A guide to the legend and lore behind the traditions, rituals, foods, games, animals, and other symbols and activities associated with holidays and holy days, feasts and fasts, and other celebrations.

It is fun to celebrate holidays. Most holidays have symbols. A heart is for Valentine’s Day and a jack-o-lantern is for Halloween. Let’s learn about other holiday symbols. Paired to the fiction title The Perfect Jack-O’-Lantern.

A guide to hundreds of symbols associated with 224 popular holidays from around the world, covering foods, places, people, legends, and other aspects.

Provides facts about eight holidays, as well as step-by-step instructions for drawing cartoons of symbols associated with each one.

Practice writing strategies to help prepare students for current standardized tests.

These four nonfiction, high-interest writing prompts are designed to support second graders as they practice the writing process. The prompt topics promote writing based on real-world experiences. A suggested scoring rubric is included.

Award-winning journalist Robert Boston lambastes the zealots of the Religious Right for spreading misinformation about the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. Boston reveals how a band of ultraconservative religious groups with a political agenda - led primarily by televangelist Pat Robertson - is conducting a systematic war aginst the separation of church and state. The tactics of these groups are designed to exploit unfounded fears and turn the American people against the separationist principle. They will not rest, Boston says, until the United States has become a theocracy. To expose the Religious Right's blatant distortions of U.S. history and correct its skewed analysis of legal rulings, Boston objectively reviews the evolution of church/state relations in the United States and looks at how the separation principle has been applied by the courts. He also examines efforts by sectarian groups to win government support for their schools, the school prayer issue, the history of the free exercise of religion, and the controversial role of religion in the public square. Published in cooperation with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

Christmas is not everybody’s favorite holiday. Historically, Jews in America, whether participating in or refraining from recognizing Christmas, have devised a multitude of unique strategies to respond to the holiday season. Their response is a mixed one: do we participate, try to ignore the holiday entirely, or create our own traditions and make the season an enjoyable time? This book, the first on the subject of Jews and Christmas in the United States, portrays how Jews are shaping the public and private character of Christmas by transforming December into a joyous holiday season belonging to all Americans. Creative and innovative in approaching the holiday season, these responses range from composing America’s most beloved Christmas songs, transforming Hanukkah into the Jewish Christmas, creating a national Jewish tradition of patronizing Chinese restaurants and comedy shows on Christmas Eve, volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens on Christmas Day, dressing up as Santa Claus to spread good cheer, campaigning to institute Hanukkah postal stamps, and blending holiday traditions into an interfaith hybrid celebration called “Chrismukkah” or creating a secularized holiday such as Festivus. Through these venerated traditions and alternative Christmastime rituals, Jews publicly assert and proudly proclaim their Jewish and American identities to fashion a universally shared message of joy and hope for the holiday season. See also: http://www.akosherchristmas.org

Award-winning teacher and respected author of several volumes, Professor Laura Little has written a new book on the First Amendment. Following the proven Examples and Explanations format, the book covers all of the amendment’s major topics – with emphasis on speech and religion. Professor Little presents hypothetical examples that range from simple and straightforward to complex and rich. As a result, students using the book can acquire both basic and advanced knowledge of First Amendment doctrine. Equally important, this approach allows students the opportunity to practice their skill of marshalling arguments on many sides of contested legal issues. With its short chapters, the book is an exceptionally useful complement to any of the available casebooks in the field. Highlights of this E&E study aid (first edition): Professor Little brings her characteristically clear writing style and constitutional law expertise to the subject. The book’s organization enables students to choose the particular topics they need to study and that match the coverage of their course. The topics covered include a comprehensive review of the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on speech, association, and religion as well as cutting edge issues raised by current events, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The concise explication of legal doctrine (and its uncertainties) ensure a baseline of student understanding and maximizes accessibility to difficult, abstract concepts. The book’s balance between simple and complex hypotheticals serves an array of student needs. While providing deep coverage of abstract concepts, the book includes many practical introductions to law practice reality. Professor Little has not only established her reputation as a constitutional scholar, but also comes to the subject with experience as a practicing First Amendment lawyer for the media. Professors and students will benefit from: Adaptable organization allows the book to complement any casebook. Figures, examples, explanations, and varying difficulty in the presented material ensure that the book will serve the needs of a variety of users and will appeal to different learning styles. Balance between theoretical and practical materials enables broad understanding.

If you're searching for research activities or multicultural topics for a diverse student population, this is the book for you. Reproducible quizzes guide students through subjects that range from holidays and food to sports heroes and literature. Cultural searches are related to Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and other U.S. immigrant groups. For each quest, the author provides an annotated reference list, search questions, and an answer key. This is a fun and inspirational approach to building research skills while fostering an appreciation of diversity.