Sr Alif blogs

..

Team sport

Things needed:

Big tub of water for the center

4 smaller tubs or bins to fill with water

4 sponges

Whistle

Ruler

Warm weather

Firstly divide the children in to 4 teams and explain the rules of the game.  A whistle sounds and one child from each team takes the sponge to the central bucket and dips it into the water.    They have to carry the wet sponge back to their team where they squeeze it into the smaller bucket, then pass the damp sponge back to the next person in their team.  The team keeps going back to the central bucket till each child has had a turn…. or if there are a few children (less than 16) you may let them take 2 turns each.  In fact you may have to try a dry run of this to get the numbers to work for you because we have almost 40 kids when we play!

At first we let them just play to enjoy the game and get a feel for it. Then we blow the whistle and  have a heart to heart.  Someone describes to them how the central tub is like ‘ilm’ and for our ummah to win in this life, we need to find the right kind of ilm and come back and share it with our ummah. You can allow the kids to give you examples of ‘ilm’ and encourage them to read and understand the Quran so that they can share it with their ummah. Then we let the kids play again after they have had a chance to reflect over the meaning of their actions.  They really look forward to the ‘re-match’.  We usually finish by teaching them a small dua that they can say to help them gain the right kind of ‘ilm’.

Just some tips that might come in handy:

We assign one parent volunteer or teacher per group to make sure the sponge is passed fairly and to settle “who dropped it disputes”

Explain to the kids how to run with the sponge or else the younger kids might get wet.

This activity worked well for us with kids ranging from 4 upwards.

The essence of the game is in getting the kids to understand the rules so you need to be loud and clear on that part

The point of the game really is team work.  How to wait your turn, how to encourage friends, being a good sport and being patient.  You could watch the kids carefully while they play and affirm good players or point out how you noticed kids helping each other and cheering each other.

It really helps to sit all the volunteers down before hand and go through the whole game before you get the kids to play it.  Just so that you are all on the same page.  On days when it was hard to coordinate everyone I’d just ring them up and go through it.

In the end we all feel good. Share your summer games with us at jannahsteps@gmail.com