History, Sociology, Culture Detectives on Holiday Travel

Wherever my husband and I travel, we view with an anthropologist's  eye as well as a sight-seer. We're fascinated by history, people, customs, art, food, music, etc. I guess you could call us culture detectives. We explore not just the surface, but the stories beneath. What happened to that big vacant factory? Why is that restaurant going out of business? How was that bridge made? 

Educators and homeschoolers, I encourage you to do this when you travel. Round out your curriculum with practical experience. Help students see the big picture. Help students create travel journals and note what they see. 

Free Printable Ramadan and Islamic Activities for Children

For Muslims, Ramadan is holy season marked by prayer, fasting and abstinence. Ramadan, in the Islamic calendar is a month-long observance, falling roughly in the months of July or August. Ramadan fasting ends with the festival of Eid al Fitr (lesser Eid). It's celebrated July 17 in 2015. Here are free printable Ramadan Eid al Fitr activities to help Muslim children explore their faith and for non-Muslims to understand it better.

Islam 101 offers free Ramadan lessons. Ramadan is an Arabic word that refers to a dry, parched season. It is a season for sacrifice and purification, like the Christian Catholic season of Advent and Lent and the Jewish feast of Yom Kippur. Muslims seek to draw closer to Allah by practicing the Five Pillars of Islam. They are: Iman (faith), Salah (prayer, said five times daily, facing the Holy City of Mecca and recited from the Qu'ran.), Zakah (almsgiving, sacrificial giving, pruning back one's lifestyle to honor God and help others), Sawn (abstaining from food, alcohol and sexual relations with spouses), Hajj (pilgrimage, if possible to Makkah, otherwise known as Mecca).

Islamic Playground has free printable Ramadan and Muslim holiday coloring pages and Arabic letter worksheets. There are also quizzes, worksheets, jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, activities and word searches about Islam. The Holiday Spot has free printable Ramadan word games,crossword puzzles and word searches, using words and concept from Islam. You can print free Ramadan greeting cards, Children might like to make these and send them to family and friends.

Primary Games has free printable Ramadan and Islamic coloring pages. 123 Greetings has free printable Ramadan greeting cards in several designs and styles.

 

Free Printable Famous Places Around the World Coloring Pages for Social Studies

 The most interesting social studies activities are hands-on. Explore geography and cultures around the world with free printable coloring pages, maps, famous landmarks, buildings around the world. Students will love taking around the world tours of different countries with these interactive, hands on social studies lessons. Then keep reading for free printable 3D paper models of landmarks and famous buildings.

Our trip around the world begins at Activity Village has free printable coloring pages of famous landmarks, famous buildings of the world and sights to see in different countries. Your free printable around the world tour covers England, Scotland, France, Brazil, Egypt, India, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Print the Loch Ness monster, Eiffel Tower, Table Mountain, Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer statue (to name a few famous landmarks). Print world maps showing national products, landmarks and sights to see.

Now for free printable 3D models of famous buildings to print--hang onto your hats because Paper Toys has free printable 3D paper models galore. Then when you thought you'd seen all the cool 3D paper models of buildings you could want, hit this site for more free printable 3D paper models of famous buildings. Get free printable paper models of castles, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a haunted house, a medieval manor house, plus really cool 3D paper models of artifacts, vehicles, ancient wonders of the world and even Jimi Hendrix's guitar and Guy Fawkes mask! There are masks, race cars, pyramids, ships, paper airplanes, paper dolls and more.

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans

Catholic Relief Services is the single largest non-governmental relief agency in the world. Each year at Lent CRS initiates what is called 'Operation Rice Bowl'. Operation Rice Bowl is a program which focuses our attention on the cardinal aims of the Lenten season: prayer, fasting and alms-giving.

The Rice Bowl project consists of a cardboard box which when assembled, looks very much like the take out boxes that rice comes in. The Rice Bowl is a box which families set up in their homes during Lent to collect loose change and offerings for the poor and hungry of the world. Operation Rice bowl also includes a Lenten prayer calendar with devotional activities, feast days and stations of the cross. Each calendar day has a prayer focus. Specific information about world poverty statistics and needs from around the world are listed also. These lessons could work for classroom, homeschool, CCD, Sunday School, 4H and scouts. Great for social studies, geography and volunteerism. Here are free printable Lenten Rice Bowl activities, Devotional and Lesson Plans. 

Free Printable Cinco De Mayo, Mexico Coloring Pages

Cinco de Mayo, or Fifth of May, celebrates the victory of the smaller Mexican army over the mighty French juggernaut, in the Battle of Puebla, 1862. Cinco de Mayo is not the Mexican Independence. Here are free printable lesson plans for Cinco de Mayo. 

Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May. But it isn't Mexican Independence Day nor the equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July. Cinco de Mayo is the day Mexicans remember El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (Battle of Puebla). Cinco de Mayo is mostly an Americanized Latino holiday. But also a great day to explore Mexican culture. Here are free printable Cinco de Mayo lesson plans, worksheets and games.

Mr Donn has free printable Cinco de Mayo activities, games, coloring pages, Powerpoint presentations, social studies worksheets, history lesson plans and culture study activities.

A-Z Teacher Stuff has free printable Cinco de Mayo unit and lesson planner kit with materials, worksheets, games, crafts, recipes, movies and activities.

Enchanted Learning has free printable Cinco de Mayo worksheets, mini-booklets, history and social studies lesson plans. Print a map of Mexico, Mexican flag, info on the Battle of Puebla, Mexican leaders, posters, history, images and recipes. Print a nice poster featuring Cesar Chavez and other Mexican labor activists, political figures, scientists, artists, musicians and more.

The Teachers Corner has free printable Cinco de Mayo crafts, counting lessons, words in Spanish, cultural heritage activities and more. Lesson Planet has free printable lesson plans on Cinco de Mayo to sample.

For preschool and younger kids, visit DL-TK for free Cinco de Mayo coloring pages, crafts, games, puzzles and recipes. Kids Soup offers free Cinco de Mayo printables to sample.

Apples 4 the Teacher offers free printable Cinco de Mayo lessons, maps, history projects, puzzles, games, music, crafts, recipes and more. There are ideas for several ages groups. ELCivics has printable Cinco de Mayo lessons for older students.

Free Printable World Flags Coloring Pages. Lesson Plans

  United Nations Day is October 24. There is no more enduring symbol of a nation that the national flag. It 's a thumbnail, an icon for a country. The flag symbolizes pride and rallies people. The flag is flown or lowered to reflect national joy or sorrow. Here are free printable world flags from around the globe. Use these flag coloring pages in geography lessons and social studies cultures units. Students should not be allowed to "free color" the world flags. They should be taught to color them correctly. 

Coloring Castle has free printable flag coloring pages. There are black and white flags to color and colored flag templates that shows students how to properly color the flag. Countries represented include: Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Czeck Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands (Holland), Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States. 

Activity Village includes free printable world flags from the six of the seven continents: Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia and Europe. The site has many free printable flag coloring pages from Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Croatia, Cyprus, England, Ghana, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Wales. Print geography lessons and social studies printables, coloring pages of famous buildings, landmarks and children in traditional native costume. Free printable geography lessons and social studies activities include maps and charts, too. 

World Flags Coloring Pages has free printable world flag coloring pages for just about any nation or country in the world. This site includes free printable United States flags from each state and provincial flags from countries around the world. Be sure to view the original to color properly. Enchanted Learning has many free printable world flags, national flag lesson plans and flag coloring pages. To print activities with no banner, users are asked to pay a $20 annual site fee. Check outthese sites for free printable social studies lesson plans and geography lessons.

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.

Tomie DePaola Christmas Kids Literature Activities

Christmas Kids Books--Have a Tomie DePaola Holiday Looking for the best Christmas stories and holiday books for children? Then have yourself a Tomie DePaola Christmas! Tomie DePaola is a one of the world's best-loved illustrator-authors in children's literature. Tomie DePaola admits that he loves Christmas and it shows in the holiday magic he imbues in his stories and art. Here's the definitive Tomie DePaola Christmas stories collection. Included are Advent books, too: Advent is the Catholic season of preparation leading up to Christmas and Tomie DePaola books indulge that spirit of anticipation. He's done a nice series on saints' feast day that fall in Advent.

"The Lady of Guadalupe" Hands-down best retelling of the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Amercias, whose feast day, is December 12).

"The Legend of the Poinsettia" With no gift to offer the Bambino at Midnight mass, a little girl brings some flowers growing by the wayside, and a miracle occurs. It's similar to story in The Gift, by Aselin Debison

"The Night of Las Posadas" Posadas are parties celebrated during Advent in Mexico beginning nine days before Christmas as an Advent novena. They are similar to passion plays.

"Tomie DePaola's Make-Your-Own Christmas Cards" Tomie teaches you how to use your own artistic skill to make lovely holiday greeting cards.

"Get Dressed, Santa" Uh-oh, is Santa too tired to deliver the gifts this Christmas. Little children will love to help wake the sleepy elf. .

"Country Angel Christmas" Tomie DePaola specializes in angels. They peek out of every corner of his stories and nothing says Christmas like angels.

"Hark! A Christmas Sampler" Here's a delightful collection of Christmas songs, stories and fun from the Christmas man himself. Oh and there are Tomie DePaola Christmas recipes---there must always be recipes!

"Baby's First Christmas" Certain little grandchildren this author knows may find this in their stockings-shhh, don't tell.

"Tomie DePaola's Book of Christmas Carols" Here are all your favorite holiday tunes illustrated by Tomie DePaola

"The Night Before Christmas" Here is Clement C. Moore's timeless classic, DePaola style.

"The Friendly Beasts" This is a very satisfying retelling of the Welsh song and legend of the night the angels talked. Tomie DePaola's famous sheep figure heavily, but so do his other endearing animals.

"Merry Christmas, Strega Nona" Big Anthony goofs again-or does he? Can he really put one the Buon Natalia feast with no magic at Christmas?

"My First Christmas" This one is perfect for the wee ones' first holiday storybook.

"The Family Christmas Tree Book" Christmas deserve a family photo album, don't they? Here are holiday memories of Christmas trees past.

"The Legend of Old Befana" La Befana is the Italian equivalent to Russia's Baboushka, a woman too busy to stop for the baby Jesus and His guests.

"The Clown of God" Here's a haunting gestalt Medieval French tale of sacrifice and devotion.

"The Christmas Pageant" Tomie DePaola tells the nativity story.

"Sing Pierrot, Sing!" Okay, so perhaps not a Christmas story, but surely the old Italienne Comedie belongs with Christmas? Who can resist Harlequin and Columbine?

"An Early American Christmas" What was Christmas like for Jamestown pilgrims in a strange new world?

"Santa's Crash-Bang Christmas" Here's a very silly, noisy story that the littlest ones will love! "The Popcorn Book" This is not a Christmas book as such, but references are made to the holiday favorite popcorn balls and popcorn strung on Christmas trees. And popcorn and Christmas go together like Rudolph and red noses.

"Christmas Remembered" This is a tender, touching collection of holiday memories.

"Angels, Angels Everywhere" Tomie's angel shtick shows up again. His friendly cherubs crop up in the funniest places and remind us that angels are watching. That's much more comforting that Elf on a Shelf, don't you think.

"Guess Who's Coming for Santa's Dinner?" Poor Santa, he just wants to relax. But what do you do when Mama Santa invites all the relatives over for Christmas dinner? Children love imagining what Santa's relatives might be like.

Tomie has also written several lovely children's literature books for Jewish Chanukah. He's been illustrating books since 1965. Tomie originally published with Harcourt, Brace, Jovanvich, and now writes for G.P.Putnam's Sons, with many of his series books being published by Simon and Schuster. Some holiday children's literature books are published by Holiday House. This author and her children were privileged to meet Tomie DePaola in Muskegon, Michigan in 1993. Their autographed copy of "Strega Nona's Christmas" is a read each year. The oldest two children, now 27 and 25, remember it fondly and now there are grandchildren to pass it on to. Why not read a Tomie DePaola each night of Advent until Christmas and make your own memories. 

Free printable lesson plans on Global Awareness and Activism Activities

In industrialized 'first world' countries, we live in consumer-driven, insular communities. We have little exposure to and less contact with those living in poverty. Global issues don't impact us. We consume grotesque quantities of natural resources. We use goods wantonly, we burn vast amounts of fossil fuel every second. We let good clean water run down the drain endlessly. We turn fertile land in landfills which we cram with  waste plastic, paper, yard waste, glass, metal. 

Here are links to websites that are all about raising awareness, student and adult alike. These online resources have free printable lesson plans on empathy, volunteering, reducing carbon footprint, activism. Ironically, school paper waste is a huge part of pollution. So lets reduce this by printing responsibly and using online resources.  

The Hunger Site and partner sites provide free printable global awareness resources for teachers and homeschoolers. Get free printable ecology and environment lesson plans to teach students about the dangers of global warming, rainforest exploitation, expansionism, imperialism, urban sprawl, pollution, deforestation, water shortage, poverty and hunger.

Here are more free printable ecology and environment lesson plans help students explore world hunger, poverty, disease and famine from a social justice perspective. Smithsonian Education offers free printable conservation, ecology and environment activities on pollution, world poverty, famine and disease. Why Hunger has free activities on natural resources, world hunger, distribution of wealth and poverty.

Feeding Minds helps teachers and students explore world hunger and poverty inside out and provides many free printable educational resources. Rain-tree has free printable rainforest, ecology and environment activities. Students learn about deforestation, wildlife preservation, pollution, depletion of natural resources and more. Eduweb offers students online games and free printable resources to explore the Amazon rainforest and the environment.

Free Printable Curious George Lesson Plans

Free Printable Curious George Lesson Plans and Party Activities Here are free printable spelling, reading, math and writing lessons, plus coloring pages all about our favorite little monkey, Curious George! These free printable activities are based on the original vintage Curious George books from my childhood, by H.A.Rey Margaret Rey! You can even print an entire Curious George party planner with decorations, invitations, coloring, crafts, games and activities,too! Click here

Free Printable Cinco de Mayo Activities-Coloring, crafts, games

Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May. But it isn't Mexican Independence Day nor the equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July. Cinco de Mayo is the day Mexicans remember El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (Battle of Puebla). Cinco de Mayo is mostly an Americanized Latino holiday. But also a great day to explore Mexican culture. Here are free printable Cinco de Mayo lesson plans, worksheets and games.

Mr Donn has free printable Cinco de Mayo activities, games, coloring pages, Powerpoint presentations, social studies worksheets, history lesson plans and culture study activities.

Easy Fun School offers printable Cinco de Mayo recipes, crafts, a pinata making how-to and several history and geography lesson plans. Lesson Plans offers links to Cinco de Mayo printables.

A-Z Teacher Stuff has free printable Cinco de Mayo unit and lesson planner kit with materials, worksheets, games, crafts, recipes, movies and activities.

Enchanted Learning has free printable Cinco de Mayo worksheets, mini-booklets, history and social studies lesson plans. Print a map of Mexico, Mexican flag, info on the Battle of Puebla, Mexican leaders, posters, history, images and recipes. Print a nice poster featuring Cesar Chavez and other Mexican labor activists, political figures, scientists, artists, musicians and more.

The Teachers Corner has free printable Cinco de Mayo crafts, counting lessons, words in Spanish, cultural heritage activities and more. Lesson Planet has free printable lesson plans on Cinco de Mayo to sample.

For preschool and younger kids, visit DL-TK for free Cinco de Mayo coloring pages, crafts, games, puzzles and recipes. Kids Soup offers free Cinco de Mayo printables to sample.

Apples 4 the Teacher offers free printable Cinco de Mayo lessons, maps, history projects, puzzles, games, music, crafts, recipes and more. There are ideas for several ages groups. ELCivics has printable Cinco de Mayo lessons for older students

Free Printable World War One/ World War Two Lesson Plans for Veterans Day

Free Printable World War 1 and WW2 Activities Free printable military and World War history activities. Soldiers, vehicles, uniforms, battles, campaigns. Print coloring pages, battle maps, worksheets, games, puzzles, vocabulary crosswords, charts and fill-in the blank diagrams. 

Here are free printable activities to help your children or students explore the history of our two world wars. You can print over 100 interactive lessons on World War One and World War Two. There are free printable coloring pages of battle scenes, vehicles, soldiers, uniforms, weapons and military insignia. You can print puzzles, games, word searches, crosswords, fill-in-the-blanks, charts, maps and other activities.

Edupics has a lot of free printable military coloring pages. 

Super Coloring Pages has many World War Two and World War One printables. There are many very realistic free printable military vehicles. Print tanks, half-tracks, trucks, troop carriers, battleships, destroyers, bombers, fighter planes, gun carriages, armored cars, motorcycles and more.

The Holiday Zone has a page of free printable activities for Veteran's Day. Print coloring pages, military word searches and crossword puzzles and other military and world war two worksheets. The Holiday Zone helps us explore our nation's involvement in both world wars. It preserves the memory of those who served and what they were fighting for. The holiday zone includes songs, poems, books, movies and other educational resources to help educators teach lessons on World War One and World War Two.

Use these free printable activities to create a complete booklet of interactive lesson plans to explore world war one and world war two. This booklet makes a great unit supplement for history. Perfect for homeschool, classroom units and military holiday observances. Libraries, VFW, American Legion and historical museums may want to use these resources for military displays. Children learn best when they are actively involved in their learning. Free printable activities are an excellent source of hands-on learning.

Free Printable Stations of the Cross Lesson Plans, Lent Activities

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday continues for 40 days up through Holy Week, the Easter Triduum and Easter. Catholic Christians try to imitate Jesus with prayer, fasting or sacrifice and almsgiving (charity). A Catholic prays the rosary and Stations of the Cross on Friday (and as often as possible).  Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages to guide Lenten devotions.

 Each year during the Lenten when our family was homeschooling, the children drew images, one for each of the Station of the Cross. We used these images to guide Lenten devotions and prayer. We created Stations of the Cross in our home and yard, placing the images in order along a path. One year we hung them in the hallway. This way we had our own Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross, or Way of Sorrows). The children would begin each Friday in Lent praying the Stations of the Cross. Older children can draw Stations of the Cross coloring books for younger children to color. Or you can use free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. A favorite source was the Fr. Lovasik coloring books series. Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books. Print a booklet for CCD, VBS, religious education classes, Catholic school, homeschooling and family devotions.

Catholic Kid offers free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books and prayer devotional guide. This is a fifteen page booklet covering each of the 14 Stations of the Cross. The liturgical prayer used at station is printed on the front cover and is repeated at each station. Children may color all the pages in their coloring books at once, or you may use Stations of the Cross coloring books as daily Lenten calendar countdown to Easter activities. Children might color one page each day for Lenten devotions. Here are other free printable Stations of the Cross activities from Catholic Playground. 

Web Archive has free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages drawn like Victorian church stained glass.  These images are quite small, but could be printed for a flip book or enlarged and printed as quarter or half page coloring pages. Traditionalists will love the neo-classical black and white artwork. St. John the Baptist Religious Ed has loads more free printable Catholic coloring pages for the mysteries of the rosary (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries), Easter, Lenten, Bible and other Catholic themed coloring pages). 

Extend Stations of the Cross Lenten devotions and activities by assigning children to compose a prayer or response for each station. Preschool through first grade children might write one word or phrase to represent each station. Grades 1-2 might compose a one sentence prayer. For grades 3-5 assign one or two paragraph Lenten devotions and prayers. This makes good type 1 writing activities. Adjust the length of the prayer to suit the needs and abilities of the child. Some may wish to write their prayer as a poem, song or haiku. Don't make prayer or writing seem like chores or children will dread doing them. 

Special needs children might draw or act out each of the stations of the cross. Children could compose sign language or dance in response to the each Station of the Cross. The objective of this activity is to encourage children to respond to Our Lord's passion, death and resurrection. Encourage children to respond in whatever form they feel most comfortable with. 

School Service Projects, Student Community Volunteer Activities for Kids

School Service Project, Community Volunteer Activities Use this lent alms giving project to practice spiritual exercises of fasting, prayer and sharing. Service project can be adapted for public school use. Good way to get school required community volunteer credits for high school students. May be used for alternative education extra credit, too. Activities focus on Social Justice, World Church, missions and prayer. Muslims may wish to use this project for Islamic zakat giving. Jewish families might use this for an alms giving activity, too. Lesson plans include social studies and math extensions; multiplication, division, counting, sorting, grouping and story problems. Great education for all children. Use for CCD, religious education, classroom service project, homeschool, scout troop, 4H group and more!

* Collect gently used clothing for warming centers.

* Wash used stuffed animals to a children's hospital or nursing home. Sew a little heart on donations for sweet little no-cost good deeds.

* Print and color Bible coloring pages, write messages on the back and send to lonely senior citizens.

* Visit a nursing home and lead a sing-along. This is great friendship building volunteer work for kids!

* Bring tea and cookies to a shut-in neighbor; stay to visit. Gifts of time are the highest form of almsgiving.

* Shovel a disabled person's walk (or mow grass in warmer climates). These no-cost good deeds are so appreciated.

* Plant a tree and nurture it. What great donations of time and talent.

* Pick up trash in the park. The whole community benefits from this ROAK.

* Call grandma.

* Skype or FaceTime with your annoying older brother in college.

* Fold your sister's clothes.

* Tidy dad's work area.

* Cook, serve and clean up dinner. Mom will love these donations of time and talent.

* Donate used puzzles to the library.

* Repair gently used toys and bring to the mission thrift store.

* Drop used books in Green Earth Books boxes.

* Teach your little brother to play a song on your guitar.

* Knit a blanket for a new baby (little blankets make great starter project for kid knitters).

* Bike to the store to pick up your elderly neighbor's prescription.

* Fix up your old bike and give to the neighbor's child.

* Wash gently used clothes and drop in Goodwill donations box.

* Make a meal for someone who had surgery.

* Let your little sister pick the TV show.

* Do volunteer work for kids in your family. Play Legos with your little brother.

* Have a free garage sale. Or put gently used give-aways on the curb for people to take. This volunteer work for kids can have a network of positive connections.

* Fill a bag of groceries and leave it on your laid-off neighbor's porch.

* Draw and frame a picture for your priest's, rabbi's, minister's office.

* Write your doctor a note thanking her for caring for you.

* Find out what the food pantry needs, go shopping, bring groceries.

* Paint a pretty mug for your teacher and fill it with her favorite coffee.

* Attend a funeral (this isn't exactly volunteer work for kids, but it is a very generous gift and not always so easy to give).

* Cheerfully clean your room without being asked.

* Leave a plant for your mail carrier.

* Babysit your irritating cousins for free (awesome ROAK!)

* Help your grumpy neighbor wash his car (this volunteer work for kids may not involve money, but it will cost patience!)

* Eat only vegetables once a week and put donate money to food pantry.

Ash Wednesday Lenten calendars, Lent Lesson Plans

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 plans. 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.