Learning Surah Fatihah....and free printable worksheets!

It goes without saying, that helping our children to understand the Qur'an is a fundamental goal in their upbringing. We all aspire for our families to not merely recite the Book of Allah as mere lip service, but rather with comprehension, action and desire to please none other than Allah alone.

To help my children's understanding of the Qur'an, we've been taking an ayah a "lesson", looking at its translated meaning and brief tafseer together. Discussing how this relates to our lives before recording it in a small note-book. You can read more about how we're studying the meaning of the Qur'an with kids as part of a morning basket routine....although it somewhat evolved to not always be in the morning!

What we're using to study Surah Fatihah with the kids

If you're learning Arabic, to help aid our understanding and develop Qur'anic vocabulary, this colour word-for-word Noble Qur'an from Darussalam is an excellent resource to have on the shelf. It breaks down each individual word to provide its translated meaning, and is colour coded to show different parts of speech.

For the tafseer, we're reading through the chapter of Surah Fatihah in The Fundamentals of Tafseer translated from Shiekh Uthaymeen.

First we look at the whole surah 

To begin with, we read the whole surah (since we have started with the shorter suwah) and it's translated meaning, together with a really brief overview of the tafseer.

I photocopy a page from the Noble Qur'an word for word, which is stuck into the childrens note-book. I like to do this, simply to help draw attention to the translated meaning of each word, rather than only looking at each ayah's translation as a whole.
It helps to break it down and allows us to recognise and identify some familiar words which are repeated often.

Although we didn't do this for our previous Surah Ikhlas study or Surah Fatihah here, we have started Surah Kauthar and have since introduced the practice of handwriting the translated meaning of the whole surah also before we go onto to study each ayah.

Next, we look at a new ayah each day

We simply take one ayah at a time each day we study, until we reach the end; reading it, looking at the translated meaning and tafseer before recording it into our note-books.
My youngest child only writes the Arabic ayah along with the English translation. My eldest includes a brief summary of the tafseer which I help her with.

End of study review

At the end of our study, the children complete a short worksheet to consolidate all that they've learnt.

I allow the girls to use their notebooks to help them complete this exercise, however, once we have practiced a few more Surah studies, I would like to move towards being a blind test to help highlight what it is they do know.

I felt allowing them to use their note-book initially, allows them to practice answering these worksheets, so that when they eventually don't have their notes to look at they will be more confident at knowing what information it is they need to revise and memorise inshaAllah.

I kind of go with the idea that small steps build up towards a larger objective. Almost like a marathon runner training to develop stamina and understand how his body works under pressure. The children are aloud to use their note-books to help them develop the skill of completing the worksheet, so that eventually they should be able to do it independently of any notes in front of them inshaAllah.

Printable Surah Fatihah worksheet with different level options

You can download the Surah Fatihah worksheet, with different options to choose from to allow for children of different ages / abilities to use.

1. Write the English translated meaning
2. Write the English translated meaning along with word for word translation
3. Write the English translated meaning, word for word translation and a brief tafseer. 
4. Write the Arabic ayah along with the English translation and a brief tafseer. 

Depending on how you want to use them, they could be used as part of your study of surah Fatihah as you learn, or can be completed at the end as a review or test. 

To download, just click into the highlighted text below:

 Surah Fatihah worksheets for kids.