of arks and ice cream sticks
since my classes had been too rather workbook-oriented the last few weeks, i thought i would give them a break have something more hands-on, no matter if it might even be childish. and alhamdulillah, i guess it worked. we had three activities done in 2 and a half hour and a few takeaways. here's what we did.1. on fitrah.
we had been learning about fitrah and din during earlier lessons, however, just to give some twist to all those explanations and slides i've been showing them, i thought we could have something more hands-on. after a discussion with my own teacher, she suggested on doing this activity, whereby the students are given a white piece of cloth and let them draw or express about themselves.
so first thing in class we did, instead of just plain recap and asking them questions on what they lerant from the last class, i gave them instructions to do the activity, alas, with green paper (don't ask why). so learning from previous experiences, my classes needed acute details. so instead of just asking them to write/draw about their life, i gave them some pointers.
i asked them to 'dive' into their selves, and start from when they were a child. give one or two things/memories which they remember,
their likings and dislikings, their characteristics,
how they see their life now and how do they picture themselves in the next 10 years or so (these incorporating all those lessons they had been learning since last year)
and most important of all, what their parents have taught them through the years.
even with these pointers, some of them asked for examples, which was fine by me. at least that shows their concentration is on this activity.
some drew a mind map of their life, some drew pictures, and Nizam even attempted to write a song about his life. i was amazed. for the record, it's very rare to see Nizam really into something, so seeing him focused (and quiet at that) is an improvement!!
while they were doing the activity, Ustaz Badrul's zikir was on, i thought i should play the zikir more often in class (mono : what's the probability of them listening to zikirs outside class?)
after they had finished expressing their life, the debriefing starts, i had made one for my own just to express this debrief. first was to let them think what happen if i coloured my life black (coloured mine then with black marker)
when asked what do people associate black with? they gave me answers such as negative things, evil, dirt, so ok, we're basically on the same wavelength. colouring the paper black is to bring the effect of what will happen if we choose to 'blackened' our life. i gave extra emphasis on the word 'choose'.
imagine your life which you and your parents have 'drew' throughout the years blackened? how do you feel?
and then what if this life was torn? i tore out my 'life' and explained to them even if i were to pick up the pieces back and paste them all back together, do you think it will be same paper as before? by this time, some of them were already quite stunned by the act. i wanted that effect, but of course, there were others thick skinned, but that's not a problem.
in the end, i asked them to keep that piece of paper somewhere safe, and keep them as how they would want to keep their life. hopefully they will do it.
second activity was rather impromptu and i was truly relieved that the items needed in order to have this activity was available! i woke up in the morning with the idea of letting the students 'build' an arc.
i wanted to have this Prophet series. and since we already started on Prophet Adam because of the Creation story and a brief 'intro' to Prophet Ibrahim, i thought we should continue on. so Prophet Nuh came into mind. and why not let them have some fun doing and creating something. so we will need ice cream sticks right?
I thought i could drop by at the NTUC near there but alas! ntuc only opens at 9 am! (i was there are 7.30am) trying not to panic myself, i tried to think through what i can do to replace that activity. reached the office, rummaged the drawers, and found two bundles of ice cream sticks!! ok that'll be enough for the first class (went out and bought more for the second class later on)
and God really on our side, went to class, i happened to open one of the closet drawers, and guess what i found? another one 'big' bag of ice cream sticks!!! masya Allah, of all times, i was never to look in that particular drawer, i can't quite remember why i opened that drawer in the first place! so we had more than enough!
let them have some good 20 minutes to built one 'ark' or any sea transport. the girls were always one who would concentrate and focus, giving their heart and mind.
look what they came up with:
TA2A's works
the 'biggest' ark was by the girls.
(note: TA2B's pics soon)
let them off for break, came back and we read a chapter from the Qur'an, using the translation Qur'an. Chapter Hud, verse 25- 40, it tells the story of Prophet Nuh and his Ark. His perseverance and that Allah will always help in times of need.
let them think, that when they wanted to 'build' their miniature arc, they had a difficult time thinking about what and how to do it, and they were in groups, but recall that Prophet Nuh had to make one huge arc, ALONE.
and last of all, seeing that we have some 10-15 minutes left, we had a solat quiz! they just had to stand in a row (the girls behind the guys) as in congregational prayer and asked them reenact Solat Subuh and one after another to follow the chronology of the solat acts. this i found rather useful, we managed (me and other teens teachers) to identify those who might need reinforcement in solat. very useful indeed.
quite a lot huh for one class? well, i guess there's no idling for one thing and they are doing some physical activities for once. what i can see from them was they enjoyed the activity and more so, i hope they will remember the lessons learnt. Insya Allah.
posted by learningteens @ 7:37 AM
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