Prophet Musa (AS) - 3 - Escaping from Firaun

Over a couple of days, we read from our books the part of the story where Musa (AS) was chased by Firaun, ending up with Firaun drowning in the sea.

We also watched some of this video (played in background while they were downstairs) and then this Adam & Mishmish video to inspire the girls' imagination before their craft, so they could think what the Red Sea at the time might have been like and which kinds of fish they could draw in the water.

For our craft, we made another simple folding pop-up using blue paper, yellow paper, cutting/sticking drawings of fish from scrap paper and using glitter pens for the waves of the sea:

We talked about how Firaun only called out to Allah right at the end as he was drowning - but it was only out of fear and it was too late. The lesson I wanted them to learn was to follow the right path before it's too late - don't get distracted by what's easy or what might look like more fun. And to talk to Allah during good times too, thanking Him for His blessings, not only when times are bad and you need to ask for help.

We also went to Brueton Park, as we've not been before and I've heard good things about it, as a place for them to stand in front of a large body of water... Since we're a little too far from the coast! So they could appreciate a little the feelings of despair Musa (AS) and his people must have felt, knowing they were being chased and with no way across, and then awe from seeing the water part before them.

While we were in the park, we recapped the previous part of the story where Prophet Musa first went to Firaun and the magicians threw down sticks to look like snakes... We found some sticks and I asked the girls to try and arrange them to look like a snake... It wasn't easy! And it definitely didn't look real! But when Allah commanded Musa (AS) to throw down his staff, what happened? It was a miracle and it really did turn into a snake! No wonder the magicians believed in the message, because even though their sticks looked like real snakes (enough to frighten Prophet Musa), they knew they didn't have the power to make them come alive. Only Allah has the power to give life to things.

Heart & Lungs

The girls were ill last week (all four of them in turn! Alhamdulillah I wasn't included!) so we didn't have time to do any Science... So I merged last week's with this and we covered the topic of the heart and lungs together. Fortunately, they go together well anyway!

We started by reading through some books on the topic, and doing some of the activities mentioned.

Then, we worked through the following worksheets, discussing points in more detail as they came up:

You can download our worksheets here.

Arabic: Grandparents & Love

In Arabic club last week, we practised making sentences about our grandparents and conjugating the verb "to like". At the end of the session, they made cards for their grandparents with pictures of things they like inside. When we got home, we finished them off and wrote the sentences inside - ready to post and surprise my parents in Ipswich!

The writing inside says "I love my grandfather. I love my grandmother" and "My grandfather likes books. My grandmother likes flowers."

We wrote the translation in an accompanying letter to explain what we did. 😁 I didn't realise they didn't yet know properly how to post a letter lol... So we talked a bit about the layout of the front of the envelope (where the address goes, why it's needed, briefly how letters are sorted, where the stamp goes, why it's needed) then went for a 5min walk to the end of the road to post it. 👍

Stories from other cultures - 2 - The Middle East

Our next stop on our world tour was (North Africa &) the Middle East. 🌍

We went back to our globe, maps and atlas to find this region of the world, point out any familiar countries and read the names of others. We looked at the general climate, talked about deserts and discussed why some of the culture between the Middle East might be similar to areas of Northern Africa, such as Morocco.

I decided to use this week as a good opportunity to read some general stories of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)'s life (e.g. from books such as this and this, which were hand-me-downs kindly gifted to us from a friend) as well as practise our Arabic reading and understanding by going through the relevant Big Cat books we have (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

It was difficult to find any books from the library set in the Middle East, with the exception of Sanji & the Baker - which is a beautifully illustrated retelling of a well-known story which I love. 😁 We really got the most out of this book, talking about the clues in the pictures to tell us about the setting, the characters, etc. and a good discussion on the moral of the story, fairness and greed. 👍

As all these stories were set in the past, to remind them of what the region is like currently we rewatched some episodes of Iftah Ya Simsim - as it contains clips of children doing different activities in various Arab countries - and looked back through our holiday photos/videos to Istanbul and umrah last year. We also watched a random travel blog of some people camping in the Sahara!

As we didn't do a focused Literacy task last week, this week I decided to have them continue writing a story I started which was set in a desert:

You can download the story and template writing sheet here. (I included little cliparts on the second page as reminders of what was mentioned so far and so prompts for what they could include next. Excuse the pun in the title, too. LOL. But a good chance for a mini recap lesson on homonyms. 😂)

I wasn't so focused on their spelling, grammar or punctuation with this task, but more on their imagination, text structure and organisation. We talked a bit about what could happen next, but without me giving them any ideas - literally just a few questions about the cliparts and this on the whiteboard. Lol.

I then set the 30min sand timer on the table in front of them and let them write as much as they could, in silence, for that time.

I wasn't expecting them to complete the story with a lot of detail, but I wanted to give them that chance to free write with no interruptions or worries about "getting it wrong". For that reason, I gave them pens to write with so a) they wouldn't waste time trying to rub out mistakes and b) so it felt a bit more special. I had this video playing in the background as inspiration/to set the mood, and halfway through the time I stopped them so they could read and comment on each other's work so far. This helped as it gave them a short break as well as kept them focused on what to write next. The yellow highlighter shows where they got up to in the half an hour. As they didn't finish, I said they could complete it as and when they felt like it over the next couple of days - so it wasn't sitting in silence, but just writing a bit more for fun. This is what they ended up with! 💕

M

F

Finally, the plan is to go to a Lebanese/Moroccan restaurant so the girls can taste some of the foods from the region again. And as an excuse to go out. 😋

Maths update: Number sense

We're spending this half term working on their basic number skills, so understanding numbers, place value into 3 digits (and beyond!) and practising more efficient ways of addition and subtraction.

First, I checked they were comfortable switching between numbers as numerals and words, and were able to write a spoken number correctly as digits.

Next, we recapped partitioning. The Year 2 NC has the target to partition the same number in different ways, so I made up a simple worksheet to test that.

You can download our worksheet here.

Alhamdulillah, they managed to do it with no issues. Next, we're going to revise efficient mental methods for adding 2-digit numbers and I want to introduce them to the column method inshaAllah.

Prophet Musa (AS) - 2 - The burning bush

We read the next part of the story of Musa (AS) from book 1 of the Safar series, this time focusing on the time when Musa (AS) became a prophet. The lessons I wanted to bring out from this were 1) recapping miracles from Allah and 2) how Allah speaks to us through the Quran.

I asked them if they could remember any other miracles we've talked about to do with other prophets... Alhamdulillah, they could! We spoke a bit about them then did a simple craft together to help them remember this part of the story.

For their craft, they made a collage of a bush on fire. I asked them how they wanted to do the bush and M said to paint it... Then they cut up pieces of cellophane (old sweet wrappers!) and used PVA glue to stick them on top as the fire.

When they were done, we spoke some more about how Allah is able to do anything. Allah spoke to the prophets and sent them signs and miracles. But did he speak to them like we speak to each other? No, it was usually through dreams - but he spoke to Musa (AS) directly. And does Allah speak to us? How can we hear Allah's words? By reading the Quran! And the Quran itself is a miracle too... No one can write anything like it - although this is a little more complicated to understand/appreciate until they're older! I thought it still worth mentioning now. 💕

Recipe: Chunky Chocolate Brownies

Wow. I made brownies for the first time and they taste amazing. 👌 Need to write this down now before I forget what I did! Tweaked this recipe slightly as I usually find the full amount of dark chocolate in recipes too rich. 🙆

Ingredients
160g salted butter
150g dark chocolate
35g milk chocolate
275g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
75g white chocolate (chopped)
50g milk chocolate (chopped)

Method
1) Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and preheat oven to fan 180C.
2) Melt together the butter, dark chocolate and milk chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water on the hob.
3) Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and frothy/doubled in volume. Add the vanilla essence and whisk to combine.
4) Pour the cooled melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold together with a spatula.
5) Sift in the flour and cocoa a little at a time, folding in gently with the spatula.
6) Add the chopped chocolate and fold in gently. Try not to overmix.
7) Tip the mixture into the baking tray and carefully spread evenly to the corners with the spatula.
8) Bake for 25min. When it's ready it shouldn't wobble when the tray is shaken.
9) Leave to cool completely in the baking tray.
10) Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares.

I think I might have to experiment with this as the base - change the amount of chopped chocolate, replace with walnuts/marshmallows/Smarties... Add Nutella... Top with ganache... The texture and richness of these were just perfect though. 😍