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The smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) developed recently shows great efficiency in solving solid mechanics. This paper extends an edge-based smoothed finite element method for static and free vibration analyses of plates. The edge-based strain smoothing technique is combined with the three-node Mindlin plate element (MIN3) to give a so-called the edge-based smoothed MIN3(ES-MIN3). The system stiffness matrix is calculated by using the edge-based strain smoothing technique over the smoothing domains associated with the edges of elements. In each element the stabilized MIN3 is performed to avoid the transverse shear locking. Typical numerical examples demonstrate that the present ES-MIN3 is free of shear locking and can achieve the high accuracy compared to the exact solutions and others existing plate elements.