In the name of Allah, The Beneficient, The Merciful

Children’s Seerah Course Teaching notes/ideas

The course was taught as a 5 week course, once a week for 2 hours, although it could be adapted otherwise. 6 weeks would have probably been better as the last 2 weeks were very full.

The slides are with a dark background as this is best for projecting. There is an additional set of grey scale slides with a white background that are more suitable for printing out. I printed them as handouts with 6 slides to an A4 sheet (select this on printing).

I opened and closed each week with dua, and took the register and homework at the beginning.

You need to read through a few seerah books/listen to cds to be fresh and familiar with everything Insha Allah. Imam Anwar al Awlaki also has seerah cds but I did not list them as I do not have them. I am sure they are excellent masha Allah.

For each week, ask kids to write down their homework on the table in their file.

I gave each child a seerah timeline from Learning Roots, which was completed week by week at home, according to what they had done.

Week 1

· Give all the children their named files with A4 pages breaking down the topics for each week – every week they can file their relevant papers in the right place. The files should also have the recommended reading list, homework sheet and title page at the beginning, and map and this week’s slides and worksheet.

· Allocate each child to a group according to their age/ability, so similar children were together. Ideally there should be 4-5 children per group, no more. I had 8 groups; 5 girls groups (there were more girls) and 3 boys groups. I named them, Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Khadija, Umm Salamah, Asma, Fatima and Aisha. As you see, these are names that would be coming up through the course. On week 3, they also had the task of researching their group’s companion’s life. Groups should ideally be decided before the course begins, you can put a coloured piece of card on each table with the companion’s name in bold, and the children’s names underneath, and their named files around the table where they are to sit. They can then come in and find their table. I kept the smaller children at the front tables.

· Run a quick task to allow members of the group to get to know each other. For example, they each have to say to each other what they had for breakfast, their favourite colour, etc, there are loads of other games also, if you have the time! I can put you in touch with a scout leader if you want advice on this.

· Run through the week 1 slide show, giving details. Have a 10-minute break half way through.

· Ask kids to point to, or mark, Yemen, on their map (where army of Abraha came from) as well as Makkah and Madinah. Also Syria/Jordan, where the Prophet (saw) went on his trading journey at 12 with his Uncle Abu Talib.

· Ask the kids to design a small book on the events explained in Sura al Fil. For the younger groups, this is an A4 plain sheet folded in half and half again, for a 4 page small book. The older ones could do a longer one. Give them colouring pencils (felt tips will run through the pages). The books the kids did were surprisingly good!

· Worksheet week 1 is for kids to complete at home, or you could do it in class.

Week 2

· Give out week 2 printed slides and worksheet for filing – small children may need help to see where they go in their file. Run through Week 2 slideshow, talking about details. Have a break half way through. When you get to the map, show the kids where Abbysina (Ethiopia) is, across the Red Sea.

· Card Game 1 – this is for the younger children, approx. 8-10, or for those with little prior knowledge. The card has 2 games printed on it. Print it onto card, not paper. Cut it in half and then cut out the cards, put each set in a ziplock freezer bag or similar and mix up. The children need to put their cards into 2 sets or columns on their table, those who became Muslim and those who remained disbelievers. (NB you may need to be aware that Shi’a Muslims believe Abu Talib was a Muslim. However the widely accepted and authentic opinion is he was not).

· Card game 2 – this is for older children, approx 11-13. Print and cut out the cards, keeping them safe and mixing them in a bag as before. They need to match the companion’s name with their description. It helps to set out all the names first and then find the right description for them.

· Ask the kids to neatly record on lined paper, the results of their card game.

· Worksheet week 2 is for homework.

· The speech of Ja’far ibn Abi Talib should be included in the files here. I asked older kids to write what they learned about doing da’wah from this. You will first (unfortunately) probably need to explain what da’wah is.

Week 3

· Go through slides with detail, with a break in the middle.

· Look carefully at the hijrah map slides and also the simpler map they have in heir files.

· Read out the dua of the Messenger (saw) at Taif, which is in most seerah books.

· The spiders web is for them to write a poem (in class or homework) about the time when Abu Bakr (ra) and the Messenger (saw) were in the cave. There were some really lovely poems masha Allah. Explain it does not have to rhyme.

· I gave out a sheet (one per group) from a Musalla kids newsletter where the kids needed to write as fast as possible all the blessings they could thank Allah from. The first group to fill in all the boxes with blessings, got some sweets.

· Worksheet for homework.

Week 4

· Go through slides, making Badr very exciting with a step-by-step account from the seerah!

· For Uhud, we re-enacted this using toy soldiers. My sons had some and I asked the other boys to bring theirs so we had a good assortment of horses, knights, power rangers, policemen, small stuffed camels, etc, I did explain that this was not all historically accurate. We used a large plastic mountain from my son’s train set for Uhud. There were also some ladies/princess figures etc, which represented the women, those cheering on the disbelievers and also Muslim women on the battlefield. I didn’t want to cut the women out, so this was important. Some coins can represent the booty. I used the maps (provided by Ustadh Shihab) on the presentation to get the battleground set. We put the battle on the carpet, and sat the younger kids around in a wide circle, with older kids bringing chairs and sitting behind them. This gave a good view. We ensured the army of the disbelievers was larger, as was the case, and put the archers on the mount. I tried not to ‘represent’ any individual companions but we did have Khalid ibn al Walid (the toy knight had his face hidden by a helmet) on a big horse at the side so I could show how he and the cavalry came from behind the archers to launch a surprise attack on the Muslims once the archers had left their positions.

· Worksheet for week 4 is included. There is one question that is not in the slideshow but which you can talk about when re-enacting Uhud – that is that the Prophet (saw) gave his sword to Abu Dujana.

Week 5

· I found this was the hardest week for the children to remember, as there are so many different events in it.

· Go through the slide show, going into detail, e.g regarding the letters to rulers, and the battle of Mu’tah, having a break in the middle. I took in Week 4 homework and a sister who was helping me, may Allah reward her, marked it in the class, whilst I taught, so we could hand it back that week.

· Ask children to point out Tabuk on their maps when you get to that bit..

· Read out the final sermon if possible, and a breakdown of this is included from soundvision.com, for the kids’ folders.

· You could try and complete week 5 worksheet in class and mark it out loud, giving children coloured pencils. You may also ask children to work in pairs and mark each other’s work.

· Cut and stick game – this could be done individually and then taken home for reference, but because I didn’t have time to allow them to glue etc, we played this as a card game. I printed the A4 sheet onto coloured card, gave one to each group of children, and they cut out the boxes, and rearranged them in correct order on their tables. This was played as a competition between the groups and the 2 fastest groups got sweets as prizes. The younger groups needed some help. I allowed the children to look back at their slide handouts.

· At the end, I gave some books as prizes to the children who had really made extra effort during the course. They were small books about companions.