Ramadan calander chain



This is a quick, simple and fun activity I did with K earlier today - A paper chain, each chain representing one day of the month of Ramadan (total 30 chains).

K wrote the numbers 1 - 30 on each link (good number sequence and writing practice) whilst I stapled them together. Once completed, we tacked it to the wall, ready to remove one link each day inshallah.

By the end of Ramadan there will be no links left inshallah, and the kids know it will be E'id inshallah!

This is great as it helps K to understand the concept of a "month" and its duration, and also stops her bugging me every day asking "when is it E'id, when is it E'id?????" because she can count the remaining days herself inshallah!

A variation on this activity, is rather than having a complete 30 day chain at the beginning of Ramadan, instead start with 1 link, adding a new link to the chain each day, so that by the end of Ramadan you will have a decoration ready for E'id.

I prefer removing a link each day though rather than adding links to the chain, as I think it helps them to visualise how long the month is (as they have the 30 day chain as the beginning point).

I also like it as a small decoration marking the beginning of Ramadan as it helps the children get into the Ramadan mood inshallah, especially as they are so young.

Jolly Phonics Alternative Spellings of Vowels

When I begun homeschooling K back in January, she couldn't read and I had no idea how I would teach her! I found the task of teaching to read and write extremely daunting and did not know where to start!

Alhamdulillah for the Jolly Phonic programme! We purchased the Jolly Phonic finger books which go through all the main letter sounds (including some blends) as well as "The Phonics Handbook" (from jolly phonics - written by Sue Lloyd) Within a couple of months K went from not even knowing all the alphabet letter sounds to being able to read simple early reader books alhamdulillah! (we still need alot of reading practice though naturally!) My husband has been doing the Jolly Phonics work with her mainly before he goes to work in the morning straight after breakfast (when we are all up and ready on time!).

Anyway, back to the actual reason of this post, which is the book pictured above.

The Jolly Phonics programme explains that there are different ways to spell the vowel letter sounds, for example "A" can be spelt in words as "ai" "a_e" or "ay". Last week I attempted a worksheet from the handbook showing alternative spellings for the "A" sound. K had a melt down! She didn't want to do it, made a complete mess of the worksheet and to be honest, it ended up going in the bin!...what did she learn...nothing!

However this is a lesson I really want her to have as I think it is important, so what I have done is stick the 9 worksheets explaining the alternative vowel sounds into a home-made scrap book simply made using A3 coloured sugar paper folded into A4 - using colours she likes, pink and purple (and had to use blue as wasn't enough!)

 On one side of the double sheet I have stuck down the worksheet ready to complete inshallah. The other side I have left empty. Here I will ask K to write each of the different spellings for each sound onto a heart shape I have already cut out. Then I will give her some felt tip pens or maybe some glitter which she can use to decorate the heart sounds before sticking them onto the empty page inshallah beside the worksheet.

I will let K choose what colour hearts she wants to use for each sound spelling....she loves hearts so I hope this will encourage her inshallah.

For the front cover (pictured at the top of the post) I just wrote a title and selected an image from clip art.



Here are a couple of K's completed pages.....