Toddler Butterfly Crafts, Activities and Books

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

These are a few books and activities that can be used when teaching about butterflies to toddlers and preschoolers insha'Allaah.

For storytime, you may wish to read aloud Ana alfaraashah and for reference you may find the book Ten Little Caterpillars helpful or it can be part of your selection of books for a unit on butterflies insha'Allaah.

The book Ana alfaraasha, like all of the books in this really wonderful series, has a bookmark inside of the book attached with a piece of ribbon. Each book mark is the animal featured in the story. Infants may also enjoy these beautiful board books as well. When using this book for toddlers, they can make butterfly book marks after hearing the story read aloud:

For the book Ten Little Caterpillars, there are many crafts and activities that can be done using this book as well.

The story of Ten Little Caterpillars ends with one of the caterpillars turning into a butterfly. For this part of the story, you can make flannel/felt pieces for your read aloud and invite children to come up and help tell the story with the pieces as you read:

The felt pieces show the apple tree branch that the caterpillar attached itself to, the chrysalis of that butterfly and the chrysalis of the Monarch butterfly, and the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly that the caterpillar turned into. Not pictured: the little caterpillar that climbed the tree branch.

If you're wondering why there are two chrysalises pictured, it is because if you've talk a bit about how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly by the Permission of Allaah and you use the last three pages in the back of Ten Little Caterpillars as a teaching tool, later children can see if they remember which chrysalis belongs to the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly at the end of the story.

The last three pages of the Ten Little Caterpillars show different caterpillars and the type of butterfly or moth they change into. The pages also briefly mention what type of food each caterpillar eats. Using those pages, you can make caterpillar cards and butterfly cards for some (or each) of the caterpillars and butterflies in the story. Below are the caterpillar and butterfly cards for four of the butterflies in the story.

In your literacy centre or after you have read the story with your little one you can lay the cards out and invite the child to match the caterpillar to the correct butterfly. For this age group, have the book ready to be used for help insha'Allaah.

Children can also do many other crafts involving butterflies, and they can learn the basic parts of the butterfly and label them on a worksheet. The picture of the butterfly can be found here insha'Allaah (in the section labeled Art, scroll down; it is the seventh (7th) file for download).

If you use this in your Kindergarten unit on Butterflies, you can also introduce symmetry. You can find worksheets here and here.

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Space and then back to Earth insha'Allaah

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

The unit on transportation took a turn and led to an exploration of space alhamdulillaah. From here, it's back to earth to explore the desert and learn about how the Prophet - salllaallahau alayhi wa salam- traveled from place to place. And this will lead into Hajj insha'Allaah. 


Here are snippets from the transportation unit as it lead into space:

 Math work included number puzzles and patterning
(click on the pictures for larger view insha'Allaah)

Language Arts included Montessori 3-part cards and many storytimes about space.
In this packet there are about 9 cards (cards with words, cards without words and words only) for children to work with. Also inside of this packet is a mini-reader for students about space. You can download the book here insha'Allaah (Arabic only).

Download Space 3-part cards (Arabic only) here insha'Allaah

For a tutorial on how to make the pockets (the pocket is about 14cm x 13cm) to store Montessori 3-part cards visit this website insha'Allaah.

Language Arts also included a workbook about space 

(the workbook is about 26cm x 19.5 cm). 

Children complete the sentence: "This is..." by cutting out and gluing the correct word based on the picture on the page. There are 6 pages of this nature. Also included in the workbook is a page for students to draw a line to match the word to the correct picture, count the number of space objects and trace over the number (not pictured), a space words memory game (stored in the zip-lock bag on the inside cover of the workbook), and glued to the inside back cover of the workbook are ayaat from Surah Ash-Shams. Students listen to the teacher/parent recite the ayaat and when they hear one of the words that have been studied in this unit, they highlight the word using a highlighter.

It was enjoyable to watch the transportation unit move from the ground to the sky. The interest in space was very evident and each activity was either asked for or done with joy alhamdulillaah. But as al-Hajj is upon us alhamdulillaah, it is time to head back to Earth and visit the desert insha'Allaah.

Enjoy insha'Allaah!

Tawheed Ar-Ruboobiyah Pre-School Lesson Plan

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

This is a lesson plan example for Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyah based on the Kindergarten Islamic Studies Curriculum from this post.

 

I have taken four of the strands from this curriculum and designed a few activities based on them to give an example how one may use this curriculum in pre-school or kindergarten insha'Allaah. The lesson plan is designed to be used by those who utilize learning centres in the classrooms or home.

The lesson plan includes a simple circle time activity to introduce the concept of Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyah to young children. Also included is an activity for children to complete using the Qur'aan. There are science activities, math activities and a few suggested extensions for the lesson.

For additional information about establishing and maintaining literacy work stations in your classroom (or home), this book may be a helpful resource: Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work



Here are a few samples of the activities from the lesson plan:

This worksheet is for the children to use when discussing ways we know that Allaah exists



These cards are for the phonics activity in the lesson plan

*For those who have already downloaded the phonics cards, I changed the picture on the X-ray card. You can download the new card by itself below insha'Allaah. I feel this one is more appropriate.*

Download the lesson plan and activities below insha'Allaah:

Tawheed Ar-Ruboobiyah PreK Lesson Plan

All Worksheets Needed for the lesson

Qur'aan and Ayaat Strips needed for the lesson
New X-ray picture card (separate)

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!

Last Minute Moon Resources

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

*Post Updated!*

I just found these Moon resources and as the last 10 days of Ramadan approaches insha'Allah, I hope to help children see how the completion the moon's phases will look as this blessed month comes to an end. Using these cards: Phases of the Moon Cards; Phases of the Moon Template , I made this file folder game for toddlers 2-4 years old. It's a hide and seek moon matching file folder game.

The index cards on the right and left hand flaps have little Velcro circles on them. The child opens any flap he/she wishes and they will find a card showing a phase of the moon inside insha'Allah (see below).

. 

Each moon card also has a Velcro circle on the back. They take the card out and find its match on the board (which also has Velcro on each moon too).

The inspiration for this game came from here.

(NEW) And try this great idea too insha'Allah! Reader Submission - Sis Alena: Last 10 Days of Ramadan Count Down Activity (Pictures Included!). You can also use these nice resources too insha'Allah:

Animated Phases of the Moon simulation (from NASA...this is nice but more for kindergarten aged children)

Moon Phases Powerpoint (Nice!) Scroll all the way down to the end of the page insha'Allah

Enjoy 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!

Food Theme Activities (Arabic/English)

Assalamu aliakum,

Here is the next theme insha'Allah: Food

The first part of the theme is a matching activity.

The child will match the game/activity piece to the piece of food on the work mat.

I made mine into a file folder game by laminating the plates of food and attaching Velcro to the backs of each so I can change the boards easily insha'Allah. I'm tempted to put Velcro on the backs of the pieces of food too but I'm concerned that the picture might be obscured. We'll see insha'Allah...

The second game is similar but the child will match fruit insha'Allah.

This activity mat does not have words on it but I included a mat in the file that does (one in Arabic and one in English alhamdulillah).

The fruit basket activity in progress

This is the memory game gone wrong...lol

I have to reprint this and do it again insha'Allah. I'll add the picture of what it is supposed to look like later insha'Allah (smile).

So since I ruined it, it ended up becoming a matching game to be used here but insha'Allah, you won't ruin yours the way I ruined mine (smile).

I've included in the file a memory game in Arabic/English and in English only. 

The next activity is food flashcards.

We will match real food to each card first and then I will put felt food in a basket on the shelf with the cards to allow the activity to be used again and again insha'Allah.

There is also a colouring book (not pictured) that is pretty much identical to the colouring book for transportation, except it is about food. And I've included a puzzle for those who wish to use that also insha'Allah.

Dear sis Umm Maimoonah, please let me know if this is sufficient or if you'd like more/variation, etc. insha'Allah.

Here are the food theme files to download insha'Allah:

Food Theme Activity Mats

Food Theme Cards

Food Theme Colouring Book and Puzzle

And I just realized as I'm typing this that I forgot the dictionary for pronunciation!....lol...eehh...tayyib...please check this post tonight or Yaumum Jummah (Friday) and insha'Allah it should be added. Maybe, I'll do something different and not a dictionary...check back to see insha'Allah!

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Photo Credit: Copyright creative commons by Ivers