Holocaust Remembrance Day activities to commemorate Yom Hashoah January 27

 January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day says the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. On this day, Allied forces in WWII liberated the Jewish concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. We've heard of the 6 million Jewish souls perished in these death camps. But countless others died including Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), Slavs, Poles, those with disabilities, gay and lesbian and anyone deemed by Nazis to be inferior.  

As the world mourns, it's time also for ora et labora--prayer and work--to end antisemitism, bigotry, discrimination and persecution. How? By looking to children, the hope for the future. Use these activities in your classroom, homeschool, worship group or family, to raise awareness, educate and inform on Holocaust (Shoah). 

Visit a Holocaust museum. Yad Vashem (Jerusalem), one of the Martyrdom Museums at preserved concentration camps, USHMM in Washington DC., the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich. Yad Vashem offers many virtual tours and activities. Visit if just digitally, the Hall of Names. I was heartbroken to learn that as of 2023, only about half of the Jews murdered had been traced and those were only thanks massive research and outreach work on the part of Yad Vashem.

Use Holocaust lesson plans to teach about pogroms, Hitler's Final Solution, Goebels' anti-Semitic propaganda campaign, concentration camps, ghettos, ethnic cleansing and atrocities wreaked on the Jews, Roma (Romani), Sinti, Slavs, Poles, Catholics, gay and lesbian and others deemed "undesirable by Hitler and the Nazi party. 

Share stories. Most children probably didn't know anyone who was in the concentration camps. But they can write about how they would feel if it happened to them. Use Torah Tots Holocaust remembrance page for younger children. Evaluate the maturity of children. 

Raise awareness. Talk about why a Holocaust Memorial was defaced. Observe Yom Hashoah, Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day in April. Download free printable Holocaust posters or these printables for discussion. Use as writing prompts and story starters. 

Design Holocaust Memorial Posters. Encourage students to design posters or infographics to commemorate the lives lost. Write eulogy poems to honor the dead. Or students might compose a song to sing for January 27. 

Read books and watch movies on the Shoah or Holocaust: The Diary of Anne Frank, Life is Beautiful, The Hiding Place, Schindler's List, Number the Stars, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Night, The Book Thief, I am David, Sarah's Key, Woman of Gold. There is a documentary Final Account made of interviews with Germans who had lived during these times. It is shocking and disturbing and I believe should be viewed by all teens and adults. Use discretion. Amazon Prime has an extensive collection of Holocaust related films and documentaries and Yad Vashem's Youtube channel features stories of Shoah survivors. 

Visit a cemetery. Look for a Star of David to denote a Jewish grave. Place a rock ( a Hebrew memorial). Leave flowers on any grave if you can't find a Jewish one. A tribute to one is a tribute to all. Or plant a tree as a sign of life.

Free printable Year of the Rabbit CNY activities with a Chinese New Year kids book list

 

Chinese New Year begins January 22, 2023 and this year,  it's the Year of the Rabbit. Here are Chinese New Year books for kids about China, Chinese culture and bunnies! Included are free printable bunny crafts for Year of the Rabbit.

The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac (Ling and Eric Lee)

Buddha Stories (Demi): Buddhist and oriental fables are generally allegorical. Demi's stories are translations of Buddhist wisdom. Children can learn important truths from the follies of the animals in these stories. Buddhism is the largest religion in China. 

Zen Shorts and Zen Ties (Jon Muth): Gentleness is the key construct in Buddhism. Stillwater the Panda and his Haiku speaking nephew Koo, teach three children of the wisdom of the orient is these endearing tales.

Three Samurai Cats (Eric A. Kimmel and Mordicai Gerstein) Three brave warrior cats learn the art of humility and patience from an aged Samurai cat.

The Story about Ping (Margorie Flack, Kurt Weise, 1933) Ping is an adorable, nosy little yellow duck who lives with his family of ducks and people aboard a Chinese junque on the Yangtze River. Children will delight in Ping's mischief and subsequent close call with the soup pot. Kurt Weise's delicate pictures evoke the exotic and the quaint in life on the Yellow River.

Tikki Tikki Tembo (Arlene Mosel, Blair Lent) The curious naming of children in Chinese culture almost causes grief in the village when little Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo falls into the well. Almost as much fun to read as it is to hear, this is a must read for young children.

The Five Chinese Brothers (Claire Huchet Bishop, Kurt Wiese) There is a famous legend retold in many cultures about five brothers who all look alike, but each have a unique power. The fidelity of the brothers is called upon to rescue one brother from death by the combined efforts of their special talents. This is the Chinese version of the tale.

The Funny Little Woman (Arlene Mosel, Blair Lent) This is a kind of Chinese Little Gingerbread Man story with much silliness, chasing and three wicked Oni to outwit. It won the Caldecott Medal for children's literature illustrations. This story will enchant young children.

Here are free printable activities from kids books about rabbits and bunnies featuring favorites like the Easter bunny, Disney's HOP, Peter Rabbit, the Velveteen Rabbit and Peter Cottontail. There are lots of free printable vintage rabbits images too. 

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! 

Chinese New Year Party planner with crafts, books, activities and learning centers

 The Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese New Year lunar calendar begins on January 22, 2023. Ring in the Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, with a party planner for your classroom, home-school group, scout troop or 4-H club. This Spring Festival party planner is perfect for any children's venue that celebrates cultural diversity. In the long dark days of January, a cultural celebration can spark much-needed light and joy. 

The Lunar New Year party planner includes the elements of a good lesson plan as well as a good party. Use learning centers for party planner activities. Divide students into groups and rotate among learning centers, giving equal time for each group at each center. Do the math for how many students per group and how long to give each group based upon the logistics of your situation. If you do the Spring Festival party planner as a whole group, do these activities in order. It is important with any children's group activity to vary the routine. Intersperse quiet and active, listening and doing activities. 

Chinese New Year touch table. Set out hands-on materials children can explore independently. This is a good activity for young, easily-bored or special needs students or to use as a filler between activities. Leave touch table up throughout the event. Lunar New Year touch table items include artifacts from China, Chinese Zodiac placemats, jade figures, pieces of ivory, porcelain, bamboo, tea sets, chopsticks, photos, garments, silk, fans, toy animals from China, stuffed animals from the zodiac (monkey, rat, pig, goat, tiger, dragon, dog, horse, rooster, snake, ox and rabbit). 

Spring Festival smell and taste table. Set out taste test samples of Chinese New Year foods. bok choy, tea, almond cookies, coconut macaroons, fried dumplings (potstickers), monkey bread (for Year of the Monkey), bunny food (carrots, lettuce and salad), egg foo yung, sushi, cellophane noodles, ramen noodles, cherries, fish, egg rolls, rice crackers, fortune cookies and candy gold coins (good fortune is the theme!) Check the international section of your local grocery store. Provide herbs in their raw state for kids to smell: ginger root, lemongrass, wasabi, saffron, turmeric, garlic. 

Chinese New Year sound table. Play recordings of oriental music in the background. Show Youtube videos of different dance, theater, art and music performances. Make simple Chinese style musical . Make drums from oatmeal containers and shakers from pill bottles and dried popcorn. Show children how to make a guitar from a Kleenex box with rubber bands stretched over the opening. Provide materials to decorate. 

Lunar New Year stories. This is the time for a quiet activity--children of all ages, even teenagers, enjoy story-telling. Dress in costume, add a few props and use different voices for different characters, you will have a spell-bound audience. If you are not comfortable reading aloud, use a story CD. Share the Chinese Zodiac story, to explain why the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and boar are so important. Provide animal masks, puppets or costumes so kid can act out story as a skit. Distribute musical instruments for children to play when each animal is mentioned. Or use a series of masks or puppets as you read the story. 

See this blog post for kids books, printables, crafts and activities on Chinese New Year. 

Chinese New year arts and crafts. The Spring Festival includes a Lantern Festival. Make a simple lantern by folding an 8 x 11 sheet of brightly colored construction paper in half lengthwise. Cut nine slits through the fold beginning one inch from each edge. The slits should be about 2-3 inches long. Open the paper. Bring the edges together widthwise and staple. The fold will open outward and the slits will form openings in the lantern. Decorate by stapling colored curled ribbon to the bottom. Here are free printable Chinese New Year crafts for children. 

Lunar New Year games: Form a dragon by making a line of children. Place hands on shoulders and follow the leader. Do whatever she does. Take turns being the leader. For older children, blindfold them. It will be anew experience to follow just felling what the person ahead is doing. Play hop monkey like leap frog. Or play Good Monkey, Naughty Monkey (like red light, green light). Sing Little Bunny Foo Foo and do the bunny hop. 

End the spring festival party with Chinese fireworks!

Health lesson plans to prevent juvenile obesity without mentioning weight loss

Increasing juvenile obesity is the elephant in the living room that everyone sees and no one want to address. More and more children are overweight and headed toward obesity. But discussing it or even being concerned about overweight kids is often regarded as fat-shaming or bullying. Here are lesson plans to prevent and treat childhood obesity without ever mentioning weight loss. 

Childhood obesity is tricky to deal with for two reasons. First, in puberty, many tweens get heavier and may even be called overweight by a doctor. But after puberty they slim down. This was my experience. Weight loss diets and calorie restricting may actually be dangerous. Calorie restricting such as the 1000 calorie diet I was put on at age 8, deprived me of nutrients needed for a growing body. It also caused eating disorder issues. Also, the extra weight is necessary for health after we lose weight in puberty. 

What is chronic obesity and what is overweight that will right itself after puberty? There are several factors. Is the entire family overweight? Is the child active or sedentary? How old is the child? A three-year old with obesity is more at risk than, say, a normal weight child who becomes overweight as a tween, as I did. This overweight period is usually temporary. And some kids are just bigger than others. 

Another issue is that overemphasis on weight loss can be a form of fat-shaming and bullying. It can also lead to eating disorders, low self esteem, anxiety and depression.  But yet, children with chronic obesity that will not disappear in puberty, are at risk of many other health problems including diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension and other issues. Movement and exercise are more difficult. 

So how to prevent or treat juvenile obesity without discussing weight loss? 

1) Food lesson plans aimed at healthy eating. Teach the food pyramid and food groups, using these free printable lesson plans.  Nutriton.gov has many free nutrition printables including recipes, My Plate activities, coloring pages, food diaries and lesson planners. Here are free printable food journals and nutrition trackers. 

2) Engage students in physical activities and active learning as much as possible. Use these free printable DEAM (Drop Everything and Move) activities. DEAM is like DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), which intersperses the school day with unplanned exercise or reading activities. I especially like DEAM because they are random surprise fun activities that get kids out of desks and moving. These might include dancing, calisthenics or active games.

3) Go off screen and hands-on. Most children spend more time watching than doing: TV, online on phones, computers and video game systems. I'm a Shipt shopper and its a sad commentary that when I drive thru neighborhoods in the summer, I see very few children out playing but TVs on or kids playing on phones. Utilize these free printable lesson plans on screen time dangers. Kids Health offers printables and resources to help kids understand why too much inactivity is harmful and how to monitor their screen time. 

4) Provide active activities in lieu of sedentary seat work and workbooks. Montessori type learning centers get kids off the seat and actively learning. Check out this blog for a gajillion learning center activities for science, math, reading, writing, social studies and more. Here are fitness activities to keep kids actively engaged. 

Will these activities end childhood obesity? Not alone. But with support, guidance, education and care, kids can learn to be their  healthiest selves. 

Nature science detective kit for cool back to school activities with free printables

Looking for cool back to school activities? Here are nature science lesson plans to make nature detective kits to explore wildlife science concepts. Free printables included. Kids will love playing nature CSI investigators! Homeschooling parents will love these inexpensive, hands-on science lesson plans. 

To make nature science detective kits, you will need one of each of these items per student:

--large gallon size zipper bag or cheap carry-all bag to store supplies 

--plastic magnifying glass (available in bulk at Great Party, Dollar Tree or Oriental Trading)

--cheap one-subject notebook 

--pocket folder 

--nitrol disposable gloves (latex free) 

--tweezers or cotton swabs (both would be useful, but use cotton swabs to save money) 

--3 or 4 specimen bags (snack size Ziploc) 

--sheet of label stickers --pen and pencil 

-- roll of invisible Scotch tape 

--several pieces of yarn or string 

--box of crayons or colored pencils 

--measuring tape (here's a free printable measuring tape) 

How to Use Nature Detective Kits: Make kit assembly part of  the lesson. Set out supplies in stations and give students gallon zipper bag and supplies list. This provides experience in counting, sorting and organizing. 

Using stickers, kids label notebook: Investigator (name)____________ or Detective (name)____________. Label bags: Exhibit A, B, C or Evidence. As evidence is collected, data and date should be added. For example: "beetle exoskeleton 9-3-2022" 

Go on nature investigation hunts around your neighborhood, school playground or camp. Assign students different items to investigate, native to your area. Students should not keep living specimens, but they might bring a bug box to temporarily house and examine a living critter. Look for evidence of living creatures: bug carcasses, exoskeletons, fallen leaves, feathers, owl pellets, seed pods, rocks, fallen nest, bits of animal fur, bark samples, plants, flowers and rocks. 

Here are free printable animal tracking guides and footprints. Use these as coloring pages also. 

Here's another free printable animal tracking guide. 

Here are free printable animal coloring pages and here's another set of animal printables and coloring pages. 

Have students draw living creatures, homes and habitats: spider's web, bird's nest, wasp's nest, rabbit hole, ant hill, scat (animal droppings). Students should record when and where they observed it. Students shouldn't touch but may observe scat(animal droppings) or dead animal remains. In class, have children discuss and hypothesize on findings at their level of reasoning. Students might create a natural history museum displaying what they have found. Students can act as young docent guides, explaining discoveries to visitors. This makes a superb activity for parent-teacher conferences, which come early in the year before teachers have had time to collect much student work. It's ideal for summer camp, too