Quraan Study

We have been doing a detailed Quraan study for a while now. We read the tafseer, discuss the meanings, learn the fiqh, aqaid involved and the history of that particular sura/ayaat and then we make projects/unit studies on things mentioned in those sura/ayaat (Thats why I have a page on my blog about Things in Quraan). But it was after reading Umm Raiyaan’s Quran Curriculum that I thought that I will also share my resources about our Quraan Study. I haven’t found much resources to teach Quraan to young children, and what are available are quite pricey, so I try to make my own resources as I go. These resources are made for my kids ages 8 and 5 years, and I would be sharing them for those who may want to use some or all of them.
To keep things organized I have set up a virtual wall with virtual post-it notes on it where I will jot down my ideas about teaching a particular sura. Any resources I have, will also be posted on these walls. Those of you who are familiar with wall wisher will understand what I am talking about (you can learn more about wall wisher from here) This site Stixy is a bit different as it also allows to upload documents and allows others to download them. Also on wall wisher you can not remove a sticky note once added, but there is no such limitation in Stixy so I am sticking with Stixy for this purpose.

Feel free to have a look at my wall for Al Falaq wan Naas (though there isn’t much on it yet) I will let you know about any updates made on this wall or about new walls created. If you have a resource or idea to share please leave me a link in the comments below and may be together we can build a big data base of resources.
Once again thanks to sister Umm Raiyaan whose Quraan Curriculum motivated me to organize and share my resources.
wassalam.

Wednesday Weekly Website - Starfall

 

Starfall

Review: Starfall is a free learn to read with phonics website. It provides interactive activities, videos, interactive books (fiction and non fiction) and games which help the young learners in learning to read. Easy to navigate and simple interface makes it possible for the young ones to use this website on their own. There are many free to print resources also available on the site to reinforce learning. Starfall takes the learner on their journey to learn reading through four categories, Alphabets, Learn to read, It’s fun to read, I’m reading. There is some music at the start of the activities so make sure to turn off the speakers at the beginning of activities.

 Suitable for ages: 3-5

3D Letters

3D letters are lots of fun! Print out the templates for free from here, grab a scissor and some glue and spend that rainy stormy afternoon making these fun letters. Print them on colored card stock to make them more lively and durable or try coloring in them like artist Debbie Neale’s style like this ….

Whatever you do you can actually sneak in lots of literacy in it. Young learners can write their names in 3D, high frequency words can be practiced, sight words can be made more interesting, or add a special touch to any creative/imaginative play. If the rain outside is veryyyyyyyy persistent, you can make more than one set or make more vowels and high frequency letters and try making bigger, more difficult words.

A techy note for mums, these lay outs are actually fonts. To use them, download them to any location for example your desktop. Open your control panel (for windows 7 go to start then click control panel), go to Appearance and personalization, then click fonts. A window will open up showing all the fonts installed on your system. Open the folder where you saved your downloaded font and drag the file into fonts folder. Close all windows. Now you can find this font in drop list of any software installed on your computer like Word, Power Point, Photoshop etc. Use the software of your choice and select this font. Type away the letters you want to print, adjust size and printer settings and there you go! Make sure to print them quite big, like 2-3 letters on an A4 size sheet, otherwise they would be too small to cut and fold properly. These fonts will stay on your system and next time all you have to do is just type them and print. I hope this explanation wouldn’t scare you off, as its not as difficult as it sounds and the resulting fun is worth it.

Harcourt School Publishers

Harcourt School Publishers have many very interesting resources available on their Learning Site. These resources are made to supplement the programs and books by Harcourt School Publishers, but even if you are not using any of their program or books, these resources would still be beneficial. So when starting on a new science or social studies unit, be sure to check out The Learning Site where you will find something to help you. Some of my personal favorites are below:

Science Up Close

Science Up Close has got many short videos, interactives and explanations on scientific concepts. You will find resources on topics such as seasons, camouflage, resources, water cycle etc for grades from 1to 6.

Harcourt Brace Spelling

In Harcourt Brace Spelling kids can learn spellings in a fun interactive way. Again you will fine resources for grades 1 through 6.

Harcourt Travel Centre

Find simple mapping games and lots of other stuff in the activities area.

Harcourt Reflections

Find lots of links for fun interactive social studies here.

Art Everywhere

Make your own timeline, multimedia biographies etc in here.

Take some time and explore around The Learning Site to find much more in many more subjects.

What’s above you?

 

On a fine summer day, when you get out and look above, what do you see? and what is actually there? Find out……

(There’s a little music at the end, so turn off your speakers when it starts1 Jazakumullaah!)

Wednesday Weekly Website – Adventures Of The Agronauts

 

Adventures Of The Agronauts

Review: Adventures of the Agronauts is an excellent site for students to learn about the relationship between the sun, moon, and earth, and about plants, soil, heat, and light. The main focus is for users to determine if and how they can grow plants on the moon. This, of course, is a great activity for students to use and develop their critical thinking and reasoning skills. This site focuses on six areas as Agronaut Training Missions. Mission 1 (“What’s In Our Sky?”) covers information about the sun, stars, moon, and earth. The main focus is to learn about the similarities and differences among the sun, moon, and earth. Mission 2 (“The Root of the Matter”) covers plant parts and how they grow on earth. Mission 3 (“Stayin’ Alive: Part 1”) reviews soil and plants, soil on earth, and soil on the moon in order to demonstrate the importance of water, nutrients, and air in keeping plants alive. Mission 4 (“Stayin Alive: Part 2”) covers light, temperature, time, and room to grow, which are also critical in plant growth. Mission 5 (“Living Things in Space”) covers what happens to people and plants in a space environment and covers decision-making in terms of what plants to grow in space. Mission 6 (“Making the Plant Growth Chamber”) covers how to design a model chamber for growing plants in space. In addition to these missions, students also can participate in Rosy’s International Space Station Experiment. Since it is a whole (free science) curriculum with a space biology theme, you can incorporate it in your studies on a daily/weekly basis. In teacher’s resources section, you will find many hands on activities to go with the interactive and some ideas on taking the learning further. There is a lot of reading to be done though, so you can print out the whole curriculum or parts of it if you like. You may need a few other activities to make this curriculum more fun.

Suitable for ages: 6-9

Techno Tools – Read Write Think

Read Write think is the premiere site for interactive, student-friendly tools, sponsored by the IRA (International Reading Association) and the NCTE (National Council for the Teachers of English) This site features dozens of student resources or writing machines as I like to call them. Below are few of my personal favourite “machines” and a small description about them from the site.

Bio Cube

Bio-Cube is a useful summarizing tool that helps students identify and list key elements about a person for a biography or autobiography.

Book Cover Creator

The Book Cover Creator is designed to allow users to type and illustrate front book covers, front and back covers, and full dust jackets. Students can use the tool to create new covers for books that they read as well as to create covers for books they write.

CD/DVD Cover Creator

The CD/DVD Cover Creator allows users to type and illustrate CD and DVD covers and related booklets for liner notes and other information. Students can use the tool to create covers for books, music, and films that they explored as well as to create covers for media they compose.

Character Trading Cards

This tool provides a fun and useful way to explore a character in a book or as a prewriting exercise when creating characters for original stories.

Comic Creator

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

Doodle Splash

Doodle Splash combines the process of drawing with analytical thinking by pairing online drawing with writing prompts that encourage students to make connections between their visual designs and the text.

Essay Map

The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.

Eye On Idioms

The activity includes a series of exercises, in which students view the literal representations of idioms and then examine the metaphorical meanings of the idioms.

Fact Fragment Frenzy

Fact Fragment Frenzy provides elementary students with an online model for finding facts in nonfiction text, then invites students to find facts in five sample passages.

Flip Book

The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets.

Post Card Creator

The Postcard Creator helps students learn to identify all the typical parts of a postcard, and then generate their own postcard messages by typing information into letter templates. After printing their texts, students can illustrate the front of their postcards in a variety of ways, including drawing, collage, and stickers.

Profile Publisher

Students use the Profile Publisher to draft online social networking profiles, yearbook profiles, and newspaper or magazine profiles for themselves, other real or fictional characters.

Printing Press

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, flyers, and booklets.

Stapleless Book

The Stapleless Book can be used for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating vocabulary booklets . . . the possibilities are endless!

and many more!

Along with these resources you will find hundreds of teacher-developed lessons (searchable by skill category and grade) which make use of these writing machines. If you are looking ways to harness technology in your study then this site is a great start.

I would be happy to know what you think of this techno tool, so feel free to leave comments and links to your use of these tools.

Wednesday Weekly Website – BBC Science Clips

 

BBC Science Clips

Review: The BBC Schools is full of interactives, games and information for kids and educators alike. One more gem from The BBC Schools is Science Clips. Science Clips has lots of interactives based on the the UK curriculum. Each of the interactives is high quality and lets students experiment with new concepts that they are learning. Students can grow virtual plants, experiment with pushes and pulls, hearing and sound, forces and movement, electricity, rocks and soils, simple machines, light, solids and liquids, friction, habitats, life cycles, changing states of matter, reversible and irreversible changes, forces, and much more.  The site is organized well, by age group, and has several activities at each level. This site is especially useful for those experiments that may take too long to observe in real world, for example growing a plant etc and on the other hand can also be useful for those experiments which are too fast moving in real world for young students to write or draw observations as they are happening. Whichever topic of science you are studying, check this site, it is sure to have some great interactives that correspond to your science topic. All the activities are followed by quizzes to check understanding. Younger children can click on the speakers to have the quizzes read to them. Teachers section have lesson plans and some printable worksheets as well. The activities for ks2 (7-11 years old) have been moved to Bitesize KS2 but can still be reached via this site.

Suitable for ages: 5-11 years old.

Some Random Posts

Here are some random posts, as a reminder of resources in archives. This recurring post will appear every month, Insha Allaah.

1. Application of Deen in daily life
2. WWW - Kerpoof Spell A Picture
3. WWW – Tumbletown
4. Camel Adaptations
5. Techno Tools – Magic Studio

Seeking refuge from 4 things

Here is an excellent unit by Talibiddeen based on Nabi (saw) duaa seeking refuge from 4 things. The translation of the duaa is

“The Prophet (sal-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) used to say:

‘When one of you has finished the [last] Tashahhud, he should seek refuge with Allah from four things; [saying]:

1. Allah! I truly seek refuge with You from the punishment of Hellfire,

2. and from the punishment of the grave,

3. and from the trials of living and dying,

4. and from the evil [trials] of the False Christ.

[Then he should supplicate for himself with what occurs to him.]

"He (sal-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) would supplicate with it in his own Tashahhud." ¹

Talibiddeen’s blog is full of units like these and if you are not already following this blog then you must start. Take some time and explore the blog as well as the main site and you will find some true gems Insha Allaah.

Wednesday Weekly Website – Exploring Caves

 

Exploring Caves

Review: Exploring Caves is an interdisciplinary set of materials on caves. The resource centers around an online book divided into five chapters. For each chapter, there are accompanying teacher materials and lessons. Also included are special sections on the following topics: cave types, cave animals, cave care, and America's caves. Exploring Caves presents concepts from five scientific disciplines: earth science, hydrology, mapping, biology, and anthropology. Detailed lesson plans suggest ways to address these ideas to very young students.

Suitable for ages: 5-8

Google Earth – Become An Explorer

 

I recently discovered Google Earth Learn: Become an Explorer It is a nine part series of tutorials, directions, and quizzes regarding Google Earth skills although I would like to call it a game. The series takes users from the basics of navigation through advanced features of Google Earth. Perhaps the best way to describe Google Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer is as a guided scavenger hunt. If you want to know more about Google Earth, you can read my previous post on Google Earth.

Wood Fired Oven

If you are our NORMAL human being, you must like pizza. And if your kids are our NORMAL human kids they must like pizza ALOT. So here is a simple creative writing activity for the pizza lovers. Watch the video and then write a paragraph/story/recipe/audio narrative/photo essay etc etc about any aspect of the video, e.g. history of pizza and its origin in Italy, famous recipes and their backgrounds, properties of fire and its effect on things, comparing the cost of a pizza made in fire wood oven and that made in electrical/gas ovens, are just a few things to write about. Leave the choice to kids and be prepared to watch in wonder the things they may come up with.

 

Teachers TV is such a rich source of resources like the one above. Take your time and browse through the website. The videos and resources are categorized by subjects and grade levels. Although all of the videos are free to watch, some videos are not available to watch out side UK. Still it is a very good site to find lesson starters, or inspirational short clips for creative writing.