurred the Montgomery bus boycott  A Baton Rouge, Louisiana boycott failed due to lack of focus. Mrs. Parks' quiet, but firmly "no" provided that. Desegregation fire lit the nation, birthing Freedom Riders, SNCC protests, marches. And Jim Crow started to crumble.

If you're a teacher, you must visit the Henry Ford and experience Rosa Parks. There's no more fitting way to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There's better way to teach black history (or any history) than from inside looking out. Use these free Rosa Parks resources to prepare or follow up. 

Rosa Parks printables from Scholastic

Rosa Parks classroom activities from Education world

Printable Jim Crow activity booklet

Free Jim Crow worksheets from iCivics (you'll have to register for a free account)

Black History Month  and Jim Crow laws from EdHelper

Jim Crow Unit from Mr. Donn

Free Printable Leaf and Tree Identification Charts for Science Lesson Plans

A popular autumn lesson plan is to assign students to make a leaf identification booklet. Here are free printable tree identification charts and leaf patterns and fall craft stencils. Parents, homeschoolers and teachers, make flashcards with these tree and leaf patterns. Use in hands-on Montessori style games for nature science study. Make tree and leaf books. Assign students to collect leaves, press them or make leaf rubbings. Students should label leaves and trees using identification diagrams.

About Forestry has free printable leaf patterns for tree and leaf identification from common trees around the country. The site also has textbook-quality, beautifully detailed free printable leaf coloring pages taken from naturalist Charles Sprague Sargent's leaf plate illustrations. Each page features a different leaf with its corresponding tree, berry, nut and foliage. These printable illustrations include cut-away drawings and other helpful identification data, plus the Latin classification for genus and species of the tree. The website gives the leaf and tree names in their American variation. Use these printables for taxonomy lessons on KPCOFGS (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus and Species) as developed by zoologist Carolus Linnaeus.

Arbor Day offers several printable nature science resources and online tree and leaf identification activities. Here's a link for About Forestry's leaf and tree identification homepage. From here, follow the links for different information about conifers, deciduous trees, hardwoods, and other assorted trees from different biomes and habitats. Don't miss these free printable forest map. Here are free printable leaf stencils for decorations and children's activities.

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

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

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

  Apartheid

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

Free Printable Science Chemistry Biology Lesson Plans

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

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

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

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

Free Printable Educational Travel Games, Puzzles for Summer Enrichment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Printable Spider-Man, Avengers Captain America Civil War coloring pages

The epic Marvel Comics "Captain America Civil War" opens May 6 and features a clash between Marvel Avengers Captain America and Iron Man. But word is the most exciting part Captain America Civil War is the introduction of Spider-Man to the cast. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is attracting fans like flies! So now Avengers fans can see Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Venom and all their superheroes in Captain America Civil War. Sounds like some pretty "Marvel" ous fun! Captain America v Iron Man, Batman v Superman--2016 promises to be a summer of brotherly brawling! How about free printable Spider-Man coloring pages to keep you tied up till Captain America Civil War opens?

Start your Spider-Man "web" adventure (pun intended) at Pic Gifs. It's home to a ginormous collection of freebies, including over 100 free printable Spider-Man coloring pages. Access Spider-man clipart, gifs, animated graphics, wallpapers, cursors and icons by typing "Spider-Man" in the search box. Got a child who wants a Spider-Man themed birthday party? You can do it darn near free, printing the clipart and making homemade birthday cards, party decorations and invitations.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2 superhero sequel, the mutant man with spider reflexes and graceful arachnid moves thrilled fans. What's not to love about superhero who needs no fancy gadgets and shoots webs from his hands? If your Spidey senses are tingling, swing on over to Coloring-Book.info for a bunch more free printable Spider-Man coloring pages. These print in black and white and could be made into bedroom wall art. Kids could color them, write messages on them and send like greeting cards. Or you might laminate their colored images and make them into placemats. Snag these free printable Spider-Man coloring pages too.

And don't forget your free printable Captain America coloring pages. Disney Family has loads offree printable Avengers Captain America Civil War crafts. Print masks for Captain America, Iron Man and Hulk. Print an entire Thor costume with helmet, wings and war hammer. You could use them for Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man or Captain America Civil War birthday party themes. Want to learn more about spiders? Then, get spinning and crawl over to KidZone for free printable spider lesson plans. Learn about spiders with these games, crafts, puzzles. math activities, songs and stories, writing prompts, science worksheets and diagrams and reading lessons. This should keep you busy till Captain America Civil War. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 movie is in the works too!

Free Printable Spring Seasonal Lesson Plans, Coloring Pages

March 20-22 marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in many countries. For those of locked in ice and snow and cold, this date can't come too early. Many have had a long winter and are pretty happy to hear those cheery little birds singing and see tiny crocuses bravely trying to poke their lavender heads up through the snow. How about some free spring coloring pages, Easter holiday activities and spring crafts to occupy those children who are sick of winter and school?

Coloring Book Fun free printable spring coloring pages are simple enough for the not yet seasoned colorers, and yet offer more challenging pictures for veteran colorers. This site has a huge stock of free printable spring coloring pages and spring crafts based on seasons, weather, Easter holiday activities, topics, Bible based pictures, multi-cultural and animals. You can find just about any cartoon character from G.I.Joe to Barbie to Pokemon to Rug-rats to Rainbow Brite to Dragon Ball Z to Dora, plus all your Disney favorites.

DL-TK provides all sorts of free printable spring coloring pages, seasonal spring crafts, lesson plans, puzzles, crafts, projects, scissor practice, sequencing practice, music, song sheets, stories, spring crafts and Easter holiday activities. DLTK has all kinds of pre-school activities that will reinforce pre-reading, letter and number recognition, fine motor practice, telling time, tying shoes, counting, tracing and other skill builders based around a theme. You will find printables for baby animals, new life, butterflies and other insects, plants, flowers, rain, and more. You'll find some really cute Easter holiday activities and spring coloring pages as well!

Print Activities has a really large data bank of banner and ad-free printables with educational themes, There's no sign up or registration, very few if any pop-ups and easy one click printing. I found many styles of cross-word puzzles, calendars, tracing, mazes, word scrambles, word sorts, connect the dots, connect the dot using math problems, Sudoku, fill in the blanks, color by numbers, color by math (students complete math problems and complete a code to color pictures. All these spring crafts and puzzles are themed on seasons, but you can find other topics with themed puzzles: Easter holiday activities, seasons, animals, It may take a moment to load, but it is worth it.

Free Printable EPA Endangered Species Activity Book 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 Easter Bunny, Peter Rabbit, Velveteen Rabbit Lesson Plans

Easter is probably the most quintessentially preschool holiday of all. Baskets, candy, egg decorating, bunnies, baby animals, spring--for young and young at heart, here are free printable Easter bunny crafts. I've included printable activities based on my two favorite bunnies Peter Rabbit and the Velveteen Rabbit, too. Parents and teachers, you'll want these for preschool classroom fun. 

Printable animal masks from Classroom Jr. Everything is more fun when you're in costume. So let's start by making a printable Easter bunny mask. Here are more animal printables from First Palette. Print on plain paper and transfer to recycled cereal box cardboard to make mask more durable. 

Vintage Easter Bunny crafts Now that you are properly attired, let's make some Easter baskets and greeting cards. The Toymaker has free printable egg baskets, bunny cards and an egg roll game (like they play on the White House). Why not make cards and baskets and fill with Easter eggs or candy and deliver to a lonely senior neighbor (wearing your mask, of course). The Easter bunny loves his older friends, too! 

3D Paper Bunny Crafts The calendar may say spring, but Easter is often cold and damp. Settle down to an afternoon of serious rainy day crafting with free printable 3D bunny-themed paper toys from Craft Jr. I'm partial to the old-fashioned diorama. 

Paper Bunny Toy Mania DL-TK, those wonderfully crafty folk, have an Easter blowout of bunny coloring pages, masks, paper ears, stand-up toys, pop up crafts and much more. I love how easy these are to make. Perfect for young and special needs children who need no-fail activities. 

Peter Rabbit fun Peter Rabbit has his own page, along with other Beatrix Potter friends. The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams) has a page on Making Friends. It's part of a complete page of free printable bunny-based coloring pages, games, puzzles, dot-to-dot, count by number and other activities. I like the felt board games and printable felt board patterns. First School has an educational Peter Rabbit unit with learning games, literature activities, writing prompts and stories. 

Happity, Hippity, Hoppity Easter! 

Free Coloring Pages to Print for Children

One of the many things I like about blogging is sharing freebies with my friends. Today's free thang is printable coloring pages. I'm kind of the coloring pages guru, the free printable princess. I thought I'd seen every printables site on the web. Then I found Pic Gifs ;yesterday, digging up animated clipart. Coloring pages make great lesson plans for preschool, perceptual development, fine motor skills, special needs. And kids love 'em!   

Dr. Seuss Book Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Crafts

 March 2 marks the birthday of American icon Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Suess Geisel. Dr. Seuss wrote pearls of wisdom in silly verse. He illustrated them in candy flavors and neon colors. The Lorax, Horton, the Grinch, The Cat in the Hat are among the world's most beloved children's books. He also wrote educational preschool stories under the scrambled pseudonym Theo LeSieg. March is also National Reading Month, kicked off with Read Across America. Use these activities to celebrate with children in classrooms or homeschool.

Start your activities quest at About.com Here are free printable Dr. Seuss activities. Outer-Limit.net has free printable Grinch coloring pages from Dr. Seuss's holiday classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The Grinch and the Whos of Whoville are some of Dr. Seuss's best-known and most beloved characters. Homeschool Share has many free printable Dr. Seuss worksheets, coloring pages and activities. Lucy Learns has Cat in the Hat coloring pages. There are also printables of The Sneetches, The Lorax, Sam-I-Am and Green Eggs and Ham.

PBS Kids offers free printable Dr. Seuss character coloring pages and activities. The homepage,The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That has a plethora of Seuss-themed lesson plans, games, crafts and puzzles. Lessons cover math, reading, writing and science. Gerald McBoing-Boing, red and blue fishes, Horton Hears a Who and other Seuss characters help kids learn.

Seussville is the homepage for all things Dr. Seuss. This link takes you to the games and activities page, with lots of free printable Seuss goodies. There are printable Earth Day games based on the Lorax, Cat in the Hat counting games, preschool worksheets, coloring pages and gobs more. But don't stop there. Check the Parents and Educators tabs for other educational Seuss activities.

Happy Birthday 111th, Ted Geisel. Thanks for the memories!

Free printable Harry the Dirty Dog Printables, Recycled Yarn Craft, Snacks

March is National Reading Month. Why not celebrate the joy of children's literature with a kids' storybook craft party? I learned as a special education Montessori teacher/homeschool mom to make lesson plans hands-on. So my craft parties include an interactive story and snack. One of my husband's favorite children's literature characters is Harry the Dog, created by Gene Zion and drawn by Margaret Bloy Graham. Harry the Dirty Dog won the Caldecott Award for children's literature illustrations. Here are free printable lesson plans, book crafts and recipes for a Harry the Dirty Dog party. Most of the activities come from the book No Roses for Harry.

Read Harry the Dirty Dog and No Roses for Harry. Stop at different points in the stories and have children predict what will happen next. Make flip books by cutting plain paper in quarters and staple together. Let children illustrate the books and tell the story using flip books. Use these free printable Harry the Dirty Dog lesson plans. Make a booklet of free printable Harry the Dirty Dog activities.Use these free printable Harry the Dirty Dog coloring pages for kids to color while you read stories. Here are some free printable children's literature coloring pages from No Roses for Harry.

Make a yarn bush book crafts for the birds based on No Roses for Harry. Have kids gather up recycled bits of string and yarn. Place them in trees and bushes for the birds to use in nest building. Look for your yarn in bird's nests. My mother made a yarn tree and said she knows the birds are using it because the yarn is disappearing. You might get a bird guide and ID the birds you see in the yard. Teach kids to braid yarn or strips of scrap fabric. Twist braided yarn into a flat coil and sew together in several places. Make into pot holders or mug rugs for book crafts.

For Harry the Dirty Dog snacks, make scrubbing brush cookies. Use spray decorator frosting to make brush bristles on Nutter Butter peanut butter sandwich cookies. For No Roses for Harry, make Polish "roses." Spread cream cheese on a scallion. Wrap a slice of ham around it. Make No Roses for Harry rose pinwheel cookies. Roll sugar cookie dough into "snakes" then roll in red sprinkles. Wind into a pinwheel and bake. Or make flower cookies. Roll sugar cookie dough in little balls. Arrange four in a square. Bake and frost. Decorate with candy sprinkles and an M&M in the center. Here are value-added children's literature book crafts plus snacks!

Enjoy Harry the Dirty Dog drinks--chocolate milk and white milk--while making your book crafts. Read the rest of the Harry the Dirty Dog children's literature series including Harry and the Lady Next Door and Harry By the Sea.

Free Printable Winter and Summer Olympics Activities for Kids, Rio 2016 Olympic Games lesson plans

The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics opens August 5 and the closing ceremonies are August 21. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans on Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics for the XXXI Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Use these free printable Olympics lesson plans to help students learn more about this historic international event. Incorporate Summer Olympics into sports math, history, social studies and science to give kids a deeper understanding the the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Teacher Planet has an Olympic-sized database of free printable worksheets on the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games. Worksheets cover reading, creative writing, research, health, history, geography, social studies, science and math activities. Of particular interest to physical education teachers are the Olympic Games simulation activities. Instead of being mere spectators, kids can recreate the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics at home or at school.

The Lesson Lady on Teachers Pay Teachers offers a 10-page set of free printable Olympic Games worksheets, including coloring pages, a reading game, sports word scramble puzzle, a Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics word search, Sudoku puzzle, word bank trivia and several Olympics creative drawing pages. Teacher Vision has an entire collection of free printable Summer Olympics worksheets and activities as well as lesson plans on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where the XXXI Olympic Games will be held. Users may print up to five activities for free and then must pay for a subscription. ABC Teach has loads more free printable Olympics lesson plans across the curricula in math, science, writing, reading, phonics, science, social studies, history, geography and more.

Then visit Activity Village for a host of free printable Olympic Games for kids activities. There's also an page on Brazil for Kids with free printable coloring pages, worksheets, world flags, country flags, maps and Brazilian landmarks and crafts. Kids will love the free printable post cards from Brazil. There's a page for many countries of the world represented in the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. There maps. flags, landmarks and more. Use these lesson plans as anticipatory sets to prepare kids for the Olympic Games experience. They might also be used as extensions after viewing events.

Free Printable Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Lesson Plans

The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics opens August 5 and the closing ceremonies are August 21. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans on Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics for the XXXI Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Use these free printable Olympics lesson plans to help students learn more about this historic international event. Incorporate Summer Olympics into sports math, history, social studies and science to give kids a deeper understanding the the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Teacher Planet has an Olympic-sized database of free printable worksheets on the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games. Worksheets cover reading, creative writing, research, health, history, geography, social studies, science and math activities. Of particular interest to physical education teachers are the Olympic Games simulation activities. Instead of being mere spectators, kids can recreate the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics at home or at school.

The Lesson Lady on Teachers Pay Teachers offers a 10-page set of free printable Olympic Games worksheets, including coloring pages, a reading game, sports word scramble puzzle, a Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics word search, Sudoku puzzle, word bank trivia and several Olympics creative drawing pages. Teacher Vision has an entire collection of free printable Summer Olympics worksheets and activities as well as lesson plans on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where the XXXI Olympic Games will be held. Users may print up to five activities for free and then must pay for a subscription. ABC Teach has loads more free printable Olympics lesson plans across the curricula in math, science, writing, reading, phonics, science, social studies, history, geography and more.

Then visit Activity Village for a host of free printable Olympic Games for kids activities. There's also an page on Brazil for Kids with free printable coloring pages, worksheets, world flags, country flags, maps and Brazilian landmarks and crafts. Kids will love the free printable post cards from Brazil. There's a page for many countries of the world represented in the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. There maps. flags, landmarks and more. Use these lesson plans as anticipatory sets to prepare kids for the Olympic Games experience. They might also be used as extensions after viewing events.