Free printable spring coloring pages, Easter and life science lesson plans

 March 20-22 marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in many countries. For those of locked in ice and snow and cold, this date can't come too early. Many have had a long winter and are pretty happy to hear those cheery little birds singing and see tiny crocuses bravely trying to poke their lavender heads up through the snow. How about some free spring coloring pages, Easter holiday activities and spring crafts to occupy those children who are sick of winter and school? 

Coloring Book Fun free printable spring coloring pages are simple enough for the not yet seasoned colorers, and yet offer more challenging pictures for veteran colorers. This site has a huge stock of free printable spring coloring pages and spring crafts based on seasons, weather, Easter holiday activities, topics, Bible based pictures, multi-cultural and animals. You can find just about any cartoon character from G.I.Joe to Barbie to Pokemon to Rug-rats to Rainbow Brite to Dragon Ball Z to Dora, plus all your Disney favorites.

DL-TK provides all sorts of free printable spring coloring pages, seasonal spring crafts, lesson plans, puzzles, crafts, projects, scissor practice, sequencing practice, music, song sheets, stories, spring crafts and Easter holiday activities. DLTK has all kinds of preschool activities that will reinforce prereading, letter and number recognition, fine motor practice, telling time, tying shoes, counting, tracing and other skill builders based around a theme. You will find printables for baby animals, new life, butterflies and other insects, plants, flowers, rain, and more. 

Check out these really cute Easter holiday coloring pages from Print Activities. This site
has a really large data bank of banner and ad-free printables with educational themes, There's no sign up or registration, very few if any pop-ups and easy one click printing. I found many styles of cross-word puzzles, calendars, tracing, mazes, word scrambles, word sorts, connect the dots, connect the dot using math problems, Sudoku, fill in the blanks, color by numbers, color by math (students complete math problems and complete a code to color pictures. All these spring crafts and puzzles are themed on seasons, but you can find other topics with themed puzzles: Easter holiday activities, seasons, animals, It may take a moment to load, but it is worth it

Easter Egg Crafts and Bible Object Lesson Plans

For Catholic Christians, the Lenten season, which begins after Ash Wednesday is a journey with Jesus. The Catholic Church prays the Stations of the Cross, tries to imitate Christ in humility, prayer and sacrifice or fasting. Lent culminates at Palm Sunday and Holy Week which ends in the Passion, death and resurrection of Christ at Easter. Here are Lenten devotions and Bible object lesson plans using Easter eggs. Use these Easter egg crafts to teach science too. 

Holy Trinity Bible object lessons. Decorating Easter eggs is a great time to teach Bible object lessons. Use Easter egg crafts to teach children about the Holy Trinity. Show children that the eggshell is white, smooth and pure. It holds everything together and so represents God the Father. Hidden inside is the yolk, the source of life. The yolk represents God's most important gift, His son Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the intercessor, the go-between. So the egg white represents the Holy Spirit as it is in the middle.

New life Bible object lessons. Easter eggs symbolize fertility and rebirth. In Lenten devotions, teach children that Easter eggs represent eternal life. Just as birds care for their young in eggs and rejoice when newborns emerge, a Christian experiences new life or rebirth from old sins in Jesus. Hiding Easter eggs simulates how a Christian should seek God. Easter baskets simulate nests which shelter baby birds. God shelters his children in safety of his love. Children might decorate their Easter egg crafts with images of birds, nest, chicks, spring, the cross or Jesus.

Resurrection Eggs Lenten devotions: Catholic Holy Week countdown using Easter eggs. For these Easter egg crafts. you'll need 8 plastic eggs, a basket and Easter grass or green construction paper. For Bible object lessons, place one item in each egg that relates to the Easter story and a slip of paper with the Bible verse that mentions the item. You'll find the Easter story in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22, 23 and 24 (verse 1-12), or Mark chapter 11 (verse 1-11)chapter 14, 15 and 16 (verses 1-8). It's contained in the other two gospels as well, but Luke and Mark are the best retellings.

Label each egg as follows and place these items inside:

Palm Sunday--a piece of palm, dry grass or a plastic donkey (to remember Palm Sunday, when Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem)

Monday of Catholic Holy Week--a piece of cracker or crouton (to remember Christ's institution of Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper)

Tuesday of Catholic Holy Week--a dime (the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray his friend Jesus)

Wednesday of Holy Week--a tiny piece of branch with thorns (Crown of thorns)

Holy Thursday--a nail (to symbolize that His hands and feet were nailed to a cross)

Good Friday--a cocktail sword or toothpick (to remember that Jesus was pierced with a sword in his side, from which poured water and blood)

Holy Saturday--a stone (the stone that was placed in front of the tomb of Christ and later miraculously removed)

Easter Sunday--Nothing! This reminds us of the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Open one egg each day from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. Light a candle for this special time. Ask a young child to explain to the family or group what this item could mean. The family can share their ideas, experiences or scripture references to the item. You might all sing a hymn or chant to remember this part of the story. Sing Crown Him with Many Crowns, All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name or Te Deum. Extend Easter egg crafts, by having children to illustrate Bible object lessons they've learned. Combine illustrations in a family memory book and use for Lenten devotions in years to come.

Health science lesson plans: Nutrition chemistry and recipes to fight obesity

Childhood obesity is a dangerous health issue that affects more kids annually. What can we as parents and teachers do about it? Weight loss under age 13 is tricky because preteens are still growing. Better to teach good nutrition in health and science lesson plans. Here are healthy food swaps for favorites kid foods and ways to teach nutrition in the classroom. 

* Salt: Teach properties of salt in kitchen chemistry lesson plans. Teach children to read labels and seek out low-sodium varieties of favorite snacks. Put out healthy snacks and let kids make trail mix in snack size bags to control portions. Make low salt popcorn in class. For fun nutrition lesson plans, instruct kids to research salt substitutes--lemon juice, vinegar and herbs.

* Soda pop. Have students study nutrition labels to discover how much sugar pop contains. In chemistry
science lesson plans, demonstrate how sugar dehydrates, and how the acid in pop burns grime off a penny and in the same way burns stomach lining and tooth enamel. Help students create healthy carbonated drink recipes with 100 percent fruit juice and soda water. Demonstrate the importance of plain water in curbing obesity and overall health. 

* Pizza: Kids love pizza and there are a million great ways it can be used in lesson plans. Let students make clock faces with vegetables and cheese on personal crusts. Experiment with creative pizza recipes using healthy toppings and creative crust food swaps. Made right, pizza can actually fight childhood obesity. 

* Veggies and dip: Kids love vegetables in ranch dip so let them invent healthy dip and dressing recipes. Use food swaps of yogurt, garlic, pepper and a little Parmesan cheese. Teach colors and patterns with cut vegetables. Help them to explore texture and taste and then write descriptively. 

* Spreads and condiments: This is a great place to learn measurement and portion size. Let kids practice measuring serving sizes of ketchup, jam for PBJ, butter, mayo, etc. Explore calories and teach math by counting and adding calories in math lesson plans. 

* Breads: Help kids explore healthy vs. unhealthy ingredients in breads. Bring in your bread machine and use it to teach cooking, nutrition and kitchen chemistry lesson plans. Help kids invent and write nutritious bread recipes using different grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruits. 

No nutrition lesson plans are complete without the fitness component. Get kids away from screens and outside playing. Active children will not need to worry about weight loss and obesity. 

Free Printable Animal Classification Lessons, Activities, Worksheets

Parents, are you homeschooling your kids are thinking about it? Then you'll want to avail yourself of the many free printable lesson plans and worksheets online. Maybe you're needing resources for science homework help? Here are free printable animal classification charts, worksheets and taxonomy charts and diagrams to use for lesson plans. Animal classification or taxonomy, is a system of organizing creatures according to a hierarchy. It originated in Carolus Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. Creatures are organized by Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (abbreviated KPCOFGS in science classes). Here are free printable animal classification lesson plans and activities.

Animal classification or taxonomy, is a system of organizing creatures according to a hierarchy. It originated with Carolus Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. Creatures are organized by Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (abbreviated KPCOFGS in science classes). Here are free printable animal classification lessons and activities.

Free Printable Bugs, Insects, Spiders Lesson Plans Activities

Spring is in the air--time for insects to make their appearance. Do you like insects and spiders or do they just bug you? Whether you're a hexapoda aficionado (bug lover) or a you have a arachnophobia, it's important to understand insects and spiders and their place in the environment. Here are free printable insects activities and bugs lesson plans.

Orkin (yes, the bug people) has a beautifully illustrated free printable Insect Identification booklet. This free printable guide to insects features detailed images of bugs, plus information on bug habits and habitats. This will help identify safe and dangerous insects in the home, yard and environment. There are free printable insects lesson plans. Here's a free printable insects booklet with bug coloring pages, games, puzzles, experiments and crafts.

The Orkin Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History offers free printable lesson plans spiders, butterflies and insects . Explore caterpillars, butterflies and cocoons, spiders and spider webs. Print coloring pages of caterpillars, butterflies, ladybugs, bees, ants, dragonflies, moths, grasshoppers, beetles, praying mantis, mosquitoes, scorpions, flies, termites and fireflies or lightning bugs.

Spiders are not insects, but arachnids. Free Printable Coloring pages has nearly 50 insects and spiders coloring pages. Click this link for beautifully detailed butterfly coloring pages. Each butterfly species is labeled. Images look like stained glass windows coloring pages. Use them for science lessons on insects, butterflies, spring, metamorphosis or new life.

Coloring Castle has free printable coloring pages of bees and butterflies, There are also free printable ladybug coloring pages and lesson plans of a ladybugs 100 chart and a numbers 1-10 pyramid. Edupics has over 100 free printable insects coloring pages and 41 butterflies coloring pages.

 

Free Printable Human Body Coloring Pages, Anatomy Color and Label Activities

Teachers do you need human anatomy lesson plans? One great way to learn content is by color and label diagrams. Coloring and labeling worksheets or maps helps students understand how things go together. Color and label diagrams are especially good for teaching social studies and science. Here are fee printable human body coloring worksheets and color and label anatomy diagrams. Free printable human body coloring worksheets include the eight systems of the body--respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, skeletal system, muscular system, nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive system.

Edupics has free printable human body coloring worksheets, color and label anatomy diagrams and charts for all parts of the body. Free printable diagrams of the eye, ear, teeth, brain, nose and mouth are available too. Homeschool Giveaways has a free printable brain hat with brain hemispheres and brain anatomy drawn out.

Kids-n-Fun has free printable human body coloring pages and worksheets of human anatomy diagrams. booklet with a small nicely detailed diagram of the different systems of the human body.The National Institute of Health has a page of free printable human body coloring worksheets, anatomy diagrams to color and label and general health lesson plans and printables. Next, visit Activity Village for free printable color and label human body charts.

But the gold mine for free printable anatomy diagrams, human body worksheets and color and label activities is Enchanted Learning. You can get free printable lesson plans, charts, label diagrams, maps and educational resources galore. To print without ads and banners you must pay a $20 yearly site fee which is a real bargain for school or homeschool parents. Enchanted Learning pays for itself after one workbook purchase! Each page features a body system to label and color. Use for a study guide or homework activities

Free Printable Apple Themed Lesson Plans

Autumn in Michigan means apples. Apples are a common theme for preschool and elementary school students. Teachers and homeschoolers, are you teaching a unit on apples? Have I got a great sweet treat for you: free printable apple-themed lessons, apple coloring pages, apple games, worksheet and activities. There are math, social studies, science, reading, history, writing connections and more. 

 A to Z Teacher Stuff for more links to dozens of free printable apple lesson plans, crafts, mini booklets, games and worksheets. Most are geared to ages pre-K to grades 4.There are apple crafts, games, life science lesson plans and more!

Free Printable Boats, Maritime Lessons Plans

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Schools and businesses get in on the fun. You can, too. Here are free printable pirate coloring pages, paper crafts, boat and ship models, maritime lessons and nautical themed activities. I've included lessons on ancient navigation tools, pirate coloring pages, Disney ship crafts, marine and navy lessons and more. Plenty of cut and paste and hands-on lessons. That way teachers and home-school parents can indulge their inner pirate and call it educational. 

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 maritime and lighthouse activities, 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 boat images.

Celestial Navigation offers free printable vintage maritime activities. 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 old navigational tools.

US Lighthouse Society has free printable lighthouse lesson plans, crafts, coloring pages, worksheets and educational materials. You must create a user Id to access. Boats, Ships and Subs has dozens of links for free printable paper boat models. There are sailing vessels from all periods in history, including clipper ships, Chinese junks, Roman warships, Coast Guard boats, viking long boats, pirate ships and models of the Titanic and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.

Disney Experience has free printable nautical toys and crafts from maritime-themed Disney 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. 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 a boat that looks very like Sir Francis Drake's "Golden Hind."

Yes, Coloring has has dozens of realistic free printable coloring pages of boats, ships and submarines for many periods in history. There are also coloring pages of pirate ships.

Free Printable Fire Prevention Week Activities and Lessons

  Fire Prevention Week runs the first full week in October. Here are fire safety printables and emergency preparedness lessons for Fire Prevention Week. Use free printable fire prevention activities, worksheets, coloring pages, stickers, games, puzzles and crafts to help kids learn vital life-saving skills. Here are free printable family activities for Fire Prevention Week. Across the country, fire fighters, public safety officers, schools, communities and families will be teaching kids about safety this October, just in time for the holiday season.

National Fire Prevention is an organization dedicated to teaching people about fire safety and fire prevention. This link takes you to the Fire Prevention Week page. Look for free printable emergency escape plans, home maps, charts, phone numbers lists, safety check-lists and other fire prevention resources. Activities are printed in English and Spanish. Check your local community fire station for details on events they may be hosting.

Print smoke alarm safety sheet, family safety checklist, smoke alarm tutorial poster, family fire escape grid route and classroom unit on fire prevention. Use for back to school science lesson plans. It's a good idea to teach a safety unit as soon as you begin classes in the fall. Educators and homeschoolers there are packets of printable information to use in lesson plans. Scroll through for grade and language appropriate lesson

Sparky the Fire Dog has his own website kids can play on. Print a Sparky origami dog. Play interactive games with Sparky, while learning important science lessons. Kids can learn fire safety in a safe, hands-on activities. They'll love the fire role play games and simulations.

Free Printable Leaf Identification Charts, Tree Coloring Pages

One of the most popular autumn lesson plans is to assign students to make a leaf identification booklet. Here are free printable tree identification charts and leaf patterns and fall craft stencils. Parents, homeschoolers and teachers, make flashcards with these tree and leaf patterns. Use in hands-on Montessori style games for nature science study. Make tree and leaf books. Assign students to collect leaves, press them or make leaf rubbings. Students should label leaves and trees using identification diagrams.

Tree Hugger has free _printable leaf patterns for tree and leaf identification from common trees around the country. The site also has textbook-quality, beautifully detailed free printable leaf coloring pages taken from naturalist Charles Sprague Sargent's leaf plate illustrations. Each page features a different leaf with its corresponding tree, berry, nut and foliage. These printable illustrations include cut-away drawings and other helpful identification data, plus the Latin classification for genus and species of the tree. The website gives the leaf and tree names in their American variation. Use these printables for taxonomy lessons on KPCOFGS (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus and Species) as developed by zoologist Carolus Linnaeus.

Arbor Day offers several printable nature science resources and online tree and leaf identification activities.  Here are more links for tree and leaf identification on conifers, deciduous trees, hardwoods, and other assorted trees from different biomes and habitats. Don't miss these free printable forest map activities showing location and region of different types of trees. Scroll down to find the region and tree type you are looking for. Here's a free printable tree and leaf matching game. Print as coloring pages of leaves. Here are websites with free printable fall leaf patterns for autumn crafts. Here are free printable leaf stencils for decorations and children's activities. First Palette has free leaf pattern printables too. 

Free Printable Geology Lesson Plans

Earth science is a fascinating subject. To help you teach earth science, either in public school or in homeschool, here are free printable geology lesson plans and earth science worksheets. Look for charts, graphs, maps, activities and printables to explore geology, rocks and minerals and earth science.

Geology has free printable geology lesson plans and earth science worksheets. You can print charts, geographical maps, geologic maps, periods of the earth, rocks and minerals, earth structure and diagrams that demonstrate plate tectonics. Look for earth cut-away models, soil layers, volcanoes, ring of fire, the relationship between volcanoes and earthquakes, carbon dating, how fossils and fossil fuels develop, rocks and minerals and more.

Teacher Vision is a superb resource for worksheets and lesson plans on earth science, rocks and minerals and geology. Scroll around to find specific earth science activities you need. Teachers and homeschool parents don't miss the huge assortment of geology and earth science printables awaiting you at National Geographic Kids!

Next, spelunk (that's explore in geo-speak) your way over to the Geological Society of America for dozens of free printable geologylesson plans. Who better than the GSA to teach kids about earth science, geology, rocks and minerals, ages of the earth models and other earth-friendly topics? Also, Pinterest has lots of free geology printables and activities. including this booklet from Preschool Powol Packets free printable earth science lesson plans. 

Mining Matters' has some useful educational free printable resources geared specifically to coal mining. Here a few more links to free printable rocks and minerals lesson plans and Montessori science rocks and minerals activities. 

Animal Classification Bingo Game: Animal sorting game for preschool science Lesson Plans

Interactive Animal Classification and Habitat Bingo Game for Elementary Science Class As a former Montessori teacher and homeschool mom, I'm always looking for hands-on, interactive ways to teach concepts. To explore animal classification, habitats and elementary life science and biology, I made up an animal sorting or bingo game. My children have always owned an impressive collection of stuffed and plastic animals. I put their toy animal collection to use in preschool and elementary science lesson plans. You can easily play this game with a classroom of children, or use in science learning centers. 

First, collect stuffed animals, toy animals, plastic animals and even magazines with pictures of animals. Use your National Geographic, Big Back Yard and Ranger Rick magazines. Next, make a large Bingo board on the floor with masking tape. Each square should be about 8x12 inches large. Make large signs from recycled cardboard for each category on the bingo board.

  If you are studying animal classification, you will make categories labeled:

  MAMMAL

  BIRD

  FISH

  REPTILE

  AMPHIBIAN

  INSECT

  If you are studying habitats or biomes in science, list the biomes you are exploring

  DESERT

  RAINFOREST

  EASTERN WOODLAND

  OCEAN

  WETLAND MARSH

  POND  

  SAVANNAH GRASSLAND

  Play animal bingo in one of several ways. Call out a category and let students come up and select a toy animal to place in one of the boxes under the category. You can also give each child a blank bingo sheet. For each animal in his collection, he writes a small label card. If the animal is called, he places it the correct category. You might also call categories and let him choose which, if any of the animals he has, to put in the category. The last way to play this animal bingo game (and also the most abstract and least hands-on) is to pass out animal word cards and play it that way. My students and children prefer sorting their toy animals. It was pretty cute to see Pooh bear sitting in the WOODLAND and Minnie Mouse in the MAMMAL category. This game works well for group instruction; students learn from each other and great discussion ensues.

Back to School DIY Science Nature Detective Kit

Back to School Science Kickoff Activities: DIY Nature Detective Kit Welcome kids back to school with science exploration kick off activities. Make easy inexpensive individual nature detective kits. 

Looking for summer camp kids' activities? Here's a nature science lesson plan. Make nature detective kits to explore wildlife science concepts. Use this activity to welcome kids back to school. Kids will love playing nature CSI! Homeschooling parents will love this inexpensive, hands-on science lesson.

You will need one of each of these items per student:

--large gallon size zipper bag or cheap carry-all bag to store supplies

--plastic magnifying glass (available in bulk at Great Party, Party America or Oriental Trading)

--cheap one-subject notebook

--pocket folder ($.05 -$.15 each from Walmart, Staples, Target)

--plastic disposable gloves (choose latex free; give each student one pair)

--tweezers or cotton swabs (both would be useful, but use cotton swabs to save money)

--3 or 4 specimen bags (snack size Zip-Loc)

--3-4 larger specimen bags (sandwich size Zip-loc)

--sheet of label stickers

--pen and pencil

-- roll of invisible Scotch tape

--several pieces of yarn or string

--box of crayons ($.25 at back-to-school sales)

--measuring tape (here's a free printable measuring tape)

How to Use Nature Detective Kits:

Make kit assembly part of the lesson. Set out supplies in stations and give students gallon zipper bag and supplies list. This provides experience in counting, sorting and organizing.

Using stickers, kids label notebook: Investigator (name)____________ or Detective (name)____________. Label bags: Exhibit A, B, C or Evidence. As evidence is collected, data and date should be added. For example: 'beetle exoskeleton 9-3-2015.

Go on nature investigation hunts around your neighborhood, school playground or camp. Assign students different items to investigate, native to your area. Students should not keep living specimens, but they might bring a bug box to temporarily house and examine a living critter. Look for evidence of living creatures: bug carcasses, exoskeletons, fallen leaves, feathers, owl pellets, seed pods, rocks, fallen nest, bits of animal fur, bark samples, plants, flowers and rocks.

Have students draw living creatures, homes and habitats: spider's web, bird's nest, wasp's nest, rabbit hole, ant hill, scat (animal droppings). Students should record when and where they observed it. Students shouldn't touch but may observe scat(animal droppings) or dead animal remains.

In class, have children discuss and hypothesize on findings at their level of reasoning. Students might create a natural history museum displaying what they have found. Students can act as young docent guides, explaining discoveries to visitors. This makes a superb activity for parent-teacher conferences, which come early in the year before teachers have had time to collect much student work. It's ideal for summer camp, too. 

DIY Preschool Classroom Learning Centers: Sand and Water Table Ideas

The sand table, also called the water table or sand and water table, is a staple in preschool learning centers,  early childhood special education and kindergarten classrooms. The sand table is a hollowed out table that can be filled with sand and/ or water for interactive play. Here are diy water table ideas for preschool, day care, homeschool, Montessori, kindergarten and any exploratory classroom environment. The water table is an important part learning centers based classrooms. The sand table provides tactile stimulation, interactive hands-on exploration and play therapy for special education and early childhood development. It fosters perceptual and cognitive development in special education students. It helps with special education occupational therapy.

You can purchase a sand table or make homemade one using one of these alternatives: dish pan, recycled plastic laundry soap bucket, shallow plastic covered storage bin, inflatable child's swimming pool, small hard plastic swimming pool or covered Little Tikes Turtle sandbox. I have used all of these as a DIY water table in my teaching career. The nice thing about using a smaller water table is that it's portable. If you choose a covered container for a sand table you can store in when not in use. The Little Tikes Turtle sandbox makes a particularly nice sand table as you can use it indoors and outdoors, as a pool or sandbox.

In the summer weather, take the Turtle sandbox outside for outdoor learning centers. In the cold, wet winter months, bring the sandbox inside and set up in your special education and preschool classroom learning centers. Cover the floor with an old recycled plastic shower curtain or tablecloth for easy clean up. Set a little broom and dust pan nearby so that children can sweep up sand and replace in sand table. This is good housekeeping practice for the house or practical life learning centers.

Preschool Sand Table Lesson Plans for science learning centers

A sand table is a low child-sized table with tubs that can be filled with materials for children to explore. The sand table, also called sand and water table, is the backbone of preschool science activities in learning centers. Early childhood special education classrooms use a sand table, or water table. The sand table provides hands-on,interactive learning, cognitive and perceptual development and tactile stimulation. You can make your own sand table for preschool learning centers. Then use these sand table science activities for early childhood lesson plans.

Water: Fill tubs with water to make a water table. Add floating toys and bath tub toys. Provide different sized containers that encourage children to practice pouring and measuring. Place revolving water wheels in the water table. Add some items that sink and some that float. Use water table for hands-on exploration with the scientific concepts of flotation, water displacement, density and specific gravity. Create a "What Sinks? What Floats?" chart.

Bubbles: Make a simple bubble solution with water, lemon Joy dish soap and glycerin for sturdy

bubbles. Add bubble making toys and every day household gadgets: apple corer, egg beater, whisk,

egg slicer, slotted spoon, fork, cone shaped applesauce mill and any other safe gadgets for water

science activities in learning centers.

Rocks and seashells: Fill your sand table with water and sand. Add rocks, seashells and old (sanitized)

recycled toothbrushes. Children can scrub shells and rocks with toothbrushes. Shells and rocks are

best seen in water, which brings out their hidden depths. Children will love exploring the intricate

beauty of shells and rocks.

Shaving Cream: Allow children to squirt shaving cream into water table tub. Concentrated gel shaving

cream is lots of fun because it foams up as it sprays. Teach safety so kids don't get soap in their eyes.

Exercise caution with aerosol cans. It may be advisable to have an adult add the shaving cream.

Encourage finger painting and drawing in shaving cream. Make sure children wash their hands after

doing science activities in learning centers.

Snow: Fill the sand table with snow and add plastic sand shovels, trowel, ice cream scoop, melon

baller, recycled plastic cups and containers for molding and shaping snow. Have children to wear

gloves and keep several pairs near the water table.

Recycle bin paper scraps: Place scrap paper in sand table tubs and add scissor with patterned edges

and paper punches. Children love to snip, trim, cut and punch paper. Exploring with paper in the sand

table keeps scraps in one place. This exercise provides good practice in cutting skills, scissors skills,

eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.

Dried beans or rice: Add plastic measuring cups, spoons and cups with pour spouts. Teach children

about measurement math. Preschool children can practice counting, sorting while getting good tactile

stimulation in learning centers.

Aquarium Fish tank rocks: Buy bags of multicolored aquarium fish tank rocks (the small kind that line

the bottom of the tank). Fish tank rocks make excellent media for pouring, scooping and measuring.

Aquarium rocks also don't draw insects like beans and rice. Beads work well in the sand table, too,

but can be expensive. Explore other materials for your sand table science activities.

The Cove Dolphin Slaughter Documentary and other Ecology movies for Earth Month

Earth Day, formerly called Arbor Day, is celebrated on April 22. Spring manifests itself in a big way in April, so the entire month has come to be known as Earth Month. During this month, you can learn more about geology and earth science with these environmental films and movies about ecology. Explore earth-safe and not-so-earth-safe practices. Discover how local habits have global impacts.

"Crude: The Real Price of Oil" (2009): In "Crude" filmmaker Joe Berlinger profiles the "Amazon Chernobyl" case, in which 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorean Rain Forest inhabitants took on oil mogul, Chevron. This film won several dozen awards including Best Green Film and Best Documentary. This film resonates with oil spill victims and those who oppose Big Oil.

"The Cove" Louie Psihoyos goes behind-the-scenes with a camera team to uncover atrocities wrought by the Japanese fishing industry. Psihoyos captures rare, secret footage of dolphin slaughter and harmful mercury poisoning oceans, waterways and the ecosystem. The Cove won an Oscar for Best Documentary and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. Parents and teachers should view "The Cove" before showing the film to children. Graphic scenes of dolphin slaughter may be too disturbing for children under 12.

"Blackfish" This documentary exposed abuse of orca "killer whales" at SeaWorld and other animal amusement parts. It tells the story of Tilikum, a captive orca whale who killed his trainer. 

"Soylent Green" (1973): In the style of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," Richard Fleischer's science fiction thriller explores a future world in which the population explosion is depleting all the world's food sources. Scientists discover a mysterious miracle food and call it "soylent green." No one knows what it's made from, nor cares so long as it fills hungry bellies. Then a reporter discovers the horrible truth.

"No Impact Man" (2009): This chronicles a family that transitions from a fast-paced New York City consumer lifestyle to become the perfect green family. Their goal is to leave zero carbon footprint and no environmental impact for one year. Colin Beaven is the "No Impact Man."

"Dirty Business: Clean Coal and the Battle for our Energy Future" (2009): In this documentary film, the Center for Investigative Reporting demonstrates the dangers inherent in a world addicted to coal power.

Hands-on Geography Social Studies Earth Science Lessons and Games Using Globes

April is Earth Month and it's a good time to explore earth science and world geography. With the National Geography Bee right around the corner, here are hands-on social studies lessons, map activities and geography games with globes. Playing geography games with globes helps students visualize the big picture better than with maps. Use map activities to locate specific places and use globes for accurate place countries in the world at large. Use geography games with globes to demonstrate earth science lessons, just in time for Earth Month in April!

Race Around the World map activities: Divide students into teams of 2-4. Give each team a globe and attach a world map to the wall or bulletin board. Call out countries, cities and provinces for teams to locate their globes. The first team to find the location wins a point. After the location is found indicate it on the wall map with a pin or sticky note arrow (available at most office supply retailers).

Earth Science Jeopardy: Students may play individually or in teams. Draw a Jeopardy grid on a Dry-Erase board, overhead projector or chalkboard. Label five categories across the top of the Earth Science Jeopardy board. Here are some suggested earth science categories: Rivers, Mountain Ranges, Africa, Asia, Islands, Europe, United States, South America, Bodies of Water, Northern Hemisphere, Locations that begin with ____ (fill in letter). Fill in dollar amounts as in regular Jeopardy. Players select a category and value. The geography games leader calls out a place and team members must locate it on globes. Give teams buzzers or bells to sound when they find the answer.

Latitude and Longitude Hide 'n Seek map activities: Explain the how lines and degrees of latitude and longitude work. Official latitude lines--also called parallels--go east to west and longitude lines go north and south. There are 180 latitude lines--90 above the equator (north) and 90 below (south). There are 360 lines of longitude (180 in the eastern hemisphere and 180 in the western hemisphere). They are divided into 24 groups which define time zones as well as geographical locations. Use coordinate geometry to place cities and landforms in lines of latitude and longitude. Ask students to list different earth science landforms located with the latitude and longitude markings. Ask students list cities and locales based on latitude and longitude coordinates or bearings.

Time zones bingo map activities: Using the small dial attached to the top of the globe, teach students how read lines of longitude to determine time zone. Call out a time zone. Students fill their card by locating and listing a city or province in that time zone. Require older students to calculate what time it is in different countries by giving the time in another time zone. Explain the Greenwich Mean Time system.

Play Dough Recipe and Easy Geography Landforms Lesson Plans

Here is an easy, hands-on geography lesson plan. Use this lesson plan in the general education classroom, homeschool and special needs classroom. Students of all ages enjoy this interactive geography activity. Begin by mixing up a large batch of play dough. Make the play dough in class and use it for an interactive math measuring lesson plan. Here's an easy play dough recipe:

  1 cup hot water

  

  1 cup white flour

  

  1/4 cup salt

  

  1 teaspoon vegetable oil

  

  2 teaspoons alum or cream of tartar

  

  blue or green food coloring

  Mix with fork or by hand. Adjust recipe for a larger group using a 1:1 ratio for water, flour and salt, a 1:2 ratio for alum or cream of tartar and a 1: one quarter ratio for salt. Measuring and mixing this play dough in class gives students practice in ratios, fractions and measurement. When mixed, separate into two balls. Color one ball blue (or green) for water. Leave one ball plain color for land. Give each student a paper plate, a plastic knife and a zippered bag of blue play dough and another of plain play dough.

Introduce geography terms and definitions used for landforms. Here are free printable landforms coloring pages and geography vocabulary lesson plans. Demonstrate the shape of the landform using play dough or drawing the landform on the overhead projector. Use black pen for land and blue for water. Students will use their blue and white clay to create landforms based on drawings from the board or overhead projector.

Free Printable Dr Seuss Recipes

Free Printable Dr Seuss Recipes Oobleck, Pink Yink Ink Drink. Dr. Seuss celebrates his birthday on March 2. We celebrate Dr. Seuss legacy of literature. Dr. Seuss's charming fable Bartholomew and the Oobleck is pure Seuss fun. Here are recipes to make oobleck with your children, homeschool or students.Dr Seuss recipes. For Pink Yink Ink Drink recipes, visit this blog. For more fun kids foods and recipes visit me at Great Food 4U (blogspot). For more kitchen science recipes, come see me at Kaboom! Fizzle! Pop! (blogspot)

Free Marketing Lesson Plans, Science Inventions

Looking for a way to teach marketing and business in elementary school, middle school or high school? Here are cross-curricular business math lesson plans with recycling connections. Use these business math lesson plans to teach environmental science in Earth Month. Students design, manufacture and sell inventions made from recycled materials. These marketing lesson plans are perfect for school, homeschool, 4H clubs, scout troop merit badges, Destination Imagination (DI) teams and Junior Achievement clubs. Plug business math lesson plans into a science unit on technology or simple machines. Tie in activities on inventors for social studies, history and biographical literature lesson plans. Of course marketing has plenty of business math and consumer math applications too. These marketing lesson plans include a component on advertising which addresses design, writing and public speaking activities. . Here is a scope and sequence for each content area. This lesson covers the higher order thinking skills of analysis, application, synthesis and evaluation.

Cross-curricular lessons plans: Graphic Design: The student will design and sketch a product or tool of his own invention.

Cross-curricular Science Technology: The student will plan, organize and build products or inventions using only materials found in a recycle bin. Make these in Earth Month to reinforce eco-friendly design. These may be primary inventions (for example, a hand can opener) or secondary inventions (a development or improvement on primary inventions, for example an electric can opener.) All inventions or products should be creative or unique in some way.

Environmental science: The student will create inventions using only found, reclaimed, repurposed or recycled materials. Students might clean up the playground or empty recycle bins for Earth Month.

Art: The student will decorate or embellish the invention to make it more aesthetically pleasing and marketable. She will also design promotional materials--posters, flyers, product commercials or bill boards. Promotional materials should be made from recycled materials for Earth Month.

Literature: The student will choose an inventor in history to profile. TSW read a biography or autobiography on his inventor and explore the inventor's background and body of work. Ideally the inventor would somehow be associated with the type of invention that the student is creating.

Social studies: The student will develop a poster, timeline or DVD or presentation showing how other variations of her products or inventions have been used in history or around the world.

Writing: The student will write a short one minute commercial advertising her product or invention. Commercial should demonstrate how the invention is used, how it will benefit consumers and why they should buy it.

Theater/Drama/public speaking: The student will perform her commercial and demonstration for the class or school. Teachers, give extra credit for costumes, make-up and scenery (a free standing cardboard box backdrop and props made from recycled materials ties in well with Earth Month.)

Music: The student will compose a simple musical jingle to advertise his product. The student should emphasize that inventions are made with recycled environmentally friendly sustainable materials.

Math: The student will calculate the costs of production, establish a retail price, develop a marketing strategy and sell the product at a student "Market Day." She will keep track of sales, discounts, extra costs, etc. She will fill out a teacher-made balance sheet.

Use as many or as few of these components of the unit as you wish. You might opt to take one or two pieces and expand them to fit another lesson or activity that you are doing. These business math lesson plans and activities can be tweaked to fit almost any age of student or size of group.