Ramadan Moon

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there was a small village between two mountains. In one of these little huts, lived Ali and his parents. Ali is a 5 year old boy, just like you. His mother, Asiya weaved mats that his father, Ahmad, sells in the town marketplace.

One day, Ali's father came back early from the market. " Why are you home so early, was there not many people at the market?" asked Ali. " Today is a special day, we are going up the mountains to look for the Ramadan moon" replied Ahmad.

So after Maghrib, Ali and his dad set out to the top of the mountain. That night, the mountains was lit up by little lanterns that the villagers carried with them. The mountains looked like they were surrounded by giant fireflies.

" Look, its the new crescent moon!" shouted someone among the crowd as Ali reached the top of the mountain with his father. " MasyaAllah, Ramadan mubarak!" shouted someone else. " Ali tomorrow we will begin our fast and InsyaAllah, you will start learning how to fast too just like us," Ahmad said to Ali. It was a beginning of a wondrous journey....

Presentation

The aim of the lesson is to remind the children of the upcoming fasting month of Ramadan. InsyaAllah, I hope to tell the story of Ali's experiences in the fasting month as the children themselves go through it. The rules of fasting, the spiritual elements, etc can thus be introduced in story form and lessons directed at a particular child can be included as a way to reach to him.

The stories are also lessons on the alphabet; here the mountains make an "M" and there is also a "M"oon. The children copy the drawings into their main lesson book. They of course have their own way of drawing and I don't suggest or tweak whatever they draw.

Extensions

While telling the children the story, I remembered the lamps or Fanoos that Shirin made last year for our Homeschooling event at Istana Kampong Glam. line. I can retell the story, relating the lamps to those Ahmad, Ali and the villagers carried with them up the mountains.

Another extension is the phases of the moon where you make three part cards of the moon phases and the explanations for each phase to match for older children.

Multiplication wood block

My planned two week break is not looking much like a break at all. Today, for the session with Iman I started off with the story of John the woodcutter. It is basically a combination of 'Snow White', 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

It goes;

Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter called John who worked for a wicked queen. This queen had a magic mirror from which she'd ask " Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?". The mirror always replied that it is the queen who is the fairest. However, one day the mirror told the queen that she was no longer the fairest but instead Snow White has taken her place.

Terribly angered by this, the Queen told John to kill Snow White. John took Snow White deep into the forest to kill her, but had not the heart to do so and he let her go. Now, having done that, John could not go back to the castle but instead went back to his family in the village far away from the evil queen.

His wife was not happy as now John did not have a job and as the days go by, they were running out of money and John had no choice but to sell wood at the marketplace. He did not make much money and there were days that the family would go hungry as there was no money to buy food.
Out of desperation, John agreed to his wife's pleas that they abandon his children in the forest. Their stepmother loathed them and saw this as a chance to get rid of the children. So, one day, John took his children Hansel and Gretel to the woods on the pretext of having a picnic. They walked very deep into the forest that the children kept asking, " Are we there yet?"

After about twenty times asking, their stepmother laid out the mat and put down their picnic basket where they had their lunch of hard bread and butter with raspberry juice. Halfway through the meal, their wicked stepmother told the children that she and John are going deeper into the woods to cut some expensive wood to sell in the marketplace and that the children were to stay quietly at their picnic spot for them to return.

Of course, John and his wife never came back. That night and many nights after that, John could not sleep as he was always thinking of Hansel and Gretel. As a result he was always tired and did not have the strength to cut up much wood and thus did not make much money.

His wife was angry with him. One day, she decided to leave John and as she dashed out of the house a horse carriage was going down the road at breakneck speed and she died from her injuries.

John now had no wife nor children. He decided that instead of grieving he should work hard and try to find his children. Everyday, John would wake up very early to get the best wood and search for his children in the evening after returning from the marketplace.

On one such day, as John was searching for his children in the woods he heard a little girl cry for help. He thought it was Gretel, but when he peered into the house where the cries were coming from he saw a little girl in a red hood and her grandmother shivering in fear as a wolf was coming at them.

Quickly, John drew out his gun and shot the wolf and the little girl and her grandmother was safe. The old woman was so grateful to John that she gave him a job as a gardener at her huge cottage and the farm around it.

John was so happy because now he has found himself a job. He was grateful to Allah for His blessings and prayed that he will soon find his children. As John was getting ready to sleep, he heard knockings on the door. When he opened it, Hansel and Gretel hugged him tightly. They all stood there hugging each other for some time before John made both the children a cup of hot chocolate and that night they sat by the fire, drinking their hot chocolates and biting into marshmellows and told their father their adventures in the cottage of the wicked witch.


Whew! that's a long story to write compared to telling. After that, we did some symmetry exercises on the blackboard that formed the base of the picture for the letter "J". The children then worked with their materials and later did their copywork of the drawing.


For closing, we made a multiplication woodblock for woodwork. You can see how it is done under 'lessons' at www.waldorftv.com.

When the Sky looks Like Lace

We have been having two hour schooldays the past week as I prepare for the new term in September. Today we read ' When the Sky Looks like Lace' by Elinor Lander Horwitz which is part of the reading list for the 'Weather' unit from waldorfcurriculum.com.

Then, we started on our weather chart; we are only doing it for a fortnight so I took a drawing block and folded it into 16 squares. I cut out yellow cordate leaves for sunny days, white triangular leaves for cloudy days and grey lancealote leaves for rainy days.

Thereafter, I did a 3 part lesson on the names of leaves; triangular, obcordate and hastate which the children chose from our leaf cabinet. While the children had their worktime I prepared for our baking session.

This is the recipe for " Chocolate Surprises"from Storybox magazine issue 109:

- 100 gm dark cooking chocolate
- 50 gm soft butter
- 80 gm sugar
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 3 eggs
- 12 squares of white chocolate
- 4 remakins ( small bowls)

Steps:

1. break up the dark chocolate and ask an adult to melt it over low heat with the butter.
2. break the eggs into the bowl and add the flour and sugar. Mix well.
3. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the mixture.
4. Butter 4 ramekins and pour a little of the mixture into each one.
5. Put 3 squares of white chocolate into each ramekin. Pour the rest of the chocolate mixture
on top. Cook in the over for 10 minutes at 250 degree celsius.

The children then continued with their work and had their fill of the chocolate surprises 10 minutes later.And before you know it, the schoolday's done....: )

The Story of 'R'

Once, there was a boy named Robyn who liked to play by the river beside his house. On one such day, he saw a tree full of ripe, red, raspberries across the river. He decided to get on his row boat and fill up his basket with them. Hopefully, tonight he can have raspberry cake for dessert. So off Robyn went and as he rowed he sang. ( Sing 'Row,row, your boat)

The raspberries were really ripe and red as he thought and he was soon busy filling up his basket. However, the sky started to turn grey and Robyn quickly put on his raincoat and dashed to his row boat with his basketful of raspberries.

In the middle of his journey across the river, the rain started pouring. Sing:
" Row, row, row dear boat;
Get me 'cross the river,
I shall have my raspberry cake,
before the moon comes over"

He soon reached the other side of the river and knocked on his door. His mother opened
and was delighted to see the basket of raspberries. That night, Robyn relished his dessert
or raspberry cake.