Welcome To the 2001 AMC Newsletter
Fall/Winter Page

To Visit Our New Primary Montessori Resource Section

Contents in Part I of this newsletter include:

Creative Lesson Planning - Christmas Around the World Part I
allartsupplies.com - Complete Selection of Art Supplies for Schools, Homeschools and Public/Private Organizations
Creative Addiction - Textiles for Turning the Ordinary into Works of Art
Front Row Experience - Featuring New Movement Coordination Activities, Kits, Sets, and Equipment

Christmas Around the World Part I

Make geography really come alive this holiday season for your students by introducing them to Christmas celebrations around the world. You'll find the historical background, recipes, music, arts and crafts projects, and other related activities you need to create exciting hands on learning experiences in this newsletter.

The Greek & Cretan Christmas Customs site provides a detailed historical background of how the holiday is celebrated by Greeks and Cretans. Scroll down to the bottom half of this web page to locate many helpful links links. Click onto , Candy Canes, Tradition of Bells, Tradition of the Christmas Rose, Tradition of the Christmas Wreaths, The Story of Silent Night, Holy Night and Christmas Traditions, Legends to learn about Christmas traditions. For information about how the Christmas holiday is celebrated in Greece visit Festivals, Celebrations and Holidays in Greece.

Holiday Traditions - Italy offers some interesting historical details plus delectable Italian dishes. You'll also find some traditional Spanish Christmas recipes by visiting Holiday Traditions - Spain. Next, visit Christmas in Portugal to read what some young Portuguese students have shared about their holiday traditions. Read Christmas Traditions in France for a short but well written overview of how the French celebrate Christmas. Then visit Christmas in France where you will find craft instructions for Making a Decorative Bsùche de Noel.

Paula Bardell shares links which highlight Christmas traditions in England at About - Christmas in England. Christmas Customs from England, Christmas Poems, Dickens and Christmas, and Old English Customs are just a few of the links mentioned at this site.

Christmas in England is another site worth seeing. For an interesting craft see where you will also find a craft link to Make Some Christmas Eve Bells. Take a stroll over to Christmas in Ireland to locate information about Christmas in Ireland, St. Stephen's Day and information about a traditional Christmas dinner. Find additional information about the traditional Irish Christmas meal by visiting Mount Saint Michael Christmas. You'll also find recipes for An American Country Christmas, An English Christmas and Christmas Eve in Southern Italy by pointing your browser to Christmas Recipes!

Christmas in Scotland and Scotland Christmas offer information as to how the Scottish celebrate the holiday. You'll find a link to Christmenu where you can see a traditional Scottish Christmas dinner menu.

Find background information, traditions and links to German and Austria Christmas music, recipes and more by visiting The German Christmas Page. Additional commentary and traditional Austria and German Christmas recipes are available from Holiday Traditions - Germany and Holiday Traditions - Austria.

Hop on over to Holiday Traditions - Christmas in Poland and Luxembourg for additional holiday lesson planning and Christmas recipes. Next, visit Windows to Denmark- Danish Christmas Traditions where you will find concise, yet well written historical information accompanied by pictures showing the sights of Christmastime in Denmark and some wonderful recipes. You'll find directions for making the Danish paper hearts by visting Woven Paper Christmas Heart Basket

Visit Russian Christmas to locate information about how Russians celebrate this holiday. Read how Russian traditions have changed from pre 1917 to the present. The entire traditional Russian Christmas menu, from appetizer to desserts, will be of interest to educators wishing to involve their students in preparing international dishes. Stop by Christmas in Hungary and Christmas Traditions in Hungary to discover how the Hungarians celebrate the holiday.

Visit Welcome to the eHow Index and scroll down until you see Observing Christmas. There you'll find additional information on how Christmas is celebrated in Russia and many other parts of the world. Click on *Decorate a Mexican Home for Christmas* and *Decorate a Hungarian Christmas tree* for ideas on how to create a prepared environment. Visit Christmas in Romania to learn more about traditional Romanian Christmas customs, food, carols and more. These ideas will also help you make a prepared international holiday environment for your school and home classrooms. You'll also find some holiday multicultural music ideas by visiting Music Education Resources Idea Library. You'll also want to click on Multilingual MIDI Files of Christmas carols to obtain lyrics to favorite Christmas carols in Japanese, Korean, French, Latin, Polish, and German.

Extra Special Holiday Information Via E-Mail

Viist The Pine Cone Lady Crafts for some interesting holiday craft projects. Obtain an additional free pine cone craft by writing to HomeHwy@aol.com and requesting the holiday international craft/recipe newsletters. The 2000 Holiday International Craft/Recipe Exchange Newsletter and 1999 Holiday Exchange Newsletter are sent via e-mail free of charge. The contributors of this newsletters have been generous, sharing crafts and recipes, in some cases, that have been passed down for many generations. You'll want to read both newsletters so as not to miss any of the delectable entries. For those looking for some creative holiday crafts, you're in for a real treat as well!

allartsupplies.com

The following is from allartsupplies.com:
"allartsupplies.com has been a catalog and warehouse facility supplying daycare centers, summer camps, public schools, private schools and art teachers for over 60 years.

The buying power fueled by competitive municipal bidding, a national catalog and an 8000 foot self-picking warehouse open to the public permits us to offer a wide range of fine art supplies to support art education at all levels."

Imagine shopping online at one website and finding the acrylic paints, charcoals/pastels, clay, easels, and other art supplies you need for your art presentations. To learn more about this company, including special discounts offered please visit the AMC Resource Directory/allartsupplies.com.

Creative Addiction

Linda, from Creative Addiction recently shared the following with us: "Creative Addiction was born 2 years ago out of a need to find quality textiles at a reasonable price for the creative personality. Since then, we have expanded our line and continue to hunt for the new and exciting item to spark our creative urges."

Children marvel in working with various textures and colors of different fabrics. They especially enjoy working with yarn and thread to create their own masterpieces. Imagine their joy in embroidering a design or their name on a table cloth, apron or other item available from Creative Addiction. These personalized aprons can be used for art, cooking or other practical classroom exercises. The company also offers many fine items such as green and red napkins, which would be wonderful holiday gifts for friends and relatives.

You'll find a wonderful freeware program called Print n' Stitch. Using this program, you can take a graphic and convert it into a cross stitch chart, and print it out on your printer.

Quantity discounts are available on most items. For more information, visit the AMC Resource Directory/Creative Addiction.

Front Row Experience

ReeBoundNet

The following is from Frank of Front Row Experience:

"This has to be the rebound net you've been looking for that finally lives up to its name. It's even called a ReeBoundNet, for heaven's sake! Not only is it sturdy and so lightweight that carrying it is a breeze, but it even has two complete rebound nets so you can run two activity stations back to back from the same unit at the same time!

The nets have an infinite variety of rebound angles you can easily vary until you get that perfect rebound angle you want. Plus, it folds up flat and compact for easy storage! This sturdy plastic 37 inch square ReeBoundNet? is great for late preschool and all elementary school grade hand-eye coordination activities with bean bags and balls! No more need for a monster rebound net with a net you can't vary and don't know where you're going to find the space to put it afterwards! You will very surprised how a rebound net can be sooo flexible and versatile and yet be so easy to set up and put away after you're done! This rebound net is so cool! The ReeBoundNet? comes with complete assembly instructions! Use Code #832 when ordering!"

Creative Balance Activities

"With Front Row Experience's new soft but firm and friendly Foam Coordination Boards(TM) you won't have to depend on those old rigid unimaginative wood or metal balance beams any more for improving your children's balance! It's well known that children who develop a good sense of balance are better able to concentrate on other activities such as reading and writing without having to consciously think about the balance of any part of their bodies. They will be more graceful and fluid in their movement activities as well. Towards that end, the new Foam Coordination Boards(TM) with velcro-like sides all around, can be securely placed side by side, end to end, and end to side to make imaginative balance patterns that children find challenging and fun! Balance patterns to move across like the traditional straight line is shown here. More imaginative ones not shown such as a Coordination Ladder, Balance Beam Tree, Zig-Zag Balance Beam, even a Balance Beam Maze plus many more configurations are limited only by your imagination!

Each Foam Coordination Board(TM) comes with complete instructions and suggested diagrams for different fun balance configurations to get your children moving with confidence!"

For additional information please visit the AMC Resource Directory/Front Row Experience..

For additional Hanukkah and Kwanzaa lesson planning information, visit the AMC Fall 1999 Newsletter.

Discover some marvelous new resources to help you with your lesson planning. To see our general *extensive* collection of resources click here.

Don't forget to bookmark this page for lesson planning!

Don't stop now!! Read AMC Fall/Winter 2001 Newsletter Part II. You'll discover some additional holiday lesson planning ideas and resources for your home and school classrooms. American Montessori Consulting
P.O. Box 5062
Rossmoor, CA 90720

Heidi Anne Spietz, Editor
Frances Henderson, Manager
The AMC Montessori Newsletter
Fall/Winter 2001
all rights reserved
Copyright c2001

For comments about this issue please contact
Heidi Spietz at Heidi1977@aol.com

For general questions about American Montessori Consulting contact AMC via e-mail
amonco@aol.com

American Montessori Consulting