Morocco Lapbook

My daughter Samira recently brushed up her knowledge of the continents of the world by making her Continents and Oceans Lapbook, and now that both of the older kids are familiar with the general layout of our planet we decided to step up our geographical knowledge by focusing on a country a week.

Throughout the week we watch videos online, read books and do lots of  research on our chosen country … and as an added extra we also get to do a bit of cooking and various arts and craft things too.

At the end of the week we put together a lapbook with lots of interesting facts, pictures and maps. Our latest lapbook focuses on the beautiful and colourful country of Morocco.

Both Yusef and Samira made a lapbook each. I found the templates available to download from Homeschool Share and I’ve also made them available in my Box File Share Widget which you can find as you scroll down the right of the screen.

The lapbooks are made by taping 2 sheets of A3 card together and folding them in on themselves until the lapbook closes to A4 size.

First is a shutterbook with a map showing which continent Morocco is found.

Next are some flaps about the size and population of Morocco.

Using percentages, Yusef and Samira learned how to create a pie-chart graph in Microsoft Word to show the percentage population make up.

This is a question and answer flapbook which involved using a textbook atlas to research the answers and write them under the flaps.

Here is a bar graph diagram showing the population comparison between Morocco and the UK.

Two flaps that show the Official Name of Morocco and the Official Language.

A flap that gives the name of the currency and a flap that explains about the religion of Morocco.

To decorate the book, the kids stuck down photos of foods and products related to Morocco and wrote a few sentences to explain each picture.

Here they learned about famous foods and drinks from Morocco.

This was a blank map and the kids had to follow the instructions, using an atlas, to label it and draw on features such as rivers and mountains.

This is a flap about the climate.

Here the kids learned a bit about the history of the capital city, Rabat.

More photos – the kids learned all about the famous souqs and we watched videos online showing how the Fez tanneries dyed the various animal skins and how shoes, potteries and carpets are made and sold.

In the centre of all the phots is this flap which explains about some of the more famous products that are sold and exported from Morocco.

This is a vocabulary flap to learn and understand a few of the words we came across in this project.

This is a stack book in which the kids wrote about some of the different types of animals found in Morocco.

The kids had a chance to practise their Arabic writing skills to complete this vocab chart.

This tri-flap explains about the different people who inhabit the different regions of Morocco.

This double flap shows the time difference between the UK and Morocco.

Finally, we added on an extra page with the recipe and photos of the Orange and Almond Basbousa that the kids made together.

MOROCCO: Orange & Almond Basbousa

In conjunction with our focus on Morocco week, as well as making their Morocco Lapbooks the kids also had fun making this lovely Moroccan cake.

Here is the recipe and method:

Ingredients:

• 115g butter, softened
• 1 orange
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 150g semolina
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• icing sugar, for dusting
• greek-style yoghurt to serve

Syrup:

• 300ml orange juice
• 150g caster sugar
• 8 cardamom pods, crushed

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and base-line a 20cm/8 inch cake tin. Grate the rind from the orange, reserving some for the decoration, and squeeze the juice from one half. Place the butter, orange rind and caster sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the semolina, ground almonds and baking powder, then fold into the creamed mixture with the orange juice. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.

2. To make the syrup, place the orange juice, sugar and cardamom pods in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 4 minutes, or until syrupy.

3. Turn the cake out into a deep serving dish. Using a skewer, make holes over the surface of the warm cake. Strain the syrup into a separate bowl and spoon three quarters of it over the cake, then leave it to stand for 30 minutes. Dust the cake with icing sugar and cut into slices. Serve with the remaining syrup drizzled around, accompanied by yoghurt.

Yusef grating and squeezing the orange

Samira weighing out and creaming the butter

Basma giving it a mix

Amina giving it a mix too

Samira making the orange syrup

Sliced and ready to eat

Bsahtek, insha’Allah!

 

Ramadhan Recipes: Algerian Chorba

Ok, a little late, but here is my recipe for Algerian “Ramadhan” Chorba. Chorba (pronounced Shorba) is an Arabic word meaning soup but the recipes vary largely from country to country, region to region.

This recipe was taught to me by my mother-in-law (may Allah bless her) when she came to visit this summer. It is usually eaten at least once a week and almost every day during Ramadhan. It quickly became popular in our house with the kids asking for it on a regular basis. And because it’s so simple to prepare and cook, I don’t mind cooking it often. Plus it’s nice and healthy too.

As a mother of three daughters, masha’Allah, I am keen to teach them how to cook good food using fresh ingredients from scratch, and fortunately my daughters are also keen to learn. My eldest daughter is 6 years old and is already eager to get started in the kitchen, masha’Allah. I think this recipe is very easy for her to learn to prepare because most of it involves grating vegetables which is not hard to do at all.

So let’s get started:

First, add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large pan.

350-500 gms Diced lamb.

Add the lamb in bite-size pieces to the pan.

Finely chop a large onion (it doesn’t have to be a red onion, but we like red onions).

Add the onion to the meat.

Grate into the pan 2 large courgettes.

On top of that grate one large potato.

Then grate in one small carrot.

Add in 1/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon.

On top of that, add a handful of fresh coriander leaves.

Finally add in some pureed tomatoes or a small jar of Dolmio (or similar to that).

Mix up the ingredients and heat gently for 10-12 minutes.

Cover the mixture with water until the pan is at least half full. The ingredients should be floating freely. Cook on a gentle, bubbling heat for 45 mins.

Add in a generous handful of vermicelli and some chickpeas (tinned chickpeas) NOTE: If you are using dried chickpeas add them in at the beginning).

Allow to cook gently for a further 10 mins.

Serve accompanied with borek.

BISMILLAH AND ENJOY!

Ramadhan Recipes: Algerian Borek

Asalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu …

OK … Being married to an Algerian it was only a matter of time before I became obsessed with Algerian food so I’m going to share with you a borek recipe that is cooked pretty much on a daily basis during Ramadhan. It is traditionally eaten with chorba (soup).

As a mother of three daughters, masha’Allah, I am keen to teach them how to cook good food using fresh ingredients from scratch, and fortunately my daughters are also keen to learn. My eldest daughter is 6 years old and is already eager to get started in the kitchen, masha’Allah. 

First of all, add a tbsp of oil to a pan and gently start browning some lean mince. The leaner the better. Can be lamb or beef.

Finely chop an onion and add to the mince.

 

Finely chop some fresh parsley and add to the mince and onion.

Stir the mixture and when the mince is cooked, turn it off and leave to cool. It is important the mixture is cool so that the borek doesn’t break.

Lay out the borek sheet onto a clean, dry work surface.

Spread some soft cheese onto the bottom edge of the borek sheet.

 

 

Spoon some of the mince mixture onto the sheet. (NOTE: at this point traditionally, Algerians would add a few sliced green olives on top of the mince but I don’t like olives so I have left this ingredient out)

HARIIIIIIIIISSSSSSAAA!!

 

Squeeze on a little harissa (chilli paste).

 

Finally add a little more soft cheese.

 

Fold in the edges of the borek sheet making sure they overlap slightly. 

Start to roll the borek making sure to keep the roll tight.

 

 And it’s ready to cook in shallow oil.

 

Drain excess oil using napkins and serve.

NOTE: Once the borek are made they should be covered with cling film and stored in the fridge until they’re ready to be cooked.

BISMILLAH AND ENJOY!

Algeria Project: Cakes & Biscuits

Using a simple sponge cake recipe we baked these sponge cakes. All the kids pitched in with the mixing and stirring. Then I let my son make the white icing while my daughter made the green icing.

When the cakes were cooled down the kids took turns to spoon on the icing and I added the finishing touch by piping on raspberry jam in the shape of the moon and star.

We ate these whilst celebrating Algeria’s win over Egypt during the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifications!!

 

We also made some Algerian Flag biscuits, decorating them with the icing and jam as we did with the cakes.

My son and eldest daughter working together to make the biscuit dough.

The kids took turns to shape out the dough into rectangular shapes while the younger kids made Winnie the Pooh shaped cookies LOL!

When they were cooked and cooled down, we iced them and ate them.

Delicious, masha’Allah!

Algeria Project: Fact Poster

With my husband being Algerian, I thought it would be nice for the kids to learn a bit about their roots. And it just so happened that at the time Algeria had just qualified for the African Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup 2010 so we all of a sudden became very patriotic in our house LOOOL! With all the focus on Algeria I thought it would be perfect timing for a geography project, and our first port of call became ALGERIA.

The two older kids worked together on this poster.

My son worked on the flag while my daughter wrote up the history of the flag and what the colours represent.

We talked about the famous foods that are produced and exported from Algeria.

We looked at the geography and topography of Algeria, learning where the Sahara desert begins and learning where the famous mountain ranges are.

We learned the Arabic name for Algeria: Djazair, and we also learned a few facts about the country in comparison to the rest of the world. Then my son completed a quiz on Algeria and its border countries which involved some map reading.

We learned all the names of the countries that border Algeria and coloured-coded them on the map of Africa.

We talked about the Deglet Nour dates which is the most famous food export of Algeria and later on we did a seperate project all about dates.

Finally we made a small time-line along the bottom of the poster to give a brief understanding of the history of Algeria. The kids grandfather took part in the revolution against France, so they got to learn about the stories of the Mujahideen too, masha’Allah.

Algeria Project: Canvas Work

This is the large canvas we worked on as a family, designed to represent our family roots (on my husband’s side).

We started off with a few layers of paint to colour the two sides of the flag, green and white. The white represents peace, and the green represents the beautiful and productive land. Once it was dry we painted on the red star and crescent moon which represents the religion of Islam which is considered to be the national religion. The colour red represents the blood of the Mujahideen who fought against France for the Independence of Algeria from 1954-1962.

Next I got the kids to dip their right hands in paint and print onto the four corners of the canvas. Then my husband painted their names in Arabic underneath. Finally when everything was dry, I went around the edge of the hand prints and the edges of the names with coloured glitter glue.

MASHA’ALLAH! TABARAK’ALLAH!