Ideas for inspiring pre-schoolers, please!

[Scirocco]

Salaam, I've been asked to go in to a local nursery/pre-school to teach children about Islam. Children would be between 2 and 4 (several classes, separate sessions for 2-3 and 3-4 ages). If anyone has any ideas for fun activities or books to use, please say! All my current resources are for older age groups, so starting from scratch in gathering things together!

I think just the basics like the 5 pillars. In one primary school, I know of someone who took in the build your own sadaqah box. A local muslim charity provided them. They are pre-cut so you just have to colour them in and the teachers help to fold into a box. They quite liked that activity.

This is a lovely prophets nasheed for small children that is popular in schools as at the end it mentions the biblical names of the prophets too

There is this version too. It's actually quite catchy.

At that age you need to keep it simple. For the 3-4 group perhaps go in with a few interesting things in a bag to talk about eg this is my special book, this is my special mat…. Or get them to guess what the items are before you show or explain. There is a nice bbc video called What’s on my Head with a hijab video to give you inspiration. Yes you can decorate moons or build mosques with blocks etc but do an intro like the above first, and, importantly, let them know general things about you eg. I like strawberries, i enjoy going to the beach etc, to show that we all have similarities regardless of what we believe. In a later session you could talk about values such as kindness. Keep the sessions meaningful to them. Not sure about the 2 year olds to be honest, they are so young!

At that age they like songs and nursery rhymes. If the prophets nasheed is too advanced then maybe something simpler like Omar and Hana. My little ones love them and they have a range of nasheeds for you to pick from.

A simple nasheed about helping each other. Oh how I love Omar and Hana!

Thanks everyone, got some good ideas there! I'm going to pull together a sensory treasure basket for the younger kids, with scarves and objects to discover and play with, do something about kindness to others and to animals, take in some dates for everyone to share (DC and I have done this before), and read a couple of books - one that's a bit about Islam (maybe 'Not Now Nur' or something like that) and a funny one to show how people from all cultures and faiths enjoy laughter.

Maybe for older kids, something like building toddler versions of bug hotels and tying in with the account of the Prophet (peace be upon him) saving an ant colony.

Oooh, maybe we could get the little ones out in the sand pit to rescue toy ants...?

@Scirocco sounds great, inshAllah all goes well!