These years are all about building confidence. As early as 1^st grade children can become discouraged with learning Arabic, so focus on making learning fun and finding ways to build formal Arabic education into games and exciting activities!

		Essential Skills to Cover
		Vocabulary, Speaking and Listening Syntax grammar and sentence length increase very rapidly during this time. By now your child is able to express themselves fairly well. It is around this age that many bilingual children begin translating thoughts from one language to another, often making mistakes in literal translations. Use gentle corrections to ensure they learn proper phrases while continuing to build confidence. Reading & Writing Now that your child can read Arabic script, it is time to encourage him/her to read as much as possible. Reading out loud together is the best way to improve reading skills, make sure you are selecting books appropriate to your child’s reading level – easy enough to strengthen self confidence, but challenging enough to bring about improvement.
Fill In The Sentence Blanks
Fill In The Question Blanks
Arab Flags Activity Sheet
Learning Plurals Activity
Hatha-Hathihi-Haowla Activity

• Typical 1^st grade Arabic programs will focus on teaching students to break up a word into individual letters they can recognize, and to sound the word out piece by piece. Remember, Arabic letters can look very different in the beginning/middle/end of a sentence – so learning to do this is a great accomplishment for young readers. With patience, this is a process that becomes more fluent over time. 1^st graders should continue to work on correct pencil control, writing out the alphabet correctly, proper spacing, and can begin learning to write short easy words that contain letters with which they have become very familiar.
• 2^nd grade brings the introduction of basic diacritical marks (harakat), it is helpful to take your time learning the difference between a ‘fat-ha’ and the letter Alif, a ‘thamma’ and the letter Waw, a ‘kasra’ and the letter Yaa. On average, 2^nd graders will learn to recognize and read 150 common words by sight, and will learn to write short sentences using basic vocabulary.
• 3^rd grade is a good time to progress from the basic ‘harakat’ to ‘tanween’, and to learn proper use of the ‘shadda’. You should also encourage your child at this age to expand their reading ability and vocabulary by trying to understand the meaning of new words from their context in a sentence or story. Also, readers at this age will begin to notice the difference between the Arabic used in print and different words they might use in their spoken dialect. Don’t underestimate their ability to remember the 'fus-ha' word and the ‘aama’ word for the same object/action – this kind of early introduction to fus-ha will build reading confidence and will help ensure that they are able to tackle more difficult reading as they progress.

Grammar and Language Instruction

• 6 year olds (or 1st graders) should learn proper use of the pronouns ‘ana, anta, anti, antum, howa, heya, nahnu, hum’, as well as practicing the skills learned at the preschool / KG level. 
• Age 7 - 8  (or 2nd-3rd grade) is around the time most serious language instruction begins. 2^nd grade programs typically teach relative nouns like ‘alathi, alati, allathan, alathena’, demonstrative pronouns like ‘hatha, hathihi, hathan, hatan, ha’uwlaa’, and interrogative particles like ‘hal, man, mata, ayna, matha’. This is a lot to cover at a young age and is often a challenge, especially for those living outside the Arab world. It is important to take your time with grammar like this and stay focused on the big picture, grammatical struggles can leave students altogether discouraged with Arabic. Be flexible, and don’t worry about moving on if these details are not mastered, they will follow. 
• 8 year olds (or 3^rd graders) will typically review the concepts learned in 2^nd grade, and cover prepositions like ‘min, ila, aala, fe’, and terms of time and place like ‘qabl, baad, fawq, taht, amam, khalf’. 3^rd grade is also the time to begin work on the difference between masculine and feminine, singular and plural, past and present.

Keeping it Fun

• For a little break from reading, encourage your child to make a book all of their own. A good idea is an ‘All About Me’ book, where they draw and color in themselves, their family, their home, their favorite foods and objects, etc. If they are too young to write descriptions of each page in Arabic, ask them to ‘read’ it to you and explain it all in Arabic.
• As your child is learning to recognize and read new words, point them out anytime you see them in your home or community. For example, if they recently learned to read the word ‘bayt’, point it out anytime you see it in a newspaper or magazine, or on TV. Your son/daughter will be excited to see that they are able to read ‘grown up things’ – even if it’s just a word here and there!
• Here’s a fun challenge: write out the letters that make up your child’s name on small pieces of paper (if their name is short, maybe add siblings or friends’ names). Lay out the letters and mix them up, then ask your child how many different words they can make out of the letters in their name.
• For advanced writers, play the ‘caption’ game with old newspapers, magazines or photographs lying around your home. Ask your son/daughter to come up with a caption for what is happening in each picture and write it down – with a bit of imagination, the results may surprise you!

How & Why & When?	Tweenies Books	Cute Animals Series