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.