Free Printable World Flags Coloring Page Activities and Social Studies Lesson Plans

United Nations Day is October 24. There is no more enduring symbol of a nation than its national flag. It’s a thumbnail, an icon for a country. The flag symbolizes pride and rallies people. The flag is flown or lowered to reflect national joy or sorrow. Here are free printable world flags from around the globe. Use these free printable flag coloring pages in geography lessons and social studies cultures units. Students should not be allowed to "free color" the world flags. They should be taught to color them correctly.

Coloring Castle has free printable flag coloring pages. There are black and white flags to color and colored flag templates that shows students how to properly color the flag. Countries represented include: Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Czeck Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands (Holland), Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

Activity Village includes free printable world flags from the six of the seven continents: Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia and Europe. The site has many free printable flag coloring pages from Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Croatia, Cyprus, England, Ghana, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Wales. Print geography lessons and social studies printables, coloring pages of famous buildings, landmarks and children in traditional native costume. Free printable geography lessons and social studies activities include maps and charts, too.

World Flags Coloring Pages has free printable world flag coloring pages for just about any nation or country in the world. This site includes free printable United States flags from each state and provincial flags from countries around the world. Be sure to view the original to color properly.

Enchanted Learning has many free printable world flags, national flag lesson plans and flag coloring pages. To print activities with no banner, users are asked to pay a $20 annual site fee. Check out these sites for free printable social studies lesson plans and geography lessons.

Free Printable Coloring Pages of Children Around the World in Traditional Native Dress

The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts designated Feb. 22 World Thinking Day. This day is dedicated to multicultural awareness of children around the world. Little girls growing up in the 1960s may remember a coloring book called "Dolls of Many Lands" with children around the world in traditional costumes and native dress of different countries. Here are free printable coloring pages of children around the world in native dress. Students in social studies can use these coloring pages on World Thinking Day to explore the ceremonial, cultural and traditional costumes of other children around the world. Because as the world gets smaller and more global, it's important that children know and remember native heritage.

Visit Activity Village free printable world lesson plans for social studies. Print pictures landmarks, games, crafts, post cards, maps and flags from around the world. Use these as culture studies worksheets. Get free printable World Thinking Day coloring pages of children around the world in native dress and traditional costumes: explore cultures from Australia, India, China, Japan, Africa, England, Russia, South Africa, Africa, Scotland, New Zealand, Brazil and Wales. There are also free printable coloring pages of pilgrim (or puritan) children, Ancient Egyptian, native American Indian and settler (also called pioneer) children in traditional dress.

Activity Village wishes says these free printable childrens' traditional costumes may be somewhat fanciful and not historically accurate. These world coloring pages imitate the vintage images from old coloring books. Traditional costumes show how children would have dressed for ceremonies or in times past. Here are free printable World Thinking Day coloring pages of children around the worldin traditional costumes. Each child is featured with a country flag in the background. Countries represented are Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Hawaii, Guatemala, France, Brazil, Spain, China, Costa Rica and the Netherlands (Holland). Raising our Kids has a free printable children around the world coloring pages.

There's a fun little game you must play to use the website. The names of the countries are written in French. Parlez-vous Francais? Bonne. Vous ne parlez pas Francais? Then use the flags on each of the coloring pages to help you figure out which country is represented. Some are easier than others to decode, so use Google Translate. Here are more free printable children pages of childrenaround the world in traditional costumes. DL-TK has tons of free printable children around the world crafts, games and activities. Happy World Thinking Day!

Free Printable Famous Works of Art, Art History Coloring Pages

International Art Appreciation Day is August 9. But why wait to celebrate famous works of art? Teachers and homeschool parents, would you like some free printable art lesson plans for students? Here are free printable works of art coloring pages. If you're teaching art, art history or fine arts, you'll want these interactive lessons. Get to know the works of the masters with these free printable famous artwork and works of art coloring pages.

Sign up for a newsletter with free samples from Dover Publications. Dover is a leader in activity books, challenging adult coloring pages, period literature, vintage reprints and educational coloring books from history. All you need to submit is your email address and you'll get free samples from selected Dover books from different famous artists.

Edupics has free printable coloring pages of works of art. Famous artists include: Klee, Van Gogh, da Vinci, Grimmer, Murillo, Cezanne, Monet, Delacroix, Chardin, Hopper, Fragonard, Caravaggio, Klimt, Brueghel, Kustodiev, Picasso, Gunmann, Renior, Vermeer and more. There are also some aboriginal primitives. Coloring from DL-TK has free printable works of art coloring pages.

About Art History has free printable works of art to color. Coloring pages include artwork by Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa, Henri Rousseau - The Sleeping Gypsy, Vincent van Gogh - Starry Night and Sunflowers,Grant Wood - American Gothic and Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe.

Enchanted Learning publishes a free printable famous artists calendar each year. Each month there is a different work of art by various artists. Famous artists calendars have featured works by John Singer Sargent, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Cassatt, Velasquez, Jan Vermeer, Edgar Degas, Jacques-Louis David, Auguste Rodin, Edvard Munsch and Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (portrait painter- painted Benjamin Franklin in the image used on the American $100 bill). Use the artwork from different years as works of art coloring pages.

Visit Enchanted Learning for coloring pages from famous artists for hundreds more free printable artwork coloring pages. Art is organized by artist's name and country of origin. There are various genres of printable art coloring pages: sculpture, oil painting, prints, pen and ink, watercolor, mural and more, primitives and more. If you pay a $20 site fee for personal use (or a school use fee), you'll get unlimited banner-free printables.

Activity Village has free printable works of art from Ancient Greece coloring pages from Greek statues and pottery. Check Karen's Whimsy for loads of free printable world artwork coloring pages, from Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Pacific Islands, Africa, medieval, renaissance, church art, fairies, literature, world religions, fantasy, and more.

Free Printable Lesson Plans from The Hunger Games Books

It's an understatement to say that "The Hunger Games" book trilogy, by Suzanne Collins, has taken the world by storm. "The Hunger Games" movie blasted to top spot when it came out in book and then movie. The saga continued in "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" which don't stay long on book shelves. All four movies The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2, were wildly popular. If you're planning to teach a unit on The Hunger Games books or movies, here are free printable Hunger Games lesson plans and activities for several different content areas. As for age level, the movie is acceptable for kids over eight but the books are a bit graphic. Read The Hunger Games books series with kids over 12.

This education blog has links for free printable Hunger Games lesson plans that you can download and use in class. No sign-up is necessary, so homeschool parents can access Hunger Games printables for personal use too. There are writing activities, graphic organizers, comparison-contrast charts, story sequencing activities, Hunger Games simulations, problem-solving lessons, survival skill games and more. Here's a list of free printable Hunger Games book activities from Fabulous Classroom

This is a 20 page packet of free printable Hunger Games activities based on core curriculum objectives. Hunger Games lesson plans fall primarily in literature and reading, but there are some science, social studies and marketing lessons, too. The Hunger Games book activities could provide a good allegory for labor struggles, economic revolutions and political theory. Here are many more free printable Hunger Games lesson plans, movie and book activities based on Mockingjay and Catching Fire as well as Hunger Games. Here's a really cool game based on Panem the Capitol.

The Hunger Games movie fan page has games you can play or use for lesson plans, based on Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Here are free printable Hunger Games coloring pages. There are some nice ones of the Mockingjay and from Catching Fire. These books appealed first to middle school and high school students but lots of adults are getting hooked on the Mockingjay too! Readers who favor utopian/dystopian novels put "The Hunger Games" right up there with "Brave New World," by Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984" (George Orwell). My husband reads mostly arcane books of history and technology. Rarely does he pick up a work of fiction. He'd not heard much about "The Hunger Games" until we took our teen and young adult kids to see it. I thought he'd find it juvenile, but he loved it and is reading the books. Happy Hunger Games! And "may the odds ever be in your favor."

Free Printable Earth Day Lesson Plans, Activities, Crafts

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. In fact, the entire month of April is devoted to Earth Month. Here are hands-on, interactive, student-directed earth science activities to make lessons come alive. Use free printable earth science booklets, games, word searches, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, coloring pages, science crafts and printable dioramas and 3D models. Topics includes astronomy, solar system, earth's poles, sun, moon and magnetism.

Windows to the Universe a website of the National Earth Science Teachers Association offers loads of free printable earth science worksheets, earth science games, crafts, cut and paste activities and lesson plans. Scroll down the page to the "Coloring Books and Paper Activities" section. Here you'll find a printable seven-page cut-and-paste mobile to color on animals of the arctic. There's another printable science activity on magnetism and the magnetic polar forces.

Print a free scientists coloring booklet. This activity makes a good resource for biography study or living history museums. Students might use to portray famous scientists. Biographies include Tycho Brahe, Ada Byron, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Evelyn Granville, John Glenn and Sally Ride.

Here are free printable solar system coloring books at easier and more challenging reading levels. There's a page for each of the nine planets, the sun, asteroids and comets. Scientists from the University of Michigan have created free printable science flip books to demonstrate different solar phenomena in action. Included is an aurora, aurora oval, several coronal mass ejections (CME) a solar eruption and a solar flare. Students learn how processes occur by drawing and coloring them.

Free Printable Poetry Frames and Poem Templates

April is National Poetry Month and NaPoWriMo (an online poetry slam project). Poetry is one of the most satisfying creative writing forms. But writing poems can be daunting for beginners. That's why teaching poetry writing, is such a joy. I love helping students get past fears and unlock that inner poet. Poetry templates can help break the creative ice. Here are free printable poem patterns, poetry frames and writing prompts. Poem patterns are adjustable by age to provide more or less structure. For young emergent writers, a frame poem may resemble a fill-in-the-blank activity. For seasoned readers-writers, the template is just an idea springboard from which to launch poems. Reluctant or special needs students gain writing confidence.

ETTC has 30+ free printable poetry frames and poem templates on all different subjects and themes. Many relate to nature (a common theme in poetry), all about me and emotion and feeling poems. Many of these free printable poem template cover grammar, word usage and other English language arts concepts.

TSL Books has loads of free printable writing prompts, including frame poem templates, poetry prompts and story starters. There are poem templates available for preschool to upper elementary school. Check Students Handouts for more challenging printable poetry writing prompts. Use for personal narrative writing prompts, too.

St. Jean's an assortment of free printable poem templates, poetry frames and graphic organizers: couplets, triplets, quatrain, tanka, sonnet, limerick, cinquain, haiku, persona and many other poetry templates to print.

TNEllen has eight free printable poem templates with different variations on the basic "I am' and "All about me" poem theme. Examples are provided. Creative writing teachers can simply block out the example words and print the poetry frame. Students may refer to the example or fill in their own words like a Mad-Lib fill-in-the-blank activity.

Cape.k12 has about 20 free printable poetry frames grouped by grade level. Each link focuses on different types of poetry writing frames and templates. Free printable haiku, cinquain, acrostic, 5 Ws, alliteration and diamante poetry template plus several other poem activities are available.

For more free printable lesson plans visit my linked blogs.

Free Printable HOP Coloring Pages and Activities

HOP is a fun, funky movie that came out around Easter, 2011. E.B. (voiced by Russel Brand) is the teenage son of the Easter Bunny. Like the 1980s Roger Rabbit and Space Jam, HOP features live actors with animation. Here are free printable crafts and coloring pages from HOP.

Begin your free printable HOP activities quest at On Coloring. Scroll down for several free printable coloring pages featuring E.B. and his skateboard. There are also two free coloring pages of Carlos and E.B.'s dad. There are free printable HOP Easter bunny mazes. Help E.B. collect eggs and Easter treats. Further down the page are free printable HOP codebreaker games and connect the dots activities.

Easter Coloring Pages has gobs of free Easter Bunny themed printables. There are letters from the Easter Bunny, rabbit ears, masks, coloring pages and more. Kooker Kids has loads more free printable Easter Bunny crafts and coloring pages. Mama Dweeb has more printable HOP the movie coloring pages. Here are free printable 3-D Easter Bunny crafts. And here are still more Easter Bunny crafts to print.

Hip and Hop are not from the HOP movie, They are two bunnies from the PBS Driver Dan Story Train television show. Here are free printable cut and paste puppets of Hip and Hop, Driver Dan, Milly, Lilly, Taloulah, Vrooms, Loopy, Precious and Sweetie. Children may like to use these free printables to make friends for E.B.

How To Write a Research Paper

Does your stomach feel nauseous when your instructor or professor assigns a report or research paper? Technical writing can be an intimidating project - especially the longer ones.  And if you have to give a speech on said paper, all the more reason to stress. Well, you can put the antacid away; your first aid for research paper woes is here. This guide will take you step-by-step through the process, give you lots of options and provide helpful sites for revising your paper. read more

Free Printable Dr. Seuss Lorax Coloring Pages

March 2 marks the birthday of American icon Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Suess Geisel. Dr. Seuss wrote pearls of wisdom in silly verse. He illustrated them in candy flavors and neon colors. The Lorax, Horton, the Grinch, The Cat in the Hat are among the world's most beloved children's books. He also wrote educational preschool stories under the scrambled pseudonym Theo LeSieg. March is also National Reading Month, kicked off with Read Across America. Use these activities to celebrate with children in classrooms or homeschool.

Start your activities quest at About.com Here are free printable Dr. Seuss activities. Outer-Limit.net has free printable Grinch coloring pages from Dr. Seuss's holiday classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The Grinch and the Whos of Whoville are some of Dr. Seuss's best-known and most beloved characters. Homeschool Share has many free printable Dr. Seuss worksheets, coloring pages and activities. Lucy Learns has Cat in the Hat coloring pages. There are also printables of The Sneetches, The Lorax, Sam-I-Am and Green Eggs and Ham.

PBS Kids offers free printable Dr. Seuss character coloring pages and activities. The homepage,The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That has a plethora of Seuss-themed lesson plans, games, crafts and puzzles. Lessons cover math, reading, writing and science. Gerald McBoing-Boing, red and blue fishes, Horton Hears a Who and other Seuss characters help kids learn.

Seussville is the homepage for all things Dr. Seuss. This link takes you to the games and activities page, with lots of free printable Seuss goodies. There are printable Earth Day games based on the Lorax, Cat in the Hat counting games, preschool worksheets, coloring pages and gobs more. But don't stop there. Check the Parents and Educators tabs for other educational Seuss activities.

Happy Birthday 111th, Ted Geisel. Thanks for the memories!

Free Printable Berenstain Bears Coloring Pages and Activities

Children's literature celebrates an important birthday soon--Theodore Geisel or Dr Seuss--on March 2. This auspicious event kicks of National Reading Month in March and Read Across America, the first week of March. To celebrate Dr Seuss, why not explore his books and those he collaborated on. Stan and Jan Berenstain, creators of the Berenstain Bears, worked with Dr Seuss on the Beginner Books reading series in the 1960s and 1970s. The books featured the Berenstain Bears Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Small Bear. Small Bear became Brother Bear with the birth of Sister Bear and later the baby, Honey Bear.

The Berenstain Bears have been loved by children and adults for over five decades! The first book, "The Big Honey Hunt," was published in 1962 after which the Berenstain Bears had many adventures including those with Dr Seuss. If you love the Berenstain Bears books and PBS TV series, you should check out Berenstain Bears Live! in a fun new stage production called Family Matters: The Musical. Menawhile, you should definitely check out these free printable Berenstain Bears coloring pages,worksheets, book activities, games and crafts.

The Berenstain Bears are all about learning, both in childhood and adulthood. Children learn virtues and core democratic values, through the adventures and misadventures of the family. All childhood dilemmas and foibles--and some adult ones--are explored in the books, typically with one topic per book. The Berenstain Bears became a TV cartoon series on PBS in 1985. The free printableBerenstain Bears book activities are very educational, in keeping with the show's learning theme. Print Berenstain Bears coloring pages, book activities and paper dolls coloring pages. Each character comes with eight different outfits.

Random House has free printable Berenstain Bears worksheets, coloring pages and Dr Seuss book activities, games and crafts from Berenstain Bears creators. There are math worksheets, pictures frames, word search, word games, reading worksheets, spelling worksheets and more. Get a free printable Berenstain Bears Honey Hunt board game. Everything you need to print and play the game can be downloaded to your computer and printed on your printer: dice, game pieces, game board and cards. There are free printable Berenstain Bears puzzles, word search, crossword and mazes. PBS Kids has free printable Berenstain Bears cartoon and book activities, crafts, cards and coloring pages. Here's a cute free printable Teddy bear board game just for fun!

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans, Lenten Calendars

The Catholic church enters the Lenten season of preparation before Easter. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Easter is about more than just bunnies and candy. Easter celebrates the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Christians ready themselves for Jesus's coming with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The date of Ash Wednesday changes each year as Easter is a "movable feast." In 2015, Ash Wednesday is Feb. 18.Here are free printable stations of the cross, rosary, saints and Easter bible story coloring pages.

Lenten season runs for 46 days up to Easter. Lent "follows" Jesus's during forty days of fasting in the desert when He was tempted by Satan. in preparation for His sacrifice on the cross. During Lent, we try to imitate Jesus. We follow the "Way of the Cross" or Stations of the Cross and pray the rosary.

St. John the Baptist Religious Education has nearly 100 free printable Catholic Lenten coloring pages. Categories include:

20 free printable rosary coloring pages

--Joyful Mysteries from the Bible story of Jesus's life: the annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, the Presentation and Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple

--Sorrowful Mysteries from the Bible story of Jesus's life: the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, Carrying the Cross and the Crucifixion

--Glorious Mysteries (heavenly events) in Jesus's life include the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption and the Crowning of Mary Queen of Heaven.

--Luminous Mysteries: the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana (Jesus's first public miracle), the Proclamation of the Kingdom and the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. These are Bible events from the life of Jesus.

There are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages, one for each of the 15 stations. SJB has nearly 20 free printable Apostles Creed coloring pages. You can print free saints coloring pages of St. Patrick, Mary Mother of God, St. Joan of Arc, St. Philomena, St. Tarcisius, St. Clare, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Valentine and other saints. There are several of Pope Francis.

Use these free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages for Ash Wednesday, Lent devotions, Holy Week, Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and finally Easter Sunday. Make a Stations of the Cross coloring book for mass and to keep little ones quiet during devotions and to reflect during your stations prayers. The images are beautifully drawn. Many were created from stained glass windows in various churches. These coloring pages make great lent devotional activities to prepare children for Easter. For more free printable Catholic Christian printables, please visit my blogs Catholic Activities and Lent Activities.

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 Rainbow Magic, Tinker Bell, Fairytopia, Pixie Hollow Lesson Plans, Fairy Crafts

Parents, are you looking for fairy crafts for your little fairy princess? How about free printable Tinker Bell, Barbie Fairytopia, Fairies of Pixie Hollow and Rainbow Magic fairies? Start with Rainbow Magic fairy stories created by a collection of authors writing under the pseudonym "Daisy Meadows." Rainbow Magic is illustrated by Georgie Ripper. There are several dozen Rainbow Magic fairy stories. Here are free printable Rainbow Magic fairy crafts.

The series began with the Rainbow Fairies, seven sisters each named after a color of the rainbow: Ruby, Amber, Saffron, Fern, Sky, Izzie and Heather. Two little girls, Rachel and Kirsty discover the rainbow fairies and their magical kingdom. The Rainbow Fairies series has blossomed to include fairies for practically every theme: princess, jewel fairies, pet keepers, weather, fun day, sporty, Christmas, flowers, music, magic animals, dance, party, ocean, green, twilight and several other fairy groups.

Start your free printable Rainbow Fairies activities quest here. The Friendship fairies offers free printable friendship activities, fairy crafts, puzzles and word games. The Green fairies are all about the environment and keeping the earth healthy. Visit the Green fairies page for free printable fairy crafts, activities and games and Rainbow Magic free printable picture frames, post cards, stationary, puzzles, word games, door hangers and coloring pages.

Here are free printable coloring pages of fairies from literature such as Shakespeare. There are old school Tinker Bell images and pictures of the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio. Here are more free printablefairy princess crafts and Medieval fantasy crafts with fairies. Here are free printable Barbie Fairytopia coloring pages. And you can't let an article about fairy crafts go to print without a nod to the greatest fairy of all Tinker Bell! No, don't get mad Tink, because the best is always saved for last! Here are free printable Tinker Bell and the Fairies of Pixie Hollow coloring pages.

Print a whole booklet of Tinker Bell, Barbie Fairytopia and Rainbow Magic activities to occupy a sick child or pass the time on a family car trip. Pack her a "Care-y Fairy Package," including printable booklet, crayons or markets, stickers, scissors, glue sticker and pencil. For extra fun, add some glitter (fairy gurus often refer to this as "pixie dust.") By the way, June 24 is Fairy Day!

Free Printable Chinese New Year, Dragon Lessons

Chinese New Year begins late January to late February in the western calendar. It's also called Spring Festival. CNY ends with a lantern festival. Each year, a different animal of the 12-year Chinese zodiac is featured. In 2015, it's Year of the Sheep (also referred to as Year of the Goat). CNY 2015 began Feb. 19. Lantern Festival is March 5. Here are free printable lantern festival craft activities to celebrate.

Visit First-Palette for an easy lantern craft download. The site gives instructions on how to make it. Next, hop on the Craft Train blog for free printable lantern templates. These are super easy to make with preschoolers. Even toddlers can get some early scissors cutting practice in.

Dream Home Decorating has elegant lantern craft printables. DL-TK has loads of free printable lantern patterns and crafts. But don't stop at that page. Visit DL-TK's China page for printable lesson plans, worksheetsts, maps, games, recipes, crafts, coloring pages and party activities on China and Chinese New Year. There are Chinese zodiacs, animals of the zodiac crafts and themed CNY printables.

Print CNY jigsaw puzzles with whimsical animals of the zodiac. There's a whole page on dragons as that magical beast is one of the Chinese zodiac creatures. There are fireworks and lantern activities (light is a theme of Chinese New Year). For more Lantern Festival printables and crafts, hustle on over to this website devoted to Chinese New Year. Here are printable Chinese New Year greeting cards.

You could teach an entire unit on China in elementary school or preschool using these printables. The Lantern Festival is called Yuan-Xiao Festival in China and is celebrated the 15th day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. To wish someone Happy New Year, say Kung Hei Fat Choy! or Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Free Printable File Folder Games for Math, Reading

March is National Reading Month and just in time, 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.