Together We Read (March): Ana wa Akhi Activities

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

For the month of March, Together We Read, Ana wa Akhi. 

This book has been translated into English alhamdulillaah. Click here for English.

We did a few activities to go along with this delightful book.

We did an activity to introduce telling time and related that to the part of the story where both Waleed and Sa'ed tell the reader what time they wake each morning for school. Waleed also tells the reader what time he arrives at school.

In the file, there are clocks for each hour in the day. When first introducing this activity, I recommend introducing 2-3 card sets initially (as pictured above) and gradually increasing the number of cards, insha'Allaah, as the child shows understanding and eventually mastery. To do the activity, students match the cards that show only the faces of the clocks to the cards that have the clock faces with words. They then match the word cards to the clock showing that time by placing them beneath the cards showing only clock faces. They verify their work visually and if needed, they self-correct insha'Allaah.

I chose to do this activity as an adaptation of the Montessori 3- part cards but you can use these cards in different ways insha'Allaah. There are a set of cards in Arabic and a set of cards in English alhamdulillaah. I was looking for an appropriate video to show how to present the 3-part card lesson but was unable to find one but I did find this nice set of instructions that shows you how to make 3-part cards and how to teach them! I just skimmed through it but it seems very nice waallaahu a'lam.

We also did an art activity: Children make a comb and toothbrush from Popsicle sticks and construction paper.

Older children will be able to line the teeth of their combs up a bit straighter than younger toddlers. The same applies to the bristles on the toothbrush. 

There are also story retelling cards for both Waleed and Sa'eed:

There are 8 cards in each file (i.e. for Waleed's version of the story and Sa'eeds version of the story) for children to retell insha'Allaah.

To use:

1). Print the cards. Mount on cardstock or cardboard for durability (optional)

2). Cut out each individual card.

3). On the floor or table, children put the cards in order according to when the event pictured happened in the story (i.e. the glass of milk represents Waleed (or Sa'eed) taking breakfast and drinking their milk - that was not the 1st thing that happened in the story so that card would be placed further down the line).

4). Children can check their work by re-reading the story insha'Allaah.

And a small worksheet for students to identify what, from the story, is not supposed to be in the row with the other objects from the story:

Both the story re-telling cards and the 'What Doesn't Belong?' activity are in the same file for each boy.

We didn't use these but here are two books about going to the dentist and how they help us take care of our teeth: book for boys and book for girls. These books may be useful when focusing on the part of the story where Sa'eed brushes his teeth.

I did not make anything new for the part of the story about getting dressed because we had activities before about this. You can see them here and here insha'Allaah.

**Time permitting I need to add the last activity which is a cut and paste comparison for children to do. Insha'Allah, I will update this post tomorrow.

If you read 'Ana wa Akhi' and did an activity (or activities) for this book we'd enjoy seeing and reading about it insha'Allaah. Please leave a comment in this post with a link directly to your Together We Read post to share insha'Allaah! We are looking forward to it!

Enjoy insha'Allaah!