Asalamu Alaikum and Ramadhan Mubarak.
What are you going to do with your little ones this Ramadhan? As adults we try to better ourselves and learn more about the religion during this month, but what about our little ones?
Let's face it most of the year they're focused on the typical academic studies. Without relating any of these studies to Allah and the religion. So during Ramadhan most parents try to find ways to involve their children in Ramadhan and teach them more about Islam.
Unfortunately there aren't many references for ramadhan activities. People get stuck on the crescent moon and star crafts when they aren't even symbols of Islam. What? They're not symbols? Nope.
This symbol carried over from Constantinople, now Turkey. It was on the top of some buildings before the Muslims came and eventually became the symbol that the West used when referring to Islam. Although the moon is a big part of Ramadhan, the star is not.
So what do we do if we're not make star and moon crafts? Well, my goal is to educate my child about the religion and the things Allah mentions in the Quran while having fun. In addition I want to collaborate this knowledge with the "typical" education.
Since I have a toddler boy who is in love with animals right now, this year, Ramadhan will feature the animals Allah has mentioned in the Quran. There are about 27 of them. We're going to learn about the creation of Allah through crafts, reading, stem and outdoor adventures.
I found a lot of pins on Pinterest. All of them are not useable but they gave me great ideas about what I can do. Here's the link to my Pinterest board. Follow me as I may add more pins. In order to understand how to use the pins, subscribe to this blog for daily Ramadhan updates.
Some of the activities that I will be posting are not on Pinterest and are things I made up on my own. I'll be sharing with you the ins and outs of those activities. If there are printables, be sure you'll be getting them.
For the first day we studied the bee. With every animal we go over the Arabic name and this one is called Nahl. In surah An-Nahl Allah talks about the bee and the mercy that Allah had given through them.
وَأَوۡحَىٰ رَبُّكَ إِلَى ٱلنَّحۡلِ أَنِ ٱتَّخِذِى مِنَ ٱلۡجِبَالِ بُيُوتً۬ا وَمِنَ ٱلشَّجَرِ وَمِمَّا يَعۡرِشُونَ (٦٨) ثُمَّ كُلِى مِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٲتِ فَٱسۡلُكِى سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلاً۬ۚ يَخۡرُجُ مِنۢ بُطُونِهَا شَرَابٌ۬ مُّخۡتَلِفٌ أَلۡوَٲنُهُ ۥ فِيهِ شِفَآءٌ۬ لِّلنَّاسِۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٲلِكَ لَأَيَةً۬ لِّقَوۡمٍ۬ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ (٦٩)
"And your Lord inspired to the bee, take for yourself among the mountains, houses, and among the trees and [in] that which they construct. Then eat from all the fruits and follow the way of your Lord laid down [for you]. There emerges from their bellies a drink varying in color, of which there is healing for people. Indeed that is a sign for people who give thought."
Activity 1: Animal Wall
What you'll need:
Paper, cardstock or cardboard
Tape or glue
Black paint
Yellow paint
Index card
Pen
Tape or glue
Black paint
Yellow paint
Index card
Pen
Scissors
I wrote this ayat on a card and posted it on a wall next to a cutout of a bee that we painted together.
The cutout is pretty simple. First cut out two circles; one small and one large. Then cut out a large oval tapered at one end and no wider than the circumference of the large circle.
Next cut out 6 curved legs and two antennas. Glue or tape them together. Make sure to have the tapered side of the oval as the stinger.
Paint the bee.
Now cut out the wings. Paint if you want or leave it. Tape them onto the back of the bee and let it dry.
Now you have the start of your Ramadhan activity wall. Everyday you'll be making an animal cutout and posting it with the ayat that mentions it.
This part is optional...
You can cutout some bold letters to post next to the bee cutout spelling bee or nahl.
Activity 2: Ayat Recitation
Throughout the day recite the ayat 68-69 of surah an-Nahl. I listed the ayat above. This is so that you and your child can become familiar with the ayat. Make sure to review the translation if you don't speak Arabic.
Activity 3: Coloring pages and do a dot pages.
Go to my Pinterest board and print out the coloring pages or click the links below
Activity 4
Read a book about bees or featuring bees. I made this an out of the house activity. We went on a walk to our local library and found this book called Inside the Bees Hive.
Below are a list of books featuring bees.
Insha Allah next year I'll be posting my own Islamic children's books about all of the animals. Support my endeavors to bring Islamic geared books and other items into production by going to my business page, Good Word Prints, liking it, following me, and purchasing from me.
If your interested in doing surveys so I can better suit your needs please let me know on the Facebook page.
Insha Allah I will also be posting tshirts that coincide with each animal post. Don't miss out, find these tshirts on my facebook page at Good Word Prints.
Activity 5: Watch a video
Youtube has a lot of videos. Just look up bees for kids. You can choose from cartoons, documentaries and songs. I prefer anything that gets the little ones moving.
Activity 6: Bee S.T.E.M
This activity was by far the most entertaining for me and my son. In this activity you'll be creating a bee hive, bees and flowers to act out a worker bees job.
What you"ll need:
scissors
tape or glue
glue gun
yellow and black pompoms
green craft paper
yellow craft paper
colored craft paper (the color of a flower)
either paper, cardstock, paper towel tube or toilet paper tube
either yellow chalk or finely ground cheetos (only need a little)
tweezers or tongs
First you're going to make the honeycombs. tape or glue the paper or cardstock into a tube. If you already have tube you can skip that part. Cut the tube horizontally no wider than the width of your thumb. make as many as you'd like. Crease the circles at six different areas to create an octagon.
Now tape the octagons together in a circular shape. You've made a beehive.
For the bees, use a glue gun and pompoms. Glue two yellow and one black together in the sequence yellow, black, yellow. I didn't have black so I used purple.
Finally, you'll make flowers and pollen out of the craft paper and chalk/cheetos. If you're using chalk, just shave a little. If you're using cheetos, just crush one. That's the pollen. The flowers are made from the craft paper. Green for stems, yellow for the center and your chosen color for the petals. I just cut out a simple flower shape and taped them together.
Now it's time to play! Give your child a pair of tweezers or tongs and have them act out the bees life. I found these neat bug catching kit at dollar tree, and they had an interesting ball ended scissor thingy.
If you make this post your pics in the comments. Your kids will love it, insha Allah. Mine did.
Activity 7: Go on a bee hunt
Take your child outside and look for some bees. We were blessed to see some large bumblebees. Some people go crazy when they see bees but you're teaching your child about the world, don't show fear but teach caution.
Activity 8: B is for Bee
Use this opportunity to expand on learning the alphabet. Teach about the letter B through whatever means you please
Activity 9: ن is for نحل (nahl)
The same can be done for the Arabic alphabet ن (noon).
Activity 10: Bee life cycle
There are resources for this all over the internet. I used this print out to teach my son. You can use anything you like.
That's it for the days activities. I hope you enjoyed. remember to subscribe to see more. I'll be posting again tomorrow, insha Allah.
No comments:
Post a Comment