Free Printable Preschool Valentines Day Lesson Plans

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, Pinterest, email, and blogs overflow with valentine crafts. Alas, many are also costly. So, don't pay. Here are free printable preschool valentine worksheets, games, crafts, learning activities and lesson plans. Fru-gals and fru-guys, use these for Valentine's Day fun.

Over the Big Moon is a mom-blog with 31 pages of free printable preschool Valentine's Day worksheets. They've added an extension pack with even more free printable preschool Valentine lesson plans for children. These kits are perfect for little ones ages 30 months to six. The activities are mostly for pre-readers and emergent readers. All the activities have a valentine theme.

To practice literacy and writing skills, there are letter tracing sheets focusing on the letter "V", vocabulary cards, phonics activities, word and sound matching and shadow letter tracing activities.

For early math skills reinforcement, there are valentine-themed counting worksheets, sorting activities, pattern extensions and sequencing games. There are several activities to develop visual acuity and eye hand coordination, including spot-the-difference games, coloring pages and four-piece puzzles. There are also several pages of cutting lines in different patterns to help children practice scissor skills.

The packets are free to print from the Over the Big Moon website. Or here's an alternate website with the same valentine printables. Directions are available. Valentine graphics could be reused as DIY valentines. Have children cut out pictures and glue on construction paper hearts.

For preschool classroom use, print activities in the craft center. Or put printed activities in a folder. Use as homework or vacation activities. Give as Valentine's Day gifts. Roll in recycled paper towel tube. Add a cute valentine pencil, a few crayons, scissors and glue stick. Wrap in recycled paper that children have decorated and tie the ends. Use for Valentine party favors. Senior citizens may enjoy these activities too,

Free Printable Green Environmental Science Earth Day Lesson Plans

There are many reasons to celebrate April. April bids farewell to winter and ushers in spring. Easter and Earth Month are celebrated in April. April 22 is the official Earth Day. Here are environmental science worksheets and lesson plans to explore this "green" month of April.

Maine.gov has a free printable earth science activities. There lessons on different environmental features. Teach them as parts of the body.

Rocks (igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary). Rocks are the bones of our planet.

Minerals (quartz, silica sand, crystals, MOS Hardness Scale, cleavage, color, mineral identification). Minerals are earth's tendons.

Water (ground water, aquifers, watershed, water cycle, precipitation, percolation, wetlands, acid rain, bodies of water, oceanography, polar ice caps). Water is our earth's lifeblood.

Soil (structure, layers, decomposition, fossils, fossil fuels, composting). Soil is the muscular system.

Geophysics (geology, plate tectonics, magnets, earthquakes, volcanoes, the Ring of Fire, thermodynamics, geysers). Geophysics is the endocrine system. Given the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan, these lessons are even more vital and significant.

Ecology (land use, deforestation, slash and burn farming, fallow periods, water testing, soil evaluation). Think of ecology like health. Caring for the earth is like caring for our bodies. What we put into or do to our bodies heal and sustains or hurts and destroys. Likewise, what we do to our earth either helps or harms it. Environmental groups are like the earth's physicians.

This booklet provides hands-on activities, games, simulations, map reading exercises, field trips, treasure and scavenger hunts, experiments and extensions for social studies, reading and math. It gives interactive practice applications for Point-Slope formula (y=mx+b). That's helpful for S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, math) connections. In keeping with earth month, don't waste paper printing. Use recycled paper or scraps from your recycling bin. Print with biodegradable ink.

For more printable science lessons, visit my blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Free Lesson Plans 4U and Science Experiments and Chemistry Lessons.

Free Printable Native American Indian Totem Pole Designs and Patterns

When I was six my family moved to Haines, Alaska. We lived with a clan of the Tlinget Native American Indians. Autumn and back to school are great times to explore Native American Indian culture. Here are free printable totem pole design templates.

CONTENT:
When I was six, my father, mother and I moved to Haines, Alaska. We lived with a clan of the Tlinget Native American Indians. I was adopted into the tribe and my Tlinget name is Dok-du-Yik. I totally enjoyed the cultural immersion experience. I fondly remember the various Pacific Northwest native designs, especially the Totem poles. 

Totem poles are an important part of Pacific Northwest American Indian tribes like the Tlinget. and Chilkat that I lived with and also the Kwakiutl, Haida and Tsimshian. Autumn always reminds me of them. As a teacher and homeschool parent, I explored Native American culture in fall units. Here are free printable totem pole design templates. 

http://www.papertotempoles.com/ Paper Totem Poles  is a bright, colorful website devoted to the making of totem pole designs. This site is full of historical information about Native American Indians, cultural details and information on religious observations of which the totem pole plays an important part. This website is loaded with free printable Native American Indian totem poles designs, templates, how-to-draw, images and explanation. Teachers, parents and homeschoolers will find not only many great free printable totem pole crafts, but information about the totem pole. This resource will be very helpful to the teacher planning a unit on native American Indian culture.

To make a paper totem pole craft with students, print paper totem pole templates and have kids color them. Then they can glue the colored pictures on recycled cardboard paper towel tubes. 

The arrangement and order of the animals on the totem pole is important in Native American Indian culture. The animals form a hierarchy. The animals also represent the guiding spirits of each native clan or tribe. http://www.papertotempoles.com/ teaches students how to arrange animal images on the totem pole. While animals are important totem pole elements, Paper Totem Pole has other categories of native designs: celestial, birds, spirit, people, water, elements and insects. Please enjoy your exploration of Native American Indians; I have more happy memories of my time in the Tlinget tribes than I could ever relate in words.