Free Printable Social Studies Crafts--Africa, Latino, Native American, Asian

September is National Literacy Month. Reading is about more than just decoding text: it's about engaging with books. A good way to do that is hands-on literature-based activities. Here are free printable world history coloring pages from Karen's Whimsy. Explore world literature, cultures, people, time periods, civilizations, works of art, literary and historical figures and events.

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 Catholic Saints Paper Dolls and Lesson Plans

 Use these free printable Catholic saints coloring pages, crafts and lesson plans to learn more about All Saint's Day and Halloween.
* Catholic Mom's All Saint's Day activities page has printable crafts and coloring pages specific to that holy day, plus tips for celebrating a Christian Halloween. Visit the Catholic Kids home page for free printable liturgical lesson plans for CCD and religious education lesson plan. Each week's gospel is discussed and age-appropriate activities linked: free printable puzzles, word searches, study sheets, crafts, Bible verses, games and activities. 
* ABCatholic has a free printable Catholic alphabet coloring book with images of saints, Bible stories and sacraments.  
* Waltzing Matilda features handmade free printable Catholic saints coloring pages. The blog moderator has drawn images for sacraments and liturgical use also. 
* Paper Dali is another mom blog with homemade free printable saints coloring pages. Some are free and some must be purchased.free her Etsy shop. Scroll around for the freebies. All are very attractive and well worth the nominal fee. 
* Catholic Icing offers handmade All Saints' Day printables and crafts. Read through the blog posts and sidebar menu for crafts, games and printables. 

* JClub has free printable Bible and Catholic saints coloring pages. 

* EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) Kids offers free mass readings, prayer activities, crafts and coloring pages for children. Users must create a free account with user name and password. 

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans, Activities

Here are free printable Holy Week activities and Catholic Easter printables. Free printables includes coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, games, crafts, cut and paste activities and much more. There are liturgical resources: prayers, Bible mass readings, reflections, devotions, Lenten lessons on sacrifice, almsgiving, fasting, corporal and spiritual works mercy. There are so many activities in this resource guide, that you will probably not be able to finish these Holy Week activities during Lent or even Eastertide.
Catholic Mom has a free printable Lenten lessons and Holy Week activities in a resource guide. Bookmark Catholic Mom for loads of Catholic printables. Here's a free printable Journey to Pascha workbooks for kids covering the Passion, death, resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Childrens Ministry has free Holy Week activities, craft projects, games, Lenten lessons, family activities and Bible devotions. This link has nearly 100 free printable Bible word searches from Catholic mass reading in the lectionary. These word searches are challenging, interactive and fun! These free printables would make excellent follow up to the mass readings. Here is a very complicated and challenging printable Catholic Easter crossword puzzle. This link has free printable Catholic Easter games and puzzles.

Apples 4 the Teacher has three pages of free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages. Each link has ten free printables for a total of thirty Easter and Holy Week activities. Use these coloring pages for Lenten lessons. Color Jesus, the cross, the tomb, the Eucharist, palms, Bible story pictures and more. DL-TK has free printable Catholic Easter games, Lenten lessons, memory cards, craft projects, coloring pages and word games for Holy Week activities. And for the best online resource in free printable Catholic coloring pages, visit St. John the Baptist Religious Ed. You can print Catholic Easter coloring pages of Stations of the Cross (way of sorrows), Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, Bible stories of Easter, Catholic saints and loads more printables. 

Free Printable St. Patricks Day Lessons, Games and Activities

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17. Many people think the holiday is about green beer, shamrocks and leprechauns. But that's just commercial hype. The real Saint Patrick was a Catholic Roman Britain taken as a slave by Irish raiders. Patrick later returned as a missionary to convert Druidic Ireland. Here are St. Patrick's Day lesson plans, crafts and activities to explore the saint behind the legend and the religious beyond the secular.

Read the story of Saint Patrick on Incredible Art. Then scroll down for free printable St. Patrick's Day activities. Some are secular. Homegrown Catholics is a blog with religious Saint Patrick printables. Lesson Plans Page has free printable lesson plans on Saint Patrick and Irish heritage activities. Catholic Icing is a blog with all Christian St. Patrick's Day activities to print. Catholic Mom hasSaint Patrick lesson plans that are religious.

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

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

Free Printable Valentines Day Lesson Plans

Valentine's Day, celebrate Feb. 14, usually represents a party, candy and cards for children, So how about some free printable Valentine's Day coloring pages, cut and paste, games, lessons, puzzles and activities? Here are some websites to check out for free Valentine's Day printables. Use in school or homeschool. Tie in with your regular curriculum.

Teaching Heart is a one stop site in itself. You'll free printable Valentine puzzles, games, crypto-grams, candy heart spelling pages, valentine grammar, valentine counting, math, sorting, matching, concentration and bingo, valentine lined writing paper, comprehension, printable booklets, file folder games, puzzles connect-the-dots and so much more. Teaching Heart is always adding more as well, so be sure to explore this link.

Coloring Book Fun is a comprehensive source of coloring pages indexed and cross-referenced for ease of use. There are 100s of links for coloring pages on favorite characters like Hello Kitty, Scooby Doo, and lots more. Just about any character that your students or children may like is listed here. There are links to just about any holiday or event that you might want in a separate list as well. There is no site fee and most of the pages appear directly from their icons without the use of Adobe or PDF. We explored this link recently when our youngest was home for a week with bronchitis.

Disney Family has gobs of free valentine printables. this website features really nice images of the crafts and well-detailed instructions. Look for free prinable Disney character crafts: Frozen, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Pixar--print crafts of all your favorites. You'll love the learning-themed Valentine's Day activities as much as the cute crafts.

Check out these links for all your valentine fun and learning!

Free Printable Chinese New Year Lesson Plans, Crafts

Chinese New Year falls at a different time each year on the Western calendar. In the 12-year Chinese zodiac, a different spirit animal is honored as are people born under that animal sign (for example, in 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956 and on back through the multiples of 12). 

To celebrate, greet each other 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 cuteChinese 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 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. 

Free Printable Advent Crafts, Christmas Activities

Are you looking for religious Bible Christmas crafts for children to make during Advent? You'll want these free printable nativity scenes. Children can color Bible characters and assemble an Advent manger scene. Here's a free printable Bible Christmas manger scene with cut and paste coloring pages to put on paper towel tubes. Catholic Icing has eight coloring pages that you can click and print directly from her blog. Each page features Mary and Joseph, donkey, angel, wisemen, shepherds, Baby Jesus, camels. Download the set from the website.

Hart of the Mountain has free printable nativity scenes with Bible character finger puppets. Activity Village offers free printable Bible Christmas nativity scenes that kids can color, cut out and assemble. Make a shoebox diorama stable. Scroll down for more manger scene crafts including a nativity mobile. words cards, and games.

Prudent Baby is a blog with a complete set of free Advent manger scene printables. Cute Bible characters people these nativity scenes. Love to Know has free printouts of Bible Christmas nativity scenes to color, cut and paste and assemble. Scrapbook Scrapbook has a darling free printable Advent manger scene with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, angels, animals, wisemen and shepherds. There's even a printable stable and manger.

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 Veterans Day, Armistice Day Lessons

Veterans Day is celebrated November 11. It's also called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day. We honor veterans, military and those who've died. We remember World War One, which truce was called on November 11, 1918. Here are free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. Images include American military, patriotic themes and WWI history.

Edupics has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages. There are also over 100 military pictures to print and color. There are images of soldiers, weapons, vehicles, sailors, uniforms and insignia. Pictures are realistic and detailed. They cover wars from different countries and times in history. There are sections on printable WWI and WWII coloring pages.

Apples 4 the Teacher has several sections with printable coloring pages for holidays. Veterans Day coloring pages are linked here. Here's the site's free printable Social Studies lesson plans page. There are printable coloring pages of flags, presidents, famous people, American symbols and history.

Raising Our Kids has a really nice assortment of free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. These could be used to make homemade cards for American national patriotic holidays like 4th of July and Memorial Day, too.

Coloring Book Fun has a free printable patriotic themed coloring pages. These simple images would make good preschool holiday activities. Little ones can color them for greeting cards to give to senior citizens.

DL-TK has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages and crafts. There are also mini booklets to use as coloring books. There are Veterans Day word searches and puzzles and poppy crafts. Coloring.ws has more Veterans Day coloring pages to print free.

Here are free printable GI Joe coloring pages from Educational Coloring Pages. 101 Coloring Pages has more GI Joe coloring pages to print free. Print a coloring book for kids to teach them what Veterans Day is and why we celebrate it.

Free Printable Nobel Prize Lesson Plans

Subbing in an economics classroom, I was left without lesson plans. I checked online for emergency and discovered that Nobel Foundation has free printable high school lessons and games on economics, as well as educational activities in all the Nobel Prize categories--medicine, science, physics, literature and humanitarian efforts. Here are free printable lesson plans based on the work of Nobel Prize winners.

The Nobel Prize crosses every geographic, political, social and racial boundary in the world. Winners of the prize called 'Laureates', hail from all over the globe. Past winners include Pablo Neruda, Pearl Buck, Desmond Tutu, Marconi, Enrico Fermi, William Golding, John Steinbeck, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Barack Obama, Elie Weisel, Mother Theresa, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and many others.

Free Printable 3D Paper Building and Vehicle Models

Our trip around the world begins at Activity Village has free printable coloring pages of famous landmarks, famous buildings of the world and sights to see in different countries. In London, England, get free printable coloring pages of the London Eye, London Bridge, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, a Beefeater, Big Ben, a London cab a double-decker bus and more. Then go around the world to nearby Scotland and Wales.

Your free printable famous buildings around the world tour at Activity Village continues to France, Brazil, Egypt, India, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Print the Loch Ness monster, Eiffel Tower, Table Mountain, Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer statue (to name a few famous landmarks). Print world maps showing national products, landmarks and sights to see.

Now for free printable 3D models of famous buildings to print--hang onto your hats because Paper Toys has free printable 3D paper models galore. Then when you thought you'd seen all the cool 3D paper models of buildings you could want, hit this site for more free printable 3D paper models of famous buildings. Get free printable paper models of castles, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a haunted house, a medieval manor house, plus really cool 3D paper models of artifacts, vehicles, ancient wonders of the world 

Free Printable All Saints Day Lessons and Activities

Free Printable Catholic Saints Coloring Pages November 1 marks the Catholic holy day of All Saint's, making October 31 All Hallow's Eve (or Halloween). Use these free printable activities to explore Catholic saints, holy days and All Saint's Day and Halloween. read more

Free Printable 'Dia de los Muertos' (Day of the Dead) Activities

El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, commemorates the lives of beloved dead. Day of the Dead is the Latino version of Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day, November 1 and 2. Dia de los Muertos traditions include creating family altars to honor the dead, visiting loved ones' graves and having picnics at the cemetery to be near the departed. Human skulls and skeletons are integral Dia de los Muertos symbols. Items are designed to look like skulls: candles, food and sugar skulls. People paint their faces to represent a skull (called a calavera). Some Halloween traditions developed from Day of the Dead but unlike Halloween, Day of the Dead isn't about scaring people. It's a religious holiday, culminating the Catholic holy days with pre-Columbian Aztec, Mixtec, Olmec and Toltec rituals of Mexico. If you need free printable Day of the Dead lesson plans to teach students about this popular cultural holiday, read on. Use for homeschooled, public and parochial schooled kids.

Tiki Chris at Flickr has designed awesome free printable skull patterns from one basic skull template. Print these in black and white for students to color. Or print the basic skull template and have a calavera skull decorating contest! This would make an excellent art or social studies project. Using one basic pattern, students can exhibit their creativity in design. Kids will love making connections with this beautiful heritage art from Mexico.

QuestConnect.org has free printable Dia de los Muertos lesson plans and activities to thoroughly explore the Day of the Dead. Make papel picado banners, sugar skulls and skeleton crafts. Kids can learn the geography and culture of Mexico with an Oaxaca puzzle. Arty Ness has free printable Day of the Dead coloring pages, art projects, crafts with skeletons and skulls and more. Mr. Donn has a plethora of free printable Dia de Los Muertos lesson plans and activities. Use these for history, culture, geography and social studies lesson plans for middle school age kids.

Enchanted Learning has free Day of the Dead lesson plans to print. A-Z Central has a whole website devoted to Dia de los Muertos activities. Print and make crafts. Listen to music. Learn about the culture of Mexico. Play games. Learn to make recipes and foods from Mexico. National Geographic has vocabulary lessons on Day of the Dead. There's an awesome picture gallery.

Many parents, particularly Christian parents, don't celebrate Halloween. But don't mistake Day of the Dead skull for Halloween and ignore this rich, cultural festival. And don't let the skulls and skeletons freak you out. They show honor to the dead, not ghoulish fascination with death. These are as reverently handled as the nativity scenes at Christmas. And educators, if you teach ESL, please consider hosting a Day of the Dead party for students. It's good to learn about each other's cultures plus it makes Hispanic students feel more at home

Free Printable Rosh Hashanah Activities

Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year and is celebrated on September 13-15, 2015 on the western calendar. Falling in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, Rosh HaShanah, a high holy day, starts the Days of Awe. This is a time of repentance and it culminates in Yom Kippur, the high holy Day of Atonement. Here are free printable activities Rosh HaShanah activities and Jewish New Year lesson plans and crafts. Rosh HaShanah remembers when Moses led the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt and is similar in sacredness to Catholic Christian Easter. Rosh HaShanah symbols include the shofar horn, apples and honey. Use Rosh HaShanah printables to explore and celebrate the Jewish New Year.

Torah Tots is a cute interactive website for Jewish children to learn about their faith. Visit this link for free printable Rosh Hashanah activities, games, coloring pages, lessons, crafts and puzzles to celebrate. A Kid's Heart details the celebration of Rosh HaShanah its place in the Jewish calendar. You'll find information, history and Biblical references to the feast of Rosh HaShanah, as well as other holidays that Jesus celebrated or observed. Make free printable Rosh HaShanah greeting cards to send to Jewish friends and family. Print free Rosh Hashanah coloring pages, puzzles and activities featuring different parts of the Torah story.

Chabad has a wealth of free Rosh HaShanah printables, lessons and crafts. There are prayers, puzzles, crosswords, party games, apples and honey activities, videos, recipes and family worship ideas. The Toymaker has created free printable Rosh Hashanah crafts. Print paper cut and paste crafts to make at home. There is an apple cut-and-fold fold box, a Rosh HaShanah greeting card to print and send and an apple decoration craft. PapaJan has nearly one hundred free printable Bible coloring pages from the old and new testaments. The old testament stories cover Hebrew traditions and stories. Print Jewish coloring pages of baby Moses, Aaron and Moses in front of Pharaoh, Moses and the Burning Bush and Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. DL-TK has free printable Jewish activities for young children on various holy days. The Hebrew Rosh HaShanah greeting is "L'shana tovah tikatev v'etahetem." It means "May You be Inscribed and Sealed for a Good Year!"

Free Printable 3D Model Circus Carousel, Theater

Looking for a way to spice up literature or history lessons?  Here's a complete free printable vintage cirque (circus) carousel merry-go-round and a complete regency miniature theater with characters for the play Cinderella. These are available from the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

This link will take you to the free printable French circus carousel with sweet tiny little vintage toys circus performers and horses. The miniature circus carousel has lovely French script. The instructions are in French, but you will easily see how to cut and paste and then assemble your vintage carousel.  There are four pages for the free printable circus carousel.

This link takes you to a complete free printable miniature theater set for Cinderella. You will print in black and white and then color the entire miniature theater, characters, costumes and set. This document is 22 pages long. The miniature theater includes free printable stage with supports.  There are also several pages of scenery backdrops and characters dressed in costumes they wear for each scene of the play. Label each character's name, acts and scene numbers he appears in on the back lightly with pencil. That way you know how to arrange and move characters. The play is set in Regency France; Cinderella costumes are designed and set is furnished thus.