Road Trip Printables – Lesson Plans

It feels like that time of year when people are starting to play and/or go on road trips, so it’s time for a roundup of ideas for things to do in the car.

I’ve shared some printables for roads trips in the past, and the ones in that post we actually used some of when the girl was younger. (She’s 14 now and has no interest in car trip games.)

I recently came across another version of the license plate game from Fox Farm Home, which is fun for the twist of adding silly facts about the states to the listings. For each state you see, color in the state on the map and read the fun fact. (Arkansas’ is that it has the largest ostrich farm in America, which Google tells me isn’t true, but checking that the facts are true adds an extra layer of fun.)

Living Well Mom has ideas for making a full road trip binder for kids, complete with maps and activities in plastic sleeve protectors and a dry-erase marker attached to the binder for easy playing and no random markers rolling around the car. That post has links to a bunch of free printables you can add for I-spy, bingo, license plate game, coloring pages and travel games, but they also sell a road trip bundle that includes journaling pages, bingo, Battleship and a few different I-spy games, including car makes and restaurants.

This truck spotting I spy from National Post is a great one for kids who are obsessed with all kinds of trucks. I also like the car color search from Productive Pete.

About a Mom has another good set of road trip printables that includes a word scramble, I spy, scavenger hunt, journal page, maze and coloring page. Homeschool and Happiness has another great free road trip activity book that includes a maze, word search, tic tac toe blanks, scavenger hunts and more.

Mama Cheaps has a set of printable conversation starters to keep in the car to use during car trips long or short, or when waiting in the car line or in traffic. These are free and each prompt is printed on a circle shape so you can cut them out and store them in a round tin.

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The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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