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Ramadan Decorations: Lanterns

Ramadan Decorations Lanterns

Lanterns are an festive way to decorate your home during Ramadan and to prepare your home for Eid. They are very easy to make and something that even the youngest children can help with.

Materials

  • A4 foil card
  • Scissors
  • Stapler
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Sequins(optional)
  • PVA glue (optional)

How to make it

1. Turn the foil card horizontally, and cut a strip 1/2″ from the end.

Ramadan decorations
2. Using a pencil, lightly draw a line 1″  from on the top and another 1″ from the bottom of the card.
Ramadan decorations
3. Take the larger piece of card, turn it vertically, and fold it in half.
Ramadan decorations

4. Then cut into the card, starting at the folded edge, all the way up to the pencil line. You will need to make between 12-14 cuts, each about 1/2″ apart.

Ramadan decorations

Ramadan decorations

5. Now its the fun part! Unfold your card and decorate. We used sequins and glue. If your children are younger you could use stickers.

Making Ramadan decorations

6. Once the glue has dried, hold the card horizontally in your hands and curve it round. Holding the edges of the card together, use your stapler to secure it. Then take the small strip of card you cut off in step 1, and staple this to the top of the lantern to act as a handle.

Ramadan decoations

7. Push down a little on the top of the lantern to make it ‘fan’ out.
You lantern is now ready to hang and decorate your home for Eid and Ramadan.
Ramadan decorations

Ramadan decorations

Ramadan decorations
I would love to see photos of the lanterns you make with your children. Please share them with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook
Please keep us in your duaas.
Peace and love.

Ramadan Advent Calendar

This advent calendar is so easy and quick to make. It is a great addition to your Ramadan decorations and is a fun way to get you children excited about the blessed month.

We fill our advent calendar with halal sweets, and allow the children to open them up just before we go to our daily Ramadan class. You could also put a little note inside, indicating a new activity or game that you will be doing that day, or even a little toy.

If you don’t want to make the envelopes, you can buy them premade, and just decorate them. Its super easy, so why not give it a go!

Materials

  • String/Ribbon
  • 3 sheets of good-quality gift wrap
  • Number stickers
  • 30 clothes pegs
  • Glue stick
  • Pencil
  • FREE TEMPLATE
  • Goodies to put inside!
Make  a Ramadan Advent Calendar

How to make it

  1. Using your FREE TEMPLATE, draw the outline of the envelope on the back of a sheet of gift wrap. You will need to draw the around the template 10 times on each sheet.
  2.  Cut out the envelope outlines. You should have 30 in all.
  3. Fold the envelopes and apply glue to the tabs to hold them in place.
  4. Stick number stickers on the front of the envelopes.
  5. Fill envelopes with ‘goodies.’
  6. Hang string and attach envelopes with clothes pegs. 

ENJOY! Have fun with it!

You can use any color gift wrap, coloured paper or stickers to create the look you want.

Give it a try! I would love to see how you’ve decorated yours.
Please share your photos with me and my followers on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Ramadan Mubarak!

Islamic Calendar for Children

Children’s Islamic Calendar


We love using an Islamic calendar in our homeschool. Teaching the Islamic months is an important part of any Muslim homeschool, and we use ours during “Calendar Time” in the morning.

I have been looking online for an interactive calendar for the
kids with inter-changeable Islamic months, lunar cycle and prayer times. 

However after many
months of searching, I couldn’t find anything that I felt was suitable. So I
decided to make my own and share it with you! 

It includes days, Islamic months,
Year (AH), the lunar phase and the 5 prayers times

It is so easy to make! You definitely
don’t need to be ‘crafty.’

We use this calendar as part of our ‘calendar time’ in our
homeschool day. After Quranic memorisation in the morning, the children work on
this calendar and their Gregorian calendar. 

It is a great way to introduce small
kids to the Islamic months
, the lunar phases and prayer times, as well early
years numeracy. We use it to discuss the significance of certain months in Islam, as well as a countdown to Ramadan!

Below are the instructions for how to make your own Islamic
Calendar including a FREE download 
I would love to see how yours look and how you decorate
them. Please share you pics on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag
#MyIslamicCalendar, or leave a link in the comments below.

My Islamic Calendar

Materials Needed:

  • A3 coloured card (1 sheet) – I used navy blue to match my
    Gregorian calendar
  • Laminator and laminating pouches
  • Patterned ribbon or card (optional)
  • Strong adhesive glue
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • FREE Printable Pages. Click HERE to download.
  • Coloured card (two different colours) – for the hands of the
    clocks
  • Paper fasteners (x5)
  • Velcro/Hook & Loop self-adhesive dots (13mm)
  • Small pin
  1. Cut and glue the patterned ribbon or card around
    the edge of the A3 card to make a decorative border (optional). 
  2. Cut out everything from the Free Printable Pages
  3. Arrange the cut-outs on the A3 card.
  4. Using your glue stick, glue on the ‘My Islamic
    Calendar’, ‘Date’, ‘Month’, ‘Year’, ‘Lunar Phase’, ‘Fajr’, ‘Dhuhr’, ‘Asr’, ‘Maghrib’,
    ‘Isha’ tabs.
  5. Laminate the remaining cut-outs.
  6. Using your strong adhesive glue, glue the blank
    white rectangles/squares that you have laminated onto the A3 card. These will
    act as a background to each inter-changeable section. Leave to dry according to your
    glue’s instructions. My glue required me to leave for 24h.
  7. Stick the Velcro dots onto the back of the
    numbers, months, years, lunar phases. Stick the Velcro dots onto the front of
    the blank laminated rectangles/squares on your calendar. Note: you will need
    two Velcro dots in the ‘date’ section, and one in the other sections.
  8. Now its time to work on the clocks. Using your
    coloured card, cut out 5 long clock hands in one colour, and 5 short clock
    hands in another colour.
  9. Position the clock faces on the A3 card below
    each prayer name. Using a pin, pierce a hole in the centre of each clock face,
    and through into the card below. Thread the clock hands onto the paper fastener.
    Then use your this paper fastener, to go through the small holes, securing the clock
    to the card.
Your calendar should now be ready
to use!
The calendar in this download has straight title text. After playing around with it, I felt it looked better. However, if you would prefer ‘My Islamic Calendar’ to be curved, please leave me a comment below, and I will upload another printable insha’Allah.
We keep all our extra pieces in envelopes next to the calendar; one envelope for the numbers and lunar phases (things that change frequently) and one envelope for the months and years. By keeping them in two envelopes, it makes it easier for the kids to find what they need. You could also use little baskets or attach separate pouches to the calendar itself.
I would love to see how yours look and how you decorate
them. Please share you pics on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag
#MyIslamicCalendar, or leave a link in the comments below.
Please remember us in your duaas,
Peace and Love x

Making an alphabet caterpillar

This homeschooling activity was inspired by the book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. This preschool activity helps with letter recognition, putting the letters in the correct order, sequencing, as well as letting the lil’ ones be creative and have some fun.

Alphabet Caterpillar
Alphabet Caterpillar

How to Make An Alphabet Caterpillar

Begin by having you child draw around a circular object, like a cup, to create at least 27 circles. We used lots of different coloured paper, to make it more interesting.

Tracing a circle
Tracing around a cup

Then either cut the circles out yourself, or let him/her have a go. In my case I did most of the cutting myself as Dino-boy is still a little young.

Next ask you child you put glue the circles down in a particular order (Blue, green, red, blue, green, red etc.). I was amazed at how excited Dino-boy got by this exercise. It was wonderful to see.

Gluing the circles in a sequence
Adding the eyes

Then draw on /stick on the eyes. We had some foam eyes left over from another craft pack, so we used them. It gave our caterpillar a rather menacing  look!

Then I asked Dino-boy to stick some alphabet stickers onto the caterpillar’s body, in order. In hindsight, it may have worked better if the stickers were stick on first, before each circle was glued down. However, both achieve the same learning outcome. If you child is older, you cold have them write out the letters on each circle.

Sticking on the letters…
Next, we drew on the legs. Technically a caterpillar has only 6 legs, so I guess ours is more like a millipede!
Draw on the legs…
Our Very Hungry MILLIPEDE!
Then we added some grass and a sun, and got a bit creative! 
Peace and Love 

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