Free printable Halloween lesson plans, activities for Fall themed units

Halloween is creeping up and children of all ages, even the young at heart are getting ready for the fun. In many schools, activities are planned around Halloween. Educators know that when children enjoy something and have fun with a lesson, they learn better. Here are free printable Halloween activities for school classrooms, homeschool or scout troop. Use with old folks in nursing homes or anyone who needs some Halloween printables.

Count down the days to Trick or Treat with dozens of free printable Halloween activities, coloring pages and crafts from Making Friends.com. Print free craft projects for all sorts themes. Making Friends has a really holiday activities, coloring pages, cut and paste, paper dolls, Trick or treat wrappers, worksheets, Halloween puzzles and mazes. Print word searches, crossword puzzles and word games, perfect for Halloween language arts lessons. Print Halloween card games, flash cards, dioramas, masks and pumpkin carving patterns and stencils.

Here free printable Halloween lesson plans, worksheets, games, coloring pages, activities and puzzles. Use for Trick or Treat themed math, reading, writing, literature, science, language, social studies and crafts. All Free Printables has free Halloween crafts, greeting cards, party invitations, decorations, cut-outs, coloring pages, masks, party invitations, name tags, treat bags, pumpkin cut-outs, book marks, picture frames and lots more. Puzzlemaker lets you create templates for printable Halloween worksheets, puzzles, mazes, jigsaws, dot to dot, Soduku, crosswords and activities galore.

Print Activities is another mega site for all your school and family activity printing needs. Look for units, printable worksheets and lessons focused around Halloween and trick-or-treat. Disney Family offers a plethora of free printable Halloween Disney activities, crafts and coloring pages. Coolest Holiday Parties has free printable Halloween party supplies. You'll find cards, invitations, treat and punch bowl printables, banners, place cards, name tags, wall hangings for a ghoulish party.

Homemade American history games for Labor Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Veterans Day lesson plans

Here's homemade fun for Labor Day, Memorial Day or 4th of July. Host a red white and blue backyard waterpark. Set up 10 activity stations and play American patriotic outdoor games. Party guests, young and old can play, but make a safe zone for those who want to stay dry. Guests should wear bathing suits or play inside in a pool. You can also make up dry versions of games.

Uncle Sam Sponge Toss. For this station, you will need a lawn chair, three large, soft clean sponges, a bucket of water and an Uncle Sam Hat (paint an old hat red, white and blue). Players take turns sitting in the 'hot seat' with the hat on. Players get to toss three wet sponges at "Uncle Sam." The object is to knock his hat off.

All American Splash Ball: Fill a bucket with water balloons. Divide players into teams of two. Players take turns lobbing balloons at each other and trying to hit with tennis or badminton racket, Nerf bat or recycled cardboard paper towel tube. Players should name presidents as they throw.

Memorial Day Bash Ball: Fill a bucket with water balloons. Give each player a butterfly net, colander, sieve or plastic butter tub. Balloons are tossed and caught without touching, as in "Hot Potato." Make it more difficult by introducing several balloons into play at once. Or make players name states and capitals as they play.

Stars and Stripes Shooting Arcade: Paint red and blue stars on white plastic containers of assorted sizes. Thoroughly rinse recycled squirt bottles and fill with water. As in a carnival water shooting gallery, players try to knock down as many bottles as possible in a limited time. Or place a waterproof map on wall and have kids aims for certain states. Winner gets to squirt the person of his choice.

Lady Liberty relay. Players take turns donning basic Lady Liberty costume (dress, crown, torch, book) as fast as they can and performing tasks.

Lady Liberty spritzer. One players dresses as Lady Liberty is blindfolded and gets a hose to spray with. Kids try to get past her, taking one step at a time, like Marco Polo.

Labor Day limbo: Hold hose up like limbo bar. Drop in lower and lower as players try to go under without getting wet. Or use a regular limbo pole. Each time, they must name a famous American.

Fireworks Sprinkler Golf: Make clubs from recycled wrapping paper tubes and balls from wadded up recycled paper or Styrofoam. Set up a small nine hole golf course, putting one hole in the middle of the sprinkler and another in the wading pool. You can also make a huge US map golf course with holes in each state.

Old Glory Obstacle Course: Arrange baby wading pools or shallow pans of water, colored red and blue in an obstacle course. Players must complete tasks like "hop on one foot to blue" or "crawl through red." Along with physical tasks students must name famous events in US history.

Patriotic Apple Bob: Fill a wading pool with apples and water. Winner gets an apple pie for the grand prize.

Award prizes for trash pick up. Be sure to collect all balloons.

Valentine candy hearts cookie recipe, math lesson, craft, preschool counting games

Looking for ways to use up leftover valentine candy hearts? Here's a cute Valentine craft and snack that teaches math using Valentine's Day Necco Sweetheart conversation hearts. They're an edible flashcards to help children practice counting and other mathematics skills.

Counting Hearts Cookies

You'll need 55 candy hearts per child and a roll of sugar cookie dough (enough for 10 cookies per child). Let children slice their dough logs into circles. This provides fine motor practice and eye-hand coordination. Talk about shapes as they cut; discuss geometry, circles, cylinders. Have children think of other round and tube-shaped objects. Make a list. Children can write it down in math journals or illustrate later.

Next have children divide candies per circle. Place 1-10 candy hearts per cookie, so each cookie has a different number of hearts. Count as you go. You might have to spread the 10-heart cookie thinner to get them all on.
When baked, use cookies as flashcards. Play counting and adding games. Say "show me three hearts." Or how many is "two hearts plus five hearts?" Let kids eat number cookies on the hour. Eat the 1 cookie at 1 pm, 2 at 2 pm. You can use these Valentine counting heart cookies in any number of ways.

For more free educational activities visit my blog Free Lesson Plans 4U. For specifically preschool lesson plans visit Preschool Child Activities. For more leftover use-up recipes, visit Great Food 4U.

Free printable Day of the Dead activities for Halloween

Looking for Halloween or Day of the Dead printables to use as lesson plans? Count down the days to Trick or Treat with dozens of free printable Halloween activities, coloring pages and crafts from Making Friends.com. Print free craft projects for all sorts themes. Making Friends has a really holiday activities, coloring pages, cut and paste, paper dolls, Trick or treat wrappers, worksheets, Halloween puzzles and mazes. Print word searches, crossword puzzles and word games, perfect for Halloween language arts lessons. Print Halloween card games, flash cards, dioramas, masks and pumpkin carving patterns and stencils.

Here free printable Halloween lesson plans, worksheets, games, coloring pages, activities and puzzles. Use for Trick or Treat themed math, reading, writing, literature, science, language, social studies and crafts. All Free Printables has free Halloween crafts, greeting cards, party invitations, decorations, cut-outs, coloring pages, masks, party invitations, name tags, treat bags, pumpkin cut-outs, book marks, picture frames and lots more. Puzzlemaker lets you create templates for printable Halloween worksheets, puzzles, mazes, jigsaws, dot to dot, Soduku, crosswords and activities galore.

Print Activities is another mega site for all your school and family activity printing needs. Look for units, printable worksheets and lessons focused around Halloween and trick-or-treat. Disney Family offers a plethora of free printable Halloween Disney activities, crafts and coloring pages. Coolest Holiday Parties has free printable Halloween party supplies. You'll find cards, invitations, treat and punch bowl printables, banners, place cards, name tags, wall hangings for a ghoulish party.

In praise of Peanuts--culture cues and life lessons from Charlie Brown

 65 years after Peanuts cartoons appeared, "The Peanuts Movie" came out. It opened November, 2015 and eight months later, its popularity continues to escalate. Multiple theater and Broadway versions of Peanuts-based stories have been done and reprised in the comic's long and illustrious career. One of the most famous is "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." The off-Broadway production opened in 1967 and had many revivals. The most recent is the York Theatre Company 2016 revival, nearly 50 years later.
What is it that has drawn fans to the Peanuts gang for seven decades? Peanuts has a kryptonite appeal for adults and children alike. '60s and '70s kids were surely powerless over the addiction. They read Peanuts comics in the paper, bought paperbacks of Snoopy comics, rushed home to watch Charlie Brown specials on TV (back when they came on once a year and if you missed them, sucks to you.)
Back in the day, all kids knew of culture came from Charlie Brown and Looney Tunes. If it weren't for them, baby boomers would have been a bunch of ignorami. Who knew, for example, what "psychiatric help" was till Lucy VanPelt opened her booth and charged five cents for it? (Don't judge, a nickel was a lot of money back then!) Who'd ever heard of VanGogh till Snoopy decorated his doghouse in it? Snoopy also taught history-deprived kids about WWI flying aces, Sopwith Camels and the Red Baron.
Kids knew the name Pavlov thanks to dog-dish-wielding Snoopy, if they didn't get the reference. From Schroeder, kids got music appreciation of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff--though how he got "Prelude in C-sharp minor" out of that toy piano, no one ever figured out.  And blanket-toting Linus's philosophical lectures were head and shoulders above most adults let alone kids.
Kids learned life lessons from and with the Peanuts gang. Raise your hand if you yelled "no, Charlie Brown, don't do it!" when P.I.T.A Lucy tries to lure him into kicking that blasted football, again? A generation learned how to avoid kite-eating trees, thanks to Peanuts comics. And who didn't feel just a little bit better about limited athletic skills compared to Charlie Brown? Having said that, this author can't be the only one annoyed that pitcher Charlie Brown took all the flak when the whole team screwed up. Even Snoopy--his own pet--was a bit of a douche-dog to Charlie Brown. Snoopy definitely had better friends and a cooler social life.
But Charlie Brown took it with Zen. As Lucy so aptly put it, "of all the Charlie Browns, Charlie Brown, you're the Charlie Browniest." Why does Peanuts continue to resonate? Je ne sais quoi--but it probably has to do with that wonderful Tao plus chutzpah of Charlie Brown!  

Free Printable Spider-Man Coloring Pages for Math and Reading Flashcards

Here's a lesson plan to use Spider-Man or any superhero to teach reading. Choose your favorite superhero or cartoon favorite (you can print DC or Marvel superheroes, Barbie, Disney, PBS, Looney Tunes and more). Print small 2x3 versions of coloring pages. Have children color the images and make this activity do double duty as a craft project. Attach to index cards and label. 

Write lists of associated words on the back For Spider-Man, you might use: spider, arachnid, insect, bug, super, hero, fly, web, city, save, science, villain, spin, swing, octopus, mask, sky, night. Use these flashcards to help children learn to read in fun, hands-on ways. Children might write stories of Spiderman's adventures using these words. Here are free printable superhero coloring pages and activities. 

For Marvel comics printables from Captain America Civil War including Iron Man, Avengers, check out Pic Gifs.  I've linked to Spider-Man but search the bar for any free printable Marvel or DC superhero coloring pages. Coloring-Book.info has more free printable Spider-Man coloring pages. Use the search bar for to find any free superhero printables for Superman, Flash, Thor, Captain America and more. Disney Family has free printable Avengers Captain America Civil War crafts. 

KidZone has free printable spider lesson plans. Learn about spiders with these games, crafts, puzzles. math activities, songs and stories, writing prompts, science worksheets and diagrams and reading lesson plans too. 

No Roses for Harry Recycled Yarn Craft, Book based Snacks, Printables

Are your kids going winter stir-crazy? You need a craft afternoon. I learned as a teacher/homeschool mom to make lesson plans hands-on. My craft parties include an interactive story and snack and lots of free printable book-based activities. 

One of my husband's favorite children's literature characters is Harry the Dirty Dog, created by Gene Zion and drawn by Margaret Bloy Graham. There are several books featuring Harry the Dog. My mom described a yarn bush she made for the birds and it reminded me of Harry. Here are activities based on "No Roses for Harry."

 

Story Party Book Activity: Read "No Roses for Harry" in ebook online at Open Library. You can hear an audio reading on Youtube. Pause the story at various points and encourage children predict what will happen next. Let children color these free printable Harry the Dirty Dog coloring pages, make a booklet and retell the story. Here's are printable No Roses for Harry coloring pages. 

Story Party Science Activity: Make a yarn bush. Gather up recycled bits of string and yarn. Place them in trees and bushes for the birds to use in nest building, like the bird did in "No Roses for Harry." Look for your yarn in bird's nests. My mother says her yarn has been disappearing, so she knows the birds are nesting. You might get a bird guide and ID the birds you see in the yard. 

Story Party Recycle Bin Craft: Teach kids divide by 2 by braiding yarn. Wind yarn braid into a concentric circle Sew a few stitches to hold it together and you have a recycled craft pot holder. These are great for preschool crafts. If you are crafty like Grama in "No Roses for Harry" teach children simple finger knitting or use large blunt needles. Let them knit a washcloth. 

Story Party Math Craft. Use this free printable rose pattern to make paper roses. Teach about spiral patterns. 

Story Party Snack: Make "roses" by spreading cream cheese on a scallion, pickle spear, carrot or celery stick. Wrap a slice of ham or other lunchmeat around it. Cut radish or tomato roses. Make open face jam sandwiches cut in flower shapes. Make flower shaped pancakes. 

Story Party Math Craft Snack: Make flower cookies. Roll sugar cookie dough in little balls. Arrange four in a square or five in a circle. Bake and frost. Decorate with candy sprinkles and an M&M in the center. Decorating cookies is a great preschool craft snack!  

Warm up after snow day play with cocoa cookies and more Harry stories! Or cool down after summer play with lemonade and Harry the Dirty Dog, Harry and the Lady Next Door or Harry By the Sea.