ALCASA Children’s Group, February 2016
What an amazing beginning to the new year for the ALCASA Children’s Group! Six families and their 10 children participated in an engaging and challenging play-based Arabic session. As there was some time since they last learnt together, new children were able to introduce themselves and get to know each other over some play dough fun. Children made Arabic letters and different fun objects using the Arabic words to describe them.
The children were then invited to the ALCASA Café where they were ordered and baked their choice of a sweet or savoury pastry. Student had to order their choice in Arabic and reinforced some basic food words and larger numbers associated with money. The children had the following choices to order from the bakery:
Apple تفاح
Pastry عجينة
Sugar سكر
Cinnamon قرفة
Zaa’tar زعتر
Cheese جبنة
The children were able to enjoy their tasty treats while they participated in a story time activity. They followed a story with the title لا يا طارق about a mother and her young son who gets up to some mischief “No, no, no Tariq!” his mother keeps yelling! The students responded to questions and answered appropriately to demonstrate their understanding.
Because of the large number of children in attendance, the group was able to be split into three groups; the very young under-fives played some traditional Arabic games, the older children engaged with learning letters and writing words and the intermediate group participated in a role-playing activity based on the story.
Thank you to all the volunteers and parents for their support and contribution. We look forward to seeing all the families at our aflam film day on Saturday 19th March at the Mercury cinema. Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet is a family friendly movie and all families are welcome. Tickets at www.alcasa.eventbrite.com.au
Hassan Mekawy
ALCASA Secretary