Preschool Skills Collection: Arabic Hooroof • Alwaan • Arqaam • Ashkaal www.mini-mumin.com Copyright © 2013 Mini Mu’min Publications All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means whatsoever without written permission from the copyright owner. 2 Introduction All praise is due to Allah the Most High, may Allah send His blessings on the Prophet Muhammad (saw), his family, his companions, and those who follow him in righteousness until the Day of Judgment. This book is designed to help you introduce your child to four basic skill sets in the Arabic language; hooroof (alphabet), alwaan (basic colors), arqaam (numbers 1-10), and ashkaal (basic shapes). For non-Arabic speakers, transliteration and translation have been included; as well as a pronunciation guide for often confused letter sounds. Practice and review sections have been provided to gauge your child’s progress and understanding of each topic. In addition, a variety of skill building activities have been suggested for review and reinforcement of the skills learned here. Vivid colors and images have been used to engage your child’s attention and help them link the items learned here to interesting items from their everyday life and from around the Arabic speaking world. Jazak-Allah (Allah reward you) for purchasing this book. May Allah increase your child in beneficial knowledge through it, forgive us for any errors we have made, and accept from us our efforts for any good that is in it. 3 Transliteration Notes  A letter preceded by an apostrophe has a stressed pronunciation (i.e. “saa-‘ah”).  A letter that is doubled is elongated. For example, \aa\ is pronounced like the \a\ sound in “apple” and \ee\ is pronounced like long \e\ sound in “seed”, but they are held for two counts instead of one. The only exception is \oo\ which is pronounced like the \ü\ sound in the word “soon” and is not elongated.  A letter doubled on either side of a hyphen is both stressed and elongated (i.e. “toof-faa-‘ha”). All other hyphenation in the transliteration is used to indicate the breaks between syllables to aid in correct pacing.  When \u\ is used, it is pronounced like the \u\ sound in the word “up”, while \au\ is pronounced like the \au\ sound in the word “because”.  Some Arabic letter sounds have no direct equivalent in English, for these special cases we have provided the table on the opposite page for clarification. Among the letters shown in the table, there are some that are often confused due to their similarity; these have been grouped together (by color) in order to clarify their respective differences. 4 Letter Name Sound English Equivalent & Pronunciation Notes ‫ث‬ ‫ذ‬ thaa \th\ Equivalent to the \th\sound in the word “three” thaal \th\ Equivalent to the \th\ sound in the word “this” ‫ظ‬ dhau \dh\ ‫غ‬ ghayn \gh\ ‫ع‬ ‘ayn \‘a\ ‫خ‬ khaa \kh\ Similar to the \k\sound in “kite” but voiced from deep in the throat, a fricative sound ‫ك‬ kaaf \k\ Equivalent to the \k\ sound in the word “calf ” ‫ق‬ qauf \q\ ‫ح‬ ‘haa \‘h\ ‫ھﺎ‬ haa \h\ Similar to the \th\sound in the word “father” but pronounced more thickly than in English Similar to the \g\ sound in “guy” but voiced from deep in the throat, like gargling Similar to the long \i\ sound in the word “eye” but voiced from deep in the throat Similar to the \q\ sound in the word “quarter” but pronounced more thickly than in English Similar to the \h\ sound in the word “hot” but voiced from deep in the throat Equivalent to the \h\ sound in the word “hat” 5 6 Table of Contents Hooroof (Alphabet) Practice & Review Alwaan (Basic Colors) Practice & Review Arqaam (Numbers 1-10) Practice & Review Ashkaal (Basic Shapes) Practice & Review 7 8 39 40 52 56 68 76 84 HOOROOF Step 1 Introduce the letter form. ‫ا‬ Step 4 Link the letter sound to a familiar item. Step 3 Show the letter as used in a word. Step 2 Introduce the letter name. ‫أَﻧَﺎﻧَﺎس‬ alif Transliteration and translation. a-naa-naas (pineapple) 8 SKILL BUILDING ACTIVITIES Alphabet Soup- Spread out a set of alphabet tiles or cards on the floor/table, and give your child a large pot and a wooden spoon. Have your child add each correctly identified letter to the “soup” and stir it up, keep adding letters to the pot until all the letters have been identified. Qur’an Quest- For Arabic alphabet practice, use a large print Qur’an and have your child try to identify as many letters as he/she can on a given page. To make it easier, focus on one line or even one word at a time, according to your child’s ability. Puzzle Time- Make a large floor puzzle by writing each letter of the Arabic alphabet on a sheet of colored paper (laminate the sheets for a more durable puzzle). Then have your child lay out the puzzle on the floor each day as a morning warm up! Tip: Unlike the English alphabet, Arabic letters do not have upper and lowercase forms; but Arabic letters may appear in slightly different forms when shown in the beginning/middle/end of a word. In this text, we have concentrated on presenting the base form of each letter as an introduction to the Arabic alphabet suitable for young children. 9 10 ‫ا‬ ‫أَﻧَﺎﻧَﺎس‬ alif a-naa-naas (pineapple) 11 ‫ب‬ ‫ﺑـُْﺮﺗُـ َﻘﺎل‬ baa bor-too-qaul (orange) 12 ‫ت‬ ‫ﱠ‬ ‫ﺎﺣﺔ‬ ‫ﻔ‬ ‫ـ‬ ‫ﺗ‬ ُ َ taa toof-faa-‘ha (apple) 13 14 End of Preview Thank you for taking the time to preview this book. If you would like to purchase a print copy or e-book version of this title please visit our online bookstore at: www.mini-mumin.com 15