Kindergarten Curriculum Summary - Week 2

 Islaamic Studies

• Allaah's Knowledge - We learnt about Allaah's knowledge and how He knows everything and we must be aware of this and do our actions. She liked this discussion. We spoke about Allaah knows what is in our hearts even though we do not say it and He knows what Maimoonah thinks. That He knows that a black ant is crawling on a black rock during a dark night. Then we did this worksheet

• Allaah's Aboveness -  We have already covered this in our Pre School Curriculum last year so this was a revision for her. We watched the TJ Where is Allaah powerpoint again and I gave her this worksheet to do. We also went through the meaning of Aayathul Kurs as it talks about Allaah's Aboveness.

• Tauheed Al Uloohiyyah - We learnt the definition of Ibaadah, why we love Allaah and how we love Allaah. Also how do we keep away from all what Allaah hates. We learnt the definition of Tawheed al Uloohiyyaah and examples for it. Then she did these activities on the worksheet I made.

There is a colouring activity, circling the correct answer and a drawing activity with a discussion

We used the TJ Ibadah Poster.

Asmaaul Husnah

We did not do any new names instead we reviewed the Asmaaul Husanah we have learnt so far.

English Language

• Jolly Phonics - We learnt the sounds and she wrote the letters and coloured along with doing the actions.

• Grammar - We started Grammar this week and learnt about Verbs. I explained to her what a verb is and then she read the Little Grammar book. While she read each sentence I asked her to tell me the verb and she did well. She understood fully what a verb is as I noticed when there were more than one verb in a sentence she told me all the verbs. Then she did the Little Grammar work book and completed.

 

• Spelling and Vocabulary - We are learning to spell and Insha Allaah hope to spell at least 3 new words each week. I asked her which words she would like to learn to spell and she said she wants to learn how to write Abi's name and lion and fall. So I wrote them on the board and she learnt them. We practice spelling on the whiteboard as I feel she enjoys this more than writing on paper or book. And its easy to do whenever she wants. Other than this I asked her to also write words that she already knew which contains the sounds we have studied with Jolly phonics and all this she wrote without my help 100% masha Allaah! We also leant about vowels and I asked her to circle all the vowels in her name. We are learning at least 3 new Vocabulary words with meaning. I hope to use the DK dictionery we have from next week for this Insha Allaah!

The words that are on the extreme left are her spelling words above I have explained to her what are vowels and you can also see our two weeks vocabulary words

• Comprehension - I would love to use some nice Islamic Stories written according to her standards Insha Allaah for comprehension. But I just cannot find anywhere and I just do not have the time right now. I am just apealing to sisters who have the time if you are able to please help by just writing a small story for each week for comprehension based on the Qur'aan, sunnah and from the salaf insha Allaah. I know there are many out there its just that we need to get it for the smaller level. So for now Umm Tafari gave this link and I just put all into one page and gave her to read and answer the questions. Masha Allaah she did well and she was bored to write so I held her hand and wrote the answers. But her comprehension is good and Islamic Stories are the best for her I feel! Also another dear sister sent me this link http://www.clarkness.com/. These are also just one page stories. Something like this but Islamic would be ideal Insha Allaah!

Mathematics

Continued with MEP. We used the beads and learnt addition and subtraction. We also learnt Triangles and quadrilaterals. 

  

 

 

Social Studies/ Science

• Colours - This topic was a blast and she enjoyed it very much. We learnt the primary colours and the secondary colours and how to mix colours. We did the smart start workbook. We used poster colours and did the colour mixing activities. She was thrilled to see changing colours in front of her eyes.

We made play dough and used the food colouring and made it orange and yellow. This is the first time I made and I think it did not come out well as I see its sticky. Is this the way or is it because the water is too much. I followed intructions on the net and made it. Any way as I made Maimoonah could do many things but later it became very sticky :)

 

 Then we used a glass of water and straws and noticed the Bending Light.

 

Then she used her finger paints and mixed the colours and did this beautiful art work masha Allaah. Abi was fascinated and just loved it so much and is keeping it with him to scan the picture and use it for his e-eid greetings for this Eidul Adhaha Insha Allaah!

This was totally done with her fingers

• Big and Small - We did the Smart Start Science activities on this topic.

 

• Shapes - We did the the workbook on this topic. Since we have already covered this topic it was a revision but the workbook had a nice activity where it asks to match the out come of cutting some shapes into two. This was a very interesting thing for Maimoonah and she wanted to do it herself and see. So she used the shapes and drew each shape cut them into two and tested the answer all very much independently. 

   

Then I asked her to go around the house and find things with shapes and sort them accordingly! 

 

• Hot and Cold - We did the workbook and did some experiments.

She touched the hot water and cold water and felt the difference.

Then we used the food colouring on cold and hot water and observed the diffusion. She was so excited about it.

Then we put a little sugar on to each bowl and checked in which bowl it melted fast.

We learnt how to make ice. She did not know this before and loved it. Also I asked her to pour the water without spilling and she was so sweet when it spilt a bit she kept saying I am sorry ok Ummi I am sorry ok? Then we took it out after sometime and checked the ice cubes. And we poured hot water and noticed how the ice cubes melted. She really really enjoyed this.

 

Arabic

• Madeenah Arabic Reader - We learnt " Who is this"? من هدا

 

• Gateway to Arabic - We started Gateway to Arabic. She was very tired and refused to write. So I left it but we went through some verbs and letters.

 

              

That is the end of week 2!

Little Grammar Books - Review

Some sisters have been asking me about the grammar books that I am using for Kindergarten this year with Maimoonah. We started Grammar only this week and I was waiting for Maimoonah to do it and see how she would find it  and then to write a review. So she actually finished the 1st book so here are some pictures of the contents of the book and a review Insha Allaah!

There are 30 Little Grammar books and 30 Corresponding Work Books. And there are three levels. Each levels has 10 Little Grammar books and 10 corresponding Work Books.

Little Grammar Books 1/ Little Grammar Workbooks 1

These books are from the level 1

The Little Grammar book has sentences with illustrations.

  

The sentences are easy to read and the pictures are very colourful. If it is talking about verbs then all the verbs are in bold within the sentence and on top of the page. Nowhere does it have a definition for verbs, but you will have to talk to the child and explain the grammar point in each book. Little Grammar book has a about 16 pages in each book in each level.

The work book has activities with less writing on this level. And it has stickers with pictures and words to be used for the activities. This Work Book also has 16 pages.

  

According to my lesson plan I have planned to teach one topic for two weeks for Maimoonah, meaning the Verbs work book to do for two weeks and thus use only the first 10 books for this year. But I think its too long. Maimoonah finished the book within 3 days with full understanding of what a verb is. So I will insha Allaah plan to teach her 1 book each week and this way we can finish all 30 books this year Insha Allaah. But if I feel she found it a bit difficult to grasp something then I will go slow Insha Allaah!.

Remember all (all three levels) the books never give you any definition for the grammar point. So you got to keep asking the child for example "Now tell me which one is the verb in this sentence that you matched?", Which one is the verb in this sentence that you read?", Tell me sentence with a verb?" etc etc.


Little Grammar Books 2 / Little Grammar Workbooks 2

These Books are from Level 2

The Little Grammar book has sentences with illustrations.

  

The Workbook activities are almost the same but with bit advance, meaning little bit more to write and think.

 

  

Little Grammar Books 3 / Little Grammar Workbooks 3

These Books are from Level 3

Same as the other two levels the Little Grammar books have sentences with pictures.

Little Grammar workbooks 3  are same as the work books 2. Activities are of the same standards.

 

 

So these are the 3 levels.

The publishers say the first level is for children aged 4 - 6 and the next two levels for children aged 5 -8. But I feel these books are good for children 4 - 6. I am saying this thinking of Maimoonah. She is just turned 4 and I especially chose these books now because I do not want to use these books when she is 6 as I feel she could do better books by then Insha Allaah.

Another reason I chose these books now is that they are very cheap for me. One sister said shipping charges are high, in my case I had a local agent and the books were available for a very cheap price something like each book costed me about 1 US $!

Maimoonah also enjoys these books as it has stickers. She really likes this pasting activities and since she does not have to handle glue she was pretty happy with the stickers. And these activity books do not make it boring for the kids with many activities. 

We also use The Little Grammar books as readers. Maimoonah reads all the three levels of the Grammar books and you can hear her giggling sometimes while reading and looking at pictures. Pictures are very colourful.

So basically I think these books are good to give the little ones basic introduction to Grammar as it is less stressful and filled with easy fun activities and reading Insha Allaah and Allaah knows best. Hope this would help you all to decide if this fits your child Insha Allaah!

Sewing Saturday! - Introduction

So Guess what? We have started to learn Sewing! I thought that would be the last thing I would do. My Mom is excellent in sewing. She is the one who does my dresses even now. She tried teaching me from the time I was small may be little older than Maimoonah, and I remember learning too and we have done some nice projects together. But I have a problem Qadarallaah Masha Allaah, that from the time I was born up until now I sweat on my palms, sometimes to the extent that water flows right down. So whenever I start to stitch the whole thing is a mess. I use to write in school and do exams with a cloth underneath so that the paper does not get soaked with water.

So when it came to sewing as time went by I got frustrated because of this issue and did not go further and that was a full stop. Now after many many years since little Maimoonah is here I thought she must learn this. If I was with my mom I am sure by now she would have taught Maimoonah to sew on the sewing machine!!!

Alhamdulillaah Allaah has blessed us here with Air Conditions in our houses so I feel I can control my plams a bit better Insha Allaah!

So we started sewing this Saturday with the help of You Tube! Masha Allaah there are plenty out there. Also The Kids Sewing Projects is a nice site with all what you need to know about sewing!

We watched a you tube how to thread the needle and here she is doing what she saw!

 

A dear sister sent these Embroidery Cards for Maimoonah some time back. And we used one of them as our first project.

This is our small sewing box for the moment with the essentials. We need to get things but we started with what we had : )

With my help she finished this without a break. (She chose the colour of the thread and the card she wanted to stitch)

Then we watched on you tube how to stitch the running stitch.

I showed her and then she still could not get proper control but she knew how to do it.

 

End of it this is how it looked.

That was our first sewing lesson!