Free printable Cinco de Mayo activities, Mexican crafts, games, lesson plans

Cinco de Mayo, or Fifth of May, celebrates the victory of the smaller Mexican army over the mighty French juggernaut, in the Battle of Puebla, 1862. Cinco de Mayo is not the Mexican Independence Day, but many Latino Americans celebrate it. Here are free printable Cinco de Mayo coloring pages and Mexican crafts

Apples 4 the Teacher offers free printable Cinco de Mayo coloring activities, games, crafts, puzzles and lesson plans to explore Mexican geography, culture and history.

Preschool Coloring Book has free printable Cinco de Mayo coloring pages of a sombrero, pinata, serape and fiesta.

Kiddy House provides free Cinco de Mayo coloring printables linked on from the Cinco de Mayo homepage. Color Mexican children in traditional costumes, maps and flag of Mexico, plus fiesta coloring pages.

Surf Net Kids has free printable Cinco de Mayo coloring pages, including some whimsical chili peppers in sombreros as well as a Mexican couple in ceremonial and traditional dress.

DL-TK is your one-stop source for free printable Cinco de Mayo crafts, coloring pages, games, Mexican history and social studies lessons, booklets and more. Create a complete classroom or homeschool unit to explore Cinco de Mayo and Mexican history and traditions. Here's the page onMexico coloring pages, lesson plans and activities. Color some for Cinco de Mayo greeting cards and party decorations.

About Family Crafts lists a gajillion free Cinco de Mayo printables including Mexican games, crafts, puzzles, greeting cards and more.

Free printable archaeology lessons: Fossils, caves, bats, geology, paleontology

Archaeology is one of the most fascinating branches of science and caves are one of nature's most alluring geological landforms to explore. Caves are a separate biome all their own. They've been used as habitats by animals and people. Bats are cave dwellers and dinosaurs dwelt in caves. Mystics have sought divine enlightenment living as hermits in caves. Ancient people left hieroglyphics on walls of caves, like those at Lascaux, France. Caves yield up a treasure trove of fossils and teach valuable lessons in archaeology and paleontology. Teachers and homeschool families, if you're planning a unit on caves (and you really should) 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.

Lascaux Culture has interactive lesson plans on Lascaux cave drawings. Explore paleontology and archaeology with the prehistoric paintings, There are cave maps, images, videos and timelines. The website has interpretive information detailing the images, their purpose and their significance. You can access the site in several languages including English, but the educational "resources" link is available only in French.

Easy Fun School has free cave diorama lesson plan. The diorama is easy to make and uses cheap, household materials.has free printable animal habitat coloring pages. Students can research which animals live or hibernate in caves. This site has other free printable habitats dioramas. Crayola offers a free craft template to show interior cave rock formations.

Cave stalactites grow downward from the ceiling. The word comes from the Greek "to drip" (stalactites resemble icicles). Stalagmites grow up from the cave floor and look like upside down icicles. In Greek, the word means "trickling." Use these activities to demonstrate how stalactites and stalagmites grow. Crystal Cave in Wisconsin offers tours and family activities to explore this famous cave. Here are free printable geology lesson plans on archaeology, paleontology, bats, and fossils.

Free printable biology science activities: Botany, flowers, plant biology

Biology science activities naturally focus on living things. Teach students about botany and plant biology in spring science activities. As students watch nature awakening all around, they observe plant biology and plant structure--seeds, roots, stems, buds, leaves, flowers and fruit--first hand. Teach kids about botany for Earth Month in April. In May and June, students can explore flowers and more mature plant structure. Here are links and websites with hundreds of free printable spring science activities on botany, plants, trees, plant biology and flowers. Get free printable spring science coloring pages, worksheets, charts and diagrams.

The Teacher's Corner has free printable biology science activities and botany lesson plans. Plants and trees cover enormous area to study that you will want to check out these websites and see which have materials specific to what you need. Activities cover edible plants, medicinal plants, toxic and unsafe plants, plant biology, finding and naming plants native to your area, biomes and much more. Visit Enchanted Learning's science homepage for general biology, spring science activities and free printable lesson plans on trees, plants, botany and plant biology.

Lesson Plans Central has free printable science lesson plans and spring science activities. Instead of linking to the page on plants, visit the general science activities page for more extended spring science lesson plans. Edupics is always a superior internet resource for free printable realistic coloring pages. Edupics has many coloring pages of trees, plants and botany coloring pages for spring science. Primary Games has lots of free printable flowers and plants coloring pages. Biology Junction has gobs more free printable plant biology lessons and general biology activities.

Free printable Math Curse lesson plans, Science Verse learning activities

Here are some free lesson plans based on Science Verse and Math Curse by Jon Scieszka.

Read Write Think has free printable Math Curse lesson plans. Then for Earth Day, that same site has free printable Science Verse learning activities on earth science. Here are more free printable Math Curse lesson plans from The Teacher's Corner. Ethemes has other free printable lesson plansfrom Math Curse. Global Classroom has free Math Curse learning activities too. Check out this site for free printable Science Verse lesson plans. Here's a packet of free printable Science Verse learning activities. Probably the best lesson plans on both books are to have children write their own math and science verses or learning activities. Use Science Verse as poem templates or poetry frames. Use the learning activities in Math Curse to create your own math story problems.

Free printable Pi Day activities, Sir Cumference geometry, math lesson plans

Children's literature author Cindy Neuschwander, with illustrator Wayne Geehan has written a math adventure series that is perfect for Pi Day on March 14. In the books, Sir Cumference, Lady Di of Ameter and their son Radius solve math problems, geometry puzzles and medieval mysteries. The name puns are only the beginning of the fun. Children learn about geometry, measurement, counting, algebra, formulas and math lesson plans in charming medieval fairy tales. The Sir Cumference books include:

--Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (A Math Adventure) (1997) Lady Di of Ameter and her son Radius help Sir Cumference figure out the most user-friendly shape for the table to seat his knights for their meetings. Great exploratory book for understanding shapes, angles and geometry.

--Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (A Math Adventure) (1999) It's Radius and Lady Di of Ameter off to the rescue again to save Sir Cumference who has been eaten by the Dragon of Pi. By visiting the cooks in the kitchen Radius learns how the Greek term Pi works in geometry and uses it to solve this math riddle. Use this one for Pi Day!

--Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland (A Math Adventure) (2001) Radius goes off on a quest with Sir D'Grees to battle a Pair of Lells (dragons). In clever geometrical exploits, they teach math lesson plans on angles and measurement.

--Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone (A Math Adventure) (2003) Again brave Radius, assisted by his friend Vertex learn about geometric solids and how to pull out the famous sword Edgecaliber from the cone. There are solid math lesson plans in this fun adventure.

--Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter (A Math Adventure) (2006) Radius must help his cousin Per face down dragons and learn about geometry in a game called Inners and Edges, so that Per can rescue her kingdom and become Per of Immeter. Lady Di of Ameter and Sir Cumference lend a hand.

--Sir Cumference and All the Kings Tens (A Math Adventure) (2009) Sir Cumference and his Lady Di of Ameter discover that when planning a birthday party for the King that using a base 10 counting system (or metric system) is the only way to count this growing crowd of guests.

Here are some free printable math lesson plans based on Cindy Neuschwander books. Teacher Vision has free printable Sir Cumference math lesson plans for Pi Day. Check Education World for a complete unit of free printable Pi Day activities, geometry worksheets and math lesson plans from Sir Cumference geometry books. Then, head over to lesson plans for a bunch of free printable Sir Cumference geometry worksheets. Lesson Planet has many free printable geometry worksheetsthat are specific to Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi for Pi Day.