It seems to be taking me forever to get round to blogging our Ancient Egypt work. The kids worked so hard and we spent a good two and a half months on the subject, making lapbooks and file folders and presentations and more. I am slowly working my way through the photos and I shall be sharing this neat little 50+ page project with you soon insha’Allah.
I taught my eldest two children (and I’m starting now with my 3 year) to read by creating a series of worksheets and activities that helped them to learn the combination blends of sounds.
I have made all my worksheets available to download for free from my BOX.net file share which you will find as you scroll down on the right of the screen.
I made worksheets for the following blends:
sh, ch, th, ee, ea, oo, ai, ay, ou, ow, igh, qu, ph, kn, ng, ll, ck, oa
When introducing a new sound I would give my kids a ‘sound’ worksheet
This consists of 5 or 6 words containing the new sound. There is a picture of the object (some of which can be coloured in as an additional activity) and next to the picture is a box with the name of the object for the child to sound out and re-write the word 3 times.
After becoming familiar with the words, I would have my kids complete a word search activity, where they would have to find all the words beginning with ‘ee’ for example. I made this activity, simply by drawing around a dinner plate onto some A3 coloured paper and writing out the words into the circle.
The kids circled the words as they found them and then when they had found them all I would have them read them back to me.
After this activity, we would move onto the ‘Read & Draw’ worksheets. On two pages are boxes with 6 words containing the new sound. They would have to read the word, re-write it underneath and then draw a picture to represent what the word said. To test them I would have them do this activity without any help, to check that they were reading the word correctly. You can tell by what they’ve drawn if they have read the word correctly.
To reinforce the new sounds I also created some other drawing activities.
After learning several new sounds, I would give my kids a ‘Missing sound’ worksheet. They used the picture to help them identify the missing sound.
For a couple of days we’d review and practise the sounds and spellings and finally I would give them a ‘Spellings’ worksheet based on combinations of sounds.
It is important for children to write the words as they learn them because this helps reinforce the sounds and the correct spelling and helps with quicker recognition of words in the future insha’Allah.
Below are more examples of worksheets:
Sound Worksheet
Sound Worksheets
Word Search Activity
Missing Sound Worksheet
Spellings Worksheet
I spent a long time searching for reliable and suitable books to help teach my kids about the stories of the Prophets of Islam. One day a friend introduced me to a set of Learning Roots books that tell the stories of Prophets Adam, Nuh, Musa, Ibrahim and Isa (peace be upon them all). This set of books is aimed at children aged 5-6 years and there is also another set of books focusing on the same prophets in more detail for ages 6-7 years.
I love these books as well as many of the other products created by Learning Roots. In each book the story of the prophet is broken down into two or three sections focusing on particular points in the story. After reading through a section, the child reaches a set of activities that test the child’s understanding of what they have just read.
I guess the activities could have been completed within the books themselves but I didn’t want the pages spoilt for the younger children when they come to use them to study so instead I decided to reproduce the activities so that they can be printed as worksheets.
I have already covered Prophet Adam and Prophet Nuh with my kid’s last year. My daughter Samira made a lovely story poster based on the story of Prophet Nuh which you can view here – Prophet Nuh Story Poster. Then we covered Prophet Ibrahim just before Hajj this year and we have recently covered Prophet Musa (and Fir’own), which insha’Allah leads us nicely into our Ancient Egypt project.
I would like to share these worksheets with anyone who would like to use them insha’Allah. You will find them available to download in my BOX file share as you scroll down the menu bar on the right of the screen.
So far I have prepared worksheets for:
~ The Story of Prophet Adam ~
~ The Story of Prophet Nuh ~
~ The Story of Prophet Ibrahim ~
~ The Story of Prophet Musa ~
I would like to stress that the activities are copyright of Learning Roots, so please do not sell them. I have reproduced them solely for educational purposes to be used in conjunction with the Learning Roots activity books.
Below are examples of some of the worksheets completed by my children.
Prophet Adam ~ Activity 4
Prophet Adam ~ Activity 8
Prophet Nuh ~ Activity 2
Prophet Nuh ~ Activity 3
Prophet Nuh ~ Activity 7
Prophet Nuh ~ Activity 8
Prophet Ibrahim ~ Activity 2
Prophet Ibrahim ~ Activity 6
Prophet Ibrahim ~ Activity 7
Prophet Ibrahim ~ Activity 9
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 1
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 2
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 3
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 4
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 7
Prophet Musa ~ Activity 8
