Alhamdulillaah: The Ramadan 2015 Activity Pack is Here!

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

** Post Updated**

Ramadan is close alhamdulillaah! This year, because Ramadan is expected to start a few weeks before school lets out (for some), the Ramadan Activity Pack for 2015 is being posted early alhamdulillaah. The pack is over 100 pages of Ramadan Themed activities that will help children review what they know about Ramadan, perhaps learn things they did not know about Ramadan, and review crucial math and language arts standards that they encountered throughout the school year in'shaa allaah.

The pack is intentionally structured to allow children to complete the activities independently in'shaa allaah. It is hoped that this structure accomplishes several things:

• It provides beneficial activities for children to complete during the day (after the school year finishes).
• It provides engaging, beneficial activities for children to complete at the masjid while parents are praying taraweeh.
• It aids in preventing summer reading & math skills loss, which is known to occur during the summer break, and which, according to research, contributes to the ever-widening achievement gap.
• It helps children master topics that they may have struggled with during the school year.
• It helps build children's confidence during the summer months and helps them move to grade 2 with a solid foundation in Language Arts and Math in'shaa Allaah.

To help accomplish these goals, all math activities in the pack have an example that shows children how to complete the upcoming math problems; the directions for all other activities are written at grade level so children should be able to read and comprehend the directions without needing help from an adult (but, of course, still be ready and willing to offer assistance if the child should need it). There is also a table of contents that allows children/parents to choose which activity to complete and track the student's progress. Each time a child completes an activity, he/she (or the parent) can go back to the table of contents and check that activity off of the list. There are also paper dolls that children can cut out and play with! At the end of the book, there is a certificate of completion that parents/teachers/activity coordinators can download, print, and present to children. A cautionary note: there should not be pressure placed on the child to finish the pack during the month of Ramadan. Encouragement yes, pressure, no.  

And here is a language arts pack for the last ten days of Ramadan that can be used with the Big Book of Ramadan Activities (i.e. the ELA pack can be added to the Big Book or it can be used separately in'shaa Allaah). You can see which concepts/skills are covered in the pack in this post.

Click here to download your free Last Ten Days of Ramadan Language Arts pack or download it free from A Muslim Child is Born's Teacher Notebook store!

So, are you ready for Ramadan?

Are you ready to help child(ren) grow spiritually and academically this month? 

Excellent! Then download your copy of The Big Book of Ramadan Activities here in'sha allaah! You can also download the activity pack from A Muslim Child is Born's Teacher Notebook shop! Please be aware of the Terms of Use for this and all resources on the blog.

Benefit, enjoy, and Ramadan Mubarak!

Writer's Workshop Resource [FREEBIE] - Story Planning

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

In'shaa allaah the discussion about the importance of children engaging in academic activity during the summer months was helpful and informative. Today, I would like to share a resource with you that is intended to help teachers/parent-teachers help and encourage students to continue building their creative writing skills over the summer. This writing resource helps students:

• Begin to build or continue working on building stamina - because the writing tasks are broken down, students move through the writing process at a measured pace allowing them to increase their ability to write for longer periods of time.
• Activate their imagination and think of story ideas.
• Notice details in pictures and in their own writing.
• Include details that enrich a story, in their writing.
• Plan a story, pre-write, and construct a first and final draft.

This writing resource pack has the tools students will need to begin putting into practice what they have learned about the writing process. This pack is also ideal for writer's workshop and writing centres and includes:

• Directions Chart that can be hung on the wall in the writing centre (instructions are written at grade level so students can read the chart independently in'shaa allaah).
• Pictures/Illustrations to help spark students' imaginations. Large, colourful scenes are engaging and full of details.
• 8 graphic organizers that will help students brainstorm, organize, and plan their story. 
• Pages for students to write and illustrate their first and subsequent drafts, and the final draft of their story (just make extra copies of these pages for the students).

This free resource can be used in homeschools or schools, however, please be sure to consult the Terms of Use prior to using/downloading it.

Download Plan Your Story In'shaa allaah 

Benefit & Enjoy In'shaa allaah!

FREEBIE: My Writing Journal

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

It's hard to say just how important daily writing is for students. So many skills are taught and learned through this activity that a lot of focus is placed on it in classrooms. This year, students will write in their journals daily using this writing jounrnal insha'Allaah:

The journal is simple to assemble:

1. Print all pages (if you want a more printer-friendly copy don't print the first page and use the last page as the front cover for the journal).
2. Photocopy page two 21 times (1 page for each school day in September).
3. Photocopy page four or five (depending on how you spell the word colour) as many times as needed so that each student has 1 bookmark. This bookmark is to help students spell words that they might use during the first month of school in their writing. Page 3 is to show you where to fold down the book mark so you students can insert it into their writing journals. Once folded, the bookmark sits on the top of the page where the student last wrote.
4. Photocopy page six 4 times. Place this page after each 5th page. This page is for you, the teacher, to collect the journals once a week and look through that week's writing and write back to your students and briefly tell them about their writing for that week. The first section is for you to mention something positive about the student's writing, the second section is for you to mention some points you think the student should pay attention to or maybe some things that might help enhance the student's writing (i.e. like adding strong verbs or describing words to show and not tell). The third section is to again point to something positive in the student's writing. Here, you should strive to be genuine and honest. Look for something that resonates with you or something that you could relate to as you read his/her work or something that brought back a memory for you, and then, if you choose, share that with the student in this section insha'Allaah. 
5. Page 7 is the back page of the journal or if you want a more printer-friendly version of the journal, the cover of the journal.

Each month, I'll hope to upload new bookmarks, with new pictures & words, for the journal insha'Allaah - Check back! This is, alhamdulillaah, a FREEBIE. Just click on the picture, or the link above, or the Teacher's Notebook widget in the upper right hand corner, to download it.

Insha'Allaah you enjoy it and benefit from it!