Free printable Memorial Day lesson plans for Remembrance Day with US history worksheets

Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Columbus Day. Labor Day, Veterans Day and Presidents Day focus on events in American history. Use these red white and blue crafts and art projects to celebrate. These free printable activities might easily be used as lesson plans for school or homeschool to teach American history, government, civics, social studies, geography, current events, US history and other similar classes.

All Crafts has a blowout of red white and blue crafts projects to use for major US national holidays. Use these free printable patriotic crafts for US national holidays like Memorial Day and 4th of July but also for lesson plans on Presidents Day, Constitution Day or even Election Day. Pecuniarities has a cute free printable toy soldiers crafts, perfect for Presidents Day and military holidays and US national holidays. Print toy soldiers, cut them out, wrap around toilet paper tubes and glue. Free Kids Crafts offers free printable patriotic crafts, games, activities, puzzles, paper dolls and paper airplanes. Use these for American history or Presidents Day activities!

The Toymaker has free printable patriotic crafts, red white and blue crafts and American history art projects. Making Friends always has lots of great crafts, including free printable patriotic crafts and RWB activities. You'll like the games,puzzles and mazes for US national holidays too. Teacher Vision has a bunch of educational free printable patriotic crafts. DL-TK has a loads of free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects and patriotic crafts for American history and US national holidays. Activity Village has free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects for all US national holidays. Here's the Presidents Day page but check the side menu and home page for season by season holiday activities.

Free printable Memorial Day lesson plans and patriotic Remembrance Day printables

Memorial Day, celebrated the last Monday in May, doesn't just kick off summer holidays. Also called Remembrance Day, the holiday honors veterans and those lost in U.S. wars. It's also referred to as Decoration Day, when family commemorates loved ones lost by putting flowers on graves. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday.

* Memorial Day Printables: About.com lists pages of free printable patriotic holiday games, word searches, crossword puzzles, writing activities and coloring pages. Why not print the packet and use for homework. Or let kids complete it while listening to stories on American war history. They could also watch one of these Memorial Day movies. Check my blogs Film Femme Fatale for educational movies for Memorial Day.

* Free Memorial Day Resource Unit: Homeschool Deals links to several free resources for Memorial Day printables and activities. There are Medal of Honor and soldier coloring pages, history worksheets, holiday games, reading and writing lessons and patriotic printable crafts. There are poems and literature-based activities. When I was young, teachers would have us write out seasonal poems in our best penmanship and create our own illustrations. Then she'd mount poem and picture on construction paper. This made a nice take-home project.

* Remembrance Day Printables: Free printable Memorial Day activities are suitable for 4th of July and Veterans Day, DL-TK offers pages of holiday printables. There are greeting cards, coloring pages and crafts. My favorite is a printable mini-book on Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's stirring World War 1 poem "In Flanders Field." The poem is the basis for the poppies worn on Memorial Day. Print the booklet in black and white so students can color images.

* Patriotic Coloring Pages at Raising our Kids has dozens of free printable American history coloring pages featuring, military, national memorials and landmarks, soldiers, historic images, national liberty symbols and more. Have students use these as greeting cards. Assign them to color images and write a message on the back. Mail or better still hand-deliver to seniors in nursing homes. Memorial Day is particularly poignant for elderly who remember wars and lost so many loved ones.

Free printable poetry writing prompts, poem patterns, poetry frames

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.

Earth Day activities, free earth science lessons, astronomy activities, solar system printables

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.

Easter Triduum printables: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil activities

The Easter Triduum, including Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil (or Holy Saturday) represents the most sacred days in the Catholic liturgical calendar. I was a homeschool mom in the early 1990s, before the Internet. I made all our curriculum. During Lent, we counted down to Easter with Lenten crafts, lesson plans and activities.

Pope John Paul II spoke of the family as the primary educators of children. He encouraged parents and children to set up altars in their home. Create a niche with votive candles, crucifix and holy relics. Pray with children before the altar.

Use my article to get free printable Catholic Holy Week activities. Help children explore Easter beyond bunnies and Easter eggs. Here are printable Palm Sunday crafts to make with kids. Print donkeys, a palm basket and other child-centered religious lessons.

Pray the Via Dolorosa or Way of the Cross. Use these free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. The Stations of the Cross is one of the most important Lenten devotions. On Good Friday, the faithful gather to follow the footsteps of Our Lord to Calvary. These free printable coloring pages form a devotional booklet that helps children understand each station of the cross. You might make your own Stations of the Cross by arranging children's pictures in the hallway (we did this). Or kids' could make outdoor dioramas and arrange in a prayer garden.

Here are more free printable Lenten lesson plans for Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. Use these activities to practice the spiritual exercises of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. You can print games, crafts, devotional exercises and lesson plans. Have children color Bible Easter images. Think coloring is too worldy an activity for the holy season of Easter? Consider this: Children learn by doing. What better way to learn about their faith and experience it more deeply than by doing activities that focus their minds and hearts on God?

Free printable geometry worksheets, free printable math games, math worksheets for Pi Day

Happy Pi Day! Pi is a Greek symbol that represents a math quantity of about 3.14 used to solve equations and find circle measurements. Pi Day celebrates geometry. Now geometry is a fascinating subject but gets a bad rap because it seems boring and complicated. So teach it in hands-on ways. Here are free printable math and geometry worksheets and lesson plans. Print interactive math games, flash cards, matching activities, diagrams and and activities.

Helping with Math offers free printable geometry units, worksheets and lesson plans. Print matching activities and games.

ABC Teach provides a complete free printable geometry bingo game that teaches geometry vocabulary by having students connect pictures on a bingo or GEOMY card with terms called. Print the 13 page game including vocabulary list, six different unlabeled cards with geometry figures and another set of six cards with angle measurements labeled on them. Print the entire game, laminate and cut out.

Kidz Zone has free printable math worksheets and units to teach money math, adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents, plus geometry.

Pro Teacher has math printables, worksheets, units, games and geometry activities. There are loads of free printable activities to follow the well laid-out syllabus.

Classroom Confections is cram-packed with free printable geometry lesson plans. Dr. Mike's Math page has loads more math and geometry game printables.

Pre-K to 8 offers free printable geometry activities on angles, congruency, shapes, triangles and lots of other cool activities. I love the looks of these activities; they are totally interactive and hands-on. Check out this site and book mark.

Teaching-Tools offers a free geometry vocabulary worksheet generator. Select terms that you are teaching and develop a practice page, test study guide, quiz or test. You can make free printable activities for terms, vocabulary, definitions, picture matching, angles, shapes and much more. Check out the menu on the left hand side for other worksheet generator topics like fractions, algebra and more math concepts.

Free printable felt board patterns, book stencils, story templates for preschool reading

 March in National Reading Month. To teach emergent readers, preschool educators use felt boards to illustrate books and tell stories. Here are free printable felt board patterns, stencils and felt board reading lesson templatesfrom First Palette. First Palette has free printable stencils and templates of shapes, animals, nature, leaves and trees, flowers, numbers, letters, people, clothing, cars, transportation, food--any pattern you need for any preschool unit!

DLTK Coloring has over 50 free printable felt board stencils. Templates include geometric shapes, animal outlines, solar system, seasons, weather, holiday, snowflake patterns, food and other preschool theme shapes.

Childcare Land has over 150 free felt board themes. Each theme has free printable felt board patterns, stencils, templates and activities. A helpful teaching video demonstrates how to use each lesson. Each kit has free printable stories. Pattern themes include months, animals, holiday patterns, seasonal, weather, children's literature, clothing, body parts, food, transportation, toys and games. Use free printable felt board patterns for science, social studies, reading, writing and math lessons.

Making Learning Fun has a gigantic assortment of free printable felt board patterns. This site features complete children's book themed felt board patterns: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, Cat in the Hat, Clifford, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fables and more.

Sunday School teachers used a similar tool called Flannel-Graph. To make felt board pieces, print stencils and cut out patterns. Trace pattern outlines on felt. Or trace templates on flannel. Cut out felt board shapes. As you tell a story, add felt pieces to story board to illustrate. Use as patterns to cut fabric shapes for Halloween costumes, craft appliques, paint stencils, cookie cutter templates for baking or playdoh.

Free printable Valentine's Day coloring pages, crafts, worksheets, activities

At each holiday, there are a few good websites to check for free printable holiday greeting cards, crafts, party decorations and coloring pages. Here are the best free printable Valentines Day crafts, greeting cards, valentines for classroom exchanges and children's Valentine's Day activities.

Start at The Toymaker for whimsical, Victorian-inspired Valentine's Day crafts. This link takes you to the Holidays - Valentine's Day page, but be sure to check out all the free printable toys, stories, games, crafts, cut and paste, holiday activities and novelties for children. The Toymaker, whose name is Marilyn makes all these free printables herself. For Valentine's Day crafts, there are free printable valentines greeting cards, treat boxes, a cute elephant valentine holder, valentine ornaments, a Celtic Valentine's Day treat box, a pixie box, door hangers, party decorations and more. These free printable crafts are perfect for preschool, homeschool, classroom and nursing home craft activities. Remember senior friends at Valentines Day when you exchange greeting cards.

Free printable brings you the best of web in freebies to print. This links takes you to the free printable valentines, just perfect for children's Valentine's Day exchanges. There are cute valentines with animals, hearts, frogs, flowers, dinosaurs and more. There are Valentine games, puzzles, decorations and other crafts, too. Be sure to scroll around for the multitude of other free printables.

Free Kids Crafts is another great free printable crafts clearinghouse. Sign up for the newsletter to see what great new activities are available. The link takes you to the first page of free printable valentines and Valentine's Day crafts. This page has 12 different styles of valentine crafts. Note that this is just the first page--there are four more pages of free printable valentines greeting cards and crafts alone (not to mention all the stuff to print for other holidays. Print valentines with animals, cartoons, hearts, candy, toys and more. You can make free printable Valentine's Day bookmarks, treat holders, paper glasses, party decorations, games, activities and more.

Teachers and homeschool parents, bookmark these sites for free printable party crafts, but also for that student who may have forgotten (or couldn't afford) to buy valentines to share with the class. Don't let her miss out on the valentine exchange fun--print off some valentines for her to fill out and distribute. I worked in high school special needs classroom. On Valentine's Day, many students still wanted to participate in valentine exchanges, but were deemed "too old." They were delighted when I printed valentines for them to make when their classwork was done.

Black History Month printables, worksheets, lesson plans, book activities

Complaints about why there's a Black History Month infuriate me. If you have to ask, you clearly don't get American history period. The revisionists aren't the ones teaching black history, they're the ones who wrote it out in the first place. Slavery, segregation, Jim Crow stole an entire peoples' past. Black History Month can't replace that. But it can renew the future, It can revive traditions, restore voices and reinvest in the heritage that was denied. I've always felt intense solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized. But recently, I experienced it in a new way. I sat in Rosa Parks' bus seat. 

Over Christmas, we took the family to Detroit and visited Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Since our last visit, the museum had acquired the Montgomery bus upon which Rosa refused to surrender her seat to a white man. Henry Ford Museum purchased the Rosa Parks bus from an Alabama family who'd used it for storage.  

Looking to profit, the family claimed, despite proof, theirs was the bus. An auctioneer found journal clippings and matching serial and coach numbers. With a bid of roughly $429,000 the museum won it from the Smithsonian and the city of Denver. 

The bus required extensive restoration The museum placed it in the "Liberty and Justice for All" exhibit. This ironically-named collection pays tribute to oppressed Americans who enjoyed no such liberty and justice--blacks, women, Latinos, native Americans. The chilling display features a "whites only" drinking fountain, Ku Klux Klan robe and Klansman's oath. Images show suffragette hunger strikers being force fed through the nose and mobs assailing black Woolworth's Lunch Counter. It's a gruesome reminder that freedom isn't free. 

Sitting in Rosa's seat was both eerie and exciting. Her act of defiance on December 1, 1955, spurred the Montgomery bus boycott  A Baton Rouge, Louisiana boycott failed due to lack of focus. Mrs. Parks' quiet, but firmly "no" provided that. Desegregation fire lit the nation, birthing Freedom Riders, SNCC protests, marches. And Jim Crow started to crumble.

If you're a teacher, you must visit the Henry Ford and experience Rosa Parks. There's no more fitting way to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There's better way to teach black history (or any history) than from inside looking out. Use these free Rosa Parks resources to prepare or follow up. 

Rosa Parks printables from Scholastic

Rosa Parks classroom activities from Education world

Printable Jim Crow activity booklet

Free Jim Crow worksheets from iCivics (you'll have to register for a free account)

Black History Month  and Jim Crow laws from EdHelper

Jim Crow Unit from Mr. Donn

Free printable calendars, online organizers, personal planners

Happy New Year 2016. How long does it take you to switch gears from the old year and remember the correct one? If it you're still writing 2015 on dates and forms, maybe you need new calendar printouts to help you recall? Or maybe you just need personal planners or online organizers. Here are free printable 2016 calendars to download and print. Use online organizers to manage online bill payment and personal planners to coordinate family activities. The post paper calendar printouts to keep everyone on the same page.

Print Free has gobs and gobs of free printable calendars in tons of different views and configurations. There are monthly calendar printouts, weekly date planners, year-at-a-glance, two-month calendars and online organizers. Choose from different patterns and themes. Select vertical or horizontal style personal planners. Opt for major holidays to be included. There's nothing to download. Just choose the style you want, point and shoot (or click and print, in this case).

Print 2016 Calendars has a vast array of free printable calendars in month styles. Fonts differ by bold, large-print and outline design. Print your online organizers as in grid, bookmark, year-at-a-glance and other styles. These calendar printouts open in PDF or Microsoft Word format (you have to have those software tools installed and enabled to open and print).

Here are tools for online organizers and personal planners to create free printable calendars from Calendar Labs. Add in religious holidays from your specific faith--dates for those are included. Perhaps your religion follows a different calendar, like Hebrew, Islam or Indian. This tool will help you generate and customize a 2016 (western year) calendar.

Here's yet another link for free printable calendars to customize. Win Calendar has a really nice, easy-to-use layouts for online organizers. Design personal planners and calendar printouts in the style that works best for you.

Free printable Catholic O Antiphons prayers, crafts count down to Christmas

Advent, a penitential season in Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches, begins four weeks before Christmas. During Advent, the faithful Catholic pray, give alms, fast and perform acts of sacrifice. It's a lesser Lent. Starting Dec. 17, in Advent, says Benet Vision, the Catholic church counts down the last week till the Octave of Christmas, praying the Magnificat or O Antiphons (names for Jesus) litany. The Magnificat was the Blessed Virgin Mary's prayer to God.

Each day focuses on a different Biblical name for Jesus. These ancient messianic titles are referenced in the Old Testament of the Bible. They can be found in the hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Here are the titles in Latin and English.

Dec. 17 O Sapientia (Wisdom)
Dec. 18: O Adonai (Lord of Lords)
Dec. 19: O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse or Flower of Jesse's stem)
Dec. 20: O Clavis David (Key of David)
Dec. 21: O Oriens ( Dayspring or Radiant Dawn)
Dec. 22: O Rex Gentium (King of the nations, King of Kings)
Dec. 23: O Emmanuel (God with Us, or With Us is God)

The Advent tradition of praying the Magnificat O Antiphons began in medieval times. Some protestant churches pray them too. Here are free printable Magnificat O Antiphons coloring sheetsto help children learn and pray these sacred worshipful devotions. Family Feast and Feria has freeprintable ancient Catholic church images found in stained glass windows to color. Have children, make them into a prayer booklet.

Teach kids that the first title letters, Emmanuel, Radix, Oriens, Clavis, Rex, Adonai and Sapienta spell the Latin word "erocras" meaning "Tomorrow, I will come." Advent anticipates the coming of Christ at Christmas. The O Antiphons take us to Dec. 24 the Feast of Christ's mass (Christmas). The symbol for Jesus is two Greek letters Chi Ro (X and P). It looks like a Pax sign.

You might also have children create free printable Jesse Tree ornaments and decorations for the Christmas tree. Children could learn to play O Come Emmanuel. Here is free printable sheet music for different instruments. Perhaps they could learn to sing it and share at a nursing home or church senior group. Words are included on the links. You might also make treats based on the seven Catholic Magnificat O Antiphons. Cut sugar cookies shaped printable images. Or cut them like a star, sun, tree, key, King's crown, Bible, cross, Chi Ro, fish, baby. Help kids explore the O Antiphons with all their senses.

Free printable World War I lesson plans for Veterans Day, Armistice Day

Veterans Day is celebrated November 11. It's also called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day. We honor veterans, military and those who've died. We remember World War One, which truce was called on November 11, 1918. Here are free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. Images include American military, patriotic themes and WWI history.

Edupics has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages. There are also over 100 military pictures to print and color. There are images of soldiers, weapons, vehicles, sailors, uniforms and insignia. Pictures are realistic and detailed. They cover wars from different countries and times in history. There are sections on printable WWI and WWII coloring pages.

Apples 4 the Teacher has several sections with printable coloring pages for holidays. Veterans Day coloring pages are linked here. Here's the site's free printable Social Studies lesson plans page. There are printable coloring pages of flags, presidents, famous people, American symbols and history.

Raising Our Kids has a really nice assortment of free printable Veterans Day coloring pages. These could be used to make homemade cards for American national patriotic holidays like 4th of July and Memorial Day, too.

Coloring Book Fun has a free printable patriotic themed coloring pages. These simple images would make good preschool holiday activities. Little ones can color them for greeting cards to give to senior citizens.

DL-TK has free printable Remembrance Day coloring pages and crafts. There are also mini booklets to use as coloring books. There are Veterans Day word searches and puzzles and poppy crafts. Coloring.ws has more Veterans Day coloring pages to print free.

Here are free printable GI Joe coloring pages from Educational Coloring Pages. 101 Coloring Pages has more GI Joe coloring pages to print free. Print a coloring book for kids to teach them what Veterans Day is and why we celebrate it.

Free printable pagan and Wicca sabbat crafts for Samhain

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 Crafts and Printables from Martha Stewart

 I maintain several highly-performing niche blog, the most popular ones involving printable crafts for children. Internet searchers are always seeking freebies and crafts. Click this link for loads of free printable holiday themed crafts. Look for free printable crafts for fall holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Diwali, All Saints Day, Halloween, Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, Epiphany. Perfect for lesson plans.

You probably know Martha Stewart is the DIY home goddess. What you might not know is that her website offers free printable Martha Stewart craft patterns to make her many amazing crafts. This craft guru literally has crafts, recipes and printables for every holiday, theme and occasion. Whatever holiday is coming next is featured on the homepage. There's a timeline of holidays along the banner menu, so you can scroll through and find printable craft patterns and templates for past or upcoming holidays. 

Day of the Dead Lesson Plans and Printable Activities to Celebrate Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, commemorates the lives of beloved dead. Day of the Dead is the Latino version of Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day, November 1 and 2. Dia de los Muertos traditions include creating family altars to honor the dead, visiting loved ones' graves and having picnics at the cemetery to be near the departed. Human skulls and skeletons are integral Dia de los Muertos symbols. Items are designed to look like skulls: candles, food and sugar skulls. People paint their faces to represent a skull (called a calavera). Some Halloween traditions developed from Day of the Dead but unlike Halloween, Day of the Dead isn't about scaring people. It's a religious holiday, culminating the Catholic holy days with pre-Columbian Aztec, Mixtec, Olmec and Toltec rituals of Mexico. If you need free printable Day of the Dead lesson plans to teach students about this popular cultural holiday, read on. Use the for homeschooled, public and parochial schooled kids.

Tiki Chris at Flickr has designed awesome free printable skull patterns from one basic skull template. Print these in black and white for students to color. Or print the basic skull template and have a calavera skull decorating contest! This would make an excellent art or social studies project. Using one basic pattern, students can exhibit their creativity in design. Kids will love making connections with this beautiful heritage art from Mexico.

QuestConnect.org has free printable Dia de los Muertos lesson plans and activities to thoroughly explore the Day of the Dead. Make papel picado banners, sugar skulls and skeleton crafts. Kids can learn the geography and culture of Mexico with an Oaxaca puzzle. Arty Ness has free printable Day of the Dead coloring pages, art projects, crafts with skeletons and skulls and more. Mr. Donn has a plethora of free printable Dia de Los Muertos lesson plans and activities. Use these for history, culture, geography and social studies lesson plans for middle school age kids.

Enchanted Learning has free Day of the Dead lesson plans to print. A-Z Central has a whole website devoted to Dia de los Muertos activities. Print and make crafts. Listen to music. Learn about the culture of Mexico. Play games. Learn to make recipes and foods from Mexico. National Geographic has vocabulary lessons on Day of the Dead. There's an awesome picture gallery.

Many parents, particularly Christian parents, don't celebrate Halloween. But don't mistake Day of the Dead skull for Halloween and ignore this rich, cultural festival. And don't let the skulls and skeletons freak you out. They show honor to the dead, not ghoulish fascination with death. These are as reverently handled as the nativity scenes at Christmas. And educators, if you teach ESL, please consider hosting a Day of the Dead party for students. It's good to learn about each other's cultures plus it makes Hispanic students feel more at home.