This is my son Yusef’s lapbook on Surah Al Kahf (The Cave), chapter 18 of the Quran. I was inspired to make this lapbook with him after seeing Umm Rashid’s fantastic Surah Al Kahf Lapbook here. I have made templates available for anyone who would like to make this lapbook. You can download them from my File Share widget as you scroll down the right of the screen.
This Surah contains many wonderful and miraculous stories, and we chose four stories to include in this lapbook.
- The Sleepers of the Cave
- The Two Men and The Two Gardens
- Musa and Khidr (as)
- Dhul Qarnain and the Iron Wall
We started by reading the small stories individually from the ‘Quran Stories for Little Hearts’ collection by Saniyasnain Khan, published by GoodWordKidz.
[Note: I have only taken what is authentic from the stories that correspond with Quran and authentic ahadith].
Having understood the stories, we then read from the Quran itself before looking at the Tafsir (commentary) for each story and discussing it.
When closed the lapbook is A4 size. We made the lapbook by taping 2 sheets of A3 card together. When the lapbook opens out at the first fold it reveals two pages, one on the story of the Two Men and Two Gardens and one on the story of the Sleepers of the Cave.
This is the close up of the page on the story of the Two Men and Two Gardens.
At the top of the page is an ayah that we felt introduced the story, ayah 18:32. Below that is a four door flap book that shows the ayat of what the men said to one another regarding their gardens.
Yusef wrote out each ayah under the relevant flaps.
At the bottom of the page is a piece of artwork showing a split scene showing the grateful man’s garden and the ungrateful man’s garden after it had been destroyed.
Yusef used felt and crepe paper to make the images.
The second page is the story of the Sleepers of the Cave.
At the top of the page is the ayah 18:10 which introduces the story and below that are 3 flaps. Two of the flaps pose questions while the third flap has some silver foil stuck to it to represent the silver coin mentioned in the story.
Under the flaps Yusef answered the questions with ayat from the Qur’an and under the silver coin flap he wrote the ayah in which the coin was mentioned.
At the bottom of the page is a large flap on the front of which is an image of a cave which Yusef decorated with scrunched up pieces of tissue paper to make it look realistic.
Inside the cave flap he wrote the story of the Sleepers of the Cave as he had understood it from reading the short story book and ayat and tafsir (commentary).
Then the first two pages open out to reveal the centre of the book which contain the stories of Prohet Musa (as) and Khidr and the story of Dhul Qarnain.
Two and a half pages inside the lapbook are devoted to the story of the Journey of Musa and Khidr and Khidr’s explanation to Musa.
The first part of the story focuses on the journey when Musa and Khidr boarded a ship. Yusef used card and felt to make the base of the ship, a pipe cleaner to make the mast and card and crepe paper to make the sails.
The base of the ship is a flap that folds down and Yusef wrote ayah 18:71 inside and we made one of the sails as a flap underneath which Yusef wrote ayah 18:72.
The next part of the journey focuses on the story of when Khidr killed a boy.
We didn’t want to depict anything in terms of physical violence so I thought it best that we use a brightly coloured, jagged speech bubble to express ayah 18:74 which Yusef pasted underneath.
Below that is a figure of a boy made from card, white crepe paper and felt. There is also a cloud shaped speech bubble containing ayah 18:75.
The final part of the journey leads Musa and Khidr to a town where Khidr rebuilds a crumbling wall.
Yusef covered a split flap with light brown card and then cut some block shaped pieces of brown felt to glue down to look like the bricks of a wall.
Under each of the flaps Yusef wrote ayah 18:77 and 18:78 which tells the story.
On the bottom of the third page is a flap book under the title ‘Khidr Explains To Musa’.
On the front of each flap is a question asking why Khidr did the things he did on his journey with Musa and under the flap Yusef wrote the explanations based on the ayat from Qur’an.
Above the Musa and Khidr section is a small flap which I decided to include as an additional lesson from Surah Al Kahf all about the importance of saying ‘Insha’Allah (God Willing)’.
The front of the flap depicts the Arabic script reading ‘Insha’Allah’, decorated with a gold glitter-glue pen.
Underneath the flap Yusef wrote the ayat 18:23-24 plus an explanation of it’s meaning.
The final page is all about the story of Dhul Qarnain and the Iron Wall.
The page shows the two mountains mentioned in the story with the wall being built between.
The two mountains are actually flaps that contain the ayat which tell the story.
There is also a flap which shows a smelting pot, underneath which is written ayat 18:97-98.
The wall itself is made of a piece of card covered in silver foil and then the brickwork has been drawn using a permanent marker. This slots in place between the two mountain flaps. On the reverse of the wall is ayah 18: 97 which explains that the armies of Ya’juj and Ma’juj (Gog and Magog) cannot dig through it nor scale it.
And when the wall is slides out of place, behind it is revealed the ayah 18:98 in which Dhul Qarnain warns that the time will come when Allah will permit the armies of Ya’juj and Ma’juj to break through the wall.
We had so much fun making this interactive lapbook and Yusef really learned the stories from the Surah thoroughly, masha’Allah by breaking it down in this way, and we quite often refer back to it when reading Surah Al Kahf on Fridays.
MASHA’ALLAH!
