Around the World of Poems, Free Printable Persian Poetry Lessons for NaPoWriMo

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.

Preschool Animal Alphabet Themed Snacks from A-Z Plus ABC Printables

Teachers, here’s a month-long menu of alphabet-themed snacks. Use these for interactive reading lesson plans. Use Alpha-Bits cereal, letter pretzels, cookies for letter shape. Make character sandwiches using any spread and leave open face. Use pretzels or matchstick carrots for whiskers. For eyes, use Cheerios, spray cheese, raisins, olives, banana or kiwi slices. Make ears, nose and mouth from apple bits, pimentos, pepper pieces, triangle chips or crackers. Use pretzel sticks for legs. For cookie creations, use candy or fruit to make faces.  

Teach Kids Generosity With Lenten Almsgiving Donations

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the single largest non-governmental relief agency in the world. Each year at Lent, CRS Rice Bowl collects millions of dollars for global poverty from nickels and dimes of Catholic parishioners. CRS Rice Bowl focuses attention on the Lenten virtues of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The CRS Rice Bowl is a cardboard box which, when assembled, looks like a Chinese restaurant take-out box. During Lent, families place a CRS Rice Bowl in their homes to collect loose change for the poor and hungry of the world. The CRS Rice Bowl packet includes Lenten calendars with devotional activities, prayers, feast days and stations of the cross. Each calendar day has a global prayer focus with specific information about the country in need. Here are CRS Rice Bowl activities, printables, prayers, games, crafts and recipes. Use these Lenten lesson plans to teach social studies, history, economics, geography, language arts, culture, science and religious education

Social studies lesson plans. Explore countries served by Lenten rice bowl. Lenten calendars list information about the seven countries (one for each week of Lent) supported by the CRS Rice Bowl. Each year CRS Rice Bowl highlights different countries to help. Lenten calendars introduce a person from each country and explain some of the conditions. Lenten calendars share recipes from that country. Printables, lesson plans and learning activities are provided to supplement the CRS rice bowl.

Science and geography lesson plans. Research the seven countries served by Operation Rice Bowl. Hang a wall-sized world map. Create maps for CRS Rice Bowl countries and regions. Attach maps to wall with yarn indicating where they are on world map. Make a chart or graphic organizer showing cause and effect of poverty in each country (drought, poor sanitation, terrain, natural disasters, political regimes, military coups, loss of industry, urban crowding, etc.). Create and display a time line, running along the wall. Draw a separate line for each country to show events in each. Draw a world timeline and list important global events. Illustrate maps and time lines with native animals, artifacts and natural resources. Use printables for maps, charts and coloring pages.

Language arts lesson plans. Write letters through Catholic Relief Services to children in each country. Write country name, language, region, capitol and keywords from each country. Use as vocabulary and spelling words. Have children create country booklets, using free social studies printables from Enchanted Learning. Older kids could create reading response journals and include maps and writing projects. Or have kids make scrapbooks.

Make and try CRS Rice Bowl recipes included. Cooking is great hands-on application for math, chemistry and science lesson plas. Explore ethnic markets in your area and online to find the ingredients you need. Look for others foods that are similar. Be sure to emphasize meatless recipes. Research and discuss the biomes and habitats of the countries. What plants grow native in these regions? What animals are native? What is the terrain and climate? Explore other recipes from these areas or similar regions. See website for links on world research. Design a world cookbook and sell copies to raise money for the CRS Rice Bowl.

Check out Catholic Relief Services Family site for more ideas. Use the Educators page for loads more social studies printables, lesson plans, activities, word games, puzzles, kids newsroom, interactive online activities and games. Use the Catholic prayer calendar in following Lenten calendars. Most schools incorporate calendar activities in their day. Include the prayers and information in your calendar routine.

Free Coloring Pages to Print for Children

One of the many things I like about blogging is sharing freebies with my friends. Today's free thang is printable coloring pages. I'm kind of the coloring pages guru, the free printable princess. I thought I'd seen every printables site on the web. Then I found Pic Gifs ;yesterday, digging up animated clipart. Coloring pages make great lesson plans for preschool, perceptual development, fine motor skills, special needs. And kids love 'em!   

Dr. Seuss Book Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Crafts

 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 Dr. Seuss Book Coloring Pages

 March 2 marks the birthday of an American icon. Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel or Theo LeSieg. Dr. Seuss wrote pearls of wisdom in electric color and silly verse. The Lorax, Horton, the Grinch, The Cat in the Hat. 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.

Free printable Harry the Dirty Dog Printables, Recycled Yarn Craft, Snacks

March is National Reading Month. Why not celebrate the joy of children's literature with a kids' storybook craft party? I learned as a special education Montessori teacher/homeschool mom to make lesson plans hands-on. So my craft parties include an interactive story and snack. One of my husband's favorite children's literature characters is Harry the Dog, created by Gene Zion and drawn by Margaret Bloy Graham. Harry the Dirty Dog won the Caldecott Award for children's literature illustrations. Here are free printable lesson plans, book crafts and recipes for a Harry the Dirty Dog party. Most of the activities come from the book No Roses for Harry.

Read Harry the Dirty Dog and No Roses for Harry. Stop at different points in the stories and have children predict what will happen next. Make flip books by cutting plain paper in quarters and staple together. Let children illustrate the books and tell the story using flip books. Use these free printable Harry the Dirty Dog lesson plans. Make a booklet of free printable Harry the Dirty Dog activities.Use these free printable Harry the Dirty Dog coloring pages for kids to color while you read stories. Here are some free printable children's literature coloring pages from No Roses for Harry.

Make a yarn bush book crafts for the birds based on No Roses for Harry. Have kids gather up recycled bits of string and yarn. Place them in trees and bushes for the birds to use in nest building. Look for your yarn in bird's nests. My mother made a yarn tree and said she knows the birds are using it because the yarn is disappearing. You might get a bird guide and ID the birds you see in the yard. Teach kids to braid yarn or strips of scrap fabric. Twist braided yarn into a flat coil and sew together in several places. Make into pot holders or mug rugs for book crafts.

For Harry the Dirty Dog snacks, make scrubbing brush cookies. Use spray decorator frosting to make brush bristles on Nutter Butter peanut butter sandwich cookies. For No Roses for Harry, make Polish "roses." Spread cream cheese on a scallion. Wrap a slice of ham around it. Make No Roses for Harry rose pinwheel cookies. Roll sugar cookie dough into "snakes" then roll in red sprinkles. Wind into a pinwheel and bake. Or make flower cookies. Roll sugar cookie dough in little balls. Arrange four in a square. Bake and frost. Decorate with candy sprinkles and an M&M in the center. Here are value-added children's literature book crafts plus snacks!

Enjoy Harry the Dirty Dog drinks--chocolate milk and white milk--while making your book crafts. Read the rest of the Harry the Dirty Dog children's literature series including Harry and the Lady Next Door and Harry By the Sea.