Free Printable Reading Games, Online Spelling and Reading Games

Parents, does it worry you how much your kids play phone or online games? Do you worry that their reading skills will stagnate if they play too many online games? Well, here's a workaround--turn them on to online word games for kids and Internet reading games. Here are free online games for kids, including word games, reading games and spelling games. These reading games can be played on computers or cellphones. Teachers, use these online games for kids to boost not only reading skills, but spelling, grammar, syntax, vocabulary and writing skills. Playing online word games helps visual tracking, perceptual acuity and typing skills, too.

No matter how educational free online games for kids are, parents should still limit time spent gaming. 15-20 minutes of play between tasks is fine. Two hours sitting at the computer or playing on their phones is too much. Gaming should also be done in proportion to outside time and physical activity. For every hour spent on the computer, at play or work, there should be an equal amount of active time. So, here are the best educational free online games for kids to improve reading skills.

ABCya offers Super Word Toss, one of several free online games for kids to teach reading skills. These word games help children work with synonyms and antonyms to learn word meanings. Check out the other word games, reading games and spelling games on this site.

Arcademics has loads of educational free online games for kids. Visit the homepage to find reading games, spelling games, word games, math games and more.

Gamequarium is another educational site with thousands of free online games, There are over 1,500 reading games and nearly 1,000 ELA (English Language Arts) games, including reading games, word games, vocabulary games and spelling games.

From Addicting Games (another free online games site) comes Whizz Words and Whizz Words Deluxe. Kids will learn reading skills playing these crazy fun word games. These spelling games teach kids lightning-fast reflexes, quick thinking and super spelling skills. Whizz Words games combine the concepts of Boggle and Yahtzee. Players have limited time make words from a set of letters but they can only earn points in one category-- 3-letter, 4-letter, 5-letter and so on. The trick with these spelling games is to figure out which letter combinations offer the most of any given word length and then make only words of that length.

Free Printable Kevin Henkes Lesson Plans

Kevin Henkes has given the world of children's literature some wonderfully endearing stories. Most Kevin Henkes kids' books feature anthropomorphic mice facing typical issues that children face. Beloved Kevin Henkes characters include Sheila Rae the Brave, Chrysanthemum, Julius, Owen, Lilly, Chester, Wemberly and Wendell. His kids' book "Kitten's First Full Moon," won the coveted and prestigious Caldecott book medal for best illustrations in children's literature.

If you like this lovable children's literature author, you will want to visit his website and explore thefree printable Kevin Henkes book activities he's made based on some of his beloved characters. The website has free printable word games, puzzles and coloring pages. These are useful for summer enrichment activities, day care fun, children's literature lesson plans and homeschooling activities. Or parents might want to print them just for fun at home.

Kevin Henkes' publisher, Harper Collins has put some of the free printable activities on their website. You might like the free printable activity book for "Lilly's Big Day" Lilly eagerly awaits the best day of her life, being a flower girl in a wedding. She encounters the usual fears and drama. This activity book would be great follow-up or preparation for any event that your child is anticipating. Bibliotherapy, or problem-solving using literature is especially therapeutic for young or special needs children who struggle to find their own voice. Seeing a funny little mouse experience similar events and feelings is tremendously reassuring.

Lilly is the same mouse who so charmed with her purple plastic purse in the book of the same name. Scroll down the page here for all the Lilly and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse printables Teaching Heart has free printable "Wemberly Worried" and "Chrysanthemum" activities. There are lesson plans from the Kevin Henkes book "Owen" too. Read these books your kids, parents, and you'll see why everyone loves them so.

Free Printable Chronicles of Narnia Coloring Lessons

Educators and homeschool parents, are you looking for free printable lesson plans on fantasy literature? Then you need to check out the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. If you're teaching Chronicles of Narnia books unit studies, here are free printable Narnia coloring pages and lesson plans. Children have loved the Narnia books for decades. in the 1980s, PBS Wonderworks made some of the seven books into movies. Films have been made for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair as well. Check out the Narnia homepage for free printable Chronicles of Narnia coloring pages, lesson plans, games, puzzles, crafts and coloring pages to augment your book study. Get free teacher and homeschool resources, educational activities, printable Narnia maps, online games and more.

Here's a site with free printable Narnia coloring pages. Coloring Book has another set of free printable Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe coloring pages. Narnia coloring pages featuring the Pevensee children Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy, their cousin Eustace, Prince Caspian, Reepicheep, Drinian, Rince, the Dragon, Aslan and others. Websites feature detailed, realistic images from movies Prince Caspian, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movies. Here are Narnia crafts and Narnia coloring pages from the books series. Activity Village has free printable Narnia coloring pages and games galore! Print word search games--great for book study guides and tests--from each book in the Chronicles of Narnia series:

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Magician's Nephew (the first book chronologically in the series)
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Last Battle.

There are is also a free printable mouse mask for Reepicheep, free printable dragon crafts and coloring pages (no spoilers, but SOMEONE--not saying who--turns into a dragon in a wonderful allegorical twist!) There's a Many-Coloured Sugar recipe (such as Caspian ate at the feast), a shield craft, sword craft and a castle craft which could be Cair Paravel.

Homeschool Giveaway lists links for free printable Chronicles of Narnia lesson plans, crafts, worksheets, book study guides and games. Here are free printable vocabulary lesson plans from Narnia books. And here are lots more teacher- made lesson plans for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book study guides

Free Printable Twilight Lesson Plans--Eclipse, New Moon, Breaking Dawn Lesson Plans

"Twilight" is the first in the Twilight books series and that was made into box office smash movies. Twilight movies set off both vampire fiction and reader mania. Here are free printable Twilight coloring pages and Twilight movies and book activities. Fans of Stephanie Meyers and her Twilight books, including "Twilight", "New Moon", "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn" will enjoy coloring pages of Edward and Bella and other characters.

Hello Kids has dozens of free printable Twilight movies character coloring pages along with vampire fiction coloring pages. Here's another older site with free printable Twilight coloring pages. Most are fan-made coloring pages designed free hand or from movie photos. They're quite good. This blog has lots more free printable Twilight books coloring pages in a variety of styles.

Teachers and homeschool parents may like this complete free printable Twilight movies and books unit with 23 pages of literature based lessons, questions, journal response activities, puzzles, rubrics, study guides and lots more. Note Twilight movies and books should be used only for English classes 8th grade and up. This lessons print in pdf, so you will need to have Adobe Acrobat installed. None of these websites require user ID or password to access or print lessons.

Be careful if you use the Twilight movies and Twilight books as classroom lessons or activities. Some students may be frightened by the content. It's possible that parents will object to vampire fiction or sexual content in Twilight books. Horror is a genre studied in the reading curriculum in schools. And Twilight was a very popular book series that literally ushered in the niche genre of vampire fiction.

But you will want to prepare students for this type of content and be sensitive to their response to the literature. Just because you may love the series, remember that the movie was rated PG-13. Never belittle or admonish a child who is not comfortable reading any type of literature. Not wanting to read Twilight, vampire fiction or horror genre books does not imply immaturity; some children are very sensitive about what they read. This is usually because they are in fact very thorough readers and not desensitized to violence. You will also need to clear this book with department heads and let parents know that you plan to use the book series in class. 

Free Printable Captain Underpants Activities, Dav Pilkey Coloring pages

March is National Reading Month--time to celebrate kids' books and their authors. Today's featured book guy is Dav Pilkey, a very silly man with a middle school juvenile sense of humor. Who is Dav Pilkey you ask? Well, adults might not know the name, but kids will recognize him as the author/illustrator of graphic novels and kids books, notably Captain Underpants.  Pilkey has many well-loved kids books and graphic novels to his credit. But his most enduring is the supremely ridiculous "Captain Underpants" stories. Oh and grownups, graphic novels are stories told in cartoons or comics, not dirty books! Jeff Kinney author of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series is another graphic novels writer.

So Captain Underpants is a farsical superhero, but then anti-heroes are kind of en vogue right now with Deadpool. And Kylo Ren--kids love that Star Wars bad guy almost as much as his evil dad Darth Vader. People must be tired of the schmaltzy superhero good guy. Captain Underpants is a good--but very weird--guy. Along with his sidekick, Super Diaper Baby he battles The Wicked Wedgie Woman, The Lunch Ladies from Outer Space, Bionic Booger Boy (!) and Professor Poopypants. Children (especially boys) adore the title alone. As you might suspect the Captain Underpants stories are filled with (gross, just heard it!) puerile humor so loved by lower elementary school students. So how about some free printable Captain Underpants fun, to get your "fill" of silly, slightly sickening second grade comedy?

Dav Pilkey has several another popular series stories: Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot, The Dumb Bunnies, Big Dog and Little Dog, Dragon and two which are almost as popular as Captain Underpants--Kat Kong and Dogzilla. Pilkey uses pictures of his pets in these books. They too are very immature and goofy. The author has written and illustrated quite a few non-series serious books that are well-loved also. His book The Paperboy was chosen as a runner up for the prestigious Caldecott picture book award.

His website is full of fun stuff to do. Web pages are laid out like graphic novels and feature his messy handwriting font. There are fun Dav Pilkey kids book games. There are severalfree printable flip-o-rama kids book games that show how a movie is made from scenes or sketches. Best of all, Dav has put about twenty free printable Captain Underpants coloring pages and coloring pages and other kids book games. on his website. This site has a free printable Captain Underpantsbookmark.

Dav Pilkey gets some cr*p for his potty humor (pun intended) but maybe children's literature needs more silly stories, to un-stuffy it. It's good to see authors not only writing and but creating kids book games and activities based on their works. Enjoy these free printable kids book games activities and read his books. For more free printable kids book games, crafts, activities, coloring and lesson plans visit the Grand Rapids Parenting Examiner blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Free Coloring Pages 4U and Kidz Literature.

Free Printable File Folder Games

March is National Reading Month. Here's a great lesson plan to teach reading with file folder games. Students can learn just about any subject using file folder games to reinforce content and practice skills. Here are free printable file folders games online. Besides reading, teach math, reading, spelling, grammar, phonics, science, social studies and more. Print games for all ages and ability levels: preschool, kindergarten, elementary, special needs, middle school. Use for homeschool, too.

File Folder Fun has over 100 free printable file folder games in content areas across the curriculum. Search by age, grade level, theme and subject. File folder themes include animals, foods, flowers, weather, ocean life, circus. Themes teach math, reading, science, social studies, phonics, spelling, math, ELA (English Language Arts) history, music and other preschool and elementary school subjects. Click the games you want. The click "download." And voila, a screen appears with game background, pieces, cards, all materials you need, free.

File Folder Farm has gobs of free printable file folder games for math, English, reading, writing, spelling, science, social studies and more. Games can be used with varied ages. Click the game you want. The print, cut out and and assemble. Or better still, print in black and white. Have students color, cut and paste and assemble. You get two activities--craft, lesson plan and game--all in one!

Cindy's Autistic Support has free printable math file folder games. Use to teach counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division file folder games. You can make individual games for each math fact (times table) family.

To make file folder games:

Print game board and glue to inside of file folder. Write instructions on outside. Laminate or cover with contact paper. Make a spinner by drawing a circle. Divide like a pie. Label segments with game advancement options. Place paperclip on paper fastener (brad). Poke fastener through center of circle. Spin paper clip.

Store game cards or pieces in zippered plastic bag or envelope stapled to folder. File folder games store upright in filing cabinet or drawer. Get extra craft mileage from free printable file folder games by assigning students make them.

Free Printable ESL Lessons, Spanish Language Lesson Plans

Spanish is quickly becoming America's second language after English. Many businesses and stores are taking the initiative to print information in Spanish as well as English and even in other foreign language texts. Many jobs now require that employees be bilingual in Spanish and English. And of course, there's a large Hispanic and Latino population who speaks English as a second language. I'm a former ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. One of the best conversational language activities was to role-play dialog games. I or the students would begin in our native language and the other would respond in that language, and back and forth. Needless to say I acquired a fair amount of Espanol along the way.

If you are a teacher with Spanish speaking children or adults, or if you teach Spanish, another foreign language, or English as a Second Language, here are free printable Spanish-English translation activities. True to my special education training, these materials aren't simple workbook pages. You can find those in any textbook series. These are free printable Spanish lessons with attitude! Print ESL worksheets, games, flashcards, matching games, puzzles, crossword, word games, projects--in short interactive activities! Here's a neat concept website in English as a Second Language printables--a user-supported site where teachers have to upload and share their ESL worksheets in order to download and print others.

Home Education Resources is a great place for free printable Spanish lessons and ESL worksheets. H.E.R. has thirty four pages of free printable Spanish lessons and English as a Second Language activities including basic vocabulary, verb conjugations, conversation and dialog, translation, questions and speaking games. Vivid illustrations and easy to read words and phrases will help English to Spanish students make the transition smoothly.

Spanish Sponge has dozens of free printable Spanish to English flashcards and flashcards for English to Spanish lessons. Print foreign language flashcards for vocabulary, verbs, conversation and other language and translation activities. Use the flashcards to play games involving the entire class. This helps to reinforce pronunciation, diction, dialog and fluency in a learning a foreign language. ABC Teach is a pay site for educators, but has many free printable ESL worksheets and foreign language lessons to sample. They print in full page pdf printables and have many Spanish lessons geared toward younger students and those who are new the Spanish or English language. This links you directly to the languages pages so that you can choose whether to use the English as a Second Language materials or the Spanish activities for speakers of English. Next hit this site for free printable Spanish worksheets and visit EL Civics for ESL worksheets, workbooks and learning games to print free.

Bienvenidos y Adios!

Free Printable Dinosaur Coloring Pages, Lessons on Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs have been a favorite subject for children for several decades now. Many TV shows and cartoon characters are based on dinosaurs--the original Japanese Godzilla, The Land Before Time, Barney and Baby Bop, Disney Pixar Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and now The Good Dinosaur. Interestingly, though many kids prefer real dinosaurs. So here are free printable coloring pages of realistic dinosaurs. Use these for life science activities and paleontology lessons.

Disney Family has free printable coloring pages from The Good Dinosaur. Scroll around that site for more free printable crafts, recipes and party activities from The Good Dinosaur. Coloring Book has more printables from The Good Dinosaur. For some educational dinosaurs activities, hit Fossil Facts. Get free printable dinosaur coloring pages featuring: Archeopteryx, sauropods, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. 

Next go to First School for free printable realistic dinosaur coloring pages to use for unit studies on dinosaurs. First-school has handwriting pages on dinosaur names and pictures to color from A-Z. Teach writing, spelling, reading and science activities with favorite dinosaurs from Allosaurus to Zephyrosaurus. These science activities provide language and etymology connections, as all dinosaur names and paleontology words come from Latin.

For realistic coloring pages, Edupics can't be beat. Print dinosaur coloring pages featuring various dinosaurs in their habitats and environment. There are also free printable dinosaur classification posters. Christian Answers addresses Dinosaurs from a Biblical perspective. Get free printable Bible-based dinosaur coloring pages, worksheets and activities that teach dinosaurs from a Bible based perspective.

The American Museum of Natural History has cool free printable paleontology science activitiesand dinosaurs worksheets. Have kids compare images of dinosaur skeletons to dinosaur pictures. Have them draw fleshed out dinosaurs over the skeleton. Build in some creativity and ask kids to draw from imagination what they think the dinosaurs looked like. For a more hands-on activity, have students mold dinosaur bones in clay, using printable images.

Fisher Price has free printable Imaginext coloring pages of Mattel Dinosaurs characters--D-Rex the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, Screature, Xtractaurs PINDOWN the triceratops and Xtractaurs Whiplash the stegosaurus Dinosaur. DL-TK Kids has free printable dinosaur crafts, greeting cards, coloring pages, puppet and cross-stitch pattern. Free Kids Crafts has free printable dinosaur crafts. Print Activities has dozens of free printable dinosaur activities, puzzles, games, lesson plans and worksheets. Coloring Book Fun offers free printable realistic dinosaur coloring pages featuring dinosaurs in their habitats. These would make excellent lesson plans. Assign students to color these pages to illustrate a dinosaur timeline, science activities notebook, report or project.

Free Printable Labor Day Community Helpers Coloring

Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September in the US. It remembers the social and economic contributions of organized labor, unions and workers. Here are free printable Labor Day coloring pages of workers, jobs, occupations, careers and community helpers. Use these coloring activities for preschool lesson plans or Labor Day parties. Teachers and homeschoolers, start your school year off with a social studies unit on career awareness that explores community helpers, workers, occupations. Teach the history and importance of Labor Day.

Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable occupations coloring pages. Click the link on the right side of the page for more occupations coloring pages. Variety includes disc jockey nurse, road worker, surgeon, gardener, painter, photographer, plumber, cobbler, policeman and tailor. I like how pictures reflect variety of blue collar and white collar workers, service, business, artisans and tradespeople.

First-School offers free printable careers coloring pages featuring occupations of police officer, mail carrier, janitor, teacher, fire fighter, chef and many more. Edupics has almost 400 free printable professions coloring pages. Super Coloring Pages has many more occupations and workers coloring pages to print in different categories: education, politics, service, helping professions and more. Hello Kids has a nice collection of educational jobs coloring pages featuring realistic, detailed pictures of people in their jobs.

Use these links to create a booklet of Labor Day activities for school, homeschool, church, day care, scouts or 4H groups. Help students become good citizens and community helpers themselves with these activities.

Free Printable Dinosaur Coloring Pages

 Children love cartoon dinosaurs, but most prefer realistic pictures of dinosaurs. Here are free printable dinosaur coloring pages. Use as lessons for science class, preschool activities, unit studies, day camps and home school, too. read more

Free Printable Ancient Rome Lesson Plans, Roman History Activities

The study of ancient civilizations is essential to any curriculum. From Ancient Greece, the world gets classical art, music, a system of government, Olympic games, philosophy and more. The western world owes much to Ancient Rome for advances in technology. Roman roads were forerunners to the modern highway. Classic Greek and Roman architecture and columns have set the bar for modern buildings. The aqueducts of ancient Rome paved the way for modern plumbing and irrigation. Greek and Roman military, warfare and weaponry foreshadowed modern warfare. Science, astronomy, the stars and planets all have Greek and Roman roots.

All the romance languages stem from Greek and Latin (the language of Ancient Rome). Both the Greek and Roman empire were unparalleled in history. If you're a teacher or homeschool parent, you'll want free printable Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece lessons plans. Use these for social studies, geography, Bible, religion and government. Use these for law, medicine and science as well. Mr. Dowling has free printable Ancient Greece lesson plans and activities on Ancient Rome. Next check out the awesome materials from DK Eyewitness Books. Along with Usborne, these are the best picture books as they show actual artifacts.

Mr Donn.org is full of world history lessons and activities. Mr Donn has dozens of free printable Ancient Rome activities on Italy, the Etruscans (from which comes Tuscany), Romulus and Remus, the Roman Forum, the Roman Baths, Roman roads, the Roman empire. There are activities on Greek and Roman family life, home, buildings, clothing, art, food, music, religion, gods and goddesses and more. Here are lesson plans on the cult of Mithras, a "newer" religion of ancient Rome. Now sail over to ancient Greece where Mr. Donn has free printable lesson plans, too. Check out these free printable lesson plans on the Byzantium Empire too.

ProTeacher has 40+ free printable world history lessons on Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Print projects, units of world history lessons, activity pages, workbook pages, craft projects and hands-on activities You will need to submit your email address to join the share community at ProTeacher to access your free printables. There are coloring pages, cut and paste crafts, games, puzzles, Latin dictionary worksheets and more.

Discovery Education has a comprehensive list of materials, world history lessons on the Roman gladiators. Student Handouts has free printable Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece worksheets, maps and world history lessons. The wonderful part about this website is that the maps and pictures are primary sources. This means that the maps were drawn during that period of history in question. The images are vintage and historical. Give students activities that cover history and geography as well as culture. Follow up with free printable Greek and Roman crafts and coloring pages from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome from DL-TK.

Free Printable Science Projects, Science Experiments, STEM activities

Parents, do you get a little queasy when your child tells you she needs help with her science project? Does the school science fair give you panic attacks? There's always that cool dad who comes up with awesome science projects that leave your little bean plant looking pathetic. Then there's that creative mom who makes other parents look like losers. Well fear not--here's a list of free printable science experiments, science projects and science crafts to knock that science fair out of the universe! Teach your kiddo valuable science lessons with these STEM activities (STEM activities cover science, technology, engineering and math--what was called in the old days science experiments).

Home Education Resources is a really comprehensive website with tons of free printable science projects and STEM activities. lesson plans and learning materials for teachers and homeschoolers. This page has 24 free printable science experiments for third or fourth graders on up. You can use them for younger grades if the instructions are read and explained to the students. There are experiments on color, light, physics, forces and motion and health activities. Use for a basis for science fair projects.

TSL Books has over forty free printable science lesson plans, experiments and STEM activities that could be used as science experiments. Choose from many different concepts: animals, habitats, biomes, plants, seeds, mammals, ocean life, weather, butterflies, five senses, motion, vehicles, fuels, planets, farm animals, whales, savanna life and more. There are cut and paste activities, puzzles, crossword, booklets, matching, coloring pages, mazes and more. Use these materials to assemble a science fair display.

Paper Toys has free printable paper models of vehicles, buildings and artifacts. Print and make these 3D paper crafts to use in science projects for a technology and science fair. This site has even morefree printable paper models to make for engineering science projects. ABC Teach has complete units with free printable science experiments and ideas for science projects. Scholastic has morefree printable science experiments. And Enchanted Learning is always a good source for free printable materials for science projects and STEM activities

Free Printable Handwriting, Cursive Penmanship Worksheets

One of the lessons that often gets lost in a teacher's busy school day is penmanship. Arguably, cursive is less important with the advent of computers. Legible handwriting is not nearly as prized as it was when students wrote more and typed less. Older people remember spending hours practicing manuscript and cursive writing. And their penmanship was neater. 

This isn't a debate over the validity of teaching cursive or handwriting skills. Teachers should at least look for neatness in schoolwork. Here are free printable handwriting worksheets, manuscript writing practice pages and cursive penmanship worksheets. Use free printable manuscript (printing letters) and cursive writing worksheets.

There are different methods and styles for teaching penmanship. Zaner-Bloser style is the older handwriting style in which printed letters are written vertically with no slant. Then D'Nnealian came into vogue in the early 1980s. D'nealian manuscript (printed letters) are written at a slant with more rounding of letters. D'nealian is more comfortable to write and works with the curves of the hand and body. D'Nealian print also transitions to cursive writing better. Here are free printable penmanship lessons for both styles of handwriting worksheets.

Writing Wizard has many free printable handwriting worksheets and writing practice pages for manuscript (print) and cursive writing practice pages. There are upper and lower case letters. You can print pages with single letters to practice. Kids Zone has really nice free printable handwriting worksheets and writing practice pages. The letters are grouped according the movements needed to write them. For example, there are the "rockin" round' letters and the "up the slide letters." This site is very kid-friendly. There are gobs more free printable writing and reading lessons on printing, tracing, alphabet, Dolce sight words, phonics, poetry and more.

Handwriting for Kids has a collection of free printable penmanship writing practice pages and handwriting worksheets. Look for cursive writing practice pages on this site. Home Education Resources has a great assortment of free printable penmanship lessons and handwriting worksheets. Each of the cursive handwriting worksheets has a coloring picture on it. Children love to color the pictures when they have finished their handwriting practice. Make the coloring page a reward. When they have shown you their five best examples of the letter, they get to color the pictures.

Handwriting may be a lost art, but it will probably always be needed to some extent. Use these free printable handwriting practice pages as lesson plans, in homeschool or tutoring. 

Free Printable Math Manipulatives, Hands on Activities

The best way to teach math is with real-life applications. The best way to demonstrate math concepts is with hands-on materials that are multi-sensory. These tools are called manipulatives because kids can touch and interact with them. 

They're not just paper and pencil activities or textbook lessons. Math manipulatives include real or play money (for market math), clocks for telling time, fraction bars, pattern blocks, parquetry blocks, peg boards, base ten blocks, Unifix cubes and Cuisinaire Rods. Here are websites with free printable math manipulatives for homemade materials.

Mason has a webpage with dozens of links for free printable math manipulatives, Print pattern blocks, geometry shapes, Base Ten blocks, color tiles, XY blocks and fraction bars. These tools are commonly used in preschool, kindergarten and special needs classrooms, but should be used in all grades to teach geometry, algebra and other maths.

Sparkle Box from the United Kingdom is jam-packed with free math manipulatives and printables. There are free printable PDFs of clock activities for telling time, fraction pies and bars, coins and play money for learning about money math and many free printable math games. Math games include spinners, dice, game board, pieces and accessories, all free printable cut-out activities.

Making Learning Fun has hundreds of free printable math games and manipulatives. This website is organized according to theme, such as Cats, Apples or different children's literature books. Each theme or topic has free printable math lessons, crafts, cut and paste, puzzles and more.

Teacher Resources Galore is huge clearinghouse of educational materials, including free printable math lesson plans. Each math curriculum content area has dozens of free printables listed. Search for the math content area that you are teaching to find what manipulatives you can print. Just click to open the PDF and print.

Jimmie's Collage is a neat homeschool blog with gobs of mom-teacher-made math manipulatives to print. 

Free Printable Organizers, Charts, Planners, Graphs, Calendars

One way to save on school shopping is to print your own planner pages and skip buying a student planner or homework organizer. Here are links for free printable student planners, homework organizers and 2015 children's calendars. Homeschooling parents, use free printable lesson planners and personal organizers.

Free Printable.net has loads of free printable calendar templates, seasonal and holiday themed lesson organizers, dated personal planner pages and blank student planners. There are also free printable games, crafts, greeting cards, classroom activities and more. Why not print out a back-to-school welcoming packet for students?

Family Fun has free printable back-to-school organizers and summer crafts activities, photo frame crafts, homework charts with stickers, classroom and family organizers, monthly and weekly planner pages, student personal organizer calendar and charts. There are also teacher welcome letter templates.

Blessed Beyond a Doubt is a mom-blog with free printable student organizers and homework planners. There are links for free printable school activities, activity booklets with games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Printable Planners has customizable free students planners, calendars and homework organizers to print. TLS Books has design-your-own organizers and free printable color-your-own children's calendars.

Scroll around these websites for more school themed printables. Look for games, puzzles, crossword and coloring pages. Print free pencil topper crafts, teacher and student stationary, incentive stickers, book and binder labels, book and binder label stickers, book marks and book covers. These cute crafts are guaranteed to please preschoolers, kindergarteners and elementary students. Even middle school and high school students would, truth be told, love these fun crafts.

For more free printables, visit me at Free Coloring Pages 4U, Catholic Activities, Free Printable Lesson Plans and DIY Homeschool.