Fables

Continuing the theme from their shadow puppet theatre, and referring to the NC for Year 3, I decided to move on to looking at fables in more detail as our next Literacy topic.

We read examples from some of the books in this collection (I bought a few many years ago for £1 each from The Works!) and I left the others in their book box for this term for them to explore at their leisure.

We talked briefly about who Aesop was - where and when he was from - but I plan to go through this in more detail in the coming weeks as we move on to look at Greek mythology InshaAllah.

Another day, we read through some more examples of fables and I left several books open as visual reminders. We discussed what they all had in common - i.e. how do we know they're fables? What features do they have?

As the girls came up with ideas, and I prompted for others, we came up with a list of features:

- Short and simple
- Only a few characters, usually 2
- Often animal characters
- One learns a lesson
- The characters are in the title
- Contains direct speech
- Contains time connectives
- Contains connectives to show cause and effect
- The moral is written at the end

The following day, I printed out the following sheet as a template for the girls to have a go at planning and writing their own short fable.

You can download the worksheet here.

Because we had just covered Al-Mutakabbir as one of Allah's names, I gave the girls the moral "Don't be arrogant".

We discussed ideas together as a group and they each came up with their own plot. They wrote their first draft, listened to each other's to give constructive criticism, edited their work then wrote up their final drafts below:

Geography Targets

Geography targets taken from the National Curriculum and converted into a spreadsheet table for individual tracking.

Download here.

99 Names of Allah - 11 - Al-Mutakabbir - The Proud

[11] اَلْمُتَكَبِّرُ (Al-Mutakabbir): The Proud

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (5min)

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

Action for Al-Mutakabbir: With two thumbs up, alternate lifting one hand higher than the other while pointing at your own chest with your thumbs. 

Today’s focus is on the name Al-Mutakabbir which means The Proud / The Supremely Great

Story relating to today's name (7min)

Read a short story to the children which features a proud main character, e.g. The Emperor's New Clothes or The Gingerbread Man, where being proud is not a good quality to have. 

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

Al-Mutakabbir means The Proud / The Supremely Great.

Why do people feel proud of themselves? When they've done something well? Think of examples... E.g. Winning a race, solving a maths problem, writing an interesting story, doing something new/you weren't able to do before... Is it a nice feeling? Is it a good feeling? When you're comparing yourself to yourself then yes, it's nice to feel accomplished and proud of ourselves!

But is being proud a good thing? If I described someone as being proud, would you think they're a nice person or not? In the story, the Emperor was proud so he ended up looking foolish and embarrassed; the Gingerbread Man was proud and ended up being eaten by the fox. Was that a good thing? What made being proud a bad thing? We just said that feeling proud of yourself is OK, so what makes it become not OK anymore? When you compare yourself to other people - when you think that because you did something, that makes you better than other people. Another word for this is arrogant. Arrogant people think they're better than others either because they're good at something or sometimes just because they've been blessed with something (money or talent) - they don't give thanks to Allah for it, but instead they're proud and arrogant and look down on other people for not having money or not being able to think quickly or run quickly or whatever it is...

So why does Allah's name mean proud? Because in the examples of the arrogant people, why were they arrogant? Because of something which wasn't in their power anyway. They didn't really have a right to be proud. Allah is the one who gave them their money (like the Emperor) or their talent (like the Gingerbread Man running fast). But what about Allah? He's the one who made everything and can do anything - does He have the right to be proud? Yes! Only Allah is able to be truly proud because He's so perfectly great. Anything He is proud about is definitely from His own doing, nobody else's. Al-Mutakabbir also means "The Supremely Great".

Everything we do is because of Allah. If we're good at something or manage to overcome a challenge it's ok to feel proud of ourselves - but not compare ourselves to other people - and we should always thank Allah for allowing us to do whatever it is we did, or for blessing us with whatever He wanted us to have.

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Colour in the trophy e.g. as a collage using shiny materials or glitter glue etc.

When to use this name (8min)

When you're feeling proud of yourself remember to thank Allah for helping you achieve what you did. Use the name Al-Mutakabbir to remind yourself that He is the only truly proud one because He is the one in charge of everything that happens. Remind yourself not to be arrogant and not to compare yourself with other people - Allah has blessed us all differently.

On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Al-Mutakabbir 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:

- Write a fable with the moral not to be arrogant.

Please leave a comment if you know of any related activities we could do for this name!

99 Names of Allah - 10 - Al-Jabbar - The Compeller

[10] اَلْجَبَّارُ (Al-Jabbar): The Compeller

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (5min)

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

Action for Al-Jabbar: With the hand clenched and index finger out, shake finger in front as if telling someone what to do. 

Today’s focus is on the name Al-Jabbar which means The Compeller.

Story relating to today's name (7min)

Read a short story to the children, e.g. Hippo Owns Up, where the moral is to tell the truth/guilt made the main character own up.

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

Al-Jabbar means The Compeller.

What does "compel" mean? To make someone do something. It's actually a bit stronger than just "make" and more like to force someone to do something - so they have no choice but to do it.

Al-Jabbar means Allah can make anyone and anything do whatever He wants. He can make things happen which seem impossible - He can make miracles happen. Can you think of any miracles from stories you know of the prophets? (e.g. He compelled the fire to be cool for Prophet Ibrahim, He compelled the sea to part for Prophet Musa, He compelled the moon to split in half for prophet Muhammad, etc.)

In the story, what compelled Hippo to tell the truth? His conscience/his feeling of guilt. Allah has given us all the gift of a conscience and of feeling guilty when we do something wrong. That guilty feeling is what compels us to do the right thing.

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Think of things/forces we have no control over e.g. gravity - if we jump we have no choice but to come down again, if we throw a ball up in the air we know it will fall down again. Allah is even stronger than gravity - if He wanted He could make something just float and not fall down (like the waves when the sea parted for Musa (AS)! Just like we are compelled to fall to the ground because of gravity, Allah compels things to happen and they have no choice over it.

Craft: use cotton wool for clouds and glue blue sequins to represent rain falling down to the ground: Allah compels it to rain, we can feel the effects of gravity compelling things to fall to the ground. 

When to use this name (8min)

When you want Allah to help you with something, e.g. a problem you have or a challenge you face. Al-Jabbar can make anything happen by His will, including helping you overcome your problem (either with the solution you want or something better for you).

You can remember Allah by this name if you're ever tempted to do something you shouldn't (like Hippo when he stole the cake) - remember that He gave you a conscience to compel you to do the right thing (like Hippo owning up to his mistake) because Allah loves us and wants us to do good. 

On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Al-Jabbar 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:

-

Please leave a comment if you know of any related activities we could do for this name!

Juz 27 / Qaala famaa khatbukum - Poster

MashaAllah, we've started the next juz of the Quran, working backwards from the end. 💕

As usual, we've made another target tracking poster for these 7 surahs (the juz actually ends partway through Adh-Dhaariyaat, but we've decided to just complete the whole surah for simplicity's sake). We talked about the meanings of the surah names, coloured in corresponding pictures and decorated with stickers. This poster is only A4 as opposed to the previous ones being A3 - partly because there are fewer surahs to cover this time and partly because we're running out of space on the door where we display them!

You can download the template here.

The pictures correspond to the surahs as follows:

Adh-Dhaariyaat = wind
At-Tur = Mt. Sinai
An-Najm = a star
Al-Qamar = the moon
Ar-Rahmaan = the two seas not mixing (one of the miracles mentioned)
Al-Waaqi'ah = an hourglass (the inevitable time)
Al-Hadeed = a meteorite (containing iron)

Seerah Timeline (9-12)

Continued from this post...

This is a bit of a dull post as we didn't do much in terms of extra activities for these final sections of the seerah - just the usual read from the book and summarise on Post-It notes via questions on the whiteboard.

Just posting for completion's sake!

Alhamdulillah the girls really enjoyed the past few months and learning more about the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). I'm pleased, as I think they now have a good foundation to build upon InshaAllah - and I learnt lots during this time too!

I plan to take a short break from the seerah over the next term so we can refocus on Allah's names InshaAllah, then we can come back to their timeline as an art project - revising what they wrote and thinking of a suitable illustration for each section. 🌟

Light & Dark - Drawing Shadows

Target: Look for and measure shadows, find out how they are formed and what might cause the shadow to change.

We went on a shadow hunt around the house to see where there were shadows and why - what was blocking the light? Where was the light source?

On a piece of A4 white paper, I placed a toy animal on it and we used a lamp to create its shadow. I drew around the shadow (narrating what I was doing, including how difficult it was to not knock over the toy, or to see exactly where the shadow was when my hand's shadow got in the way, and look, I made a mistake here but never mind! - F, in particular, is still working on her growth mindset when it comes to difficult things and getting things wrong...) and coloured it in lightly with a coloured pencil. Then I repeated this process with different figurines and colours, overlaying shadows on purpose, to create this abstract artwork - revising earlier work on colours and blending.

They experimented with where they wanted to place the toy in relation to the light and saw how the shadow changed size or stretched. To make things fair, they kept switching seats so they could take turns being nearer or further away from the light source.

I wasn't expecting Z to write the title on hers, but she did while I wasn't looking and was very pleased with herself!

When they were done, they used their drawings to play a quick game of "guess the animal" with each other. 😄

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We discussed how to make a simple sun dial, recapping their knowledge on space and how the Earth rotates to create day and night. The book on Light and Dark in the KS1 Science series we have has a few pages on the subject which we read through together.

Before we made our sun dial, we recreated the theory behind how a sun dial works using a lamp to show how the shadow changes in quick time, moving across the ground, as the sun "moves across the sky". I had them predict what they thought the shadows would look like in the morning and evening and what time they thought it would be when the shadows are at their shortest (they correctly guessed stretched out and around midday!)

We tried making our own using paper plates with a pencil blu-tacked in the centre, but the weather this time of year was too overcast to see the shadows clearly. We might try again in the summer InshaAllah, but on a positive it was a good discussion point on whether sun dials were effective all year round or in all weathers!

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We drew some simple 3D shapes and learnt about shading to create a 3D effect. We started with a sphere, then a cone and finally a cube. We talked about where the shadow would be in relation to the light source in the picture. We also tried doodling other pictures, e.g. a tree, and I showed the girls how to draw simple prisms (recapping that a prism has the same 2D shape at each end!).

I bought some 3B pencils for this purpose and the girls discussed how the lead felt softer than their HB writing pencils and why it was easier to draw with the 3B pencil. They experimented with using different pressures to create lighter and darker effects.

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Finally, we watched The Gruffalo's Child (which happened to be on Amazon Prime) and talked about why the shadow was so large even though the mouse was so small! To help reinforce the point, we took out the torches again and played around with making shadows on the wall. 😁