Groundhog Day lesson planner, activities and free printables

Groundhog Day, February 2, is kind of a silly holiday but it breaks up the monotony of winter. It's a good time to teach lesson plans on animal hibernation, calendar, seasons and other science facts. A-Z Teacher Stuff has a collection of free printable Groundhog Day worksheets and activities.

Use groundhog themed lesson plans to teach earth's orbit around the sun, length of days, calendar skills, math, sorting, graphing, writing and counting. Preschool kids love it when teachers incorporate holiday themes into lesson plans. Use free printable groundhogs worksheets for a booklet of activities. Perhaps it could be used as homework?

Groundhog Day is the homepage of the Punxatawney Phil groundhogs club. There are many cute free printable Groundhog Day worksheets and interactive activities for teachers for Feb. 2. Print cut-outs of groundhogs and explore the science of light and shadows. Make thumbprint groundhogs for arts and crafts. Let kids enjoy coloring pages of groundhogs. For fun hands-on lesson plans, do tracings of groundhogs, which are kind of like shadows. 

Throw a Groundhog Day party for preschool, special needs and younger elementary age kids. Serve "groundhog food"(aka trail mix). Give kids bags with dried cereal, raisins, M&Ms and pretzels. Or set out a veggie tray which rodents would love. Read books about rodents, such as "Hooway for Wodney Wat" and "Francis" the badger stories. 

Chinese New Year party printables, crafts, lesson plans, activities, Year of the Dog party for homeschool families

Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, begins late January or early February on the western calendar. CNY 2015 starts Feb. 19. It's Year of the Sheep or Goat. Here are easy, inexpensive ideas to throw a Chinese New Year festival in a school classroom or at homeschool or with your family. Sheep (goat) themed activities are included.

"Travel" to China. Start at the DL-TK website's for free printable Chinese New Year activities. Read books on China.

Decorate with free printable Chinese crafts., symbols, clipart and graphics to use for decorations. Children can use to make banners, desk decor. Create greeting cards and give to elderly.

Make crafts. Use the free printable CNY activities from the link above. Make Chinese zodiac calendars, lantern crafts (for Lantern Festival), hats, paper dolls, booklets, and a Chinese zodiac wreath. Print CNY recipes, coloring pages, crafts, games with lots of printables.

Learn about animals of the zodiac. The link above has pages of activities devoted to each animal: horse, dog, rat, rooster, dragon, pig, sheep, rabbit, monkey, ox, tiger and snake. There coloring pages, booklets and more.

Host a pageant. Help children create animal costumes from the dress up bin and recycled materials. Got more than 12 students? Do male, female and baby animals (ram-ewe-lamb). This teaches science vocabulary.

Sample Chinese foods. The Chinese New Year theme is luck. Simple kid-friendly treats would be animals crackers (horses), iced tea, fortune cookies, dumplings, spring rolls (egg rolls), cherries, Mandarin oranges and fish crackers.

Play games. Links above have printable puzzles and games. DL-TK link has a printable quilt with a square for each animal. That could be used as a bingo or memory game. In China, children are given lucky gold coins. Get some foil-wrapped gold coins and hide them for kids to find.

Host a Lantern Festival. Use links for ideas, activities and printables. Lantern Festival rounds out the new year activities and is celebrated about two weeks later.

Say "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Gong Hey Fat Choy") to wish Happy New Year!

Free printable Thanksgiving holiday worksheets, activities, crafts, coloring pages

Children will love coloring and making Thanksgiving party decorations, invitations, greeting cards, games, table decor, placemats and more with these free printouts. Print 3D turkeys, Native American Indians crafts, pilgrims, pumpkins, harvest cornucopias--all the traditional holiday themes. These are perfect for preschool and elementary social studies crafts too.  Free printable Thanksgiving holiday activities, crafts, coloring pages, cards

Free printable Halloween lesson plans, games, crafts, activities for homeschooling families

Some homeschooling families observe Halloween and others don't. If you do, why not participate educationally. 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.

Free printable patriotic American crafts for US holiday history lesson plans

Several US national holidays center on patriotic events in American history--Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Election Day, Constitution Day and Presidents Day. So here are free printable patriotic crafts and red white and blue crafts and art projects. These free printable activities might easily be used as lesson plans for school or homeschool to teach American history, government, civics, social studies, geography, current events, US history and other similar classes.

All Crafts has a blowout of red white and blue crafts projects to use for major US national holidays. Use these free printable patriotic crafts for US national holidays like Memorial Day and 4th of July but also for lesson plans on Presidents Day, Constitution Day or even Election Day. 

Pecuniarities has a cute free printable toy soldiers crafts, perfect for Presidents Day and military holidays and US national holidays. Print toy soldiers, cut them out, wrap around toilet paper tubes and glue. Free Kids Crafts offers free printable patriotic crafts, games, activities, puzzles, paper dolls and paper airplanes. Use these for American history or Presidents Day activities!

The Toymaker has free printable patriotic crafts, red white and blue crafts and American history art projects. Making Friends always has lots of great crafts, including free printable patriotic crafts and RWB activities. You'll like the games,puzzles and mazes for US national holidays too. 

Teacher Vision has a bunch of educational free printable patriotic crafts. DL-TK has a loads of free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects and patriotic crafts for American history and US national holidays. Activity Village has free printable red white and blue crafts and art projects for all US national holidays. Here's the Presidents Day page but check the side menu and home page for season by season holiday activities.

'Blackfish' orca dies at SeaWorld: lesson plans on captive orcas 'killer whale' Tilikum

 2017 takes up where 2016 left off in celebrity deaths. Just days into the new year, a celebrated face passed. But it's animal, not human. Tilikum, the famed “Blackfish” orca died at SeaWorld, still in captivity. After 36 years in captivity at the Orlando amusement park, the "killer whale" is free at last. The cause of death is still unknown, but linked to a bacterial infection and perhaps health problems from limited movement. Tilikum’s backstory framed the documentary “Blackfish” and moved the protest to get the captive orca released from the tiny cages they call home. Here is information on Tilikum's sad story that you can use in lesson plans   'Blackfish' orca dies at SeaWorld: 36-y/o captive 'killer whale' Tilikum is free at last

100+ super cheap stocking stuffers, Christmas gifts

Looking for super cheap stocking stuffers? I'm not talking about what stores consider "budget" Christmas gifts priced at $5-$15. That's not bargain that's over-priced, especially for stocking filler gifts. By inexpensive, I mean like 10 cents to a buck. Well here are over 100 cheap but nice Christmas presents for stockings that kids will love! Halloween alternatives: 100+ non-food, non-candy Trick-or-Treat prizes, giveways