Beginning Arabic Grammar



Below is a sample outline I put together for beginning Arabic grammar. I have linked to lessons and other materials I have made. Occasionally I will link to outside resources, in shaa Allah.


Parts of Speech

Introduction to the Parts of Speech

The Ism: Types of Isms (beginning level)

Gender

Definiteness/Indefiniteness

Describing Words Must Match Words They Describe 

Detached Pronouns

Attached Pronouns

Ism Review

The Harf: Introduction

  • Chart: Harf Chart (a really  nice chart I found in one of my Arabic reference books

The Effect of Harf preceding words

The Harf with attached pronouns

The Verb: The 3 Verb Tenses

  • Flashcards: 100 verb roots (verbs you will find in the Quraan/hadith).
The Past tense verb/conjugating
The Present tense verb

The “Future tense verb”
Final Review

Types of Sentences

Jumlatul Ismiyyah

Jumlatul Fi’liyyah
Review

Numbers 

(recognition, if  not already taught, or up it to using the numbers in context)

Cardinal numbers

0-10
11-20

21-99

100 - 999
1000 and beyond

Ordinal numbers

Review

Negation

  • Negation recording sheet - a single sheet I made up to record negation words and when they are used and the rules for using them.

Arabic Activity Bank


I love to follow routines when we are learning so my kids know what to expect. But, at the same time, I like to vary activities within our routines to make our time more engaging. This is a list I made up eons ago to make it easy for me to vary the types of activities we were doing in our Arabic learning.

The ideas are ones that you may already use for English but might not have considered for learning Arabic. There are ideas for when your student is learning the alphabet, some ideas to use for spelling and vocabulary, and a few for grammar.


  • Alphabetize the words
  • Conjugate verbs
  • Spelling Pyramid: Great for writing practice and spelling. Write the first letter of a word on one line. Drop down to the second line and write the first two letters of that word. Continue dropping down a line each time adding one letter of the word until the whole word is written. Repeat a few times.
  • Write misspelled words several times (5, 10, etc)
  • Pronunciation: Have student pronounce all the words correctly.
  • Fill in the blank with the correct word
  • Write each word in a sentence. Try to use the grammar skill you are working on in the sentences.
  • Meaning match: match words with their correct definition
  • Plurals, write the plurals of nouns
  • Unscramble words or sentences
  • Go together, what belongs, what doesn’t? In a list of words which go together.
  • Keep a journal of the misspelled words for review
  • Tic Tac Toe (Must spell the word correctly to place your X or 0). Draw miscellaneous shapes/letters instead of X's or O's.
  • Picking Apples/Climbing Ladder/Stairs (write letters or words on apples, student must read the word or give the definition to "pick" the apple; for the ladder/stairs, write the words on rungs or steps and students must read the word or give the definition to "walk" up the ladder/stairs (this has always been a winner for us) Sometimes I would place a treat (money, candy--we usually just use pictures of these and not the real thing) at the top as incentive. If the student reads incorrectly, I usually tell them the correct answer and have them start back over from the beginning.
  • Bang: Place a letter, or word cards in a can. Place one or two cards with the word "Bang" on them in can with the other cards. Child picks out one card at a time and read it. If he reads the card correctly, he continues. If he gets a "Bang" card, he must put all cards back and start over. Child wins when he has read all cards.Note: for smaller children, I would only put 1 "Bang" card in the can.
  • Bingo/Cover Up. Write the letters or words on a bingo board. Call out letters, or words and student covers up. Student wins when a complete row, column, or diagonal is covered. Variation: Cover up: Child must cover the whole board.
  • Clue/Riddle Game. Student is given a list of words that he is working on. Teacher gives a clue about one of the words. Student scans the list for the word and writes the word down. Continue with the rest of the words.
  • Read/Draw. Provide student with a list of words with surrounding blank space. Student reads the word and draws a (non-image) picture. Variation: Provide pictures and student writes the word. 
  • Speed Contest. Student or teacher selects a word. Set a timer for 45 seconds. Student and teacher compete to see who can write the word the most times in 45 seconds (or you could write just a letter). If students are beginning writers, a rule can be set up that the teacher must write the word, say, 3 times as much as the student. Ideas from Peggy Kaye's series of books, "Games for....."
  • Unscramble the Word. Scramble words the student is working on. Have him unscramble them and write them correctly.
  • Supply the Missing letters. Leave out a letter or letters from words.
  • Match pictures to words
  • Hangflower. Variation of hangman, just use a different picture, say a flower. Student must supply letters to guess a word before the picture is completely drawn.



Kinetic & Potential Energy


Virtual Labs

Lessons

Worksheets


Videos

Very cute video but the main content doesn't really start until 1:00 in.

Miscellaneous

Internet4Classrooms - links to varied activities on kinetic and potential energy

Stop Looking for Yearly Calendars for Daily Calendar Time!

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And the best part is that it's traceable! Your students can trace in the date number as the month progresses. No more little daily pieces to lose but still allows for interactivity.
(Does not include holidays or holiday graphics)







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Math Resources Review: Smartick Method Online Math Supplemental Program

I recently had the opportunity to try "Smartick Method," an online subscription based supplemental learning program for math. that helps "foster the development of math skills using interactive tools." We received a free 3 month subscription in exchange for sharing our experience with the program.

A little about the program
As I mentioned, Smartick Method is a supplemental math program.  The recommended age range of the program is for children ages 4-14. It provides students with short sessions (of about 15 minutes) and it is stressed that for maximum results, students should use the program daily. It is an adaptive program so it adjusts to your child's skill level and builds upon that. Students are given an avatar that they can customize. There is a virtual world for them to explore and by accumulating credits, they can buy and customize their virtual world.

Our Experience
We started the program in December, while we were on a break (my public school ids were on winter vacation so I decided to schedule our homeschool for a break).

Getting started
Once you set up your accounts, your child creates and customizes an avatar.

Each day, when your child starts a session, the program greets them:


Next, the program asks you how you are feeling:


My 8 year old daughter said she enjoyed these two features.


This is what a typical study session screen will look like. There is a progress bar off to the left that fills up as students progress. This earns them "ticks" (stars). Kids can later redeem the stars for things in their virtual world.


Another type of exercise my daughter has gotten:



After your child completes his/her session a few things happen:


1) Your student is asked how they felt about the session:




2) the program asks if they want to go back and make corrections. An incentive is given if he/she goes back and makes corrections.


My kids don't generally don't feel compelled to go back and make corrections, even with the incentives.

3) Next, they are given the results of the session:

To encourage daily use of the program, ticks are awarded for the number of consecutive days completed.

At this point, your student can stop, or explore the virtual world. In the virtual world there are different options:

Buy things for your room with your accumulated ticks:



Compete against other users in games:


Or play games on their own:







The games are arranged by type: attention, memory, perception, and reasoning:


My daughter really enjoys the mini games. She says they "challenge her mind."

There is also an area where they can make and add friends. They can make a suggestion as to how the program can be improved:

My daughter made a suggestion on her own that kids be awarded ticks for the mini games.

She really enjoys the program and looks forward to using it. I have to remind her to do it, but when I do, she is usually quick to get to it. My 11 year old son, well, he is not so interested in the program and it is more of a chore for him.  Sometimes he complains about the sessions being so long, but I think it is more from just a disinterest since it is educational related.  When he earns his ticks, he usually lets his baby sister buy things in the virtual world to decorate his virtual room.

Parent Involvement
One thing I like about the program (which I found annoying at first as I wasn't really paying attention) is the amount that it involves the parent.

As soon as a session is completed, it will send you an email of the results:


It contains a "here" link where you can see details of the session, which is very helpful when they don't do so well.

If your student hasn't completed a session that day, you get a reminder email. After the first reminder email, if your student has still not completed a session, you will get a second email:



At first this was annoying, but it really was helpful because sometimes I just forget to have them work on it. (They always need a reminder). I looked in the settings, but not sure if you can change this notification. But it is helpful.

Parents have their own separate login and they can view their kids progress from their parent's dashboard:



Our assessment
Overall, I think it is a good program. I think with consistent, daily practice it can be very helpful.  It is kind of a struggle for me to get my kids to do it everyday, moreso lack of discipline on my part. My daughter gives the program a thumbs up. My son is not so interested in it (and really any supplemental math program that we've tried). I think that the virtual world may be too young for him as he wasn't really motivated to earn ticks to buy things in the virtual world.

Some things my daughter said she liked:

  • competitions against other users (however, I think it randomly assigns users to compete with and they may or may not be online I guess because it says that it could take days for the user to respond, so it's not like a real time competition, well, at least not the one I watched my daughter do).
  • the pets
  • that the program greets you with "good morning, (afternoon, etc) and that it asks you how you are feeling and how the session was
What she didn't like:
  • Some of the activities were hard and she couldn't figure them out on her own. When she got something wrong, only the solution was given, but it didn't give an explanation (not sure if it was just that type of problem, or if this is in general just to give the solution).
A nice feature is that if your student is not a fluent reader, they can click on a megaphone and hear the exercises read.  You can also assign another tutor (dad, a sibling, etc) to help out with managing the program.

This program is an international program, not just specific for US students, so some of the wording may be a bit unfamiliar in the problems and the awards are referred to as "ticks" instead of stars. 

I'm not sure if we will continue on after our trial, not that I don't like it, but moreso just because I am frequently really bad at follow through and I wouldn't want pay for it and we don't get a great deal of use for it.

I recommend checking it out if you have a student who is struggling with math and see if it will work for you. You can check it out at  www.Smartick.com (I receive a discount if you purchase a subscription through this link and YOU receive a 25% discount).




Happy Math-ing!