Free Printable Earthquakes, Tsunami Lesson Plans

Spring means severe weather and increased concern for natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Here are free printable weather science lesson plans on natural disasters, fire safety, emergency preparedness and other severe weather issues.

NOAA, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, has free printable severe weather science lesson plans. Print materials from the NWS (National Weather Service) and the Red Cross. There is a series of free printable severe weather science booklets from the Red Cross on Owlie Skywarn, an owl who teaches children about different kinds of weather. Owlie covers thunder storms, tornadoes, lightning, floods, hurricanes and winter storms. The booklet is 44 pages long and contains free printable coloring pages. Learn about severe weather with Billy and Maria. These children explore storms, lightning, hurricanes, fire safety and emergency preparedness in free printablesevere weather coloring pages, puzzles, word searches and weather experiments.

NOAA has a free printable booklet about the tsunamis and earthquakes with Tommy Tsunami and Ernie Earthquake. It explores the relationship between the two phenomena. This booklet is 15 pages long and has several activities for weather science units. There is a free printable guide to make a weather satellite, too.

Ready.gov is the homepage for free printable emergency safety kids activities from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Children can follow Herman the hermit crab as he teaches children about emergency preparedness, weather science, natural disasters, This site helps children create emergency safety response plans.

Spring severe weather science is also concerned with wildfires which are sparked by droughts. October is offical Fire Prevention month. You could follow up weather science units with science lessons on wildfires and fire safety. Visit Sparky.for free printable fire safety and emergency safety games, coloring pages and activities about fire prevention. Over 75 years ago, a little bear was discovered wandering alone after wildfires, then called a forest fires, took his home. He was namedSmokey Bear and he became the voice for forest rangers and fire prevention. Get free printable fire emergency safety help there too.

Ready.gov is a natural disasters emergency preparedness website maintained by FEMA with free printable severe weather resources, lesson plans, emergency planning kits and lots of resources. Ready.gov teaches students about natural disasters and weather-related emergency safety. You'll find lesson plans and activities for wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, storm safety, floods, blizzards, droughts and more. The focus of the website is two-pronged: Make an Emergency Plan and Get a Kit. Ready.gov provides printable checklists to prepare for disaster.

Children might read The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck to learn more about tidal waves (now called tsunamis). The Big Wave is a 1948 story of a Japanese family's experiences following a tsunami. After the 2004 tsunami, Scholastic Books made copies of this book available at reduced rates, to help children understand the event.This books explains floods and hurricane storm surges like the one that drowned New Orleans and much of the gulf coast in Hurricane Katrina of 2005.

Free Printable health, Food, Inc Documentary Film Lessons

With obesity at crisis level, attention turns to childhood obesity. Weight problems begin at home and so that's the best place to begin with healthy lifestyles, nutrition, exercise and eating habits. But school can help too. Here are free printable health lessons on nutrition and other children's health science topics. Kids Health has free printable health lessons, health science worksheets and healthy living activities. These lesson plans cover common subjects taught in health class. Health lessons cover all grades, preschool through twelfth grade. Each age category has a separate link listed on the left side of the page.

Each grade level addresses three basic areas of health lessons geared to the age, abilities and maturity of the student. There are free printable health lesson plans on the Human Body, Health Problems and Personal Health. Lesson plans include free printable teachers guides, games, activities, worksheets, handouts and health science experiments. Some lessons also contain a study guide, student quiz and answer key. Here is a scope and sequence for each grade level and will work well for homeschool, special needs students and special education health classes.

Pre-K- 2nd grade--Healthy Habits (available in English and Spanish) Human Body covers body parts, bones, muscles, joints, mouth, teeth and skin, Body Systems covers Cardiovascular, Digestive, Respiratory, Body Functions, Hearing, Sleep and Vision. Health Problems covers Infections, Diseases and Conditions, Asthma, Diabetes. Personal Health lessons covers Puberty and Growing Up, Conflict Resolution, Empathy, Self-Esteem, Hygiene, Germs, Fitness, Nutrition, Breakfast, Energy Balance.

Grades 3-5--Human Body covers body parts, bones, muscles and joints. Body Systems cover Cardiovascular, Digestive, Immune, Respiration, Body Functions and Sleep, Health Problems, Infections, Diseases, Conditions, Asthma, Eating Disorders, Bird Flu, Obesity, Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco. Personal Health science covers the same topics as the K-2nd grade syllabus, geared to 3-5th graders.

Grades 6-8 Human Body covers Body Parts, Mouth and Teeth, Skin. Systems include Cardiovascular, Respiratory. Body Functions include Sleep, Vision. Health Problems include Infections, Diseases, Conditions, Asthma, Bird Flu, Diabetes, eating disorders, HIV and AIDS, Obesity, Skin Cancer. Emotional Health science issues cover Depression, Stress, Drugs, Alcohol, personal health, puberty and growing up, conflict resolution, self-esteem, nutrition, food safety, school lunch, breakfast, fitness and sports safety. Grades 9-12 cover much of the same topics only in high school lesson plans.

To deal with obesity, visit Chartwells for free printable calorie counters, carb counters vitamin and mineral information other health protocol. Visit Choose My Plate for free printable health information, nutrition, calorie counters, carb counters and more health nutrition activities. Visit MyPyramid for free printable weight loss tools, obesity management, nutrition and health activities

Free Printable Ash Wednesday Coloring Pages, Lessons

Catholics celebrate several special religious days, referred to as holy days of obligation. These days center around a Bible event in the life of Jesus or His Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. Holy Days are All Saints Day (Nov. 1), Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), Christmas (preceded by the holy season of Advent), Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1), Ash Wednesday (movable feast which kicks of the holy season of Lent and leads up to Easter), Ascension Thursday (movable feast) and the Assumption of Mary (August 15). Here are free printable Catholic coloring pages featuring Bible stories. prayer, sacraments, mass, Gospel, saints, Lent, Advent, holidays and holy days, life of Jesus, Catholic saints' feast days, rosary and stations of the cross. Holy Spirit Interactive many free printable Catholic coloring pages. Print Bible stories to correspond to the rosary's joyful mysteries, sorrowful mysteries and glorious mysteries and luminous mysteries. free printable Catholic Bible coloring pages

You can also print Bible, saints and feast day coloring pages also. First-school has neat organized, cross-referenced lesson plans for Catholic subjects, including feast and holy days, Saints and bible lesson The link takes you to the Feast of the Annunciation (holy day which celebrates visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, mother of God on March 25). The Annunciation is the first of the Joyful mysteries of the rosary. Here are all First-Schools' free free printable Catholic worksheets,

Catholic Mom is a ginormous repository of free printable Catholic activities, games, lesson plans, puzzles and word searches organized around the Catholic liturgical year. This link takes you to printable Catholic coloring pages based on Sunday mass readings, Bible stories and gospel verses. Use for CCD (religious education), vacation Bible school, Children's Liturgy of the Word and Sunday school. My favorite are the wonderful vintage images from Fr. Lovasik used in the old Catholic Children's Catechism, missal and Children's Bible.

EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) is a Catholic television and radio station EWTN Kids has Catholic activities, printables and games. You have to register to access but it's free. Check out Catholic Blogger for links to free printable religious coloring pages, Print pictures of Catholic holy days, saints Bible and Christian coloring pages.

Bible Kids has many free printable Bible coloring pages about Jesus, holy days, rosary, saints and Bible stories. Coloring Book Fun has loads of free Christian printables, Bible coloring pages and Catholic activities. There are rosary coloring pages and Stations of the Cross pictures to color. Use these for Catholic school, homeschool, religious ed, CCD, Sunday School, Children's Liturgy of the Word or family devotion time.

Free Printable Play Money, Coin Patterns for Math Lessons

Pi Day, March 14, celebrates math. Money math is a favorite with kids. They love play money. Kids learn math skills pretending grocery store or consumer math. Interacting with play money, children learn to count, add, subtract, multiply, divide and skip count by fives, tens and twenty-five. Making change teaches counting backwards.

Consumer math is great way to demonstrate positive and negative numbers. Positive numbers are money you have. Negative numbers can be thought of as money you owe. Money math teaches fractions, decimals and percent, using credit, interest, fees, sales an discounts as examples.

Here are links to free printable play money. Print play money and use in preschool learning centers: house, store, bank and practical life. Use free printable play money in math, marketing, life skills and economic classes. Using play money helps prepare special needs students for real-life experience and transitions.

Printable Play Money had gobs of printable American money in all currencies, including bills and denomination. Play money is realistic enough to use for math lessons.

Free Stuff 4 Kids has free printable play money. Print out one, five and ten dollar bills. Money Instructor has free printable money math worksheets that you can personalize with the kind and number of bills and coins you need. Print play money coins: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars. Print bills in one, five, ten, twenty and fifty dollar denominations.

Free Stuff 4 Kids has free printable play checks for students. Practice banking, check writing, checkbook balancing and accounting. 
This blog lets you print exact duplicates of American money. Print currency: one, five, ten and twenty dollar bills.

Need free printable play Euros? Activity Village has several pages of free printable Euros in many denominations. You can print American money and play money to. Sparkle Box has money math games and play money printables, too.

For more free printable activities, crafts, cut and paste projects, games, puzzles, dioramas, paper dolls, word games, sheet music and other goodies, visit my blog Free Printable Lesson Plans.

Free Printable Lent, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week Activities

Mardi Gras--also called Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day and Shrove Tuesday--anticipates Ash Wednesday and Lent in the Catholic, Orthodox and some protestant Christian churches. These observances countdown to holy week and the Easter Triduum. Shrove Tuesday falls at a different day each year with the movable Easter feast. In 2015, it's Tuesday, Feb. 17. Although the term Mardi Gras is used synonymously with the Carnival ("farewell to the flesh") celebration, it's actually one day. Here are activities children can do to learn more about Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent.

Pray, fast and give alms. Mardi Gras is the last day of ordinary time before Lent, the 40-day spiritual pilgrimage that follows Christ on his journey through the desert where he was tempted by Satan. As Jesus fasted, Catholics are called to imitate. Fasting means giving up self-centered practices and practicing selfless acts. The principal virtues of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving (donating to those in need). At Ash Wednesday mass, the first religious event of Lent, the faithful are marked with ashes and told to "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel."

Confess sins. For Catholics, Mardi Gras is more than just a day to party before the fasting begins. The traditional name "Shrove Tuesday" more accurately reflects the purpose of Mardi Gras. To be shriven means to be purged of sin and purified by acts of confession and reconciliation in the Sacrament of penance. On Shrove Tuesday, Catholics go to confession, pray, repent and attend prayer services.

Explore with printable Lent lesson plans. Operation Rice Bowl has free Lenten printables. Catholic Mom offers free printable Lent worksheets, puzzles, coloring pages, crafts, games and activities. Children can color Bible pictures, read from the Gospels, follow mass readings, pray the rosary and other Catholic prayers. Printables help reinforce lessons.

Enjoy Pancake Day. Traditionally, during Lent, people abstain from eating meat, sugar, sweets, oil, butter and fats (hence the term "Fat Tuesday"). To use up these ingredients so they would not be in the home during Lent (and hence a temptation), Catholics made pancakes. That's why it's called Pancake Day.

Abstain from bad, practice good. Giving up things (fasting) is a spiritual exercise. Catholics fast from meat on Fridays (in remembrance of the death of Jesus). Many give up chocolate or other sweets. Fasting is particularly healthy for everyone, not just Catholics. It purges the body and soul. Fasting helps the mind focus on spiritual things. Lenten fasting resembles the dietary laws of other religions, notably Kashrut (kosher) Jewish laws, Buddhist and Muslim Ramadan fasting practices. But it's not just about giving up bad habits. It's about learning new healthier ones. So encourage children to give up something they like (candy) and work on improving a behavior--manners, tidiness, getting along.

Free Printable Food Journals, Online Calorie Counters for Health, Science

To address growing children's health concerns--diabetes, nutrition, obesity, fitness and general wellness--several groups have developed health programs written at kid level. They offer free printable food journals, online fitness trackers and nutrition planning tools. Geared for elementary to high school age kids, these programs teach self-sufficiency and basic life skills related to health.

  Choose My Plate , a service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, offers kids meal planners, free online food journals, free printable nutrition trackers and other helpful resources. The site is designed for adults but has materials adapted to children, too.


  Chartwells (a school nutrition program) has an initiative called "Eat Learn Live" which provides free printable food journals and diet trackers and other health tools for kids, parents and teachers. Many schools across the U.S. partner with Chartwells and use the program in their food service program. This link explains how Eat Learn Live works in schools and how it can be adapted for home use.


  Chartwells offers nutrition data personalized to specific school breakfast and lunch menus. Kids can track food intake using menus they actually eat from. Using this tailored data, kids can plan their eating and measure their nutrient intake. You can also access this information from your school's food service link on the school website. Chartwells Eat Learn Live resources page has information on carbohydrates, calories, vitamins and minerals, fat, sodium, protein and other food data.


  Of particular interest is the Kidnetic webpage. This site gives kids free printable activities, online health games, online food journals and fitness trackers and healthy recipes. Kids often eat less healthy foods because it's easier and quicker. They come home hungry and want to eat immediately. The food tips and recipes on Chartwells give kids healthier eating options. Snacks can be made quick and easy with little parent supervision. This is especially good for kids who are home alone after school.


  Another useful student health website is BAM! Body and Mind (a service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This site cover all areas of child health: nutrition, fitness, dental care, illness, immunity, drugs and medications, substance abuse, weight problems, depression, emotional health, bullying, peer pressure, relationships, family health and social skills. Written in cartoon graphic novel style, kids can play games and interact online. BAM! offers kids free printable exercise calendars and food journals.


 

Free Printable Sid the Science Kid Lesson Plans

"Sid the Science Kid" is a cute preschool show from PBS Kids. Sid the Science Kid helps children explore early childhood science concepts. Here are free printable life science, nature, earth science, chemistry and physics lesson plans for young children. Children color, draw and study everyday science concepts from the classroom, home, playground and kitchen.

The Sid the Science Kid games are great for early childhood activities. Preschool and young elementary school students will enjoy playing:

Balancing Act: block balancing games to learn about building and gravity
Weather wheel
Kitchen magic: to explore chemistry
Sandbox symphony: explores sound and sound waves
I Sense: games to explore five senses
Mix it up: nutrition and health
Science Jar: encourages observation, description and scientific process

Check out the free printable Sid the Science Kid activities. Visit this link for a free printable 18 page booklet featuring drawing activities, coloring pages, lesson extensions, matching, counting and other science lesson plans. This free printable booklet makes an excellent follow-up lesson plans for any preschool science activities. Use free printable Sid the Science Kid lesson plans and preschool science activities to follow up on preschool science experiments of seed planting, nature observation health, nutrition and other basic science concepts. Children will enjoy making a color, cut and paste Weather Cube for nature study games.

Try the Sid the Science Kid collection jar activities to teach children to learn how to look at things in their environment with a scientist's eye. Using chalk, a magnifying glass and a magnet, Sid guides students to explore objects and describe what they see. Visit Sid's homepage for more free preschool science activities on cooking, chemistry, health, nutrition, human body and much more.

Preschool teachers, homeschoolers, parents, day care providers, be sure to check out the dozens offree printable Sid the Science Kid lesson plans, games, worksheets, charts, diagrams and activities. Each lesson is linked to an episode of Sid the Science Kid. Each of the science activities and worksheets gives content connections that will fit with most educational curriculum. Students can watch the show from this site and use the free printable science extensions for lesson plans. Check out the homepage for Sid's Science Fair apps, games and other preschool science activities.

PBS in an industry leader in education, particularly preschool and early childhood. "Sid the Science Kid" is a perfect complement to any preschool science activities. For more free printable activities, visit Free Printable Lesson Plans.

Free Printable Black History Month Lesson Plans

Black History Month is observed in February, in the US. Schools will usually offer special programming, content or lessons on issues and events that are significant to African Americans. Students explore biographies and contributions of famous black Americans. They read books written specifically about or by African Americans. 

I received emails recently for free Black History Month teaching materials. Shmoop is an education site I'm subscribed to. It offers an array of free printable lesson plans, study guides, activities and worksheets geared toward upper elementary to high school. There are 25-plus pieces of content available free on Black History Month. Teachers and homeschoolers you can access these, by registering and use in your classrooms. Students and parents, there are study aids for you too. 

I couldn't find one page with all the offerings. So I linked to the American History 1850-2014 page. From there you can navigate to the 1450-1849 pages, plus a photo archive and AP history helps. Here's the link to the free literature lessons page. Look there for reader guides on books of note in black history. Here are some lesson subjects you'll find: 

Slavery
Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance
Jim Crow
Civil Rights 

Desegregation

“Black Power” 

Famous court cases impacting slavery, integration and civil rights

Race issues in US wars: Revolutionary, Civil, WWII
KKK
Civil War
Abolition

Antebellum America

Reconstruction

FDR’s New Deal

Race in music history: jazz, blues, rock & roll
Desegregation in schools, sports
Boycotts

There are teaching guides for poetry and books of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Phillis Wheatley, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain and Harper Lee. 

Scholastic offers an extensive collection of Black History Month lessons on a spectrum of subjects. There are online activities, free printable worksheets, simulation games, book lists, study guides. Scholastic provides materials for students Pre-K to grade 8. I linked to the complete list and you can refine your search by grade and activity type. 

Use these to help students of all backgrounds explore these integral parts of US history. We took these images at Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. We sat on the actual bus Rosa Parks rode. We looked at the "whites only" drinking fountain and the eerie Ku Klux Klan robe. Even though we're all history buffs, it gave us a new perspective, from the inside out, on black history. Whenever possible, as educators, we need to provide kids with living history experiences like this so they can learn in a multisensory way. 

Free Printable Early American History Lesson Plans -

I'm a teacher, homeschool veteran and American history reenactor. I teach a 1700s-era dame school(here's a model one at Thursley in Surrey, England) at our local history museum "Feast of the Strawberry Moon" encampment. Here are free printable hands-on early American history lessons and historical crafts and free printable colonial America lesson plans.

Teach about school history. Explain that education wasn't compulsory in the U.S. colonies till 1852 and then only in Massachusetts. Kids might be taught in "dame schools." Then only basics. Women weren't deemed capable of teaching boys. They taught handicrafts, reading, writing and ciphering. Higher education was taught by men to families who could afford it. Here are free printable history lessons and historical crafts from Kidipede linked to the main page for the whole collection.

Reading in Colonial America. In 1647, reading, writing and Bible was mandated, under the Old Deluder Satan Act. The New England Primer was used starting in 1760. MacGuffey Readers came out in 1836. But that was the colonies. The Michigan territory was settled by Catholic French. Education came from missionaries, like Quebecois Ursuline nuns under Marie del Incarnation. Catholic or Protestant, instruction was religious and moral. Here are free printable selections from the New England Primer. Teach kids the famous alphabet poem beginning: "In Adam's fall." Here are morecolonial early American history lessons.

Colonial America ladder school. Teachers grouped students by age and ability. In math, the first row, the youngest, worked on counting. The next row, basic addition. The next, subtraction and so on. Spelling, reading, and handwriting would be taught this way, too. D emonstrate this with students. If students are agemates, assign some to play older kids and some younger. Arrange seats or benches in rows (ladders). Here are sample free printable early American history lessons like those teachers would have used.

Make homemade books. Vellum was a costly paper-like material made from animal membrane. This could be scraped down and reused. Few could afford it. But they would have saved and reused everything. Teach kids colonial America frugality. Make books from paper grocery bags (similar to parchment or butcher paper). Sew pages by punching holes and weaving with pieces of twine, rope, yarn or leather cording. Have students write the New England Prime Bible poem and illustrate. Here are other free printable colonial early American history lessons and historical crafts.

Hands-on math games: Give children pebbles for counting. Kids transfer one pebble from hand to hand as they count. Demonstrate simple operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I've used beans, but tell kids these were food stuffs and wouldn't have been wasted. Shells, feathers, sticks would likely have been used.

Writing in early American history. Make slate pencils. Children in early American history used slates and a stylus made of rocks. Gather rocks. Scratch on pieces of rock tile. Ask local rock or tile dealers for samples. See which kinds write best. Make quill and ink. Cut the end off the feather at an angle. Heat in flame to make a nib. Ink would have been too expensive. Only scholars, professors, scribes (professional letter writers) and maybe officials used it. Make ink from berry juice or by soaking walnuts, but remind students food would not have been wasted on ink.

Make stick pencils. Kids and teachers used what was on-hand, probably writing in sand or dirt or with sticks. Make pencils burning the ends of sticks. These colonial America activities give children cultural immersion in time periods, that goes was beyond the textbooks.

Free Printable Martin Luther King Jr. Day Lesson Plans and Activities

With the discussion of placing an image of Harriet Tubman on the U.S. $20 bill, attention focuses on black history. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January and February is Black History Month. In early summer, the United States focuses on American history with its observance of Memorial Day, Flag Day and 4th of July. But really, every day should honor such important contributions of American people and every month Americans should celebrate U.S. history.

Here are free printable American history lesson plans on the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. MLK Jr was born on January 15, 1929. MLK and was shot by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968. Use these free printable lesson plans to explore this legendary hero in the classroom, homeschool, scout troops 4H and social groups.

Nobel Prize has free printable MLK Jr and black history lesson plans, As the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Martin Luther King Jr. is featured on this website with a comprehensive bibliography of resources. About has an entire unit of free printable Martin Luther King Jr activities, including a 5-page activity booklet Happy Birthday MLK by Jean Marzollo. It covers the life and work of Dr. King. The lessons guide students through readings, discussions, response activities and higher order thinking skills questions.

Mr.Donn has free printable American history lesson plans, created by a teacher for teachers. There are close to 30 links for free printable lessons, posters, coloring pages, worksheets, fill-in-the-blanks, puzzles, coloring pages, literature study guides and activities based on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Some black history favorites include a Unity Hand Wreath cut and paste craft, a Box of Crayonscoloring craft and Breaking Color Barriers (a science object lesson for children)

ABC Teach has 16 free printable lesson plans focused on world peace and unity. There are crafts, writing prompts, posters, games, coloring pages, word search, worksheets, reading activities, acrostic forms, poetry frames and much more. After all, peace, unity and brotherhood was what Dr. King was all about.

ABC Teach MLK has free printable writing prompts, worksheets, lessons, games and activities about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his speeches, including "I have a Dream". There are Black History Month activities. In conclusion is a quote from that famous speech made by Dr. King, made on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Free Printable Winter Solstice Activities, Lessons

Among the high profile holidays­­ Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa­­there is the lesser known, sometimes forgotten winter solstice. Thewinter holiday is an ancient pagan rite, celebrated around December 20­23, in connection with the shortest day of the year.

Here are free printable winter solstice activities, snowflake crafts, holiday games, winter science and solstice social studies lesson plans. Pagan Druids and Wiccans commemorated winter solstice. This winter holiday also marks the first day of winter so it's a great time to teach calendar skills, marking time, changing seasons, the solar system, astronomy and constellations.

Apples for the Teacher has a whole unit on winter and pagan winter Solstice. You get free printable winter solstice activities, snowflake crafts, puzzles, mazes, word searches, poetry, crossword puzzles, short stories, jigsaw puzzles and worksheets to study the winter season. Cutting paper snowflake crafts teaches math, geometry and measurement activities. Snowflake crafts are perfect for hands­on winter holiday math lessons These free printable winter solstice activities and snowflake crafts are geared to preschool, general education and special needs classrooms.

ABC Teach has gobs of free printable winter holiday worksheets, writing, counting, reading, numbers, letters, math and science activities. You'll find free printable coloring pages with winter scenes, snowmen, snow sports and more. Scroll down the page for free printable preschool and elementary winter puzzles, cryptograms, mazes, shape books, rebus puzzles, matching games, cut and paste crafts, Venn diagrams, writing prompts, winter word wall, word search, snowy story starter and winter worksheets.

The Teacher's Corner has free printable pagan winter solstice activities to fill your homeschool or classroom with winter fun and learning. Print many free printable worksheets, reading, writing, crafts, games and science activities. Artists Helping Children has many free printable winter solstice craft activities for kids. Children will love learning about holidays from around the world. Winter Solstice is one of the oldest pagan winter holiday celebrations in the

Free Printable Educational Crossword Puzzles

Looking for free printable crossword puzzles and word games for classroom lesson plans, homeschool and school homework. Here are thousands of free printable educational games, crossword puzzles, word games and word search puzzles. Teacher Vision has many free printable crossword puzzles on all sorts of subjects. You can print crossword puzzles for science, literature, social studies, math, fine arts, history, geography and other lessons. Education world has free printable math crossword puzzles.

Student Handouts is an awesome website with many educational games, puzzles school and homeschool printables galore. Here are free printable word search puzzles and word games for history, holidays, final exams content, art and other school subjects. There are also blank puzzle grids to make your own word search games based on specific content you're teaching. Speaking of making your own crossword puzzles, Discovery World offers free puzzle generator software for teachers and home educators. Education is mostly a pay website, but there are plenty of sample educational games and free printable word games and puzzles. Houghton-Mifflin Eduplace has free printable science crossword puzzles that correlate to textbooks.

TSL books offers a bunch of free printable word search puzzles, educational games and activities on different themes and content. Enchanted Learning has countless free printable puzzles on an assortment of subjects for grades preschool to upper elementary. Word games include crossword, word search, fill in the blank, cloze and a nifty kind you don't see very often--rebus. Rebus puzzles use pictures in place of words, like hieroglyphics. Rebus puzzles are educational games and excellent for teaching emergent reading skills.

Free Prinntable Kwanzaa Lesson Plans and Activities

Habari Gani? This is the Swahili greeting given at Kwanzaa, the least known but fastest-growing of the winter holidays. When you greet someone with Habari Gani? you are asking "what's the news?" Kwanzaa--meaning "first fruits of the harvest"--celebrates family, community and culture. Kwanzaa is celebrated for seven days, from December 26 to January 1. In the seven days there are seven principles that people aim for. Here's the list in Swahili and English, plus free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, Swahili worksheets, African crafts and games.

The seven Kwanzaa principles are--"umoja" meaning unity, "kujichagulia" or self-determination, knowing one's self. Ujima means working collectively and being socially responsible. "ugamaa" refers to cooperative economics and bartering for the common good (instead of selfishly undercutting for one's personal gain). "Nia" is sense of purpose and "kuumba" is creativity. Over it all is "imani" or trust and faith.

The symbols of Kwanzaa include seven candles or "mishumaa" in Swahili. There are 3 red, 3 green, 1 black cancle which together represent Kwanzaa's seven principles. These are placed in a kinara, a candle holder, representing a stalk of corn. This ceremonial holder shows people grow in families from the earth. The Kwanzaa candle holders look similar to a Jewish menorah.. The "mkeka" is a straw place mat, recalling tradition and history. Placed on the mat are a variety of fruit, symbolizing harvest called the mazao. The "vibunzi" is an ear of corn. One is given to each child, celebrating the child's potential (what they can become). The "kikombe cha umoja" is a cup of unity, which recalls the ancestors.

Children are given simple but significant gifts at Kwanzaa. The purpose is to develop creativity, potential and success. Gifts, in Swahili are called "zawadi." Use these free educational resources to explore Kwanzaa. Habari Gani? Offers a wonderful history, perspective and collections of free printable Kwanzaa activities and African crafts. About Homeschooling has a large selection of free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, games, Swahili puzzles and African crafts Kwanzaa.

ABC Teach has free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans for elementary subjects: math, reading, social studies, history and writing. Many are inter-disciplinary or cross-cultural. There are links for crafts, vocabulary, and more. Mr. Donn has developed a large collection of free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans Swahili worksheets and African crafts all focused upon Black or African American history. He has made many free printable lessons. Making Friends has free printable Kwanzaa lesson plans, crafts and African crafts.

Free Printable Little House on the Prairie Lesson Plans

If you were a girl growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, you read and loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and her  Little House on the Prairie book series. Maybe you were lucky to have the handsome boxed set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Then you loved the Little House on the Prairie TV series when it came out. Long before "Pioneer Woman" and settler survival type reality TV shows, there was Laura Ingalls Wilder and her stories about life in the 1880s midwest.

But teachers and homeschool parents, you don't have to wait for that film. Now you can bring early American history into your social studies lessons with free printable Laura Ingalls Wilder book activities. Get free printable American history lesson plans book activities from the seven books in the series. The series begins with "Little House in the Big Woods" when Laura is five and was written over a period from 1932-1943. But going in chronological order "Farmer Boy"comes first. It's based on childhood memories of Laura's father Charles Ingalls. Next comes "Little House on the Prairie", "On the Banks of Plum Creek", "By the Shores of Silver Lake", "The Long Winter", "Little Town on the Prairie" and "These Happy Golden Years." "The First Four Years" (stories from Laura's early married life). didn't come out till 1971 and I clearly remember the big deal that was, and later when "West from Home" (not part of the original series) came out in 1974.

The publication of these books sparked renewed interest in early American history and pioneer lore. My mother first read Little House in the Big Woods to me when I was near Laura's age in the story. Laura Ingalls Wilder had a gift for story-telling to match her fascinating life. I purchased the rest of the series, one by one and read them. I later read the Little House on the Prairie books to my own children and used them in our homeschool. The Little House books make perfect American history activities and social studies lesson plans on the life of American pioneers.

The website Laura's Prairie House calls itself the Definitive Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. The site has dozens of free printable American history and book activities, crafts, recipes and coloring pages. These books help social studies teachers explore the difference between American pioneers and settlers. Pioneers were trail blazers who built new towns and settlements. Settlers moved into these areas and settled them. Laura Ingalls Wilder's family, both the her parents Charles and Caroline Ingalls and her husband Almanzo Wilder were settlers and pioneers. They brought customs and traditions with them from the New England towns they lived in and they formed many new traditions based on the areas they settled.

There are free printable Little House in the Big Woods lesson plans, crafts, games and book activities. There are free printable Little House on the Prairie book activities and free On the Banks of Plum Creek printables. There are recipes for maple candy, johnny cake, parched corn, cornbread, vinegar pie, horehound candy and other foods Laura features in her books. Other sites feature moreLittle House free printables You can print American history crafts, recipes, sheet music and lyrics from songs as well as complete episode guides and links from the Little House on the Prairie television show. Laura's Prairie Home features comprehensive biographical data on the Ingalls and Wilder families and links to historic locations and preservation sites where they lives.

Free Printable Animal habitats, migration, biodiversity, science lesson plans

To teach students about different animal species, biodiversity, symbiosis, predator-prey relationships, biomes and habitats,  here are free printable animal habitat dioramas.

For hands-on science lesson plans, you can't beat dioramas. Students explore concepts interactively, making 3-D scenes. Shoebox dioramas (scenes set up inside boxes tilted on their sides) are a good medium. Dioramas help students visualize content. Diorama activities work very well for literature, social studies, animal habitats and life science lesson plans. Use animal habitats dioramas in life science lesson plansto help students understand how creatures interact with their environment.

Animal habitat dioramas can be made with found objects and recyclables. Or here are free printable animal habitats dioramas. Use free printable animal habitat or biomes dioramas for biology and other science lesson plans. Students color, cut and paste and assemble dioramas. Printable dioramas give the added benefit of high success and low failure. Special needs and easily frustrated students can create great looking projects and feel proud of their work.

The American Museum of Natural History has free printable animal habitats dioramas for different biomes. Click each Ology site for different science lesson plans. Look for "make it" and "coloring pages" links. From there, print backgrounds and creatures. Check out printable games and puzzles and lesson plans, too. Crayola has free printable dioramas that are simple enough for preschool lesson plans. Here are free printable animal habitat dioramas of the ocean. Exploring nature has free printable animal habitats coloring pages. Students can color and cut out and arrange in 3D shoebox dioramas. Or that could be the backdrop and they could glue plastic animals and plants in the shoebox base.

First Palette, a great teacher/homeschool website, has free printable habitats dioramas: Habitats or biomes include coral reef, African savanna, polar biomes, rainforest and Paleolithic dinosaur habitats. Free printable animal coloring pages are available at First Palette too. There are insects, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians in different biomes. Have kids color and place in the proper environment. This teaches sorting, classifying and symbiotic relationships. Have kids explore KPCOFGS--kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species--concepts too. Perfect for K-8 science, preschool, homeschool, Montessori and special education.