Wow! Said the Owl Book Activities

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

The book Wow! Said the Owl is a book about colours that your pre-school aged students/children may enjoy very much. The book is also easy to adopt to other languages (i.e. the text lends itself to on the spot translation).

Wow! Said the Owl is the story of a little curious owl who decides that she wants to know what goes on during the day when she is usually asleep. To satisfy her curiosity she sleeps through the night and awakens in the morning to discover a world of colour she previously did not know about.

The refrain in the story is "Wow! said the owl" and in the classroom or home you can easily replace the word "Wow" with "Subhana'Allaah!". During storytime, pre-school children enjoy the refrain and having the chance to repeat it. There are also many activities that can be done with this book. Below you can see three activities that can be done with Wow! Said the Owl.



Click on the picture for a larger view
Note: In the file the owl's stomach is not see through as pictured above

The worksheet on the right is a garden that children can draw butterflies on. In the story the little owl observes butterflies as they fly through the garden and the owl notes all of the colours that the garden contains. During the art period children can make butterflies from construction paper and then cut them out and paste them into the garden, or they can use butterfly stamps or stickers to place the butterflies. They can also use foam butterfly cut-outs and glue the foam butterflies into the garden. And of course, children can simply draw and colour butterflies to place in the garden as well.

Under the book there are story sequencing cards that help children with reading comprehension and recall skills. The cards show all of the scenes from the story where the owl said, "Wow!" or in this case, "Subhana'Allaah!". After listening to the story read aloud once, (in groups) children are given a set of the story sequencing cards and invited to listen to the story again, this time, putting the cards in the correct order when they hear the refrain, "Subhana'Allaah! said the owl" followed by whatever action or thing the owl sees. These cards are also easy to put in the literacy centre (remember to laminate them first). The teacher records the story being read aloud and during centre time students listen to the story and use the cards to show what happens first, second, third, etc. in the story. Here students not only work on reading comprehension and memory skills, they also have a chance to practice ordinal numbers. Additionally, you can write the numbers 1-7 on the back of each card showing which card comes first, second, etc. in the sequence, thereby allowing children to self-correct when they have completed the activity. When the child finishes the activity, he/she turns the cards over and if the cards are in the correct order from one to seven, the child knows they have ordered the cards accurately.

The story sequencing cards can also be used with young toddlers to help them work on finding hidden objects. After cutting all cards out, sit with your infant and show him/her one card at a time and invite him/her to find the owl. If you have read the book with your child sitting on your lap or next to you, he/she may remember the scenes from the story and this will support their effort to locate the owl. If you notice the child having difficulty finding the owl, provide simple clues to assist. Do not allow the child to reach a level of frustration before providing clues.

On the left hand side of the book, there is an owl on a Popsicle stick. The owl pictured is teacher's owl but the students can easily make the same type of owl (or you can make a photocopy of the owl cards in the file and give each students a copy to glue a Popsicle stick to. Be sure to use cardstock or another similarly heavy paper). After you have read the story aloud, tell children that you will read the story again and when you get to the part where the owl says, "Wow!" or in our case, "Subhana'Allaah!" they hold up their owls and say the refrain with you (i.e. Subhana'Allaah! said the owl"). Pre-school children seem to really enjoy this activity. Perhaps it's the chance to raise their voices *smile* but they really get involved in the activity and the laughter is great to hear.

If you'd like to try the activities pictured insha'Allaah, you can download them here.

There are many activities that can be done with this book. You can make a felt story board to go with the story and during storytime, children can come up and place the felt pieces in the appropriate places/spots. You can also find many owl related crafts on the Internet but please remind the children not to include facial features on their owls. Do you have any ideas you think might go well with this book? Please share!

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Literacy Development for Infants and Young Toddlers

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Sometimes parents wish to know where they can buy certain things they see in their child's classroom. Their wish, one that teachers encourage enthusiastically, is to make a strong school to home connection for their child.

It is not always necessary to buy the exact things you see on the walls of your child's preschool classroom or in certain centres in your child's classroom but there are times when doing so has innumerable benefits. Two examples that will be highlighted in this post are alphabet charts and wooden blocks.

One of the primary focuses in preschool and kindergarten classrooms is literacy and developing children's ability to recognize print and understand that print conveys meaning. In the classroom, this is accomplished in a variety of ways and at home one simple way to help your child in his/her literacy development is to have an alphabet chart on the wall at your child's eye level.

It is not always easy to find alphabet charts that do not contain facial features in the pictures but don't let that stop you: make your own! Then invite and encourage your child to "read" the alphabet chart. First encourage recognition of the alphabet (and do not worry if they get the order wrong, this usually works itself out as the learning continues *smile*) and as your child progresses, invite them to read the words that identify the picture with each alphabet. It is not necessary that the child be able to actually read the words but soon they will begin to recognize certain words from the alphabet chart independently insha'Allaah.

You can also make up various games to play with Alphabet charts, "I Spy" is a simple, fun game that comes to mind but there are many other games as well. With young infants, you can sit with your child and point out certain pictures, saying each letter clearly, and describe the picture. Mention characteristics of the letters: is the letter tall, short and round, etc. The goal is to help your young child learn to take notice of the features of different letters and become aware of print in the environment and its role in our lives.

If making your own alphabet chart, keep in mind the things your young infant or toddler sees in his/her environment daily. Try to have pictures on the chart that represent concrete things in his/her world. Help your child see the connection by asking if they can find an object on the chart in the home (with infants, although they cannot answer you with words, still ask the questions - you are helping with their language and vocabulary development). Carry your infant around the house and point to different things one at a time and take him/her back to the chart to show them the item and the letter that it begins with. Express delight at how letters help us learn about our world. You can download the Alphabet Chart pictured above here insha'Allaah.

A second item that many parents have in the home are alphabet blocks.

For children learning in English, these are easily found in local toy stores and for children learning in Arabic or learning Arabic along side another language, these Arabic Alphabet Wooden Blocks can be a wonderful addition to your home environment insha'allaah.

Wooden alphabet blocks have numerous benefits, among them: the child is able to feel the shape of the letters long before he/she is able to write them. This helps develop pre-writing skills as well as build letter recognition skills. Wooden blocks also help children with spacial skills and other math skills that they will need upon entering school and throughout their school years. From a few months old, wooden blocks can be introduced to children and with supervision, children can begin reaping the benefits of this wonderful learning tool.

The Company that makes the Arabic Alphabet wooden blocks pictured above makes wooden blocks in a variety of languages: Russian, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and others!

If you already use these two learning tools in your home, please feel welcome to share with others some of the games you play and activities you use to help your child's literacy development.

Toddler Busy Work

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Sometimes, especially at certain times of the year (i.e. end of school year, summer approaching, Ramadan, etc.), it's helpful to have activities on hand that toddlers can access and complete almost independently. The following activities are some that are used just for that purpose and some can be added to students portable writing centres as well.

Everything the toddler needs to complete the activity is stored in the plastic zip-lock bag. Teachers/parents can make several copies (enough for each student/child) of the worksheet (this worksheet is an extension from the activity in this post) and place them in a basket. In a second basket, you can place the plastic bags with the glue stick and pieces that need to be glued to the worksheet.  Students take one worksheet and one bag and complete the activity independently insha'Allaah.

These books need to be assembled by teacher/parent. The pre-assembled book and a sheet with apple stickers is placed in a plastic bag for students to complete independently as well insha'Allaah. This little book (Arabic only) is for students to work on 1:1 correspondence.

Then on to fine motor skill practice and practical life activities:

This is a very common Montessori activity that helps children work on fine motor skills and the pincer grasp (the ability to grasp a small object between the tips of the thumb and index finger).

I added a practical life extension activity so that there was a bit of variety:

From a basket, students take a shirt and a clothes pin and hang the shirts on the line in the correct numerical order. There are shirts for 0-5 pictured here. Each shirt has a teddy bear (or bears) on it ranging from 0-5.

Into this activity you can place Control of Error so the child(ren) can check their work once they've hung all of the shirts on the line. By writing the numbers on the back of the shirts that correspond to the amount of bears on the front of the shirts, children can walk around the line of bears and make sure the numbers are in the correct order - i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 

The string that is used for this activity cannot/should not be left up when children are done with the activity. This activity also needs to be supervised by an adult as a choking hazard is present (i.e. the string which is at the toddlers eye level). 

When children are done, they remove the shirts and clothes pins from the line and put them back in the basket and return the activity to the appropriate shelf/space.

Here is the shirt pattern I used for this and the teddy bears if you'd like to use them insha'Allaah. If you'd like to make shirts with bears up to the number 10 here are bears to complete the set insha'Allaah. An alternative is to use stickers to save time cutting out 55 teddy bears.

I also put together some little workbooks for toddlers and preschoolers to pick up and complete with little supervision or assistance (depending on the age of the child)

Above, these are two of the four (4) workbooks for toddlers to work on. The book in the bottom right hand corner is a little math book for toddlers and the book in the upper left corner is a colouring book for transportation.

In the math book, there are two pages that are to be cut out and the child pastes the pieces into the correct boxes on the appropriate page(s) (i.e. the piece that matches the picture on the page). Another activity requires that the child place the correct amount of stickers in each box (i.e. each box has a certain number of circles and the child must put the correct number of stickers in each box. So if a box has three circles, the child will put three stickers in that box - one over each circle insha'Allaah). Alternately, the child can colour in the circles in each box, making sure all circles for each number are the same colour (i.e. for the box with 5 circles all circles can be coloured blue insha'Allaah).

All of the workbooks are: 

- Transportation (Arabic Only)

- Math (Title in Arabic but no words in the book)

- The Shapes (Arabic Only) colouring book and cut & paste activity

- Hadith Colouring Book (this is just a smaller version of this hadith colouring book)

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Another Arabic Animal Activity: Fish

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Here is another activity to go with the 'Animals in Arabic' activities from this post.  At present, we are not studying animals but since the PDF file looked fuzzy, I printed it to be sure it would print alright...alhamdulillah it does. And the activity was really enjoyed here alhamdulillah...*smile*. We even had a chance to use the bulletin board made from recycled materials from this post alhamdulillah!

Children are invited to correctly place the fish in the bowl according to their colour. Inside of the fish bowl each fish's colour is written in Arabic. Children have to glue the fish in the correct space.

Here is the worksheet (it has Arabic, English and Transliteration) before we did the activity.

Download "Fish in the Fish Bowl" here insha'Allaah

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Animals: Arabic Vocabulary Activities

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

These are some activities for learning the names of different animals in Arabic. Sis Umm Sara, please let me know if you had something different in mind or if these activities are too easy, not enough, etc.

The first is similar to Bingo:

In the file there are two game boards and two sets of name cards. Each child gets a game board. Cut out the name cards, shuffle them and place them in a stack between the children. The children take turns picking a card and matching it to the correct animal on their board. If the name card they picked does not name an animal on their game board they return the card to the bottom of the stack. The first to correctly fill their game board wins. Download "What Is That" Game Here insha'Allaah

The second activity is a small reader that talks about animals on a farm:

This reader has Arabic and English text but no transliteration. This was done to assist those looking for short, free down-loadable children's books in Arabic.The colour word brown is also learned/emphasised in the story and the children have a small drawing and colouring activity at the end of the book. Download "On Our Farm" book here insha'Allaah

The next activity is intended for young toddlers. These are two piece puzzles that have the names of the animal on the puzzle in Arabic and English (with transliteration):

After printing and mounting the puzzles on sturdy cardboard (or cardstock), cut them in half. Mix all of the puzzle pieces together (to make the activity more challenging) and invite the child to correctly match the Arabic name of the animal with the English name. The control of error is the picture of the animal. If the child incorrectly matches the pieces, he/she will notice that the pictures do not match and the child can self-correct insha'Allaah. Download Animal Puzzles here insha'Allaah (4 puzzles in the file)

The last activity is a habitat match:

These cards are black and white. Read the sentence to the child (I forgot to put the sentences in English but each card says, "I live in ______ {the name of the picture on the top of the card}. The places named are mountains, garden, swamp and forest) and then ask them which animal might live in that habitat and invite him/her to either colour or place a game piece marker over the correct answer. Download Habitat Match cards here insha'Allaah (4 cards in the file)

I also intentionally made the postcard for the letter Noon to contain animals that start with the letter Noon. You can download it here insha'Allaah.

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Creating a Print Rich Environment: Camels and the Arabic Alphabet

Assalamu alaikum,

"A print rich classroom is one in which children interact with many forms of print including signs, labeled centers, wall stories, word displays, labeled murals, bulletin boards, charts, poems and other printed material."

U.S. Department of Education

*Post Updated - Files Added Alhamdulillah*

The importance of a print rich environment is essential to help children build pre-reading skills that are necessary to go on to become fluent, proficient, strong readers insha'Allah. For toddlers, the alphabet is one of the first things that they begin to learn on their road to becoming readers.

As we continue our summer enjoying ourselves with quality literature, I've been thinking of ways to introduce more print into the environment (visually) insha'Allah. I made this...what do you call it when there is a long line of animals trekking across the desert? I forget...well I made this to help on the road to learning the Arabic alphabet insha'Allah.

I had to back up far enough to get the entire line of camels

  

The lead camel ends his journey at the Ka'aba and they started their journey across our wall at these two palm trees (all of the letters are not shown in the close-up).

This little procession - that's what it's called yes? - is at eye level but just high enough that little hands won't tear the camels off of the wall insha'Allah. I placed it in the area where most of our read alouds are done but where it is also visible from most parts of the room insha'Allah. I think this can be converted later on to a bulletin board insha'Allah; sandy background, sun in the sky, a few clouds. What do you think?

Here are the files I used to make this: Alphabet Camels (Medium Size w/ Ka'aba included); Alphabet Camels Large (no Ka'bab); Palm Trees.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

A Newspaper for Toddlers

Assalamu alaikum,

Last night I decided that as part of providing a print rich environment, I want to introduce the newspaper insha'Allah. So today, I googled newsletter template, found one that I liked and put together our first issue of the Muslim Tot Times!

Here's our first issue. It has a poem about the Quran, a story of one of Ummahatul Muslimeen (the Mothers of the Believers), an introduction to writing a letter, learning a dua and colouring. All of the graphics are courtesy of Easel & Ink. I also mounted this on cardboard for easy toddler handling insha'Allah.

Here's a close-up.

and a screen shot (because the pictures are not so clear...overcast day). If you'd like to read our first issue, you can download a PDF version here insha'Allah.

Insha'Allah, each two months I would like to do an issue and make this type of reading regular and familiar insha'Allah. This is just one part of our Summer Reading Program and insha'Allah it will continue even when the summer is gone.

Do you have a family newspaper? If not, why not start one insha'Allah?

Books to support the Transportation Theme Activities

Assalamu alaikum,

This is a bit late but I thought it still may be helpful insha'Allah. Here are several books that support the transportation theme activities from this post insha'Allah. Right now, we're enjoying Red Truck:

and these other books too!

Arabic Alphabet Phonics Games

Assalamu alaikum,

I was watching this video (which also contains the instructions for how to use these games) and wanted to do the same game but for learning/practicing the Arabic alphabet and knowing the sound each letter makes. I modified the game to suit toddlers but also made a game for kindergarteners as well. These are easy Arabic Alphabet Phonics games that help toddlers increase vocabulary, learn the sounds the letters make, and help them with picture matching skills insha'Allah. For our learning environment, I put our games into a tot sized folder to make the boards easy to work with insha'Allah.

This is the tot version of the game

The game with all game pieces shown. I laminated all of the game pieces so that they would have a better chance at withstanding frequent handling insha'Allah (smile).

For toddlers, I put four cards out, one of which does not belong. After showing the child how to use the game, the child is invited to say the name of the picture and what letter it starts with and then place the correct picture on the board. For younger toddlers they are invited to simply match the picture cards with the pictures on the board.

The activity almost completed

When the child is done, he/she simply flips the board over to reveal another board to play with insha'Allah.

As the child's skill and proficiency increase insha'Allah, he/she moves on to play with boards that have six pictures.

This is another six picture game board

In Pre-K and Kindergarten, as you saw in the video, this game can be played in pairs insha'Allah. So, I also made a version for that age group as well alhamdulillah.

This is one of the kindergarten boards and some of the letter pieces. Kindergarteners match the beginning letter sound to each picture. There are two different boards in the file and the complete Arabic Alphabet. I've also included the name of the game in English.

These games are quite easy to make at home and you can change them to fit your child's learning needs insha'Allah. Here is the file used to make the games pictured here (it contains all boards and pieces insha'Allah). Here is an Arabic pronunciation chart for all of the pictures (keep in mind that I'm not the best at writing Arabic in English so I may be a little off on some words but I hope not...*smile*).

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Poems: The Little Girl/Boy Who Loved The Quran

Assalamu alaikum,

Just sharing. Click on the poems for large, easy to read version insha'Allah.

For the girls insha'Allah:

Enjoy insha'Allah!

'Seasons' Theme Art Activity # 3: Seasons Lift the Flap Book

Assalamu alaikum,

This is the season's craft activity # 3 (really it's number 5 but I'm posting out of order...this was just fun to make subhana'Allah!).

This is a little lift the flap book that contains 3-D illustrations of all of the seasons. After you've completed your study of the seasons with your child(ren)/students, they can make this little flip book to show what they've learned. Children can read it on their own if they are able to read 3 to 4 letter words and some basic sight words as the text is very simple insha'Allah. Or, parents/teachers/siblings can read the book to the child insha'Allah. Alhamdulillah, the lift-the-flap seasons book was enthusiastically received over here (smile).

This is the inside of the book

This is the outside where the text is

The materials I used are the following:

* Pipe cleaners (for the sun, umbrella and outline of the tree stump)

* White poster board cut to 8x11 inch or whatever size you choose insha'Allah, then folded in half and then the top part is cut into four equal squares.

* Felt (to fill in the outline of the tree stump, for the ocean water and sand, and for the rain)

* White confetti (for the snow)

* Brown paper bag (for the tree foliage)

* Cotton Balls (for the clouds)

* Plastic self adhesive leaves (these are so cute masha'Allah!)

* Blue construction paper (for the Winter background)

* Arabic or English text that is on the outside of the flaps insha'Allah.

The assembly is pretty easy and children don't have to make the scenes that I made, so I won't include the directions here. If you've any questions, feel free to leave a comment insha'Allah and I'll do my best to answer as soon as possible insha'Allah.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Apple Match File Foler Game

Assalamu alaikum,

I just wanted to share this Apple Match File Folder Game I found at Homeschool Share.com .

This would go nicely with the Islamic Apple Activities for Fall post from earlier this month on A Muslim Child is Born.

I think I'll also add Homeschool Share to the list of Useful Websites located on the left side of the page insha'Allah. They have a good sized collection of free resources for homeschooling parents.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Islamic Apple Activities for Fall

Assalamu alaikum,

Alhamdulillah the fall is here. Each year, in schools and homeschools, a thematic unit on apples is often done. There are numerous fun activities to be done with apples and here, we're getting ready to begin our own thematic unit on apples. Ours (i.e. the Muslims), however, integrates Islam throughout insha'Allah. Emphasis is placed on the fact that Allah is the Provider of not only the apples but everything we have walhamdulillah.

For our study of apples we are using the following resources:

The Book: Allah Created Apples

This non-fiction book has fun facts about apples, activities to do, pages to colour and a puzzle for kids to put together as well insha'Allah.

Allah Created Apples Activity Workbook - A supplementary workbook that has several pages of fun, educational activities to complete, including sequencing, fractions (very basic), different and alike, and more! The workbook is black & white so it's ink and budget friendly insha'Allah.

Allah Created Apples Sorting Activity - A colourful sorting activity that requires very few materials that are usually common household items insha'Allah.

And this wonderful craft that is so cute and so simple to make subhana'Allah (It literally took me 5-7 minutes to make these!). These are miniature yarn apples. The directions on how to make them are here insha'Allah. So easy for the kids to make insha'Allah.

Insha'Allah, you'll find these resources fun and helpful and insha'Allah our kids will come away with an increased love of Allah and an increased appreciation of the many bounties He provides for us out of His Mercy.

Enjoy insha'Allah!