Free Printable World Literature Activities--Tolkien, Beatrix Potter, Pippi Longstocking

In honor of Roald Dahl Day (a U.K. observance) on September 13, here are links to free printable lesson plans based his books. Do you love Roald Dahl books? A better question might be which are your favorites? If you said The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) then give three cheers because Disney brings out The BFG movie (with uber talented Mark Rylance) July, 2016! To celebrate, here are free printable BFG coloring pages and also free printable coloring pages from other Roald Dahl books to movies. Many Roald Dahl books have made it big as movies: Danny the Champion of the World, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox and, of course, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, twice over! Did you like Johnny Depp or Gene Wilder better as Willie Wonka?

Activity Village has several free printable activities from the Fantastic Mr. Fox book and movie. First, create the a free printable fox mask template for the sartorial gent. Print two fox masks so that you can design one for Fantastic Mr Fox and the other for his fantastic wife, Mrs. Fox to act out scenes. There's also and origami fox that looks just like the book version of Fantastic Mr Fox when folded. Print two foxes and use as hand puppets. There are Willie Wonka coloring pages too.

Scholastic has several free printable Fantastic Mr Fox lesson plans for Roald Dahl Day. Here arefree printable Fantastic Mr Fox worksheets. The get some free printable Fantastic Mr Fox coloring pages, puzzles and games from Twinkl. These are samples for paid printables. The best lesson plans come from the Roald Dahl website. Get free printable Roald Dahl books lesson plans based on The BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Willie Wonka, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Esio Trot, Boy, The Twits, The Vicar of Nibbleswick (funniest ever) and more. Print games, worksheets, puzzles, literature homework help, crafts and more.

Here are free printable BFG and Roald Dahl books coloring pages. Fans of the books will be glad to know that most of the Roald Dahl coloring pages are from book illustrator Quentin Blake. Here areMatilida coloring pages. Here's an assorted collection of Quentin Blake illustrations to color including the enigmatic Willie Wonka and other characters.

Roald Dahl has the distinction of giving children some of the best-loved characters, like Willie Wonka, the BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox and others, but also of writing books that grownups frequently ban and challenge! How fun! James and the Giant Peach frequently comes in for a pasting as does The Witches. The Witches is laugh out loud and adults mayn't like so much hilarity, or noise. Or maybe their shoes are on too tight. At any rate, here are activities to keep you busy till the BFG movie and Roald Dahl Day arrive!

He is one of the 15 best-selling kids' book authors in the world. In order (sales wise) top 10 best are: Enid Blyton (Noddy), (tied for second) Dr.Seuss and Gilbert Patten (of dime novel boys' adventure Frank Merriwell fame), JK Rowling (note with only 8 Harry Potter books), R.L.Stine (Goosebumps), Stan and Jan Berenstain and JRR Tolkien (Hobbit). Tied for 7th place are Ann M.Martin (Babysitters Club), Richard Scarry and Beatrix Potter. Next are Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking) and Stephanie Meyer (Twilight), Norman Bridewell (Clifford) and in 15th place, Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, BFG, Twits, Matilda). 

Free Printable Days of Awe Lesson Plans

L'shana Tovah Tikatev V'etahetem (May You Be Inscribed and Sealed for a Good Year!) That's a Yiddish Rosh Hashanah greeting. Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah, new year, around mid September to early October in the western calendar. On the Hebrew calendar, Rosh HaShanah begins the month of Tishri. It's begins the period called the "Days of Awe" and is the first of two Jewish high holy days. Rosh Hashanah falls on the approximate date when Moses led the Hebrews out of bondage from Egypt. It precedes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (the holiest day of all for Jews). Yom Kippur will be celebrated on Sept. 26 in 2012. Apples and honey are symbols of Rosh Hashanah. Teachers and homeschool families, why not serve apples and honey to kids as a multicultural immersion activity? For classroom activities, here are 

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, takes place in the month of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar, ten days after Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. Here are free printable Yom Kippur activities for kids. Yom Kippur is part of the Days of Awe. It's the highest of the high holy days.

Torah Tots. Jewish families should definitely bookmark Torah Tots as it is loaded with free printable Jewish activities for kids, games, lessons, crafts, recipes, coloring pages, cut and paste, puzzles and online activities for kids. This link takes you to the free printable Yom Kippur activities for kids pages. And don't let the name Torah "tots" throw you. Older kids will be better able to use the site because many of the activities require reading skills. Please be sure to visit all the holiday and holy day activities for kids on Torah Tots. Explore Jewish holidays, traditions, symbols and general knowledge of the Torah.

You can find a weekly Parsha activities for kids. The Parsha is a scripture text from the Torah, explained for kids. There is a link to the Midrash Maven (Midrash is a commentary on parts of the Torah). Parsha is similar to a Christian sermon or homily. Chabad has a gajillion free printable Hebrew activities for kids, including games, coloring pages, puzzles and lessons plans for holy days like the Day of Atonement. Help kids explore the Jewish Day of Atonement. These activities are geared for children over seven or eight.

A Kids' Heart has fifteen free printable Day of Atonement activities for kids, geared for younger children. There are free printable Yom Kippur coloring pages, word search, fill-in-the-blank and some cut and paste diorama activities. This site is useful for Jewish and non-Jewish people who wish to learn more about the Hebrew faith.

Teacher Vision is a subscriber site. You can access some free printable activities for kids without a subscription. This link will take you to a lesson page about Yom Kippur. This activity is geared toward non-Jews, to help them understand the Hebrew faith. Jewish Homeschool Resources has tons offree printable Hebrew holy day activities for kids, including Yom Kippur. First School Resources has more free printable Yom Kippur and Day of Atonement activities for kids.

For more information on Judaism, Jewish holidays, the Jewish calendar and all things Hebrew, visit Jew FAQ otherwise known as Judaism 101. For more world holiday activities visit Free Printable Holiday and Free Printable Lesson Plans. Gmar Hatima Tova.

Free Printable Pirate Activities, Maritime Lessons, Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19

If your children ask to wear a peg leg and carry a bottle of rum to school, don't be alarmed. It's just International Talk Like a Pirate Day. But wait that's not till September 19! Why would kids be celebrating now? Well, it could be they're getting ready for the Michigan Pirate Festival in August. Or it could just be that with school ending, they're looking for fun, pirate style. So why wait till August or September for some pirate fun? Here are free printable pirate crafts, pirate ship models, paper boats and pirate activities to kick off summer.

So if you were wondering there really is a Talk Like a Pirate Day. It was started in 1995 by Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers and John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur. Personally, this author thinks it was just an excuse for two grown men to play dress up and entice women to sport corsets.
At any rate, schools and many businesses get in on the fun. You can, too with free printable pirate crafts, games and toys. And side-stepping the less savory aspects of pirate lore, this article includes lesson plans on navigation, maritime and marine and nautical lesson plans, too. That way teachers and home-school parents can indulge their inner pirate and call it educational.

* Start with free printable Disney "Pirates of the Caribbean" coloring pages from Coloring Book Info. No Talk Like a Pirate Day is complete without a nod to POTC pirate crafts Not since "Treasure Island" have pirates been so in vogue. Johnny Depp gave a memorable and oft-imitated Capt. Jack Sparrow, but the best of all pirates is Geoff Rush as Barbossa. Check out these free printable Jake and the Never Land Pirates coloring pages too. And hey, girls can be pirates too. Here are free printable Pirate Fairy coloring pages.

* Boat-Links is subtitled "The Mother of All Maritime Links," and it's rightly named. The site is a comprehensive collection of hundreds of free printable nautical resources about nautical science, navigation, sailing, maritime history, merchant marine, the U.S. Navy, naval history in other countries, naval warfare, maritime museums around the world, nautical music and paper boats.

* Celestial Navigation. Before modern navigation, pirates and sailors relied on the sky to guide voyages. Ancient instruments such as the sextant, astrolabe, cross-staff, quadrant, kamal (latitude hook) and nocturnal were indispensable. This site shows how to make ancient and medieval navigational tools.

* Boats, Ships and Subs has dozens of links for free printable paper boats and ship models. There are sailing vessels from all periods in history, including clipper ships, Chinese junks, Roman warships, Coast Guard boats, viking long boats, pirate ship models and models of the Titanic and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.

* Disney Experience has free printable nautical toys and pirate crafts from maritime-themed movies. There's a Spanish galleon, Capt. Nemo's Nautilus, Jack Sparrow's compass, dead man's chest, Cortez's treasure chest, a Mark Twain riverboat and several other models. Raven's Blight has an awesome array of creepy free printable pirate ship models, ghost pirate ship models, paper boats and more. Perfect for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

* The Toymaker has a free printable puppet theater in which children can act out the adventures of Florimel the Magnificent. Florimel is a rabbit sailor who has adventures on the high seas in his "Golden Hind" inspired sailing ship. The youngest children can enjoy this for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

* Lee Hansen has free printable pirate crafts, party activities and pirate crafts. DL-TK has free printable pirate crafts and party activities too. Coloring Pages for Boys has dozens of realistic free printable coloring pages of paper boats, ships and submarines for many periods in history. There are also coloring pages of pirate ship models and dreadnought class paper boats.

Free Printable Orthodox Catholic Coloring Activities

Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas on Jan. 8, two days after the feast of Epiphany. Copts, Eastern, Greek, Ukrainian, Russian and other orthodox Christians follow a different calendar--the older Julian one--not the western Gregorian calendar. They celebrate the same holy days, just on different dates. Here are free printable Orthodox Christian coloring pages to help children in that religion learn their faith. Use these, too, if you're of a different Christian denomination, to learn more about this ancient branch of faith. in home school, religious education,

Orthodox Education, a homeschool blog, has links for a free printable Greek Orthodox Icon coloring book. Click the link to be taken to the Scribd website with the coloring pages. You'll find beautiful old images from a Greek Bible/missal, made into coloring pages. There are Bible scenes from the Christmas Octave, the Baptism of Jesus, Epiphany (coming of the Magi, also called Three Kings Day) and more. There are images of the mysteries of the rosary: joyful, sorrowful and glorious.

Now visit this site, written in Greek, for more Orthodox Christian printouts for kids. There are Gothic and medieval pictures from stained glass windows and paintings and religious icons. There are Greek crosses, crucifixes, saints, rosary and Bible pictures. There are images of the Holy Family, the Infant Jesus, the wisemen, angels and more.

No matter what sect of Christianity you follow, if you are a Christian, you'll want to print these lovely images. Use for home school, religious education, Sunday school, parochial school or just for home use. They're perfect for feast days and holy days.

Free Printable Mars Rover Curiosity Lesson Plans

The 2015 movie "The Martian" gave viewers startling first-hand experiences with life on Mars. Since the NASA Curiosity Mars rover landed on the red planet August 5, 2012, it's been busily gathering data and reporting back to Earth. And Earthlings are fascinated by the thought of life on Mars and the findings of the NASA Curiosity Mars Rover. Here are free printable Mars rover lesson plans. Educators and homeschool families, use these Curiosity Rover lesson plans to teach kids about astronomy, earth science, the solar system outer space travel and NASA. You could even have a Mars rover party. Use these NASA Mars Curiosity rover lesson plans to create inspiring, engaging earth science lesson plans.

Blast over to the Mars Science Laboratory. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) operates the NASA Curiosity Mars Rover via its Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology. This is NASA Curiosity Rover's social media homepage. Friend and follow the Mars Curiosity rover and its mission. Lesson plans and videos demonstrate the rover's specs, mechanical functioning and capabilities. Explore the red planet using an interactive virtual 3D Mars rover. "Friend" a Martian (human who works on Mars) and get first-hand updates and images from space.

Man a mission to NASA Mars for Kids. For cool free printable Mars rover activities and Mars party games, check here. Children can engage with NASA Curiosity Mars Rover, send postcards to Spirit Rover (the older Mars rover) and ask questions of scientists. Kids can pretend to be a Martian, play astronomy games, try exploration simulations and learn rover vocabulary. There's a space weight calculation tool, too. Kids will love connecting with the Mars Rover, astronauts, space exploration and earth science in a personal way.

Planet hop to Mars for Students to give your Mars party an educational twist with these interactive astronomy lesson plans. Using these free printable earth science activities, kids practice scientific method by collecting data, creating graphs and charts and analyzing rover findings. Click links for free printable 3D paper models to assemble. There are models for the Mars Pathfinder, Odyssey, Global Surveyor and Phoenix Mars Lander. These activities provide visual aids for space lessons. Students get hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) experience in vehicle design.

For the nuts and bolts on outer space travel, teachers and homeschool parents can fly by NASAMars for Educators for a plethora of free printable Mars rover science activities. lesson plans and web resources. There are activities for grades K-12. My personal favorite is the printable "Mars Activities" booklet from NASA and Arizona State University. You get 128 pages of math lessons, 3D geometric shapes, paper models, science games and quizzes. Lessons can be fun, but teachers still have to follow state guidelines. Happily, all the Mars rover lessons correlate to national educational objectives and outcomes for easier tracking. Ramp up dull science lessons with Mars party activities, compliments of the NASA Curiosity rover!

Free Printable Preschool Games, Hands on Activities, Lesson Plans

Parents, are you looking for free printable paper crafts activities for older children? Teachers, how about free printable lesson plans for upper elementary? Homeschool parents, maybe you want free printable educational activities for older kids? Little ones are easy to find printable activities for, but older children--not so easy. Older children are super sensitive to being patronized or (heaven forbid) bored. Older children want to act young, be treated older and still play with (shh don't tell) younger kid activities like coloring and craft projects.

Here 20 safe, school-approved websites free printable paper crafts and educational activities for kids that will challenge and be fun and won't bore, Some websites require subscriptions or charge fees for premium activities have many free printable activities for older children. Free printable activities for kids over 7, including learning games, puzzles, coloring pages, learning activities, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, skill builders, cut and paste paper crafts, dioramas, paper dolls, paper toys and worksheets for subject you can name!

American Girl has free printable activities, learning games, scrapbooks, games, maps and paper crafts based from American Girl. This site includes many historical and cultural activities activities to print.

Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable activities educational activities for kids including worksheets, lesson plans, units, educational games, puzzles, flashcards, maps, paper crafts for all subject matter.

PBS Kids has free printable paper crafts, activities for older children and learning games from Arthur, Peg + Cat, Dinosaur Train, Cyberchase, Design Squad, Super Why, Odd Squad, Ready Jet Go, Wild Kratts, Fizzy's Lunch Lab, Sid the Science Kid, Sesame Street, It's a Big, Big World, Jakers, Postcards from Buster, Maya and Miguel, Reading Rainbow, Cat in the Hat, Oh Noah!, SciGirls, Martha Speaks, Bob the Builder, The Electric Company, Dot's Story Factory, Wilson & Ditch Digging America, The Greens, Dragonfly TV, Eek World, Kart Kingdom, Word Girl, Between the Lions, Clifford, Caillou, Hooper, Plum Landing, Barney, Berenstain Bears, Curious George, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, Cyberchase, Boobah, Teletubbies and more! Each show has it's own site with lots of activities.

Barbie Kids has free printable educational activities for kids from Mattel characters Barbie, Polly Pocket, Bratz, MyScene and more. You'll find cut and color paper dolls with all sorts of clothing, shoes and accessories you can design. Everything girl also has stationary, calendars and more to print.

Activity Village might be the best site for free printable holiday educational activities for kids, It's got all the world holidays with printable paper crafts, worksheets, puzzles, jigsaws, social studies lessons, around the world coloring pages and learning games.

There are Printables for Kids galore at this link, dedicated to free printable educational activities for kids.

DL-TK is the best site for free printable educational craft activities for kids. There are free printable coloring pages, cut and paste paper crafts, dioramas, mini books, paper dolls, on every theme of childhood.

Kidz Page is the free printable educational learning games for kids site. Print crossword and jigsaw puzzles, worksheets, mazes and clipart. Kids love the bright colorful comic book style layout.

ABC Teach boasts 5,000+ free printable worksheets making it tied for second in educational activities for kids. Get activities for math, reading, language, social studies, culture, geography, science, holidays. Includes flash cards, learning games, puzzles, Sudoku, booklets, word searches, crossword puzzles and more.

Enchanted Learning is the best in free printable paper crafts and educational activities for kids with booklets, science lessons, biomes, maps, languages, famous people, works of art, etc.

Dover: Sign up for email notices with links to free printable paper crafts and vintage educational activities for kids from Dover's vast collection of vintage books.

Scholastic has dozens of free printable activities for kids up to eighth grade based upon the wonderful books from Scholastic. This site is excellent for middle school students also. You'll find Charlie Bone, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Manga, Magic TreeHouse Series, Captain Underpants, and so much more.

First School is a leader in free printable crafts and educational activities for kids 7-10 on Bible, religion and holidays.

First Palette leads the way in free printable crafts patterns, templates, clipart and educational coloring pages.

Creative Kids at Home has free printable science projects, learning games, crafts and fun! You can also access the site to get archived newsletters with loads of easy stuff for all ages to do at home, school, day care, etc!

Making Friends has lots of free printable educational crafts and activities for kids but the specialty is free printable paper dolls from around the world.

Free Kids Crafts specializes in free printable educational crafts templates and activities for kids.

The Toymaker is queen of free printable vintage toys and educational crafts for kids.

Disney Family specializes in everything free printable Disney crafts for kids. Look for activiteis from all your favorite Disney characters including Frozen, Zootopia, Star Wars, Toy Story, Cars and more.

Free Printable Labor Day Coloring Pages and Lesson Plans

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 Hubble Space Telescope Astronomy Activities for Mars Rover Curiosity, Perseid Meteor Shower Party

Happy 25th anniversary, Hubble Space Telescope! April 24 is HST's birthday. Teachers and homeschoolers, are you looking for free printable Hubble Space Telescope lesson plans, astronomy activities or earth science worksheets? Here's a galaxy of space-themed printables.

Here's the Hubble Space Telescope website. There are games, crafts and educator activities. Here are printable Hubble Space Telescope worksheets. Here's a link to a homemade Hubble Space Telescope craft. Here are free printable astronomy worksheets and puzzles, plus Hubble telescope coloring pages from About. Kids Astronomy has 25 free printable astronomy printables.

The Michigan Science Center's Chrysler IMAX Dome Theater and Dassault Systemes Planetarium have printable solar system lesson plans. Formerly the Detroit Children's Museum/Detroit Science Center, this science cooperative is an invaluable resource for kids, teachers and home school families. Here are free printable science lesson plans.

Print astronomy activities and Hubble Space Telescope worksheets for middle school and elementary age students. Click around for printable games, activities, crafts and worksheets on the solar system, sun, night sky and other earth science topics.

Free Printable Hindu Diwali, Rangoli Crafts, Activities, Lessons

Hindus, Sikhs and Jains began celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights. In 2014, it began with Dhanteras on October 20 and moves to the official Diwali on October 23 and 24. Diwali, also spelled Deepavali, is the Hindu calendar new year. There's lots of feasting, decorating, worship, lighting of diya (lamps) and fireworks. Rangoli are special Hindu designs used in crafts and decorating. Here are free printable rangoli patterns for Diwali.

• Activity Village has dozens of lovely free printable rangoli patterns. 

• Activity Village also offers free printable Diwali crafts, There are Diwali coloring pages, greeting cards, games, puzzles, money envelopes, stationary and writing paper, bookmarks and scrapbook pages, plus printables for Bhaiya-Dooj the holiday that ends the Festival of Lights. Print Bhaiya-dooj coloring pages and crafts. 

• Diwali Festival has many free printable Rangoli patterns, coloring pages and activities. 

• Kids Gen has easy child-friendly free printable rangoli coloring pages. 

• The Toymaker has free printable paper Diwali crafts including rangoli designs.

• Best Coloring Pages for Kids has a plethora of intricate rangoli coloring pages to print free. 

• Study Village has loads more free printable rangoli templates.

• The Holiday Spot offers free rangoli printouts. 

Use rangoli patterns as stencils to decorate fabric, create murals, or chalk your walks. To design a pretty Diwali welcome sign on your front walk, rrint patterns on zoom to expand. Then trace on sidewalk. Color in design with sidewalk chalk or paint. To give holiday greetings, say "Shubh Diwali!" 

Free Printable Olympics Lesson Plans, Activities

The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics opens August 5 and the closing ceremonies are August 21. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans on Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics for the XXXI Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Use these free printable Olympics lesson plans to help students learn more about this historic international event. Incorporate Summer Olympics into sports math, history, social studies and science to give kids a deeper understanding the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Teacher Planet has an Olympic-sized database of free printable worksheets on the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games. Worksheets cover reading, creative writing, research, health, history, geography, social studies, science and math activities. Of particular interest to physical education teachers are the Olympic Games simulation activities. Instead of being mere spectators, kids can recreate the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics at home or at school.

The Lesson Lady on Teachers Pay Teachers offers a 10-page set of free printable Olympic Games worksheets, including coloring pages, a reading game, sports word scramble puzzle, a Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics word search, Sudoku puzzle, word bank trivia and several Olympics creative drawing pages. Teacher Vision has an entire collection of free printable Summer Olympics worksheets and activities as well as lesson plans on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where the XXXI Olympic Games will be held. Users may print up to five activities for free and then must pay for a subscription. ABC Teach has loads more free printable Olympics lesson plans across the curricula in math, science, writing, reading, phonics, science, social studies, history, geography and more.

Then visit Activity Village for a host of free printable Olympic Games for kids activities. There's also an page on Brazil for Kids with free printable coloring pages, worksheets, world flags, country flags, maps and Brazilian landmarks and crafts. Kids will love the free printable post cards from Brazil. There's a page for many countries of the world represented in the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. There maps. flags, landmarks and more. Use these lesson plans as anticipatory sets to prepare kids for the Olympic Games experience. They might also be used as extensions after viewing events.

Free Printable 2012 Summer Olympics Coloring Pages and Activities

The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics opens August 5 and the closing ceremonies are August 21. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans on Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics for the XXXI Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Use these free printable Olympics lesson plans to help students learn more about this historic international event. Incorporate Summer Olympics into sports math, history, social studies and science to give kids a deeper understanding the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Teacher Planet has an Olympic-sized database of free printable worksheets on the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games. Worksheets cover reading, creative writing, research, health, history, geography, social studies, science and math activities. Of particular interest to physical education teachers are the Olympic Games simulation activities. Instead of being mere spectators, kids can recreate the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics at home or at school.

The Lesson Lady on Teachers Pay Teachers offers a 10-page set of free printable Olympic Games worksheets, including coloring pages, a reading game, sports word scramble puzzle, a Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics word search, Sudoku puzzle, word bank trivia and several Olympics creative drawing pages. Teacher Vision has an entire collection of free printable Summer Olympics worksheets and activities as well as lesson plans on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where the XXXI Olympic Games will be held. Users may print up to five activities for free and then must pay for a subscription. ABC Teach has loads more free printable Olympics lesson plans across the curricula in math, science, writing, reading, phonics, science, social studies, history, geography and more.

Then visit Activity Village for a host of activities. There's also an page on Brazil for Kids with worksheets, world flags, country flags, maps and Brazilian landmarks and crafts. Kids will love the free printable post cards from Brazil. There's a page for many countries of the world represented in the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. There maps. flags, landmarks and more. Use these lesson plans as anticipatory sets to prepare kids for the Olympic Games experience. They might also be used as extensions after viewing events. free printable Olympic Games for kids free printable coloring pages 

Free Printable Star Charts, Constellation Maps for Astronomy, Earth Science

Hubble Space Telescope celebrates her 25th birthday April 24, which is also Arbor Day. Earth science and astronomy are fascinating subjects to teach kids. Children can enjoy stargazing anywhere and everywhere and it costs nothing. Looking for free printable star charts and constellation patterns to teach kids about space science? Here's a galaxy of astronomy diagrams, star charts, constellations patterns and night sky maps.

SFA Observatory offers free printable star charts divided by region of the sky. Each constellation is labeled with Latin name and star shape. There's a handy guide to help stargazers orient themselves and their telescope for best viewing.

Kids Astronomy has a free printable night sky map and star chart that can be customized by date and time. Kids Astronomy has entire interactive webpage for kids. Look for free printable earth science lessons, night sky activities, star charts and astronomy games. Homeschoolers and teachers, be sure to visit the educator resource page for free printable astronomy coloring pages, solar system vocabulary lessons and space science worksheets.

Sky Maps has free printable night sky maps based on latitude and hemisphere. Each month, users are sent a new edition of the sky maps reflecting the current month's constellations. Classroom, Jr.has printable constellation charts for Sagittarius, Virgo, Scorpio and Libra. Check this website for scads of free Earth Day printables.

NASA Space Place is an interactive astronomy website for children from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Kids can learn to make their own paper-folded star finder. This will help locate major constellations for each month. There are also free printable constellation patterns for each month. Download and print to use as coloring pages, star patterns and star finders, too.

Athropolis offers a collection of links to free kids' astronomy activities, simulation games, printable activities, star names, pronunciation guides and more. Children will love Star Child with a kids-club web design and easy astronomy activities. There are two sites--one for kids under 14 and one for those older than 14

Print a star chart for each student. Encourage them to trace the constellations on tracing paper. This will help them learn the star arrangements. They might use the charts as connect-the-stars activities