Together We Read – Story of Yunus (AS)

A Muslim Child is Born – Feb 2011 Together We Read

Story of Yunus (AS) from Dar-us-Salam Publications

We decided on this book for Together We Read as it is the current favourite book in our home. Also anyone else interested will be able to use any other book with the same story for the activities.

Things that we discussed:

1) Abandoning Allah’s commandment.

2) Repenting

3) Power of dua

4) Allah is all forgiving

5) Title of Yunus (AS)

Craft: Paper Plate Whale

You will need a paper plate, some markers, craft glue, paint blush, whale tail template from here.

Using markers to colour the paper plate.

Pour some glue onto coloured paper plate and use a paint brush to smear ink around.

Add fin, tail and eyes if you want.

Math: Boat Tangram

Tangram boat out on stormy sea.

Tangram template was from here. Using construction paper, I made a scene with the BW tangram pieces for a boat in a stormy sea. I then printed the coloured pieces for my son to place over the BW pieces.

We also did simple counting using gold fish crackers.

Rhyme time: Ocean creatures action rhyme

Ibn Jareer has narrated in his book of Tafsir that the Prophet (PBUH) said: “When Allah wanted to keep Yunus in the belly of the fish. He revealed to it: ‘Take him inside, but do not scratch his flesh or break his bones.’ When the fish went down in the depth of the sea, Yunus heard a voice. He thought of it in his mind and said: ‘What is that?’ Allah revealed to him that it was the glorifying acts of sea animals. Then he glorified Allah in the belly of that fish, which the angels heard and said: ‘O Lord! We hear a very weak voice in a very unusual land!’ Allah said: ‘This is My slave Yunus, who disobeyed me, so I detained him inside a fish in the depth of sea.’ They enquired: Is he Your pious slave from whom every day and night a good deed ascended to you?’ He replied: ‘Yes.’ So the angels then pleaded to Allah on behalf of Yunus, so Allah commanded the fish to throw him out on the shore.”

I wanted to include and activity where in the mind of my son he can imagine how Yunus (AS) would have seen and heard other sea creatures singing praises of Allah. Below is a modifies version of a favourite action rhyme of ours. We sometimes use little stuffed toys to act out this rhyme.

Ocean creature praising Allah song

We also have the CD below that has a very catchy song about the story of Yunus (AS). This CD only uses voice talent. My children love to hear the splash part. The Nasheed Shop has this CD.

Allah’s names

We discussed about Allah being Al-Ghaffar and Al-Ghaffur – The Forgiving and Al-Ghafuw – The Pardoner. He forgave the people of Ninevah and also Yunus (AS) because of their sincere repentance.

We spoke about Allah being As-Sami – The All Hearing and A-Mujeeb – The Answerer. He heard the dua of Yunus (AS) from a very unusual place and He answered the dua. I made a print out of the dua for us to Insya-Allah memorize.

As for what Yunus (AS) ate when he was thrown out, my children are still not fans of gourd/pumpkin ;). You can read our pumpkin post here.

 

 

 

Together We Read – Oct 2010

October 2010 Together We Read

 

 

This our very much “loved” Hungry Caterpillar board book. I had originally planned on a different book. However keeping in mind the purpose of Together We Read program I wanted to choose a book that was way more accessible. Also there are tons of resources that are already out there based on this book.

Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is definitely a classic. Simple words, classic Eric Carle style illustrations and absolutely has kid appeal.

Insya-Allah, if you do not have the book, you can print out a copy of the story from the link below.

View this document on Scribd

Insya-Allah below are some of the activities that we have done so far.

Story Sequencing

These story sequencing cards were from DLTK’s.

This was a different type of sequencing. It incorporates counting as well. You can find this at Sparkle Box Insya-Allah.

Days of the Week Activities

I made these cards using pictures I found at Making Learning Fun. I also doubled them as lacing cards for some fun. This will make it real for the child as far as the caterpillar munching the food. I pasted the Arabic equivalent on the back. You can find the Arabic days of the week on Umm An-Numan’s website. It is in the Arabic calender set.

Pattern Card

I made this pattern sequencing card also using resources from Making Learning Fun.

Rhyme – teaching names of Allah

Allah Made the Caterpillar

This book presents many opportunity to reinforce that Allah is so merciful and “takes care ” of this caterpillar and makes it into a butterfly. I made this rhyme up to go with the book.

Insya-Allah there are other activities we have done based on this book. Will be updating as time permits.

 

Muslim Rhyme – I’m a Little Muslim (Salaat)

I’m a little muslim2

 

Muslim Rhyme – Adhaan

Adhaan Rhyme

 

Muslim Rhyme – I’m a little Muslim

I’m a little Muslim – Rhyme

I made up this rhyme for my oldest son when he was about 2 and 1/2. We have sung this over and over and now I am singing it with my second son.

The rhyme is a makeover of I’m a Little Teapot of course. However I never knew how strong these words would be when I penned them. As my child was growing day by day, we started hearing more of “But why can I do that ?”. This simple rhyme was always there to help me answer those questions and not to mention keeping it short and sweet as well.

The words here are meant to focus on us; the believer, the Muslims. I am not a fan of pointing out to my children that the other party is a “kuffar” even though they very well might be a disbeliever. Everyone is a potential Muslim and the onus is on us; the Muslims to pass the message of the Prophet (SAW).

Then arises the other question “But he is a Muslim!”. Again using this simple rhyme I was always able reinforce that believing in Allah and loving the Prophet (SAW) requires one to give up certain things and be in a certain way.

Alhamdulillah by now my oldest son has gotten over it and in fact sometimes repeats this rhyme to answer his own questions. Insya-Allah it is my hope that other families will be able to benefit from this as well.