Plant Experiments cont.

The blue container has their carnivorous plants. Thin red shoots have started to sprout!

The container next to it has their flowers. I moved the pots into an old grapes punnet so it'd be easier to transfer them to the window sill each day. 🌞 They've sprouted nicely and the girls are excited to check on them each morning! 🌺🌼🌸

The small container on the right has an abundance of cress seeds. 🌿🌿🌿 There were a few seeds left in the packet but not enough worth saving, so we decided to sow them all into one small container (old hummus pot!) and see if being overcrowded made a difference to their growth. 😁

The container at the front has 4 pots (old yoghurt pots in an old mushroom punnet!) from their cress experiment (the 5th pot being in the cupboard so it gets no sunlight!). In clockwise order from the top left: no water, no air, no soil, control. The girls predicted that only the control pot would grow, so they were surprised to see the seeds in the no soil pot were sprouting! So maybe the ones in the other pots, under the soil where they can't see them, are sprouting too? But how well will they grow? More waiting to see, inshaAllah! We only planted them on Friday so this photo is only day 2 of their growth. 🌱

The overcrowded pot had some seeds pressed against the side of the container, so they could easily see those ones sprouting. InshaAllah they'll be able to see the roots growing and spreading out as the days progress, too. 😄😄

On a particularly sunny day, the girls noticed that the plants on the windowsill were bending over. Which direction were they bending and why? M said they were trying to get closer to the light (she remembered seeing it a previous year in the kitchen when we were growing green beans!) so I thought I'd teach them the word phototropism. They didn't want their plants wonky, so what could we do to make them straight? Turn them around! When we checked back on them a few hours later, they were growing straight up again. 😄

When they told Papa later that they'd seen phototropism on the windowsill, they were happy to see him both surprised and confused. 😂 Then I got them to explain to him what it meant - which he remembered learning about in secondary school. 😂😂

[EDIT:]

Day 4: All the plants in our cress experiment have sprouted! But why? 😙

clockwise from bottom left: 1, 2, 3, 4

5

1) Control - everything is as expected!
2) No water - because the soil was damp when we started, even though we've not added any more.
3) No air - because there was some air in the soil/under the lid to begin with, maybe? And every time we water them, we take off the lid and let air in... We changed to lid to clingfilm so it wasn't pushing down on the plants.
4) No soil - because the water woke up the seeds, but they've not grown properly because they've got nothing to hold them up or give them nutrients!
5) No light - because the seed doesn't need light to sprout, the plant only needs light once it's grown leaves to absorb it... And every time we open the cupboard door, they get a little bit of light... M noticed they were yellow though!

The above is what the girls came up with, with some discussion. So what do they expect to see happen next? That only the control cress will grow and the others will begin to die as more time goes on. 😏

As for the overcrowded pot, they're all growing well at the moment. It's really interesting to look through the container and see the roots spreading out and the shoots breaking through the soil!

The flowers are still growing well and the carnivorous plants are growing too but more slowly in comparison. 😁

[EDIT:]

Day 8:

The no soil pot was beginning to smell so we threw it away! Why was it so smelly? Because the plants which weren't growing were starting to rot. 😷

[EDIT:]

Day ??:

I stopped keeping track of this lol.

The overcrowded one was too overcrowded! The plants pushed the soil out and made a mess (why? brief lesson on displacement!) and we compared the size of the cress to the control... Some of them weren't growing as much because they didn't have enough water/nutrients from having to share and others had grown bigger because they had taken most of the nutrients/water. Then we threw the pot away after seeing what would happen if we stopped watering them too. 😂

The cress with no light had withered and turned yellow, so we threw that away too. The girls came to the conclusion plants turn yellow/lose their green colour when they don't have enough light.

The no water cress had started out growing better than the control! But eventually they wilted and we could see the effects of not watering them - this was a few days after we threw the pot away which had no light. M was confident this was because the soil was already damp when we sowed the seeds, because otherwise they shouldn't have been able to grow at all! We also noticed how the flowers they'd planted needed to be watered every 1-2 days or they started to wilt, whereas the cress seemed like it could go a long time without needing any extra water - so even though all plants need the same things to survive, they don't all need the same amounts of them. This led to a discussion about cacti because deserts don't have much water at all but cacti can still grow there. 🌵🌸

[image]

The no air cress was still growing well in comparison. Why? The girls suggested it was because they kept getting air whenever we watered them, so really it was getting everything just like the control was! The clingfilm lid was stopping the cress from growing taller though, which is why they were bent over. When we looked more closely, we could see that some of the plants were turning brown. Maybe this was an effect of not having enough air?

[image]

The control pot was still growing and all the cress was still alive. The only confusing thing was that there were less shoots in there to begin with, in comparison to all the other pots. Why was that? Maybe because those seeds just happened to be less hardy in the first place. There really isn't any way for us to find out except to repeat the whole experiment again and see if we get the same results. We talked about why repeating experiments, therefore, led to better results. Because if we get the same thing again and again we can treat those results as being more reliable and not inexplicable one-off results!

Madinah Arabic Reader Book 2 - Lesson 3c

Week 1:

I wrote the following on the whiteboard as a recap, i.e. differentiating between these/those/they and their gendered singular forms (this/that/he/she):

"Ulaika" is the new word being introduced here, but it was pretty easy to pick up and the girls are familiar with it from their hifz lessons. 💕

We read through p.31 together - taking it in turns to read and translate each sentence. This was pretty simple as revision so didn't take long, MashaAllah. The only new word was "wuzaraau" (ministers) which was difficult to explain as the girls didn't know what politicians were. 😂

We also read through p.32, taking it in turns to read, translate and do the activity. Again, I didn't get the cards out as this was pretty simple revision.

Week 2:

More revision.

99 Names of Allah - 19 - Al-Fattaah - The Opener

[18] اَلْفَتَّاحُ (Al-Fattaah): The Opener

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (5min)

Play Google Slides Presentation of the first 33 names, 2-3 times. Sing together and do the actions so far plus:

Action for Al-Fattaah: Hold hands in front of face to block your view, then open them apart so you can see again (like sliding doors).

Today’s focus is on the name Al-Fattaah which means The Opener.

Story relating to today's name (8min)

Read the part of the story of Prophet Musa (AS) where Firawn's army is chasing the believers but Allah helps them escape by parting the sea.

Read from a book such as My First Quran Storybook.

Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (10min)

Al-Fattaah means The Opener.

This can mean several different things, but we're going to focus on the meaning that Allah opens the way for us when we're stuck. 

Which part of the story we read showed Allah as Al-Fattaah? Where the believers were stuck with Firawn's army behind them and the sea in front of them - they had nowhere safe to go! How did Allah open the way for them? He opened the way itself by parting the sea and making a path for them; he opened the way by showing them the answer to their problem. So this name doesn't just mean physically opening a way, it also means giving you the answer to a problem when you're stuck.

Show children the maze in the resources file. Ask them to help the children find the way to the park. Watch them try independently until they tell you it's impossible! All the paths to the park are blocked! But what does Al-Fattaah mean? Allah can open the way for you when you're stuck. Cut out the picture of the door at the bottom of the page and tell the children to put it where they need it in the maze. Talk about how Allah can do anything, even if it seems impossible to us. Al-Fattaah can open things for us and show us the answer to our problems.

In this example, we put one door to get to the exit. But do you think, if He wanted, Allah could just get rid of the maze altogether? If we ask Him to, Allah can make things which we thought were complicated really easy! Use a thick felt tip and draw a straight line from the children through to the park, going through all the walls as if they weren't there. Allah can open the way to what we want - all we have to do is ask Him.  Like Allah opened the way in this maze to the park, He can open the way for us to the best place we can imagine. Jannah!

Did you notice what Musa (AS) had to do before Allah parted the water? Allah told him to strike his staff on the ground. Why do you think that was? Did Allah need Musa (AS) to hit the floor to be able to part the seas? Of course not! Allah could do it without Musa (AS) doing anything! So what does this teach us? Musa (AS) had to do something and then Allah did something for them. Do you remember when we learnt about Ar-Razzaaq? Allah will always provide for us, but this doesn't mean we can just sit around doing nothing. We always have to do our part too, even though Allah doesn't need us to. Allah likes us to put effort in.

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Use the templates to design your own doors. Cut out and stick onto the page using the tabs so the doors can be opened like a flap. Remember that Allah is Al-Fattaah and opens the way for us when we get stuck.

If they wish, the children can draw a positive image behind the door, e.g. a happy person.

When to use this name (12min)

Tell the children you're going to give them something (e.g. a Smartie, a jellybean, a chocolate coin, etc.). All they have to do is touch their forehead against you while they hold their hands together behind their back! Stand in the middle of the room and let them touch you one at a time, then give them their reward.

Say you're going to do it again, but this time stand on the other side of a door and close it. Tell them they can only try one at a time, just like before. Have them try to get to you for half a minute or so - give them encouraging words, make a point of them being so close they can hear you and you can hear them. Ask them why they can't do it this time? Because the door's in the way and they can't open it with their hands behind their back!

Open the door and tell them sometimes even when we know what we need to do to solve our problem, we find we need help to be able to do it. Al-Fattaah can help us in these situations too by opening the way and making things easier for us! For example, maybe we need to catch the bus but we're running late - we know we need to run and try our best to go faster - Al-Fattaah could make the bus late too so we don't miss it! Or for example, I want to be a teacher so I need to pass a maths exam - I study my hardest but I'm still not confident - Al-Fattaah could help me remember the things I've learnt while I'm doing the test so I pass and can become a teacher.

So Al-Fattaah opens the way for us when we're stuck or have a problem. Can you think of any other times you might want to make duaa to Al-Fattaah? And, of course, we should always remember Al-Fattaah as the one who opens the way to Jannah for us, too!

On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Al-Fattaah and their feelings.

Sticker chart (5min)

Ask individually: Which of Allah’s names did we learn today? What does it mean? Give children a sticker each for their chart.

----------

Other activities:

- If children are familiar with Molly and Mack (CBeebies channel), link to the part in the episode where one of the characters has a problem they don't know how to solve. Sing the song together then talk about how Al-Fattaah can help in these kinds of situations.

- This name is also to do with victory/winning against someone or something. Think about surah An-Nasr. What is the last word in the first ayah? Do you know the story behind this surah? Look it up together and discuss (e.g. My First Quran with Pictures)

- How do you say "key" in Arabic? "Miftaahun". It has the same root letters: faa, taa, haa. Another meaning for this name is that Allah is Al-Fattaah in that He holds all the keys for both this world and the next, for the things we can see and for the ghayb (the unseen). Allah is in charge of them all and can open and close the doors as He wishes. You could do a craft e.g. make a set of keys on a keyring out of tinfoil/card etc. as a reminder of this discussion. 

- Talk about how Allah can open doors to anything as He wishes. Some people will have the door to lots of wealth open, some will have their door to lots of children open, some will have their door to bring able to learn a lot open, some might have all the of those doors open, etc. But just because a door is open to us, it doesn't always mean it's a good thing. It might be a test. If the door to lots of money is opened to us, we should remember to stay humble and not arrogant, to pay our zakat and to give charity. If we don't, it might have been better if that door was closed to us! Remember the story of Salaba and how having too much wealth ended up with him not praying anymore. So when a door is opened to us, we should always remember Allah, thank Him and make duaa that He keeps guiding us to be good Muslims. You could create a poster with many different sized doors on it as flaps and underneath each one write something Allah could bless us with as Al-Fattaah.

Please leave a comment if you know any other related activities for this name!

Madinah Arabic Reader Book 2 - Lesson 3b

Week 1:

We read the passage from p.25 and talked about what we thought it meant. They managed to make sense of most of it MashaAllah. I told the girls we would read it again at the end of the chapter, inshaAllah, so they could see how much they had guessed correctly and how much they had learnt!

I filled the whiteboard with the new words for this chapter, i.e. feminine plurals. I asked the girls if they noticed any patterns and they said they ended in "alif taa", which I clarified as the "closed taa opens up" for the sound plurals. Of course, some words didn't follow the pattern exactly, such as "nisaa" and "banaat", etc.!

We looked at the feminine plurals for adjectives and noticed that they were the same as the masculine plurals.

Finally, we did the exercise at the bottom of p.25 and top of p.26 verbally. We learnt that the plural for "these" is the same for both masculine and feminine, i.e. "haulaai".

We read through the whiteboard at random chances throughout the week, with mini tests in between, and I took the words off once the girls were confident they knew them. Sometimes we just read the words as is, other times as a sentence, e.g. "Haulaai fatayaatun" and with a mix of definite and indefinite, i.e. "Haulaai mudarrisaatun / Haulaai al-mudarrisaatu".

Week 2:

We read through the activity on p.26, with a focus on looking at "hunna" as the plural of "hiya", i.e. "they" and as the plural of "haa", i.e. "their".

I wrote the following on the whiteboard so we could recap the differences:

Then I laid out all the vocabulary mentioned in the activity and read through the sentences in turn. As I read each sentence, the girls found the corresponding cards and then translated the Arabic into an English sentence.

We then needed to tidy up the cards... But rather than just gather them up, I asked them to pass me a card to put in a pile only once they'd used it in a sentence. They took it in turns to come up with sentences and they could use more than one card at a time if they wanted - though obviously this made it more difficult! The winner was the one who had the bigger pile of cards at the end.

MashaAllah they came up with some good sentences, with up to 4 cards at a time! F won with 14 vs 12, so I gave M the chance to make up any sentence using an adjective to describe a group of female people... So in the end, they ended up with a draw. 😉

Finally, I wrote the following on the whiteboard:

Using cards as prompts (I took a mixture from all the cards so far, some of which we've not seen since Book 1!) they took it in turns to pick up cards from face down piles (1 for female people, 1 for nouns and 1 for adjectives) to make sentences along the above pattern, e.g. "Hunna fatayaatun. Baytuhunna kabeerun." = "They are young girls. Their house is big."

Week 3:

I asked the girls how to say "they went" (m), i.e. recapping the verb ending pattern "dhamma, waw, alif" to make "dhahabuu". Then I read a sentence from p.26 and asked them to tell me how to say "they went" (f) - which they correctly identified as "dhahabna". So what was the verb pattern here? The ending changes to "sukoon, noon with a fatha".

I stuck the following flashcards onto the whiteboard and asked the girls to tell me what to write on either side:

On another day, I chose about 10 more verbs from our verb flashcards to go through with the girls. I showed them the Arabic side for them to read (1st person, past tense, singular male) and translate the meaning for, e.g. "dhahaba" means "he went".

Then I challenged them to go through all the cards and change them to third person, past tense, plural male (e.g. "qafazuu" means "they [males] jumped") and to third person, past tense, plural female (e.g. "qafazna" means "they [females] jumped"). MashaAllah they managed this OK and this really helped solidify the verb ending patterns!

Next, I put the verbs into one pile and next to them a pile of people (both male and female... I was originally going to just do sentences all in the masculine form followed by all in the feminine form, but because they were confident enough in the previous activity I thought I'd just mix them all up from the start!). Along the top I laid out the prepositions we've come across so far, so they could use them as prompts if they got stuck.

The activity was to use the verb and plural for the person to create a sentence. (I took out the verb "fa'ala" before we started when I realised it was difficult to make a sentence with using the vocabulary and grammar we knew so far!)

Some of the sentences they came up with were e.g. "Jalasna at-tabeebaatu 'ala al-maktabi" (The female doctors sat on the desk), "Akaluu al-muhandisoon at-tuffaaha" (The male engineers ate the apple), "Kharajna al-mudarisaatu min al-hammaami" (The female teachers exited from the bathroom).

I wasn't fussed if the sentences actually made sense! But this was good practise for word endings (i.e. changing to a kasra if preceded by a preposition or to a fatha if it was the object being affected by a verb) and for making them think about which vocabulary they knew, without any flashcard prompts, to complete their sentences!

Finally, we talked about what to do if we had more than one group of people in the sentence, i.e. two groups of males, which form of the verb would we use? The masculine... Two groups of females? Use the feminine... What about a group of males and a group of females? Then we'd use the masculine. What if there were more females, say three groups of females and only one male? Still use the masculine!

Then we practised making up sentences along this pattern, drawing 3 cards at random from the people pile and thinking about which form of the verb to use in a sentence. (I chose to use 3 rather than 2 as I'm not sure if there's a dual form for past tense? We're not that far in our studies yet! So to be safe, just avoid using 2 lol)

Week 4:

We did the activities on p.27 and p.28, taking it in turns to read the sentence, translate it and then give the suitable pronoun/change to plural. This was pretty much just revision so I didn't get the cards out - we just did it verbally sitting together around the book.

I wrote out the words at the bottom of p.28 into their handwriting books and they told me what the plurals were for me to write next to them. Then they practised handwriting by copying the words once each.

How Water is Transported in Plants

I bought the cheapest bouquet of white flowers from ASDA (£2!) and put them in a vase at home. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a note of the plant name for future reference. 😅

We talked about why we needed to put them in water (because plants need water to survive!) and why I added the plant food to the water (for nutrients) and why the label said the plants would only stay alive for a maximum of around 8 days (because they had no roots and weren't in soil).

So if they had no roots then how were they able to get water inside them? The water must be able to travel up the stem somehow...

We read about it in a couple of our science books and talked about how the water travels to all different plant parts/structures, i.e. from the roots into the stem and then to the leaves and flowers.

Was there a way we could see if it was true? One of the books mentioned an experiment with celery, so maybe we could do the same thing with our white flowers? There was a reason I chose white flowers to begin with! So the colour change would be more apparent. 😁

We took one of each stem and put them in 4 different glasses. In one glass we filled it with just clear water. In the other three we added red food colouring, blue food colouring, and a mixture of red and blue food colouring to give purple water. We set up the 4 glasses on the windowsill in the morning so we could keep checking on them throughout the day. I also used a whiteboard pen to mark the water level; what did they expect to see happen? The water level should go down as the water's sucked up by the plant!

So what did the girls think would happen to the flowers? What was their prediction? That we would see the flowers change into the same colour as the water in the glass. Why did we have a glass with just clear water? As the control, to make sure the flowers weren't just going to change colour anyway!

After a few hours we didn't see any change, so we decided to leave them for longer. M commented that the water hadn't really gone down at all from the starting lines either!

In the meantime, we watched this video: Ivy's Plant Shop - How does water get from the roots to leaves of a plant? The girls commented their prediction should be correct because the petals in the video changed colour!

We ended up leaving the flowers for a few days while checking on them... The water level went down a little, but the change in the flowers was really mild! I checked online for a possible reason and it turns out that the change in flowers with woody stems takes longer. 😓 But never mind, it just led to more discussions about "failures" in science leading to further experiments and how multiple experiments/repetitions mean more reliable results!

99 Names of Allah - 18 - Ar-Razzaaq - The Provider, The Sustainer

[18] اَلرَّزَّاقُ (Ar-Razzaaq): The Provider, The Sustainer

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (5min)

Play Google Slides Presentation of the first 33 names, 2-3 times. Sing together and do the actions so far plus:

Action for Ar-Razzaaq: Use one hand to mime a plant growing upwards.

Today’s focus is on the name Ar-Razzaaq which means The Provider and The Sustainer.

Story relating to today's name (10min)

Read examples from the seerah of Allah providing people with unexpected food/wealth, e.g. when Halima took Muhammad (SAW) to the desert and the effect on their livestock, milk, etc.; the story of Abu Hurayrah sharing a small saucer of milk between multiple people while with the Prophet (SAW); the story during the Battle of the Trench where the whole army ate from a small portion of bread and meat.

These can all be found in the book 365 Days with the Prophet Muhammad on p.14, p.212 and p.338 respectively. 

Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (10min)

Ar-Razzaaq means The Provider. 

The word "provide" means to give someone or something what they need.

Ar-Razzaaq also means The Sustainer. 

One meaning for "sustain" is to keep something going, like to keep something alive (we need food to sustain us - another word for "food" is "sustenance").

So what do you think this name means, if Allah is the provider and the sustainer? Allah gives us everything we need to live. What kind of things do you think these are? Food, water, money, a place to live... Similar to the things we talked about for Al-Wahhaab? The things Allah provides us with to survive are also gifts from Him!

Think about the stories we just read again. In the stories, Allah provided the people with what they needed - and more! What were the people in the stories doing? Were they just sitting around waiting, or did they do something and as a result they were given something? Let's look at them in turn...

1) What did Halima and her husband do for Allah to increase her milk and give them healthier livestock? They took in baby Muhammad (SAW) with the good intention of looking after him when no-one else would.

2) Why was Abu Hurayrah so hungry? What had he done with his food? He used to share it with the cats, even if he was hungry himself.

3) What intention did Jabir have when he invited the Prophet (SAW) to eat? He knew he had a little bit of food so wanted to do what he could to help. He originally thought only of the Prophet (SAW), but he didn't say no when the Prophet (SAW) said to invite the other people too!

So yes, Allah is Ar-Razzaaq The Provider, but does this mean we can just sit back and do nothing because Allah will provide us with everything we need? No! We still need to put some effort in. We need to work and get a job or help others with a good intention... We need to do something! But in the end we need to remember and trust that Allah will always provide for us. 

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Draw a picture of a plant in some soil. Draw a sun in the sky and rain falling down. Colour in (with felt-tips etc. or as a collage etc.).

Discuss how the plant grows into food for us to eat or food for animals which we can then eat - the children may want to draw some fruit on their plant and a cow/sheep behind it.

Allah provides the plant with everything it needs to grow: nutrients in the soil, water, sunlight and air. Allah provides us with what we need to survive, too.

When to use this name (10min)

Read the story of Salaba e.g. p.278 from the book 365 Days with the Prophet Muhammad.

Talk about what it teaches us. Is it OK to make duaa to Allah as Ar-Razzaaq asking Him to provide us with things we want or need in this life? Of course! If there is something we want Allah to provide us with then we should make duaa using the name Ar-Razzaaq! Allah will answer our duaas either with what we want or with something which is better for us.

So what is the lesson from this story? That the things in this life can be a test. Everything is from Allah and the test is how we use them - will we use the things we're given selfishly? Or will we use them for the sake of Allah and to help us become closer to Him and better Muslims?

If the thing we want takes us away from Islam then it would be better if we didn't have it! And if we're provided with lots of things - money or food or a big family, etc. - then we should always remember where it all came from. Ar-Razzaaq is the one who provides us with everything. 

On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Ar-Razzaaq and their feelings.

Sticker chart (5min)

Ask individually: Which of Allah’s names did we learn today? What does it mean? Give children a sticker each for their chart.

----------

Other activities:

- Grow your own fruit/vegetables from seeds! Talk about how our food is all provided by Allah.

- Look at some simple food chains or food webs. See how they all start with a plant which needs the sun to grow. Who made the sun? Allah! Even if we raise our own animals or grow our own plants for food, we still need Allah's provision for them to actually grow. Think about the name Al-Khaaliq and how Allah made everything.

- Talk about how Ar-Razzaaq provides for us not only in a physical sense (with food, money, etc.) but also in a spiritual way too. He provides us with Islam so we know what things we can do to make our book of good deeds bigger and what things to avoid to keep our book of bad deeds as small as possible. Use this to recap some things liked/disliked in Islam.

- Look at the concept of rizq in Islam. This may be more appropriate for older children. Research hadith and discuss how certain actions can increase our rizq. Talk about how rizq is predestined and nothing you do can decrease what was meant for you. (A nice analogy of rizq being predestined but able to be increased is that of a plate of food - if you don't make the effort to pick up the food, you won't get to eat it; it was provided for you on the plate but you still need to make the effort to eat it - this could be turned into a simple craft activity as a reminder). Look at the word root and how "rizq" is similar to "Razzaaq".

Please leave a comment if you know any other related activities for this name!

99 Names of Allah - 17 - Al-Wahhaab - The Bestower

[17] اَلْوَهَّابُ (Al-Wahhaab): The Bestower

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (3min)

Play PowerPoint of the first 33 names, 2-3 times. Sing together and do the actions so far plus:

Action for Al-Wahhaab: Mime opening a present.

Today’s focus is on the name Al-Wahhaab which means The Bestower. 

Story relating to today's name (10min)

Watch the episode of Bing titled "Giving" (Amazon Prime: Season 3, Episode 6 / BBC iPlayer: Series 1, Episode 27) or watch/read a similar story where the main character has trouble giving a present to someone.

Talk about the episode: Why did Bing want to give a present to Sula? (Do we celebrate birthdays?/What do we celebrate?) Why did he change his mind? Because he wanted to keep it for himself? When he gave it to Sula in the end, how did he feel? Was he happy he gave it to her? Why? How did Sula react?

Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (15min)

Al-Wahhaab means The Bestower. 

What does "bestow" mean? Can you find it in the dictionary? It means to give something as a gift. (It also has the meaning to give someone something as an honour, so like a reward or as a way of showing how special that person is. People are sometimes bestowed knighthoods by the Queen as a way of showing how amazing they are, for doing something which was good for the country...)

This name reminds us of how Allah has gifted us with so many things.

Together, make an A3 poster of things Allah has blessed us with. Write "Al-Wahhaab" in the centre and create a spider diagram of gifts from Allah around it. Draw pictures and colour them, too. Include e.g. material things, their favourite things, favourite places, things to do with our health, family, friends, the blessing of being a Muslim, free time, etc.

Some of these things we take for granted - because we have them all the time so we don't think what it might be like if didn't have them - so we should make the effort to remember and be thankful for them. Which kind of things do we easily forget are a gift from Allah? Things like our 5 senses, good health, a safe home, time? How would we feel if we didn't have these things? Alhamdulillah for Allah's blessings.

Think about Sula again, when she received the present from Bing. What did she do? How did she feel? How do you feel when you receive a present? Do you feel loved? Allah has given us so many things and this shows that Allah loves us and cares about us.

Display the poster e.g. in their bedroom so they can look at it often as a reminder.

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Cut out the net and glue the middle square to the page. Fold the flaps into the centre and colour using bright colours/gel pens, etc. These represent the wrapping paper. In the centre square, have the children draw something they think makes a good present. Fold the flaps so they overlap each other and cover up the centre, i.e. children can then lift the flaps as if unwrapping a present to see what's inside. Finally, glue a piece of ribbon on either side of the box and tie a bow across to hold the flaps down.

When to use this name (7min)

Everything we have is because of Allah. Allah didn't need to gift us with so many wonderful things (things we take for granted, such as our 5 senses, and things we want, such as a new toy, etc.) but He has and we should remember to be grateful.

We can make duaa to Allah as Al-Wahhaab, thanking Him for all He has given us.

We can also make duaa to Al-Wahhaab when we want something. We can ask for Him to give us the new toy we want, or a good memory so we can learn more - we can even ask Him for the ultimate gift of Jannah and make duaa to Al-Wahhaab to let us go there by helping us do lots of good deeds.

When we give someone a present, do we expect anything in return? Maybe we might think it's nice for them to give us a present at a different time because that's fair... Or maybe we at least want them to say thank you to us... But when Allah gives us things, He doesn't expect anything in return. He doesn't need anything from us; remember when we learnt about Al-Malik, Allah is the King of everything - we need Him but He doesn't need us at all. Allah's gifts to us have nothing selfish in them whatsoever. And He doesn't find it difficult to give us things, like in the Bing episode. Allah doesn't want to keep the things to Himself. He is generous and gives us things easily.

On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Al-Wahhaab and their feelings.

Sticker chart (5min)

Ask individually: Which of Allah’s names did we learn today? What does it mean? Give children a sticker each for their chart.

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Other activities:

- It's good to give gifts on occasions like Eid but sometimes it's nice to just give gifts for no reason as a surprise. How do you think someone might feel if they get a nice present when they're not expecting it? It's a way of showing someone you care about them and even counts as a good deed! Gifts don't have to be expensive - it could be something homemade or even a simple card or a letter. Think about someone you want to give a gift to and surprise them with it to make them smile.

- Research more about what knighthoods are. Look at famous examples. Watch a video of a recent knighting. Children could dress up as a monarch and roleplay knighting each other. Talk about how the knighthood is being bestowed, i.e. given to the person by the king/queen as a gift and a way of showing how special they are. Allah's gifts to us are a way of showing how much He loves us.

- Start a habit of looking at the poster on a certain night of the week/month and making duaa together to Al-Wahhaab to thank Him for something He has bestowed us with. Or use the poster as a calming down tool, for when the children are overwhelmed or angry, etc. Have them stand in front of the poster and read it as their safe space for helping them calm down.

Please leave a comment if you know any other related activities for this name!

Identifying Plant Structures & Functions

We did a lesson on plant structures and functions a couple of years ago, when the twins were 4 1/2, so I thought we would repeat it now they're older (to see how much they remember/have improved!) and for Z's sake as a new lesson as she's recently turned 4. 😙

As before, we visited the Botanical Gardens. In the morning before we went, we read through the most relevant pages from the Roots, Stems, Leaves and Flowers book from the Fundamental Science Collection we have.

While at the gardens, we discussed the different kinds of plants and commented on how the same structure (e.g. the flower) could look so different on different plants. Did they all have roots and stems? Including trees? Could they find them? We stopped at a couple of points around the gardens so the girls could have a go at drawing some plants. They've not done much drawing from life so this was good practise! Z wanted to do one at first, but then she preferred just running around so I didn't force it. 😊 I modelled how to do a quick sketch first and then adding more detail afterwards.

This tree was outside, so after they identified the different structures I asked them what they thought about its trunk. Why was it twisted? Did it grow like that naturally or did someone make it grow like that? How? F said maybe they kept twisting the trunk as it grew. I'm not sure of the answer myself but that seems like it could make sense?! Maybe it's two different trees being twisted together as they grew? Even if we don't know the answer, thinking about it is still a useful exercise. 😁

We also took photos of the plants they were sketching. At home, they watched how I inserted a picture into a Word file and arranged it on the page. Then they had a go with the other photos we took. As well as inserting images, we paid special attention to cropping, resizing, moving them and using zoom to be able to see more clearly what we were doing. I printed the pictures out and they used them as reference to colour in their sketches with coloured pencils.

I was going to get them to label their drawings, but decided against it as felt it would be labouring the point... They already showed they understood by doing it verbally at the gardens, so what was the use in creating extra work as "evidence"?! 😏

On another day, we watched this video clip from the BBC: Ivy's Plant Workshop - Parts of a Plant.

The twins completed the following worksheet, with the guidance that the bottom of the flowering plant should be at the bottom of the table and the top should be at the top... They could either draw four separate diagrams or have a go at joining them to make one tall diagram spanning the table! We talked about the four structures (roots, stem, leaves, flowers) and their multiple jobs, and I wrote some keywords (mainly as spelling help!) on the whiteboard. If they needed more help, they could look in one of the Science books they have which I'd put in the book box for this half term.

When they were done, I asked them to draw and label a tree with the same four labels.

You can download the simple worksheet here.

Meanwhile, Z did the activity from our previous post, i.e. drawing a picture of a flower from scratch and me guiding her with adding labels. MashAllah the twins were able to work pretty independently so I was able to give Z enough attention!