Free hands-on kids' crafts and activities for Thanksgiving holiday

Check out these cute Cut And Paste paper crafts to print free for kids. Children will love coloring and making Thanksgiving party decorations, invitations, greeting cards, games, table decor, placemats and more with these 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

Non-toxic homemade face paint for Halloween and dress up

Face painting is a fun part of dressing up for Halloween. Many costumes for children require a mask or face paint of some kind. Here are easy, homemade non-toxic fact paint recipes for kids' costumes. Commercial face paint and cosmetics often contain harmful chemicals. Some may cause a rash on a child's sensitive skin.

Use these DIY recipes to make Halloween face painting safe, non-toxic and non-allergenic. The ingredients in these recipes should not cause skin irritation. If they do, it's likely that the child has extra sensitive skin or is allergic to that specific one of the ingredients. If any face paint, temporary tattoo or skin product burns or itches, wash it off immediately and apply cool compresses to the affected area. You should not apply Halloween face paint to children with eczema, psoriasis, acne or rashes.

Basic homemade face paint recipes for children:
1 teaspoon powdered corn starch 1/2 teaspoon cold cream (Pond's, Avon) 1/2 teaspoon cold water food coloring
Blend to a creamy paste.

Homemade sensitive skin Halloween face paint recipes
Noxema Skin Cream (this kind is mentholated and can be more soothing for children than regular cold cream) corn starch food coloring
Blend.

Natural homemade face paint recipes (safer for children for extra sensitive skin, skin allergies)
glycerin or clear aloe vera gel, olive oil and natural food coloring: cold tea or coffee (brown), juice
from carrots, purple cabbage, beets or blueberries or onion skins (yellow). Blend for green.

You can also use regular cosmetics for homemade face painting The safest non-allergenic brands are: Cover Girl Clean Make-Up, Bare Escentuals, Bare Minerals, Burt's Bees
, Kiss My Face and Jasons. Avoid makeup with mineral oil or alcohol. Children should wash all makeup off after Halloween trick-or-treating. Use fragrance-free, alcohol-free hypoallergenic baby wipes to remove all traces of make-up, especially around eye area. Follow with a gentle face wash like Ceravue. If the child's face appears red or inflamed, apply cool compresses

Patriotic RWB recipes for Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, US holiday lessons

For Labor Day Memorial Day, how about red white and blue recipes and creative American patriotic foods? Here's RWB appetizer-to-dessert menu. It's perfect for July 4th, BBQs, Father's Day and summer picnics and parties. Make these RWB recipes with kids for fun, hands-on learning. These healthy snacks work well for school holiday parties.

* Red White and Blue Chip Mixer. Make chips swing American. Blend any combination of blue corn chips, red corn chips (available at specialty and holiday food stores) red BBQ chips, pink taro chips (available in Terra's root vegetable chip blends), homemade parsnip chips (white) and beet chips. For white, use white corn chips, popcorn or white cheddar cheese puffs.

* Old Glory Veggie Platter: Use a tri-section platter for crudites (cut vegetables) or arrange them in stars and stripes. For red use red pepper strips, tomato wedges, radish roses. For blue, cut purple pepper strips, purple broccoflower, egg plant slices or shredded purple cabbage. For white veggies, use parsnip slices, cauliflower, water chestnuts. Cut some peppers and parsnips into star shapes (with star cookie cutter).

* Stars and Stripes Fruit Kebobs: On skewers, alternate any combination of watermelon chunks, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, strawberries, pale green honeydew, apple stars, banana slices (dash of pineapple or lemon juice prevents browning).

* Americana Lemonade Spritzer: Color lemonade blue with purple cabbage or blueberry juice. Or leave plain. Garnish by spearing strawberries or colored, star-shaped marshmallows on straws. Make star-shaped ice cubes with clear or grape soda or red pop. For clear ice cubes, put a blueberry in each.

* RBW Pinwheels:Flatten four pieces of white bread thin. Spread one with strawberry jam, another
with cream cheese and another with grape jam. Stack in alternate colors. Roll into log. Slice through all layers to make pinwheels.

* Patriotic Cole Slaw: Mix chopped purple cabbage, red peppers and radishes. Dress with vinegar, olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, horseradish and sugar. Cut peppers like stars if desired.

* American Flag Grill: Grill red smoked sausage, hotdogs, burgers (with beet juice added), or pink salmon. Garnish with purple cabbage shreds, purple and red pepper stars and mayonnaise. Poke tiny flag toothpicks in burgers.

* Festive American Fries: Julienne potatoes or use frozen French fries. Coat some in paprika or Louisiana red pepper and leave others white. Dye mayonnaise blue (naturalistas, use purple cabbage juice). Serve with red ketchup, plain and blue mayo. Dieters, use olive oil mayo.

* Lady Liberty Sundaes: Serve vanilla ice cream drizzled with strawberry and blueberry syrup. Mix colored gelatin for syrup. Decorate with blue and red candies (M&Ms, Nerds, Runts). Make fruit sundaes with blueberries and strawberries. Serve strawberry or spumoni ice cream topped with bluecolored topping. Serve Blue Moon ice cream with red and blue gummy worms, sprinkles, mini marshmallows and red fruit snacks. Or made a RWB ice cream buffet and let guest decorate their own.

* Star Cookies. Make star-shaped cookies easy using refrigerated sugar cookie dough. If you don't have star-shaped cookie cutter, cut into thin circles. Cut each circle into five pie-shaped wedges. Arrange in a circle, point side out. Place red or blue M&M or hard candy in the center. Hard candy will melt to clear "stained-glass" look. Or sprinkle with colored sugar. Or draw stars on cookie with colored spray frosting. Frost with strawberry cream cheese.

For more deliciously festive recipes, visit my blog Great Food 4U. For patriotic and other holiday printables, visit my blog Free Printable Holiday.

MLK Jr. Day connects Detroit, Rosa Parks bus to New Orleans Congo Square, Kwanzaa

 I had a profound experience, an epiphany if you will, on Christmas in 2014. I was taken outside my life and transported to a place I've never been, in a time I never lived. The memory haunts like the song your memory doesn't recognize, but your heart does. This experience is particularly relevant on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and always during Black History Month. So what's the big deal?  MLK Jr. Day connects Detroit, Rosa Parks bus to New Orleans Congo Square, Kwanzaa

Free printable Catholic Christian Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, holiday crafts, Christmas craft activities

Will you be celebrating Advent this holiday season? Advent is the Catholic Christian season leading up to Christmas. For four weeks, prior to #Christmas, Catholics practice Advent values prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Each week focuses on hope, expectation and joy. Here are free printable advent calendars for kids to make, to guide Christmas devotions. Free printable Catholic Christian Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, Christmas crafts

Halloween candy leftovers use-up recipes, ways to reuse stale candy from Trick-or-Treat

So trick-or-treat is over and now your kids have a haul of #Halloween candy. And of course you want them to eat all that sugar as soon as possible (not!). Or maybe you're stuck with stale candy you couldn't give away because it rained on Halloween or you didn't get as many trick-or-treating children. Or maybe you gave out yucky kinds like Mike-N-Ikes or Mary-Janes, tsk-tsk. You could blow your diet, eat all the treats and then regret it. Or you could try one of these healthy ways to use up leftover trick-or-treat goodies.  Halloween candy leftovers use-up recipes, ways to reuse stale candy from Trick-or-Treat

Kids summer activities: Sand castle science lessons, social studies at the beach

 Parents and homeschoolers, looking for a way to keep the educational momentum this summer? How about kids summer activities at the beach? You can actually homeschool at the beach by building a sand castle. Teach social studies connections and science lessons. in sand castle building. A sand castle is a great art medium. In fun kids summer activities, children learn earth science lessons on biomes. They also explore engineering and physical science lessons messing with sand at the beach. If you can't do sand castle science lessons at the beach, you can make a sand castle in the backyard or even inside.  Kids summer activities: Sand castle science lessons, social studies at the beach | Examiner.com

Kitchen science experiments, home science lessons, chemistry science activities

Science lessons are the most commonly hated subject in school. Science activities are often dull textbook, paper and pencil and lecture and less fun science experiments. But science activities shouldn't be boring. If taught correctly, using interactive kitchen science experiments, science lessons will be the favorite subject, especially in K-8 grades. And when students start out loving science lessons, it carries over to upper grades where content is more challenging and text-driven.  Kitchen science experiments, home science lessons, chemistry science activities | Examiner.com

Mothers Day gift crafts for kids: Homemade potpourri crafts from recycled trash | Examiner.com

 Do you love potpourri? How about homemade holiday potpourri gift crafts for Mothers Day? You can repurpose and reuse food scraps in recycled crafts of potpourri. Potpourri makes great holiday gift crafts for kids. Keep a small saucepan of your favorite potpourri recipes simmering for holiday scents all year long! These recycled crafts double as gift crafts for kids to make for Mothers Day or Fathers Day or birthdays. Plus children get a fresh healthy vitamin C treat from these recycled crafts.  Mothers Day gift crafts for kids: Homemade potpourri crafts from recycled trash | Examiner.com

Repurpose and reuse recycled milk jugs: Homemade bird feeders, bird seed crafts

Do plastic milk jugs overflow your recycling bin? Would you like simple homemade crafts to repurpose and reuse recycled milk jugs? Here are homemade bird feeders made from recycled milk jugs. These homemade bird feeders are great National Bird Day or Earth Day crafts for kids. Homemade bird feeders from recycled milk jugs help the environment in three ways: when you repurpose and reuse recycled milk jugs you reduce the number that go into landfills. Homemade bird feeders support wildlife and the ecosystem. Making bird seed recipes from recycled kitchen scraps cuts waste.  Repurpose and reuse recycled milk jugs: Homemade bird feeders, bird seed crafts | Examiner.com

Marketing lesson plans: Recycled inventions, cross-curricular business math unit

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.  Marketing lesson plans: Recycled inventions, cross-curricular business math unit | Examiner.com

Homemade shoebox dioramas: Social studies crafts, science projects, book reports

It's 8 pm and darling daughter is wailing. She forgot to make her book report diorama project and it's due TOMORROW! Have you been there, done that, parents? Were you tempted to tell her "tough luck. You were told to do your homework and didn't. So take the F." Perhaps you wanted--like this mom did-- to put her on the street wearing a sign "free-- please take." But I am an eleventh hour girl myself and understood. So we bailed out Last Minute Lucy out. The whole family helped--dad and three older teen siblings. We made an awesome woodland Native American Indian diorama with stuff around the house--and made happy family bonding memories. From that experience grew this guide to making homemade shoebox dioramas for social studies crafts, science projects or book reports. All you need is a recycle bin, craft scraps, household junk and a little ingenuity.  Homemade shoebox dioramas: Social studies crafts, science projects, book reports | Examiner.com

Mystery story starters writing prompts: Crime fiction whodunit detective stories

March is National Reading Month. Mystery readers, are you tired of cracker-bland mysteries you put down in sheer boredom? Dear mystery writers, are you sick of writing dull-as-plain-toast plots that readers barely nibble at? Here are mystery story starters for tales readers will gulp down whole and beg for more before the first even digests. Use these writing prompts and mystery story starters to write gulp-down-whole stories. This article covers detective stories and mystery story starters for crime fiction, affectionately called the whodunit.   Mystery story starters writing prompts: Crime fiction whodunit detective stories | Examiner.com

Valentine candy heart cookies, conversation hearts math game, craft, lesson

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.  Valentine candy heart cookies, conversation hearts math game, craft, lesson | Examiner.com

Catholic Lenten devotional: Easter gospel Bible object lessons with jelly beans

Catholic Christian parents, looking for Lenten devotional to share with your children? Here's a Easter gospel devotional using jelly beans. Ya gotta have jelly beans in a Easter basket, but kids don't usually eat 'em till the chocolate candy is gone. By then, jelly beans are stale and yucky (they weren't too great before they went stale!). So use up those ubiquitous jelly beans that collect everywhere (and mate).in Bible object lessons! It's edible, hands-on, fun, educational and devotional.   Catholic Lenten devotional: Easter gospel Bible object lessons with jelly beans | Examiner.com

Free printable chemistry worksheets for National Mole Day

Nerd is the new sexy. In fact, Party City named geek and nerd costumes in the Top 10 Halloween costumes for 2014. And National Mole Day (as in chemistry not animals or that Mexican paste stuff), October 23, celebrates nerds and geeks. Did that send you scurrying to Google to refresh on what the heck a mole is? No need. The NMDF (National Mole Day Foundation), the folks who originated the idea, explain. National Mole Day is celebrated from 6:02 am to 6:02 pm to connect with Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 1023), a chemistry measuring unit, from whence come the term "molecules." A molecule's mole number in grams equals its molar mass. The point of Mole Day is to get kids interested in chemistry (the class subject, not the interpersonal kind!) To celebrate, here are free printable chemistry worksheets, charts, games and lesson plans.   Free printable chemistry worksheets for National Mole Day | Examiner.com

Free printable animal classification worksheets, taxonomy charts and diagrams

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. Free printable animal classification worksheets, taxonomy charts and diagrams | Examiner.com

Free printable gingerbread house patterns and recipes, Christmas craft stencils

Making a holiday gingerbread house is a favorite family tradition. Not being very artistic, I'd cheat and get the gingerbread house kit. But I've found a better way: free printable gingerbread house patterns, recipes, Christmas stencils and templates. People approach Christmas gingerbread house making in two ways. The first is to painstakingly design a work of art--not to be eaten, let alone touched. Then there's our youngest son's method: slap together a ramshackle gingerbread shed, lather in two inches of frosting, cover every inch in candy and devour immediately. Whichever school you subscribe to, you'll want these free printable gingerbread recipes, stencils, templates and patterns.   Free printable gingerbread house patterns and recipes, Christmas craft stencils | Examiner.com

SeaWorld ends orca whale shows over 'Blackfish' Tilikum animal cruelty protests

In startling news, SeaWorld will end orca whale shows at its San Diego theme park. The Guardian reported on Nov. 9, that the decision came in the wake of animal cruelty protests over Tilikum and other killer whales featured in the 2013 "Blackfish" film. Dwindling admissions and sinking profit margins have left SeaWorld floundering. SeaWorld announced that the iconic killer whale shows will be phased out by 2017 and replaced by a "new orca experience" focused on natural environment of whales. 2016 will be the last year guests will see performing killer whales at San Diego SeaWorld amusement park. But ending the orca whale shows is only a ripple in the pond. SeaWorld is completely restructuring the entire venue.SeaWorld ends orca whale shows over 'Blackfish' Tilikum animal cruelty protests | Examiner.com

 

BBQ, pan-fried meat linked to kidney cancer: Broiled, grilled meat carcinogens | Examiner.com

dd BBQ, grilled meat, broiled and pan-fried meat to the list of carcinogens reported the Washington Post on Nov. 9. In October, the World Health Organization said processed meats--hot dogs, bacon, ham, lunch meat--are as carcinogenic as cigarettes and asbestos. Now a National Institutes of Health study found that BBQ and pan-fried meat are linked to kidney cancer. WHO has already connected all red meat to bowel cancer and the list of reasons not to eat red meat just keeps getting longer, and the way you prepare meat is just as dangerous.  BBQ, pan-fried meat linked to kidney cancer: Broiled, grilled meat carcinogens | Examiner.com