Newsflash: Active Saturday’s Night Out By our correspondent Qasim Pirani (age 12)

20 of August 2011 , Role Model Institute:

Abbi, Abdullah, Isa, Muadh and I to the Active Saturday’s Night Out. First we prayed  4 rakah taraweeh. Abdullah led 2 rakahs. Then we had pizza for dinner. After that we had a video/lecture  about Salaat by Asim Ismail, for one hour and then one hour ‘chill time’.  Next we were given time to prepare and present our role plays. 

There were three groups; the kids in the first group were given the topic ‘Showing Off’, the second was given the topic “Brotherhood” and the third group’s topic was “Overeating".  I was in the second group with Muadh. Abdullah and Isa were in the third group.

The first  group’s play was only a minute long and all the members of the group did not get a chance to perform.The second group’s play (ours) was longer and every member got a chance to participate equally.

The third group’s drama was also long and funny.

At first the judges were going to call it a tie between group one and two,  but they were informed that the rules did not allow that. So group two was declared the winner because even the younger members played a large role in it.  The prize was gift vouchers to Snack Attack for each participant.Later we had time to play and rest, followed by 4 rakahs taraweeh and witr.  A talk was given by Faraz Chacha about Emaan.

 

Sehri was keema, eggs, paratha and leftover pizza. After cleaning up Fajr was prayed at Rohail Kand Masjid.

NEWSFLASH: ABAP completes his 8th Juz

3rd Ramadan 1432

Alhumdulillah we are happy to bring this news story that ABAP has completed memorizing another juz. The class now no longer wears badges with the para no. on it Alhumdulillah. As is class custom, when a student completes a juz he brings something tasty to share with his teachers and classmates. As we are in the month of Ramadan he plans to offer his class mates a gift of Miswak insha'Allah.

 

As for his family he brought home this Mousse cake, which has prompted us to put together a list of cakes too sweet to eat and to be avoided unless our blood sugar level is dangerously low- Mousse cake will be just below Death By Chocolate (an experience we survived but rather not repeat).

Alhumdulillah we are grateful that Allah SWT has helped ABAP attain this, may He make the rest of the course easy for ABAP and guide him to give the Quran its right and follow it and make it a source of reward for him in this world and the hereafter. Aameen.

Microscope adventures: The Scope of things

Be it a microscope, telescope or even a kaliedscope, these tools help us see the world beyond the obvious and making us conscious of how limited our personal observations are. Being inspired from a link in our Usborne book of Microscopes, the children photgraphed closes ups of everyday objects, can you guess what they are?

plastic bag by SBAP age3



baby's shape sorter by SBAP




belt buckle by QBAP age 12




yo-yo by QBAP




hairbrush by QBAP



cupboard door knob by IBAP



ariel view of bedside drawer by IBAP



marker mark on white board by IBAP

Ramadan Reminders

Alhumdulillah Ramadan is just a two or three days away and we can feel the change in the atmosphere already as the excitement mounts. Masha'Allah, learning about this month and its blessings comes easily to the children as the elder ones fast and the younger ones participate in Suhoor, Iftar, Taraweeh and Qiyam.  As the little ones learn about Ramadan, the older ones are given reminders and we all work towards becoming more conscious of this month's blessings, it it to that end Ummi put together this wall:

 

Our Ramadan Wall

  What is all over this wall, you may ask? Well, here's a close up: 

Fasting shields from the fire



Our Ramadan calendar

 

Dated dates, to be picked as each day of Ramadan come to an end, special gold ones for the special odd nights



Home-made basket to store the dated dates



moon phases from BrainQuest

 



IBAP's article on Ramadan

Elsewhere in the house:





Reminder that fasting is more than just abstaining from eating and drinking



 

Reminder of fasting duration

 

Days of the week in English, Arabic and numerals, markers to depict weather



We hope to read and learn as we experience this month and hope to share our discoveries as we make them insha'Allah.

Mighty Microbes

We're surrounded! Itty bitty creations float, eat, reproduce and even burp all around us. They are easy to forget, till someone gets sick, and truly fascinating to see, and so we introduced IBAP and MBAP to a world beyond the obvious; the world of microbes.



We began our journey sometime ago before their Arabic classes began and resumed it after the classes came to an end.

 The journey began with a the book Mighty Microbes, which helped identify some nasty germs, how our body fights them, as well as others in our environment like algae and those microbes we use for food and oil.



The children made some posters about what they learnt.

 

 

   

On reading about yeast and fungi which help make food, we watched videos about making bread, cheese (how its made videos on youtube) and farming mushrooms for sale (not very appetizing!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvnR55mbIgk

We observed yeast at work by making bread, Masha'Allah.

Later we travelled with a Magic School Bus book for a closer look at microbes at work and followed it with videos of The Magic School Bus going into a child's body to watch the immune system at work and another video about plankton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhTHLpXbgcg   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhTHLpXbgcg (keep a steady hand on the volume control for muting music)

Watching the movie Osmosis Jones gave the children a grand tour of the inner workings of a man's body and the consequences of ignoring basic hygiene. the story was fictitious and as movie progressed the fictitious parts were explained and discussed.

We have begun to delve further and look at the world through a single lens - a microscope lens that is, and we hope the children will understand that in most things in life there is more than meets the eye, Insha'Allah.

From the Farm to the Fridge



A few of our books



Where does our food come from? Though the little BAPs have learnt to thank Allah SWT for the food they eat, they needed to learn that the food is not naturally produced at at the grocer's stand, refrigerator or in a box, and it is to that end we have been reading up and watching videos about where our food comes from.

Masha'Allah the BrainQuest workbooks offered pictures of heathly food and their storage.

The following websites show how cows are milked and bread and cheese are made. Even the elder kids were fascinated.

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/3275-how-to-milk-a-cow-by-hand

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/3276-how-to-milk-a-cow-by-machine

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/VideoActivity.aspx?contentId=163&sectionId=66&siteId=15&titleId=169

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/VideoActivity.aspx?siteId=15&sectionId=66&contentId=163&titleId=171

 

Popcorn poping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFh6RAwELi0&feature=related

Peanut Butter being made in a factory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H_M6yw32M0

Honey from the comb into the jar at a factory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT6IQx26eHk&feature=related

Cereal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ6ek9UOvxA&feature=related

Chocolate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiMjr3Rwdjs&feature=related

Coffee ( does not say how its made but you can see the plants and
beans etc)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdvovtRVfkM

Chickens:

http://www.kandns.com/TheKandNsWay-video.htm

Mushrooms (warning you may not want to eat them again after seeingwhat
they grow in =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n99zZ4nbunE&feature=related

for fun:
Bubble bursting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIZwQ24_OU0&feature=related

 

A link on turtle hatching:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SNAkids?blend=8&ob=5#p/u/17/kNfee1o6zXc


This theme led us, amongst other things, to discuss how do plants grow - the origins of our food, more on that soon, Insha'Allah.

RAMADAN by IBAP (aged 10)

Ramadan is a special month to us. We fast from Fajir to Magrib so we can get lots of reward from Allah. Before Fajir we have suhoor and at Magrib we have iftar. The gates of Jannah will remain open throughout the month. The Qur’an was sent in this month. shaitan gets chained by Allah SWT so he doesn't whisper to us. We go for Tarawih after Isha. If you eat or drink or vomit on purpose or you backbite it will break your fast. In Ramadan there are 29 to 30 days. After this special month is a special day named Eid where we celebrate the end of Ramadan.