Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Together We Read: June Book & Activities

Assalamu alaikum,



The book we read in June for Together We Read was, Only You, by Robin Cruise.



And then...
The first line of the story gave me an idea. The first line reads:

When sunrise glows peachy rose at dawn,
I love the way you stretch and yawn.

Well, I had to change the part about yawning when I read it aloud because yawning is from the shaytaan (I didn't even notice that when I chose the book subhana'Allah- someone pointed that out to me later) but the part about dawn gave me this idea: to learn some of the dua that we say in the morning after the fajr.

So I painted (well tried to paint...lol) the first scene from the story:



This is hanging on the wall at toddler level. In the morning, the windows in the larger house open to reveal:


Two of the adiya'a that we say in the morning.

The small house on the left side of the picture says, "Adhkar As-Sabah" (Morning Supplications).

So now each morning, we can open the windows of the house and say the adthar as a way to learn them insha'Allah. The dua cards can be changed so when we have learned these insha'Allah, I'll put a new dua in each window insha'Allah.

To go along with the poster, we made a little book of dua:

























These last two pictures show how small the book is compared with a sheet of A4 paper and then the back cover of the book. There are 19 pages with dua on them (I think one repeats).

After this we did games about the parts of the body because throughout the story different parts of the body are mentioned and the person reading aloud will read that he/she loves the child's hand in theirs, their hair, etc.


The first game

The second game

There is also a wheel that has only four body parts (for beginners)


We took turns spinning and whatever body part we landed on we said the name of the body part and looked for the matching card. If we got it correct we keep the card, if not we put it back. The cards can also be used without the spinner for other games too insha'Allah. We put the cards from both games into one deck and placed them face down. We took turns picking a card, naming the body part and then indentifying it on our own bodies. We then put the cards back into the stack/deck. We also talked about how each of our body parts is a gift from Allah and we talked about what we use each body part for (i.e. the ear is used to listen to Quran, ahadith, the speech of other humans and the sounds that animals make, etc.). I also wanted to order this Body Parts Felt set but it seems if you live outside of the United States then the shipping is prohibitively expensive so we left it.

I did not have the chance to put the body parts cards in Arabic with the transliteration but I made a pronunciation chart. If you'd like to use the little book of dua you can download it here (Arabic/English) and the Dua Book with Arabic Transliteration here and if you'd like to use the body parts games you can download them here insha'Allah.

So, what did you read? Link up and share insha'Allah!



12 comments:

  1. Assalaamu Alaikum sis,

    Oh Masha Allaah what a surprise! I have decided to start with Maimoonah parts of the body next week and you yet again helped me with it! Alhamdulillaah! I really liked the dua poster! Masha Allaah! We have still not decided on a book yet, but will soon link up with our activities Insha Allaah!

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  2. Assalamualaikum,

    We followed your recommendation and borrowed the book from the library. Beautiful ma'ShaAllah. We enjoyed it very much. I will insha'Allah try the activities you posted. My two-year old is also enjoying Who Sank the Boat? by Pamella Allen at the moment.

    I must say, your blog is a treasure-trove of ideas. May Allah reward you immensely, Ameen.

    Um Saara.

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  3. asalaam Aleikum... dear ukhti cud u explain how u made the picture as so u can change the dua cards

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  4. A'salaamu alaikum dear sis. Just wanted you to know we received our book and its so sweet masha'Allah. :-)

    May Allah bless you and reward you, ameen!

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  5. Waalaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

    - Umm Maimoonah: oh yes! That's right. That was one of the topics you mentioned. Alhamdulillah! And jazakillahu khayr dear sis!

    - Um Saara: Alhamdulillah, you enjoyed the book. Why not do your Together We Read post on the book you're currently enjoying? I actually tried to remember the title the other day at the library and couldn't. I'll have to reserve it b/c I'd like to read it insha'Allah. And jazakillahu khayr for your kind comment (*smile*)

    - Aminath:, oh yes. insha'Allah, I'll upload a picture showing the back of the dua poster so you can see how I can change the cards insha'Allah.

    - Umm Aaminah: Alhamdulillah! I'm so happy you received it and I hope you all enjoy it insha'Allah. Jazakillahu Khayr!

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  6. Sis Aminath, I have not forgotten about describing/showing how I made the poster to be able to change the dua.

    I couldn't think of a way to describe how I did it...lol.

    I took a...what do you call them? a straight edge knife?...and I cut around the border of the windows and then down the middle so the window could open out. Then on the back of the windows, I put tape around the border where I could cut - to reinforce and also to allow me to change the ad'iya insha'Allah. Each dua is written on an index card ( I measured the cards and the windows to make sure they would match up - not being too small or too big for the window). Then I taped the index card with the dua facing out on the back of the poster inside of the window. Because there is tape around the border of each window, the tape from the dua card won't stick to the poster board and can be removed easily insha'Allah when I want to change them.

    Pls. tell me if that made little or no sense (hehe) and I will try again insha'Allah. I don't think the tape will show up in a picture b/c it's clear. I hope this explanation helped but pls. do not be shy to tell me if it did not. Jazakillahu Khayr.

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  7. sis, this part "I put tape around the border where I could cut - to reinforce and also to allow me to change the ad'iya insha'Allah. Each dua is written on an index card" should say, "I put tape around the border where I cut" not where I could cut...typo.

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  8. JazakAllah khairan sister.. yeah i got it.. it was very clear the way u explained... but one more question.. it means that u will have to remove the postcard inorder to replace the dua card??`
    AMINATH

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  9. oops i forgot one part of ur post..it said"HANGING at eye level" so it means u'll be having access to the back of the board, inshaAllah..right!..so no nyd to answer my question and sister i knew that wen u said u'll do something, u would not forget and will do it, inshaAllah.. jazakaAllah khairan
    AMINATH

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  10. Assalamu Alaikum sister,

    I just printed the body parts game mashaAllah I love it :) I can't wait to try it out with my daughter. I looked in a child's dictionary on how to say the words and I got most of them Alhumdulillah, but I'm struggling with 3 of them, and I want to make sure I'm saying it right. Could you possibly tell me how to pronounce "legs", "hands", and "forehead"

    Much appreciated! JazakAllahu Khairun

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  11. opps sorry I just realized you have the transliteration chart! *blush*, jazakAllahu khairun

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  12. Waalaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

    I tried to respond to you yesterday dear sis but blogger was doing funny things and I couldn't see the comments on this post *smile*. My apologies.

    ReplyDelete

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