ramadan

Ramadan is coming and it’s always good to get some ideas of themed activities or crafts to do to help get the little ones into the spirit of Ramadan and help them feel a strong connection to our special month. Here are 10 Ramadan activities for children which may come in handy!

Make a Ramadan calender with 30 pockets.

Check out all these creative ideas for Ramadan Calendars

Inside each one you can have either a slip of paper with an activity for the day (print a set of these here) or you could have a small treat for after iftar, or a quiz question for the children, or many more ideas. This calender could be made very large and from fabric, to hang on the back of a door, or it can be made much smaller simply from cardboard. You could get the children involved in making this the week before Ramadan, to build some anticipation.

Helping to make Iftar.

Simple tasks like helping to make mango lassi or smoothies to drink can be great fun even for preschool children. Or give them jobs to do like getting the dates ready onto the plates or pouring glasses or water or milk. Remind them of the rewards for feeding a person breaking their fast, so they feel proud about what they are doing. Post here about children making roti

Make their own prayer mat activity.

Download your prayer mat colouring pages here.

You can use these as a template to decorate your own prayer mat, or for something more crafty, why not let them experiment with fabric to make and decorate their own prayer mat. It will be easier if you make it thinner than the usual prayer mats. What about with several children, allow them to have a go at making a large prayer sheet for them to use in congregational salah. It’s a good opportunity to speak about what designs are acceptable or not on a prayer mat, like no animate forms, and keeping it simple and not overly “blingy” so it does not take away the concentration or khushoo in Salah.

Printable Colouring Pages

Try these simple Ramadan printable activities to decorate their own qibla arrow, or colour traditional designs

Arabic activities 

You can buy canvases quite cheaply and make an Arabic calligraphy canvas. I have had them from the pound shop before! Then encourage the children to make a canvas with their name in arabic or any word they choose. For little ones you could trace the letters onto it yourself and they can paint it in. You could give them diamontes to decorate it or glitter paint to help make it more sparkly and exciting. We have made Arabic alphabet candles, plasticine letters, and tried out Rosetta stone for fun Arabic language learning. If your child needs to improve their Arabic language there is no better time than Ramadan, your efforts will be greatly rewarded at this time and it is important part of their identity as a Muslim. Learning Arabic through books and games helps to keep things fun.

We are crafting our way through the Arabic alphabet using simple materials like paper plates. Check out the first letters we have completed, and stay tuned for more:

Alif is for Asad: Paper Plate Lion Craft

Baa is for Battah: Paper Plate Duck

Ramadan around the world

Have a look at images together on the computer, then you can talk about what do we all do the same, what do we do differently. It can be interesting to see the different foods for iftar, and different customs.

Giving food to neighbours

Helping to build community spirit and neighbourly relations, to include others in our celebrations, to show people we are friendly and approachable. It’s important to me to teach kids this, that we can have pride in our own religion, celebrations and culture without cutting ourselves off from others or shunning others! Personally we sometimes just give out chocolates to people in the street at various times of year rather than cooked food – I think it’s more the thought/guesture that’s nice to do so doesn’t matter what you give them.

Making Lanterns – Making lanterns is a traditional Ramadan craft. Check out these 10 ideas from traditional fanoos, to paper lanterns and mason jar lanterns.

Paper chains

Very simple to make and can be used to decorate the house. I think this is one of the easiest decorations children can help with from a young age. Sometimes I find the self adhesive ones wont last and fall apart so you can be better actually cellotaping it. You can do as little or as much as you like in decorating the chains!

Learn about the moon

The Islamic calendar is measured by the moon, but how much do your kids know about the moon? Try these 14 moon themed activities to learn about the moon, from moon phases to moon themed crafts and sensory bins. Teach your child about the way the moon is sighted for the beginning of Ramadan, and for Eid, and about the 3 “white days” (ayyam al beed) when the full moon shows and its recommended to fast them during any month.

Making a model mosque.

This can be done in 3d, junk modelling with cardboard boxes and kitchen rolls, then painted and decorated. Or 2d with a sheet of card cut to show the building outline, then scoring out holes for the windows and doors, and then decorating. This makes a sillouhette kind of effect. Check out my full list of 10 ways to make a mosque with your little ones.

Download printable mosque silhouette templates here, to use for pictures like the one above.

There are loads and loads more ideas! I will be coming back to add more as the month approaches and throughout the month, and will post up pictures of the things we get up to. Also check my Pinterest board where I have collected a few of the ideas I found

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Photosource: Shutterstock (image modified)