Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
"Fasting is a Shield"
Sahih Muslim : Book# 6 Hadith# 2565 Copywork: print or cursive
Meaning that just like in war a shield protects a soldier from being hit by a sword a fast protects a fasting person from doing bad deeds as he is constantly thinking of Allah and doesn't want to spoil his fast or reduce his ajr. So as a reminder of that to stop ypur self from doing something wrong you can say
In previous years they have made their own out of paper plates and aluminium foil with their own hand drawn sword or design stuck on them.
Lil muallim # 1 and Lil maullim # 2 had also made one as a cover for Fasting is a Shield booklet for our Ramadan lapbook some years ago. For this they had very patiently stick tiny pieces of aluminium foil one by one around the design. Mashallah!
RAMADAN LESSON # 3 DUA AT IFTAR TIME Iftar (opening the fast) at sun down is a special time in Ramadan. It is a blessed time as Allah listens to all and any suplications, we make at this time. Why ? Because He loves us and appreciates our abstaining from all forbidden things for His sake. The rewards are from Him and based on the purity of our intention Subhanallah!
“By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, the smell coming out from the mouth of a fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk. (Allah says about the fasting person), ‘He has left his food, drink and desires for My sake. The fast is for Me. So I will reward (the fasting person) for it and the reward of good deeds is multiplied ten times.”
Sahih Bukhari: Book# 31 Hadith# 118
Copywork (Use the blank space under the text to write reflections):print or cursive
As mentioned in the book of Ibn Maja, Abdullah bin 'Amru bin 'Al-As (R) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallaho alaihi wasallam) said:
“Indeed, as to the faster, about the time he breaks his fast, his
du'a, (supplication) will not be turned away by Allah.”
In another hadith in Tirmidhi the Messenger of Allah (saas) has been reported as saying:
"There are three categories of people whose du'a (supplications)
will not be rejected: the person who observes the fast until he
breaks, a just ruler, and the person who has been wronged." Copywork:printorcursive
This hadith supports the previous one, while adding that when
prayers are offered during fasting, supplications are highly
encouraged.
There is also a special dua our dear Ptrophet Muhammad Sallallaho Alaihi Wasallam taught us to read before opening fast.
TRANSLATION:
"The thirst is gone and the throats are wet again and the reward is established, Allah willing"
IFTAR DUA MAGNET
Project for Lil Muallim # 2. Made a printout with the iftaar dua and colored the picture drawn bu Ummi :) They can draw themselves too :). Next we stuck it on a recycled piece of carton and laminated it with protective sheet. Lastly we stuck 2 pieces of magnetic sticker strip at the back. Voila our Iftaar dua fridge magnet was ready.
See it here:
Later on we gifted ours to a dear elderly relative. You can make these as gift items too, or to make and sell to collect money for any charitable cause Inshallah eg (Masjid construction, funding digging a well, school supplies for the poor, our famine struck brethren around the world, sponsor an orphan or any other cause you may know of)
Please remind the kids to do it ONLY to seek Allah's pleasure Inshallah!
May Allah accept it from us Ameen Next year....... First I aksed Lil Muallim # 2 to recite the iftar dua. Then I asked him to add the harakahs, he did this with my help. Next he colored it in with constant questions of what would make it look good? :) I drew the outline for the smaller heart to enclose the dua so he could shade lighlty in that. Once he was done the coloring I cut it out and he stuck onto the magnetic sheet. I helped him laminate the top with contact sheet.
On our fridge.
There was actually a mistake in the harakat placements which I later fixed with a permanent marker over the contact sheet.
I really enjoyed the fact that Lil Muallim # 1 and # 2 checked the magnet a couple of times at Iftar dua while reciting the dua to fix their vowels :) Alhumdolillah !
This is a such a cute picture Mashallah! May Allah protect and preserve these children Ameen
HOW AM I FASTING ?
FASTOMETER
One my favorite Ramadan projects from previous years is our Fastometer. I was going through a lesson on levels of fasting in a book and had a Eureka moment. I instantly started making this project with Lil Muallim # 2. We titled it, FASTOMETER, how did I fast today? Then we drew a kind of a thermometer, dividing it in 3 parts.
Level 1: Ordinary
Level 2: Special
Level 3: Extraordinary.
We pasted related images in front of each level. Again we used images from here.
Then I made a surprise for the kids when they weren't around. I doubled a piece of bristol board and cut one edge like a pointer. Then I cut a slit along one side of the Fastometer and slid the arrow through it till only the pointer showed on the fastometer. Then I folded the point of the extra length of the arrows extended part onto our chart so as to secure it.
Voila! So now they can judge their own fast everyday self assessing themselves. But how would they know how differentiate between the levels. That brings us to our next project below. But first see the pictures of our fastometer. I am attaching pictures of how I made it too. :)
Fasting is an act of worship (Ibadah). Allah says in the Quran in ayah number 183 "O you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may learn self restraint," Copy work (Use the blank space under the text to write points on how one will learn self restraint):printorcursive
Self restraint can be discussed with kids, through a fun discussion. Fasting should not be taught as "staying away from eating and drinking from morn to dusk". The word for fasting in arabic is "Saum" which means to abstain (stay away). Stay away from what, is where the fun discussion comes in :)
Doing bad things ....
What kind of bad things ?
Discuss examples of all kinds of bad things that can be done with eyes, ears and mouth (talking).
Are these good things to do ? If not should we do them whether we are fasting or not ?
If not, and as fasting means staying away that means we can't do any of those things at all while we are fasting, if we want to please Allah.
As...........Fasting is an Ibadah .... an act of worship :) Discuss the definition of Ibadah at the kids level. Ibadah is a way of showing our love for Allah Subhanawa ta'allah, by telling Him all you have, what you would like to have, praising Him and most of all Thanking Him for everything. Ibadah makes us feel close to Allah because we talk to Him from our heart while doing it. We can do Ibadah by:
Praying Salah
Dua (supplicate to Allah
Dhikr (rememberance of Allah and Exalting Him)
Tilawah (recitation of the Quran in a beautiful manner)
Lil Muallim # 1 made a small chart on what fasting is. In his words : "Fasting is a state of Ibadah I should spend it Glorifying and Praising Allah"
Ofcourse Ummi needs to remind but then isn't that what Ummis are for?
We made these using word clip art. The colored and black and white files are available on the Ramadan button on the menu bar. We have a black and white printer so we coloured ours in and laminated it with transparent protective sheet from the $ store.
This was our very first thread and needle activity. Alhumdolillah. We used the back stitch. She picked it up easily but needed me to guide here where to take out the needle from after putting it through. She did it in two steps and I sat with her all the way guiding her both the times.
Lil Muallimah`s prayer mat..
In the end she was quite pleased with her accomplishment Alhumdolillah! You can see our basic Qiblah lesson done with this prayer mat here, and an advanced Qiblah lesson here.
We have done a lesson on Qiblah last yera with Lil Muallimah as posten in our Ramadn posts. Here's how it was done., Discussion: I asked Lil Muallimah to lay out a prayer mat for me for Salah. As this is a daily routine for her Alhumdolillah she laid it out in the correct direction. Then I asked her, "Have you ever seen me pray in any other direction other than this ?" She said "No". Then I asked her, "Do you know why?" and she said "No". :):):) The cords of curiosity were now struck :):):) Then I took her to the window in the direction of the qiblah and showed her outside. I said, "You know how big Allah has made the earth we cant see everywhere from this window, right?" She nodded her head in yes. Then I said, "Can you see your cousins house from here ?" She said "No". So I said, "In the same way far far away Kabah is straight ahead from here, we cant see it, but we know that it is there. So we pray in this direction because Kabah is our qiblah."
After this talk Lil Muallimah also made a model of Kabah with me using foam sheets. The pictures are quite self explanatory.
Once the model Kabah was built I again repeated "When we pray salah we face the Kabah as it is our Qiblah." Then I asked her to lay down the lil prayer mats on her own facing the qibla.
We repeated the activity a few times and enjoyed it too.
An explanation of the lil prayer mats can bee seen here. The other prayer mats were made by me, and are from our Ramadan Sensory Tub.
Lil Muallimah was in geography mode. Looking into maps and muslim coloring. That gave us the idea to make a Muslim Countries around the world lapbook.
It is a very basic lapbook revolving around flags and names of Islamic countries in Africa and Asia.
COVER
We used the double lapbook format. You can see the method for that here. But we added a top flap over the lapbook format, showing the division of of the lapbook into its two parts shown below.
1st INSIDE FLAP
Lil Muallimah colored the Muslim countries on the map of Asia and Africa green, that I had marked with green marker. When you lift up the Muslim Countries and Africa flap you see, flags of African Muslim countries and a flap with some coloring cut outs done by Lil Muallimah. Lil Muallimah also painted a heart and mosque with ourDIY Ramadan stampsfrom last year :)
INSIDE AFRICA FLAP
When this picture was taken a few flags had not been colored, but hav ebeen marked with the colors to be used Inshallah. Now let`s look inside the Muslim countries of Asia flap.
INSIDE ASIA FLAP
Inside each flag flap is the name of the country. Unfortunately, some country flags are missing, we`ll be researching those and will probably add an extra flap to add those in too. Uptil then we will use this lapbook to review names and flags of Muslim countries with an Atlas book, map puzzles etc Inshallah
BACK COVER
All in all we really enjoyed making this lapbook. There are many math, patterning, design and memory activities that can be done through flags, on white board, Magna Doodles, Aqua Doodle, paper etc. I will be posting those examples in another post Inshllah.
Flag outlines can be found here for each country in it`s respective continent page. We used the small size image.
The coloring pages have been taken from the New Muslim Kids Blog . Do check out older posts to find more coloring pages. I am hoping to do an advanced level one with Lil Mualllim # 2. Hmmmm.....!
The following is an extension of our Qibla lesson done last year. You can view it here.
As mentioned in my previous Adhan 24/7 post...all muslims praying Salah facing the kabah around the world are actually parts of the expanding circle circulating the Ka'bah.
We did the following activity to further strengthen this concept in my Lil Muallims mind Alhumdolillah
I simply printed out a world map outline through google images and drew parts of circles on all visible land areas around a small cube to show the Kabah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Alhumdolillah.... Another simple yet effective lesson.
