Describes the festivals and holidays celebrated in the winter season in different countries of the world.

Joys of Spring: Spring Celebrations around the World is a children's picture book for ages 3-9. The story is told by a friendly parrot visiting 12 spring festivals on six continents. The holidays are: Noruz, Passover, Gelede, Kolla Raymi Killa, Wattle Day, Sakura Matsuri, Chun Fen, Basant Panchami, Holi, Easter, Yancuic Xuithuil, and Earth Day.

No More “Us” and “Them” delineates what steps educators can take to create an atmosphere where adolescent students feel accepted, included, and valuable to themselves and to their peers. This book provides ideas for lessons and activities that can be integrated into existing curricula and that meet a variety of content area standards in language arts, social studies, science, mathematics, foreign languages, physical education, art, and music, while also proposing ideas for advisory or homeroom periods and class, team, and grade gatherings to build respect in our classrooms, our schools, and our communities.

For years, religious leaders and communities around the world have turned to the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) for feminist liturgies for justice. Now—in celebration of the organization’s thirty-fifth anniversary—Stirring Waters gathers fifty-two of these beautiful liturgies, ready-made to help your community venerate powerful women of faith, develop a richer and deeper spirituality, and take real action for justice. Use the liturgies in this book as a resource to nourish the souls and focus the passions of the people you serve. Help them reflect on great women like the prophetess Miriam and Julian of Norwich; provoke and disturb them on occasions like Earth Day and World Water Day; energize them on International Women’s Day and Black History Month; and rejuvenate drooping spirits with liturgies of healing and gratitude. Never again will you scramble or struggle to provide community prayer that is worthwhile, nourishing, and even electrifying.

Wisdom and activism come to us sometimes in the smallest and most unexpected ways through soft, previously silenced, yet passionate voices. Critical theory, critical literacy, and related approaches to learning about the world and many forms of knowledge can be a potentially effective way to address complexities of our changing world society.

Resource added for the Early Childhood Education program 103071.

Books about Tending the Flame

Children deserve to play and learn in safe environments. The earlier children understand safety concepts, the more naturally they will de¬velop the attitudes and respect that lead to lifelong patterns of safe behavior. Support children as they begin to incorporate actions into their lives that make them feel more secure and learn about pedestrian safety, seat belt use, fire and burn prevention, weapons avoidance, poisoning prevention, and tobacco and alcohol awareness. The curriculum includes Overviews of the six safety topics Suggested interest area materials and supports for creating the learning environment Learning objectives and vocabulary words to introduce and use Suggestions for evaluating children’s understanding of each topic More than 30 hands-on classroom activities Family information and take-home activities This book is part of the Growing, Growing Strong series, a whole-health curriculum for children age three though kindergarten. Together, the books provide a complete set of activities and resources to help you support children’s growth and wellness.

Keep students engaged with Learning Centers in Kindergarten. This 176-page book includes suggestions for how to set up learning centers, arrange the room with appropriate furniture, determine the number of students at each center, move in and between centers, develop activities, and find materials. It supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and includes ideas for center time and month-by-month activities for eight centers.

Educators on Diversity, Social Justice, and Schooling identifies categories of privilege and marginalization in the “master narrative” of social discourse and works to bring equity into classrooms across Canada. This timely text challenges students to question the power relations that value one group’s system of knowledge over another and brings this to bear on the classroom environment. This volume features contributions by educators from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and includes chapter-end key questions, additional resources for more information, and suggested activities to engage students in critical thought and to ground concepts of diversity and social justice in practical application. Students in undergraduate and graduate education programs will value the combination of theoretical and practical knowledge that this collection puts forth to foster a new generation of inclusive educators.

When a special activity evolves into a tradition within a family, it creates meaning, connection, and community and makes common occasions more momentous and memorable. Establishing a sense of stability and shared history has never been more important to parents than it is today, as families become more fractured and scattered. THE JOY OF FAMILY TRADITIONS offers more than 400 fresh ideas and creative approaches to cultivating birthday, anniversary, holiday, and other rite-of-passage and seasonal traditions that strengthen personal bonds and reflect a family's individual style, spirituality, and values. Inspires and instructs families on how to create, personalize, adapt, and preserve relevant traditions that reflect how we live today. Explores the historical, cultural, and often quirky origins of holidays, customs, and milestones, both uncommon and familiar. Includes holidays, holy days, annual events, once-in-a-lifetime occasions, and personal celebrations. Reviews"A lovely new book that pays tribute to hundreds of celebrations from around the world and offers new ideas for marking important occasions."—Pregnancy Magazin "Be inspired to preserve, personalize and create meaningful holiday and year round traditions with the more than 400 multi-cultural activities found in The Joy of Family Traditions."—Senior Wire News Service "...read The Joy of Family Traditions by Jennifer Trainer Thompson, so you can celebrate the holidays even better than you celebrate them now."—Washington Post Recommended in Q&A Column"If you love family traditions, you will take pleasure in The Joy of Family Traditions by Jennifer Trainer Thompson."-Tom McMahon's syndicated "Kid Tips" Column appears in 62 newspapers nationwideFeatured in two wedding themed pieces on 5/1/08 and 5/8/08.-Content That Works

"What we call Christmas is one of the oldest and most enduring of the human celebrations." So begins the Preface of this perennially popular volume which includes hundreds of seasonal selections from Unitarian Universalists over the years, plus a bibliography of resources beyond denominational inspiration. Celebrating Christmas contains history, customs, commentaries, opening words, responsive readings, poetry, prayers, meditations, readings, various service elements, special services, family and fun items, and a dozen woodcuts suitable for worship service covers. In addition there are thirteen new carols for the season. Celebrating Christmas was edited by Carl Seaburg. He and Mark Harris later compiled Celebrating Easter and Spring: An Anthology of Unitarian Universalist Readings.