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.

COMING SOON: Triops Project Folder

Yusef and Samira, my two eldest, are currently putting together a project folder about triops. We recently set up our Triop Tank Project and the two of them are working together to make a fact file containing information, pictures, drawings and observation worksheets that relate to the project.

More details soon insha’Allah.

Our Triops Tank

As part of our Dinosaur theme studies I decided it would be fun to let the kids grow their own ‘living fossils’ that have been around since before the dawn of the dinosaurs. Triops are aquatic crustaceans that can be found all over the world … they are sometimes referred to as tadpole shrimp. You can read more about Triops here.

I bought this Triop Park set from Argos for £18.99. This set is quite large and comes with additional extras but you can get smaller and cheaper sets if you shop around on places such as Amazon and Ebay.

This set consists of a large plastic moulded tray which contains a separate section which serves as a nursery for hatching your triops and an L-shaped tray for growing your own ‘jungle’. An extra plastic fitting attaches to represent a volcano and the set includes lava stones which can be placed in the top of the volcano.

*** The instructions claim the lava stones glow in the dark … we found this not to be the case but anyway we used them as an addition to our Rocks, Minerals and Fossils studies and Samira, who is currently studying the Rock Cycle, enjoyed looking up about lava stones and how they are formed.***

The set also included a plastic ‘fossilised’ Triceratops replica which we decided to bury in compost and grow our jungle on top. By the way, the jungle is actually a packet of grass seeds.

Amina and Basma spooned the compost into the L-shaped tray, burying the Triceratops skeleton, added some water and then sprinkled some grass seeds on top and pressed them down with a spoon. We plan to ‘excavate and discover’ the Triceratops at a later date.

Everything mentioned above is supplied in the set including compost, seeds and spoon. The only thing you need to supply yourself is bottled/distilled water because the triops cannot survive in tap water because of the chlorine content.

The triop eggs come packed in a sealed foil pack. They are microscopic and are contained within the detritus. We filled up the nursery area with bottle spring water and shook half of the pack content into the water, saving the other half in case the first lot don’t hatch, or in the case of growing a second lot of triops.

The eggs can remain dormant for upto 15 years and become activated when they come in contact with water. In the right environment the triops hatch within 24 hours. We actually put a desk lamp over our nursery to provide extra light and heat (as recommended in the instructions) and we were surprised to find our hatchlings scooting around in less than 24 hours!

At first they are really hard to spot because they are mere white specks and we could only see them using a magnifying glass. We also found a couple of other creatures hatched out that had also been lying dormant in the detritus including a water flea and a fairy shrimp, but they didn’t last long … they became triop food!

For the first 3 days the hatchlings feed on the detritus in the water and then they are fed daily with the shrimp food supplied in the kit.

While we waited for the triops to grow and become more visible, Yusef and Samira began putting together their Triop Project Folder which contains details, pictures, drawings and observations about triops.

The kit recommends releasing the triops from the nursery into the main tank after 2 weeks. By Day 12 we were in fact down to one very large triop who appears to have eaten the other hatchlings. Originally we had around 8 triops.

We laid the gravel and sand provided in the bottom of the main tank and filled it with bottle spring water. I used the spoon to scoop the triop into the main tank and cleared out the remaining detritus from the nursery area and refilled it ready for the second lot of eggs.

We are now enjoying watching as our triop grows … it doubles in size almost daily and is fascinating to watch it swimming. The grass grew quickly and the triop actually bites and feeds on the strands that dangle in the water!

Yesterday we added the final batch of eggs to the nursery and we hope to have a few more triops to add to the main tank insha’Allah. Perhaps we will try adding them earlier to avoid them becoming cannibals!

We then hope to carry out some of the non-invasive experiments suggested in the instruction booklet including encouraging the triops to spawn and then perhaps we could start a second generation.

Nouns & Verbs File Folder

My daughter Samira was recently reviewing nouns and verbs and I managed to find online a file folder game to help her practise. I downloaded the templates from the FILE FOLDER FUN webite.

The individual nouns and verbs are printed on shamrock shaped cards, which I stored in a paper envelope on the back of the file folder.

When the file folder opens it shows two gold pots on either side of the folder, one for storing the nouns and one for the verbs.

And the idea is to correctly place the nouns or verbs into the corresponding pots.

Fun and Simple!

 

New Baby Lapbook

Masha’Allah, tabarak’Allah, I am expecting my baby daughter at the end of March insha’Allah so I thought it would be a nice idea to involve the kids in a family project that can help them better understand what it means to have a new baby in the family.

I was inspired to make this lapbook after seeing Umm Abdul Basir’s lovely lapbook here. She very kindly made printable templates available to download. The Islamic elements are her own design, masha’Allah.

Here is how the lapbook folds out.

On the first page is a set of 4 flaps that ask questions and give answers about what happens when the baby is ready to be born.

This is a diaper shaped pocket and inside we put the scan photos showing various weeks of development, we may have a couple more to include over the next few weeks insha’Allah as I have a few sizing scans to attend.

This nice little flap details the verses from the Qur’an with questions for the kids to answer and understand how Allah creates life in the womb.

Here are some adorable letters that each of the kids wrote to the baby, telling the baby how much they love the baby and what they are going to do for the baby when she is born insha’Allah. There are a few lines that they will be able to complete after the baby’s born.

Here are 4 cards containing details of the kids measurements as a little momento to show the baby when she’s grown up and so that the kids can see how they have grown compared to the baby.

This is a book to complete details on who the baby looks like but we can’t complete this until after she is born insha’Allah.

This cute little flap resembles a photo album and inside the kids have drawn the members of our family now and what we will look like after the baby is born.

My young girls had fun making this cycle wheel that shows the baby’s development from crawling through to walking.

This pocket contains a couple of activities.

First up is a set of family cards that help them to learn the Arabic names for various family members. Yusef practised his Arabic writing skills by filling out the cards.

And next is a nice jigsaw puzzle that depicts a Muslim Family sat around a table for dinner.

This pocket contains a set of cards which represent what the baby will need.

Basma stuck down red jewel hearts to represent love. Amina stuck down silver jewel hearts to represent hugs. And Samira drew X’s on this card to represent kisses.

The younger girls helped to match up and glue down the pictures of the items that we will need to prepare for the baby.

Here are a set of cute counting cards with a baby theme.

And finally a set of card that Yusef completed showing members of of family and how they are related to the baby. They will be completed after she is born insha’Allah.

ADORABLE, MASHA’ALLAH! 

Continents & Oceans Lapbook

This is a mini lapbook that my daughter, Samira made to help her learn all about the continents and oceans of the world.

When the lapbook opens out it reveals various worksheets and map activities and games.

In the centre of the lapbook is a blank map, nicely coloured by Samira, showing the continents of the world and next to the map is a pocket containing small labels.

The idea is for Samira to practise correctly labelling the continents and the oceans.

Here is a little word-find about the continents and a pocket containing cut-outs of the continents.

This is a worksheet which requires colouring to help remember where the continents are.

This is the black and white map with the continents already named and the idea is for Samira to fit the continent cutouts over the map in the correct places so that she becomes familiar with them.

And finally on the reverse of the lapbook is a quiz to test general knowledge of the continents and oceans.

If you would like to make a similar lapbook you will find the files available to download for free from my File Share Widget as you scroll down on the right of the screen.

Simple Grammar Poster

My daughter Samira has recently been reviewing nouns, adjectives and verbs, so I put together this table poster to help her remember how to distinguish between the three.

I printed off a set of word cards, in this case, all relating to weather and she used sticky tack on the back of cards to put them into their correct groups on the poster.

Animal Classification Wall Chart

I had the idea to design this wall chart while my daughter, Samira was learning about Animal Classification. She made her Animal Classification Lapbook a couple of months ago and I thought this wall chart would be useful for all the kids to refer to anytime we need to look into Animal Classification.

The chart can be used to look up various animals from the different groups. And we can also practise identifying animals and putting them into their correct groups.

Under each sub group are a set of cards that can be removed and re-attached using sticky tack (although felt and velcro would work better, something I may re-do at a later date insha’Allah).

The Animal Kingdom is divided into two Phylum, the vertebrates and the invertebrates and the Phylum are then sub-divided into classes. There are 5 main classes of vertebrates and 4 classes of invertebrates.

I made a heading for each class. You can see in this picture below. Each heading includes details of the identifying features that are present in that class, i.e. Mammals are warm-blooded, give birth to live young, have hair or fur, etc.

The individual animal cards are then attached under the correct class heading on the wall chart. You can see that humans are classified as mammals but we have placed the picture of the human above the animals because of the unique position that Allah gave us when He favoured Mankind above all Creation.

Similarly, you can see under the Phylum invertebrates that there are various classes. Invertebrates are the most numerous of all the creation in the Animal Kingdom and some classes are sub-divided again into smaller groups. Such as the Arthropods who are sub-divided into crustaceans, insects and arachnids, each group having its own identify features that sets it apart from other arthropods.

Again, the cards are placed under the group headings. The group headings list the identify features so that the children can easily identify to which group the various animals belong.

If you would like to make your own wall chart you can find the printable files to download free from my File Share Widget which you will find as you scroll down the right of the screen.

COMING SOON: Solar System Lapbook (2)

This is my daughter, Samira’s lapbook all about The Solar System. It’s almost complete and we shall share it with you soon insha’Allah. My son, Yusef also made his own mini lapbook about The Solar System about two years ago now. You can view it here.

The templates for Samira’s lapbook I found on the homeschool share website.

I am also making a Solar System Totbook with my younger two daughters Amina and Basma, aged 4 and 3 as well as some space arts and crafts.

Check back soon insha’Allah.

2D Shapes Poster

My daughter Samira put this 2D Shapes Poster together as part of her review on shapes and also to help the younger ones recognise the shapes themselves and become familiar with their names.

I printed the shapes for Samira to colour, cut out and stick down, then she matched up the name labels to the shapes and pasted those down too. The numbers in brackets represent the number of sides the shapes have.

If you’d like to make a similar poster I have made the shapes and labels available to print out from my file share widget.