Free Printable Presidents Day Worksheets

Presidents Day is celebrated the third Monday in February. Contrary to popular advertising, Presidents Day is not a day for big sales. The holiday commemorates the lives to two great American Commanders-in-Chief (one of the titles of the President of the United States): George Washingtonand Abraham Lincoln. The day connects the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on Feb.12 and the birth of George Washington Feb. 22. Teaching a unit U.S. presidents or looking for Presidents Day activities? Here are free printable Presidents Day worksheets, lesson plans, crafts, games and coloring pages.

Apples for the Teacher provides printables on both presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and on the Presidents Day holiday itself. There are biographical facts sheets and activities. There are free printable worksheets with cloze, fill in the blank, writing prompts, vocabulary, time lines, word games, biographical data, coloring pages and alphabetizing activities. Worksheets include general American history lessons and patriotic crafts and activities. There's a recommended reading list for homework, followup reports and book reports.

To celebrate the holiday in homeschool or public school, Mr Donn has created free printable Presidents Day worksheets, Powerpoint lesson plans, games, word searches, writing prompts, social studies connections and interactive history activities. Many activities link to others sites like Scholastic where you'll find even more extensions and connections. For teachers and homeschoolers, there are worksheets on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, holiday Powerpoints and free clipart.

Visit Scholastic printables home for lesson plans and worksheets. Then stop by the Freebies Corner. Each month there are new contests, giveways, and free printable holiday activities themed to the month. You'll get lesson plans with content connections, games, crafts and book-themed worksheets, keyed to Presidents Day or any holiday.

A to Z Teachers Stuff has several pages of free printable worksheets, puzzles and word games for Presidents Day. There are crafts, art projects and coloring pages of presidential silhouettes and busts on coins and bills. Kids can color pictures of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. You could use these to have students carve their own Mt. Rushmore models. Hit Enchanted Learning for Presidents Day printables, too.

The Presidents Day holiday was originally celebrated as Washington's Birthday. The amalgam with Lincoln was added in 1968, but called Washington's Birthday until the 1980s. Teachers may remember the transition to the more inclusive general name. The office of U.S. president is also referred to as POTUS, for short.

Free Printable Lenten Worksheets, Coloring Pages

The Catholic Lenten season begins each year with the Imposition of the Ashes on Ash Wednesday, which in the 2016 calendar will kick off very early on February 10. Lent starts a 40 day journey of fasting, corporal spiritual acts of mercy, spiritual pilgrimage and prayer. A Catholic tries to live, in a humble human way, in solidarity with the Lord Jesus, as he fasted in the desert for 40 days and made his final pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A Roman cross, torture and crucifixion awaited Him. But so did the glory of Easter, the Resurrection. Lent is a season for intense and deep personal and spiritual reflection.

Here are several well-researched websites in line with the Magisterium (the teachings of the Holy Roman Church), the Holy See (seat of Peter) and the St. Joseph's Catholic Church catechism. They offer free printable Lenten worksheets and Bible lesson plans. Most all these Catholic materials have the Nil Obstat and Imprimatur. These seals of approval from the bishops and the Church say the material does not deviate in any way from Catholic doctrine.

Catholic Mom offers free printable Catholic Lenten worksheets, coloring pages, activities, word searches, crossword puzzles and lesson plans based upon the daily mass readings from the St. Joseph's daily missal. You may print any of these free and use with students or children. These are wonderful for home-schooling, Bible study and teaching CCD. The license to print is a very special gift and ministry to other families and teachers. You will find archived materials from Cycle A, B and C.

St. Charles Borromeo was a Spanish saint known to Catholics for his great teaching ability. This site of which he is the patron saint, offers a complete free printable Catholic Bible study worksheetswith reflections and further Bible connections. Readings for each of the three church liturgical cycles are available. The vestment color for the day is noted and a church liturgical calendar is given. All of the materials are available to print free in Adobe Acrobat or pdf format. Use these as a basis for reading, spelling, grammar lessons as well as religious instruction.

This is a link to free printable Catholic lesson plans and worksheets. This is a huge clearinghouse with materials for all Church subjects. Look for free printable Lenten activities, info on the Paschal Candle, Holy Week, Stations of the Cross, Ash Wednesday, fasting, penance, daily readings, act of contrition, examination of conscience and more. You will find free printable Bible and Catholic crafts, games, puzzles, worksheets, lessons, cross-word puzzles, fill in the blank, clip art, coloring pages, recipes, prayers, novenas, music and loads of links to other Lenten sites. May your spiritual journey of Lent be one of awareness, reflection and immersion in the great love Our Lord shows for us in His Passion.

Free Printable Animal Habitat Activities

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 plans to 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 hasfree 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, phyllum, class, order, family, genus and species--concepts too. Perfect for K-8 science, preschool, homeschool, Montessori and special education.

Free Printable Valentine's Day Countdown Calendar

Countdown calendars are becoming very popular to help children count down the days to special events and holidays. Here are free printable valentine countdown calendars to number the days till Valentine’s Day. These cute cut and paste craft works well for preschool, special needs kids, elementary classrooms, homeschool and Girl Scout troop activities.

Make free printable valentine countdown calendars reusable by laminating or printing and pasting to the inside of a file folder or recycled cardboard. There are a variety of ways to label days till Valentines Day. Here are religious Christian valentine countdown calendars with Bible verses. Print in black and white and let children color them. To print in black and white set your printer "preferences" to "black ink cartridge" or "print in gray scale". Children should cut them out and arrange in order 1-14. They can also do a backwards valentine countdown calendar to learn counting backwards. Holiday themed activities for kids are always a hit!

Here are more Valentine Day countdown calendars and activities for kids. Pinterest has several free printable valentine countdown calendars, too. This website also has an assortment of Valentines Day calendars to print free. Kids might do one of the free printable valentine crafts activities for kids or make recipes from Disney Family each day till Valentines Day to countdown to the holiday.

Valentines Day countdown calendars and crafts activities for kids are great for practicing math, fine motor and scissor skills. Calendars are ideal for use with younger preschool, kindergarten and special needs students. They're simple and user-friendly making calendars ideal for children who are easily frustrated. Countdown calendars are also great for teaching math skills like counting, sequencing, patterns and calendar skills.

Free Printable STEM, Engineering, Robotics Lessons, Physics Activities

April is Earth Month and it's also science fair season--time to think science projects and hands-on science fun. Unfortunately, the most interesting sciences--physics, physical science, technology and robotics--are often taught in boring ways. And that's sad because research continually shows how important STEM activities (science, technology, engineering and math) are for kids. Physics studies how things work and explores motion, energy, machinery (and it might surprise you as to what is considered a machine), lightwaves, sound waves, radio waves, magnetism and more. Physical science is the most enjoyable science to teach because it's easy to demonstrate, can be taught using found stuff around the house, gives students lots of feeling of success and connects well to math, geometry, algebra and other STEM activities. Here are not-dull free printable physical science activities, lesson plans, experiments, worksheets, vocabulary cards, puzzles and games to make physical science the most popular subject in school!

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) offers a plethora of free printable physics lesson plans. Some must be ordered but there are many free printable science activities are available online. Concepts include space travel, solar system, robotics education, technology, physics, astronomy and more. There are free printable solar system physics activities featuring Disney Pixar's WALL-E called Mapping the Moon with WALL-E. Click on the links "K-4 Guide" and "5-8 Guide" for printable teacher materials and lesson plans. A popular free robotics education activity is the Mission to Mars Curiosity Rover packet that include games, coloring pages, 3D models to cut and paste, quizzes, worksheets and extensions,

Cornell University Cooperative Extension partners with 4-H to provide 4-H Robotics education program. 4-H Robotics education includes physics simulations, robotics education and physical science games. There are hands-on and virtual online physical science activities. There's a charge for materials but some free activities. These STEM activities could be used for Destination Imagination programs.

The SMILE program (from the Illinois Institute of Technology) is a warehouse of free printable STEM activities, robotics education activities and physics lesson plans, Science lesson plans cover basic physical science concepts like weather, water, states of matter, Periodic Table of the Elements, friction, gravity, mass, inertia, electricity and magnetism. Smithsonian Science and Technology hasfree printable physics lesson plans that correlate with exhibits in the Smithsonian museums. There are many free printable physical science activities on flight, aviation and rocketry.

The Michigan Science Center offers free printable physical science activities to help students extend their experience at the museum or use as stand-alone lessons. Activities are perfect for elementary physics, science and machine technology classes. MIT is the leader in universities of higher education in science. Here are free MIT video lectures, demonstrations and interviews that students could really benefit from in their physical science studies. The Henry Ford has a huge collection of free printable STEM activities and educator resources on science, history and physics, from the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield 

Free Printable CNY Year of the Snake, Monkey, Rabbit Lesson Plans to Print

February 8 celebrates Chinese New Year of the Monkey 2016. Each year in the 12-year Chinese zodiac, a different spirit animal is honored as are people born under that animal sign (in 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956 and on back through the multiples of 12). Greet each other on February 8 with the traditional Chinese New Year blessing "Gung Hay Fat Choy!" Chinese New Year is part of the Spring Festival and ends with the Lantern Festival. Looking for free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities? Here are CNY crafts, coloring pages, greeting cards, Spring Festival lesson plans, Lantern Festival crafts and more. Print Chinese zodiac crafts, animal crafts, party decorations, CNY games and puzzles and lots more.

The best place to start is Enchanted Learning for free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities, crafts and more. Enchanted Learning is super-educational with free printable maps, social studies lesson plans, worksheets, mini-booklets to color cut and paste, coloring pages, history activities, animals of the Chinese zodiac crafts, to name a few.

How about a free printable coloring book of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac along with their Chinese symbol. Animals that represent Chinese New Year are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Ox, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig (in that order). 2017 will by Year of the Rooster, 2018 will be Year of the Dog (and so on). To find out which animal you were born under, count backwards or forwards from the current year or add or subtract multiples of 12. For example, if you were born in 1964, the closest Year of the Monkey is 1968, so count backwards four years to 1964, Year of the Dragon.

DL-TK has free printable Chinese New Year of the Monkey activities, monkey crafts, games and CNY lesson plans. Then scamper like a monkey over to Activity Village for a banana tree full of printable Chinese New Year crafts, games, puzzles, Chinese lunar calendars, CNY greeting cards, jigsaw, stories and more. Click to find animal specific activity pages. Here's the Year of the Monkey page with monkey-themed prinatables. And here's the page with free printable Spring Festival and Lantern Festival crafts. Plus, help kids get organized with free printable 2016 animal calendars. Many of the animals of the Chinese zodiac are featured--mouse (rat), dog, sheep, chick (rooster), rabbit and a mischievious monkey, perfect for Year of the Monkey.

And no Chinese New Year is complete with free printable animals masks to monkey around with! The ones from Animal Jr. are totally adorbs!
Here are some nifty masks from ancient China to print for CNY. Printables 4 Kids has more cuteChinese New Year coloring pages, zodiac activities, animal masks, monkey crafts and masks and other goodies. For educational Chinese New Year printables, visit Apples 4 the Teacher. There are free printable Chinese New Year coloring pages, including animals of the Chinese zodiac, maps of China and a Chinese flag to color.
Learn all about the culture and history of China, the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival and other Chinese traditions with free printable games, puzzles, worksheets and word searches.

Teachers, parents, homeschoolers, religious educators, Sunday school teachers bookmark First-School and visit frequently. For Chinese New Year, First-School has free printable Lantern Festival crafts, Spring Festival activities, Chinese zodiac coloring pages, math games from China, Chinese history and literature lessons and so much more. Activities are geared from preschool to third grade.

Free Printable Pagan Holiday Lesson Plans for Samhain, Yule, Ostara, etc

Much is known about religious and national holidays. But the least known holidays--and ironically some of the oldest--are pagan or Wiccan. Here are free printable Wicca crafts, coloring pages and resources for pagan holidays (sabbats).

* Joelle's Sacred Grove features a pagan calendar with activities for and explanations of the eight sabbats.

--Yule (or Winter Solstice)--between December 20-23. Yule ends the old year and begins the new (starts near Christian Christmas)

--Imbolc--or Brid's Day--February 2

--Ostara (Easter)--Spring Equinox--celebrated around Christian Easter.

--May Day or Beltaine is celebrated on the eve of April 30 into May 1. It's also called Walpurgis Night.

--Litha or midsummer's eve or , which celebrates the first day of summer (Summer Solstice) around June 21-25.

--Lughnasadh, a harvest festival which falls on July 31-August 1. It's called Lammas in some countries.

--Mabon, the autumnal equinox (the first day of fall).

--Samhain celebrates darkness and coincides with Halloween.

* Pooka Pages provides free printable Wicca coloring pages, games, spell and incantations and stories.

* ADF--A Druid Fellowship (or Ár nDraíocht Féin) is a neopagan group dedicated to promoting old pagan customs. This link takes you to the kids page with free printable pagan activities for Lughnasadh, Imbolc, Yule and Samhain.

* Stella Australis has a free printable Wicca coloring book with the elementals, gods and goddesses, Egyptian and Greek deities, moon phases and a Wheel of the Year, puzzles, Wicca vocabulary, runic symbols, history, magic, tarot and zodiac.

* Vintage Holiday Crafts has free printable nostalgic Victorian and Edwardian period greeting cards and crafts. They're labeled by their traditional holiday name May Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Easter, but images hark back to pagan counterparts: Maybon, Lughnasadh, Samhain and Ostara.

I linked you to Halloween/Samhain because that's the next holiday coming, but scroll around for the others.

Free Printable Mayan, Aztec, Incan Lesson Plans

The Mayan calendar predicted the world would end December 21, 2012 (12-21-12). It didn't, but it does raise interesting questions on how time calculated. And it drew attention to the fascinating Maya civilization and other ancient pre-Columbian Mesoamerica native cultures like Inca, Aztec, Toltec and Olmec. Here are free printable Mayan calendars, lesson plans on time measurement and Mesoamerica culture study activities, hieroglyphics and lifestyle lessons Aztec, Inca and Maya civilization.

Printable Colouring Pages has six free printable images of Mayan calendars, referred to as Tzolkin or Haab, in the ancient tongue of the Maya civilization. Click here for another set of free printable Mesoamerica coloring pages. Be sure to teach students that Mesoamerica refers to a geographical region--around Mexico, Central America including Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador--and to the pre-Columbian historical time period when the ancient Aztec, Zapotec, Teotihuacano, Olmec, Mixtec, Toltec and Maya civilization flourished. The ancient Inca civilization grew up around Peru in South America.

How-to-Draw has free printable Mayan calendars. Words for each symbol listed near Mayan calendars. Here's a free printable decoder tools for Mayan calendars. Click here for free printable Maya civilization coloring pages. Here are more math lessons based on the Mayan calendar. Here are lesson plans on the 20 day cycle of the Tzolkin or Mayan calendars, with inscriptions and codec hieroglyphics (picture symbols) used in the Tzolkin calendar, plus names and translations from modern Yucatec, classic Maya and English. Here are free printable math lessons, calendar converters and hieroglyphics from the solar Haab Mayan calendars.

Edupics has free printable coloring pages from the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Aztec, Inca and Maya civilization. Look for pictures of famous pre-Columbian works of art, hieroglyphics and ancient religious sites of Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlan and Chichen Itza or the Temple of Kukulkan (now listed in the new revised wonders of the world). Check out these links for free printable paper models of Chichen Itza and Machu Picchu and Tenochtitlan.

Here are lesson plans on the monolithic Olmec heads and Toltec statues. Here's a free printable 161-page booklet of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica lesson plans on the Maya civilization. J.Q.Jacobs gives a detailed descriptions of the Haab and Tzolkin Mayan calendar along with images of their codices and instructions for use.

Free Printable Folded Paper Christmas Ornaments, Decorations

Remember those little cootie catchers kids used to make? Did you know those can be used as a lesson plan? Making origami (folded paper toys) provides fine motor skill builders and eye-hand coordination practice. Folded paper crafts provide practice in measurement, math, geometry and fractions, too. Need some educational Christmas crafts? How about free printable cut-and-paste and folded-paper holiday decorations?Kids learn while creating! These activities are perfect for elementary and middle school math classes, homeschool and winter vacation fun. With some assistance, these crafts will work with special needs, disabled students and preschoolers. Senior citizens will love them, too. 

First Palette is a one-stop source for awesome free printable Christmas ornaments. Print images in black and white and have children color them (ahem, parents and teachers--coloring pages are value added childminder crafts because they keep kids busy longer!) You can make these into photo frame Christmas ornaments by gluing them to cardboard once they're colored, then cutting small windows and taping pictures to the back.

Edupics also has free printable origami Christmas ornaments, folded paper crafts and homemade holiday decor. There are 3D Christmas ornaments shaped like stars and balls. Use cut-and-paste, folded paper crafts as math lessons. Cutting and folding paper and assembling crafts provides hands-on geometry practice. Children learn math measurement and spatial relations. Edupics has free printable folded paper crafts featuring cut and paste manger scenes, 3D nativity sets, Santa Claus and stand-up sleigh and reindeer. There are free printable cut-and-paste folded paper Christmas cards. Print in grayscale or black and white and Christmas ornaments become coloring pages for children to color and personalize.

The Toymaker features vintage free printable origami Christmas ornaments and folded paper crafts. The folded-paper boxes are adorable. There are also cute cut and paste greeting cards and holiday decorations. Paper folding is great for special needs students with perceptual challenges who struggle with such tasks. Multisensory crafts help children build scissors skills, fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination. Check the Toymaker for free printable advent calendars, gift tags, religious decorations. There are free printable Hanukkah and Kwanzaa crafts, too.

Noella Designs has all sorts of free printable origami Christmas ornaments, cut and paste and folded paper crafts for holiday decor. Children will love making the Santa Claus train, Santa village, 3D snowflakes, holiday decor, centerpieces and Christmas tree ornaments. Children could make crafts and give as Christmas gifts. To help children be successful in holiday craft making, be sure to provide sharp scissors and high-quality glue and tape. Follow instructions printed on the craft. Teach children to read all directions first. This practices skills of following directions, problem-solving and sequencing steps. Provide adequate adult supervision and assistance for special needs and preschool students. Children get frustrated if they can't make their project look the way they want it to. Encourage students to help each other, also.

Free Printable New Year Craft Activities, Lesson Plans

Planning a New Year's Eve or New Year's Day party? Are you finding it hard to keep kids happily productive and as you prepare for the party? Why not involve children in the holiday decoration making? Here are free printable New Year crafts, party decorations, games and activities. For the most economical printing, set your printer to "draft" and "black ink cartridge only." Printing activities in black and white turns them into coloring pages which kids can color--value added! You can save lots of money on printing ink and still get a nice quality print-out.

Making Friends is a charming website offering free printable paper crafts, templates, patterns and craft activity how-to guides for children. Print New Year's Eve party decorations that kids can make. Make party noisemakers, party hats, banners, a time capsule and journal covers. There's even a make-your-own New Year's Eve ball craft project.

Apples 4 the Teacher is a great website for parents, teachers, homeschoolers, librarians and activity coordinators. Apples 4 the Teacher has free printable New Year lesson plans and worksheets for students. Print New Year's Day crafts, calendars, games, word searches, jigsaw puzzles, history activities, coloring pages, trivia games and party decorations. Homeschool families might use these for New Year's Day lesson plans. Teachers, print New Year worksheets for fun back-to-school activities after winter vacation.

Free Kids Crafts has a whole page of links for free printable New Year's Eve party decorations, crafts, games, lessons and activities for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day parties. Free Kids Crafts also has an interactive calendar that is updated daily with a new craft for the day. You can access the archived crafts for days past, also. This is definitely a craft website to bookmark and check daily.

The Toymaker has two free printable vintage New Year paper craft activities for kids to color, cut and paste. There is a free printable New Year resolutions penny box to make. Children can use it as a piggy bank and practice the value of saving. There is a also a New Year booklet to print, assemble and read together.

Disney Family is an excellent resource for free printable Disney crafts, games, greeting cards, party decorations and activities for any holiday. The New Year activities are listed under Winter printables. There are New Year's Day coloring pages and holiday decorations to print, color and assemble. For more fun with printables for holidays, visit Free Printable Holiday.

Free Printable Advent countdown to Christmas Activities

Advent is the Catholic Christian season leading up to Christmas. For four weeks, prior to Christmas, Catholics practice Advent values prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Each week focuses on hope, expectation and joy. Here are free printable advent calendars for kids to make, to guide advent to Christmas devotions. 

Many involve candy or treats and while there's nothing wrong with a little treat, materialism defeats the Advent purpose: to focus on God. Constantly receiving teaches children (and adults) to be even more aquisitory than they already are at Christmas. If they're getting all season long, where's the magic of Christmas morning? Advent is about preparing for the coming of Christ with acts of charity.

Advent observances should be spiritual. Here are templates from Loyola for free printable Bible Advent calendars. Children read Bible stories and practice the gospel values of prayer, fasting and charity.

Have children make their own Advent calendar. Here's a printable calendar with Catholic feast days listed. Print Bible clipart from Clipart Pal or free Christian Christmas images from Web Weaver. Write Bible verses and gospel passages on the back of clipart. Have children list daily acts of kindness: visit the elderly, pass out cocoa at Christmas parade, wrap Giving Tree gift.

Mr. Printable has free printable Advents calendar crafts. They're not religious. but they could be made that way adding Bible gospel readings and works of mercy.

Here's are free printable Jesse Tree ornaments patterns for kids to color. The Jesse Tree is a visual aid that tells the genealogy of Jesus. It takes children through major Bible stories. Each night, children color a symbol to add to the tree, taking them to the O Antiphons (and ancient Advent prayers said before Christmas).

Sign up for ZonderKidz from Bible Gateway and get a free Jesus Storybook and Bible verses Advent calendar to print. Spiritual Advent calendars teach children that the best gift doesn't come in a wrapped box. The very best Christmas present, the reason for the season, was born in a rough manger.

ESRS creatives has a printable Advent calendar that looks like Christmas ornaments hanging from a tree. There's a printable contemporary Advent calendar. Check this site for a free printable whimsical styled Advent calendar. For a modern Advent calendar click here. Here's an advent calendar that looks like a 3D town. Here is another town shaped Advent calendar printout.

Yellow Bliss Road has an Advent calendar styled like treat bags hanging from a line. O Happy Day has a similar printable Advent calendar. And Petit Lapin has yet another printable bag-style calendar.

This site has printable advent calendars in different styles. For printable child-themed advent calendars, check this site for a Santa Claus Advent calendar. Here's a stocking Advent calendar. Or here's an advent calendar with tags that look like ornaments.

Here are some printable window advent calendars. Here's a cute geometric one. Here's a vintage calendar. Here's a religious advent calendars from Loyola. All Crafts has advent calendar printables. And here are more Advent calendar to print. Here's a site with links to more printable Advent calendars.

Free Printable Kids Car Games, Activities, Puzzles

Are we there yet? This has to be the most oft-asked question from kids on car trips or vacations. If you've traveled with a fidgety child or three, you're nodding your head. When these questions start, it can make for a very long, tedious ride. That's why smart parents plan ahead in order to circumvent the complaints on car trips. Games make good boredom-busters and whining-stoppers. Here are free printable car games to stave off ennui and keep kids happily occupied on road trips. Use these for bored teens too. As much as they may protest the "baby games" I've found most adolescents love travel games! Homeschoolers, use these as lesson supplements for travel. Teachers, assign these activities as holiday vacation "homework."

Mom's Minivan has dozens of free printable travel games for car trips. There are different styles and game themes. Many of the car games do double duty as teaching materials, too. As a teacher and former homeschooler, I really appreciate that value-added benefit.

Some games are wordless and rely on pictures. This means new and emergent readers can join in the fun, too. My personal favorites are the roadside car bingo games . There are four different printable games with pictures of things kids might see looking out the window (cow, road construction markers, clothesline). Even two and three-year-olds can play if the non-driving parent or an older sibling marks the items spotted by the child on his bingo card.

There are four printable vehicle identification bingo games, too. I recommend these be played with older children who are better able to spot vehicle details. Older kids will enjoy the silly songs and license plate games. Kids of all ages will enjoy the free printable themed coloring pages of cars and animals.

The site offers printable dot games, puzzles, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, Battleship and tic-tac-toe as well. There are free printable scavenger hunt games with words and pictures shown (like a rebus). Learning to connect words and pictures helps children practice reading, spelling and vocabulary skills. These games can be tailored to the age of the children.

Games are vehicle-friendly and require few playing pieces. I recommend cutting and assembling games ahead of time. Place each child's activities in a separate folder, cardboard box or zippered bag. I recommend skipping the crayons as they melt easily. Markers tend to leak on vehicle upholstery. I suggest giving each child a box of colored pencils with sharpener or a 10-color pen. The pen is my preference for travel as it's self-contained. These free printable car games help keep children quietly productive.

Printable Diwali Activities, Rangoli Crafts for Deepavali

Hindus, Sikhs and Jains began celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Light. It began with Dhanteras on October 30 in 2016 and moves to the official Diwali on November 1 and 2. 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!"