Kaabah & Hujjaj Craft

I had planned and prepared for activities around the hajj theme during last year’s Zulhijjah month. However, I did not actually do many of the things I had hoped to do. Allah is the best of planners.

Alhamdulillah, we still did a few activities. This is one that centered around the Kaabah.

The templates for the mini kaabah craft was from Jannah Steps. I printed several copies so that we could paste the upper border around the box. We used a cereal box for this craft.

Ilyaas painting the 'Kaabah"

We read books about the story of Ibraheem (AS) and Ismail (AS) building the Kaabah. We also looked up of some images of the Kiswah covering on the internet.

I made up this ryhme for the boys as we put on towel ihraams and did our mock hajj.

Hajj Ryhme

We made puppets of our entire family in ihraam using templates from Jannah Steps. I printed a reduced size of the puppets for the three boys. Our puppets we glued onto toilet paper rolls.

It was hard to stop the children from just coloring the puppet’s ihraam. I took the opportunity to explain about ihraam to them. We also spoke about the difference in the male and female ihraam.

Alhamdulillah, our miniature Kaabah and family of hujjaj was displayed on our mantle.

Miniature Kaabah & hujjaj craft

 Check out Jannah Steps for more hajj themed activities and templates Insha-Allah.

 

Hajj Themed Tracing Pages

Insha-Allah just wanted to share these tracing pages I made for my children today. I thought it will make a great pre-writing practice during these blessed days of Zulhijjah.

Hajj Tracing Page

Please click on the title to download the pages.

 

Dhulhijjah 1431H/2010 – Zam Zam

As part of our hajj lesson we also did some studying around Zam Zam water. The following were the resources we used.

This books gives a brief introduction of Ibrahim A.S before carrying on to the story of Ismail A.S and his mother in the desert and eventually the gushing of Zam Zam.

This is a truly amazing CD made by Sister Maryam. The 3rd and 4th track of this CD is on history of Zam Zam water. You can purchase this CD as well as other works by the same author at Nur Al Qasas.

This you tube video also covers the history of Zam Zam.

There are also more material on the history of Zam Zam at Islamic Landmarks.

NOTE: Each of the above resource sited a different meaning for the word Zam Zam – Allah knows best. I only emphasized to my children that it is the name of the water rather than lingering on the linguistic meaning of the word Zam Zam.

Zam Zam Diorama

Using playdoh we made two orange hills; meaning to be Safa and Marwah. The white squiggly structure in the middle is suppose to be Zam Zam water gushing out

Drinking Zam Zam

Before drinking Zam Zam, we briefly discussed the etiquette on drinking it. This is basically facing the kiblah, saying Bismillah before drinking, taking three sips and making the dua below after drinking Zam Zam.

O Allah, I am asking You for beneficial knowledge and abundance in provision, and cure from every ailment.

You might also like to check out this wonderful Zam Zam poster at Iman’s Home School.

 

Dhulhijjah 1431H/2010 Activities

Hajj Bulletin Board

Alhamdulillah I was able to make this with resources from Islamic Bulletin Boards. I mounted my on a magnetic board. All the day by day pieces and little hajj ritual pieces had magnetic strips attached to them.

I printed the map onto a paper bag as per the suggestion on the blog. To achieve a more aged and weathered look, I burnt the edges with a candle and incense stick. I also stamped all over the map using an “antique” scrapbooking ink pad.

In the event you cannot print onto a brown paper, print as usual on a white piece of paper. Soak a bag of tea bag in cool water. Lightly squeeze the tea bag and use it to stain the paper.

Miniature Ka’bah

Ka’bah made out of a box, wrapping paper and glitter glue.

Mini Hajj

This was a last minute idea. We reenacted the rites and rituals of hajj. Here are some of the pictures of them.

Using two white bath towels, the children adorned the ihraam.

This was our Safa and Marwah hills for Sa’ee. Made them using foams.

Collecting ramy for pelting of the jamrah (coloured pebbles from craft store). DS1 enthusiastically pelting the Shaitaan.

Mount of Mercy at Arafah (a whole bunch of throw pillows covered in a blanket over top a huge bean bag).

Sacrificing a lamb on 10th Dhulhijjah. Again using lots of imagination . . . the white tub and the two pillows make the body of the lamb. The cylindrical tub . . . the head. And the knife is on the lamb’s neck.

Through out this exercise we talked about and discussed the significance and/or origin of the rituals.

Mini Hajj Passport

To facilitate our Mini Hajj I made these passports using the Hajj Day by Day lapbook template from Umm Abdul Basir’s blog. I printed the pages using the Booklet Printing option. I stamped “Haj” on each days page using rubber stamp (bottom right circle) when we completed all the rituals for the day.

Postcards from Hajj Trip

Using blank template from Umm Abdul Basir’s Ramadhan postcard and real pictures from Islamic Landmarks we created these. They were meant for the little hujjajs to send to family and friends.

I showed the children the pictures of the actually places of the hajj rituals using Islamic Landmarks. It is a great website that not only shows the picture but also give a background information as well as hadith pertaining to the locations and the rites.

Reading on Hajj & Eid

A very cute book that has a rhyme to it. It goes through all the rituals of hajj very well. Has additional questions and suggestions as well.

This books talks more about the actual sacrificing of Ibraheem A.S of his son. It brings up the aspect of fear of the child of actually being sacrificed on Eid day.

This is a wonderful story of thoughtfulness, sacrifice and sharing. Reinforces the spirit of Eid very well. Definitely a good read for children and adults.

The Goodword Books

I also printed the ABC’s of Hajj from Umm Abdul Basir’s blog.

 

 

 

Time to Pray by Maha Addasi

When I borrowed White Nights of Ramadhan from our local library, I further searched for more titles by Maha Addasi. I found Time to Pray. What a gem of a book this is.

I used this book as a follow up on the Adhaan topic that we did. In this story a little girl visits her grandma in a Middle East country. During her stay, she hears the adhaan from the minaret nearby. The story weaves the the call of adhaan, actions of wudhu, salaat, times of salaat and the sweet relationship between grandma and the little girl very well.

It was a sweet story that my son was able to identify with at many levels. Excitement of visiting grandma, struggles of waking up for Fajr, prayer cloth – he sees me wearing one, adhaan clock definitely. It was a wonderful book for sure.

This book has beautiful illustrations done by Ned Gannon as with White Nights of Ramadan. The nice thing about this book is that each page had Arabic translation of the story. Great for parents who are looking for Arabic reading material.

On a personal level, this book brought back memories of me growing up hearing the adhaan, climbing up the minaret and now, yes having an adhaan clock to remind me of salaat times (makes me want to cry).

 

The State Mosque, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

 

I lived just down the street from this unique mosque, hearing the adhaan five times a day. In fact every morning before fajr you can actually hear Quran recitation over the speakers.

I was sent to after school madrasah at the Jamek Mosque below.

 

Masjid Jamek, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

 

As children my brothers and I played tag around the minaret waiting for our alim to come. In those days people could climb up the minaret. They didn’t call the adhaan from up there even back then thanks to speakers.

In the Time to Pray book the little girl is disappointed by this fact. My son actually asked the same question about the muezzin climbing up he minaret. Insya-Allah our next trip to Malaysia, I’ll have to take him to the Jamek Mosque even though he will not be able to climb up the minaret!

We also made a minaret craft out of paper towel rolls as an extension activity for this book.

 

History of Adhaan

The sister at Lollies Place has a wonderful post on this topic. Another place you will find this story in the the Grade 2 syllabus at Teach Islam.

When I read these to my son, it was not as interesting as there were no pictures. I made a document with the hadith with just some simple pictures to accompany the story. You can Insya-Allah access it here.

Adhaan Story

The sister at Lollies Place also has a wonderful video on the miracle of adhaan in Malay. I have inserted one with English subtitles here.

Insya-Allah  we are planning to use a map/globe to track the call of adhaan around the globe using this video. It will be a great geography activity for sure.

 

Adhaan

We read this book that basically talked about the concern of the owl in waking up the farmer and his family for Fajr prayer. It has a very simple repetitive story line which makes it easy for early readers. It also has some suggested learning activities.

Cutest part – owl cries out of frustration of not being to wake up anyone for Fajr (Subhanallah the concern that this owl had!)

Part that my son didn’t like – owl asking wolf to “devour” the fox. Change the words and it’ll be fine Insya-Allah.

We did sequencing of adhaan phrases to supplement this book.

Sorting Adhaan Phrases

I printed of the phrases of adhaan from here. This is an upload of the book Taleemul Haq. It also has the mustahabs of adhaan that we discussed.

Cut each phrase of the adhaan. Line enough paper clips on a larger sheet of paper or manilla cardboard. Ask child to rearrange the phrases of adhaan in sequence.

Since the story was on Fajr prayer, it gave us an opportunity to discuss the phrase “Salaah is better than sleep” and place it in order as well.