Arabic for Kids

This is a great way to learn Arabic online for kids between kindergarten and fifth grade. It is based on short stories. Young learners begin by learning the alphabet, and then learn to speak Arabic through situations that relate to their age. This is done by giving them stories and interesting puzzles that revolve around important topics such as: jobs, colors, numbers, food, outings, members, etc.

Below is a list of our Graded Stories courses:

• Toutou: This course is designed for young children who do not know the Arabic script or sound system. Letters are introduced in sequential order. Each lesson presents 3 or 4 new letters (or is a review of previous letters). Words are introduced that are composed ONLY of the letters that students have learned. Children are able to learn the letters, words, and basic sentence structures simultaneously.
• Sameh: This course is designed for young children who have already learned the Arabic alphabet. It helps students review the Arabic alphabet while enriching their vocabulary with additional vocabulary that is relevant to their age. Students get to see Loulou (the main character) at home, school, at the farm, in the garden, etc. Children learn to read and write words related to the world around them.
• Let’s Play: This course is designed for young children who can read and write but need more reinforcement. It presents scenes with children playing, drawing, writing, reading, walking, visiting the zoo, at a restaurant, and at home. The course further develops students’ vocabulary, adding words related to situations they may encounter.
• Guess-Fruits and Vegetables: This is the first in a series of courses that are based on guesswork. This active involvement of students in the lesson greatly increases their retention. The texts in the main lessons describe different fruits or vegetables, and students have to guess what they are. Students learn the names and characteristics of the different types of fruits and vegetables, as well as how to ask questions about and describe them.
• Stories-Fruits and Vegetables: This course can be completed in connection with, or after Guess-Fruits and Vegetables. Because students have learned how to describe a fruit or vegetable, they are ready to hear a story about them. The stories re-enforce vocabulary as well as introduce new words.
• Guess-Animals: This is the second in a series of three courses that are based upon guesswork. This course centers on birds and animals. Children will be asked to guess the animal that each lesson is describes. They learn to describe birds and animals in terms of: color, size, where they live, body parts, as well as whether it is tame or wild.
• Stories-Animals: This course can be completed in connection with, or after, Guess-Animals. Because students have learned how to describe different animals, they are ready to hear a story about them. The stories re-enforce vocabulary as well as introduce new words.
• Guess-Jobs: This is a third in a series of courses that are based on guesswork. In this course, children learn about the different professions. They learn what different people do, wear, the tools they use, and the place where they work.
• Characteristics of Young People: This course teaches children how to control and express their different feelings. This course accomplishes this through funny stories and interactive exercises. This course presents 8 engaging stories covering the following emotions: fear, boredom, aggression, pretending to know when you don’t, anxiety, being too quiet, liking to do the opposite of what people tell you, and being active versus being lazy. The children learn many useful vocabulary words related to expressing feelings.
• Manners: This course is designed to teach children about the cause and effect of different actions. It presents 10 different stories, 5 of which show how negative actions lead to unwanted situations, and 5 of which show how positive action brings about happiness. It contains many entertaining characters, and the children get to see what happens to the characters based upon their actions. The positive characteristics addressed in this course are: being helpful, clever, intelligent, loyal, and truthful. The negative characteristics addressed in this course are: being foolish, obstinate, liking to showing off, being greedy and lazy.
• Adventures: This course is composed of 8 short stories. Children are not only learning Arabic, but are also learning important life lessons (appropriate to their age level). They learn to be cautious while talking to strangers, to treat animals with kindness, to care about friends when they are sick, to take medicine when it is prescribed for them, to avoid eating dirty food, to use their brains to get out of a problem rather than their muscles, and to respect all creatures, even weak ones, to name a few.
• Unpleasant Characteristics: This course is composed of 12 funny stories. The stories are about a duck and a rabbit. The duck always does the right things and the rabbit always does the wrong things. The contrast between the two is what makes the stories engaging and fun. Children learn through the stories to distinguish between “good” actions and behavior and “bad” ones. They learn that doing good things brings happiness and success to all.
• Animals in the Forest: This course is composed of ten stories. The stories promote values, for example: one should not be greedy; the work of everybody is important; one should not show off; honesty and fairness are important, etc. The stories take place in the forest, and each story has a different animal as a hero.
• Village of Peace: This is a short story that shows how people can live happily when they cooperate. It also indicates how difficult life can be when people live alone and don’t get help from neighbors or offer to help them.
• Animals’ World: This course is based on ten short stories. Children view the world through the eyes of the animals and learn important concepts. For example: if you help people, people will help you; it is important to respect people and what they do; honesty makes people respect you; we should all do what we are responsible for; nobody will do your work but you; and we should not be greedy.
• Juha: This is a group of simplified short stories based on famous Arab folk tales. It is based on Juha, a funny personality that commits a number of funny and stupid actions. Somehow, through his stupid actions messages of wisdom are conveyed. The stories of Juha are very popular among children and adults in the Arab world. They form part of Arab culture, and reference to them is frequent. Children learn the language and culture, and benefit from the wisdom in the stories.

These courses are designed for young children who wish to study Arabic as a First language as of first grade.

The program meets the requirements and guidelines of the following:

• International Baccalaureate (IB) – Language B Arabic exam
• International General Certificate of Education (IGCSE) Arabic exam

Our program of study for the elementary school years is based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Year Program (PYP) guidelines. The IB program has gained the respect of schools throughout the world as it provides a flexible framework that allows for a great deal of personalization. Every culture can present its language in a form that suits it. IB guidelines ensure that the quality of a language program is maintained and guarantees that the children will acquire general knowledge along with analytical skills.

The following steps describe how the Arab Academy’s lessons remain within the framework of the IB’s PYP program.

The whole concept of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Year Program (PYP) is based on teaching children how to do research. The program provides six research topics or projects per school year that cover different elements of the world around us: history, science, technology, geography, health, environment, etc. Every research topic falls under one broad title, which is broken down into secondary topics and their main ideas. The Arab Academy follows the topics that are recommended by the IB for students studying their first language at the elementary school.

The first thing to do in researching a topic is to visit the library to look for books on the topic and search the Internet for resources. Hence, this step encourages teachers and students to post material relevant to the project. Those resources can be books, web sites or audiovisual material.

Leading questions guide the research. These questions bring together the different lessons within the project and unify them. They mainly highlight the important points that students are to learn. Those points are posed in the form of questions. Students reflect on these questions and form hypotheses that they will test through their research. Hence, the project begins. Students now have a clear goal and objective.

The teachers have posed questions to evoke students’ thinking process in step 3. In trying to find answers, students do a lot of activities. Steps 4 and 5 are comprised of those activities along with their evaluation. Children are taught to reflect on what they know and do not know and to evaluate their knowledge before and after the different activities they do. The Arab Academy’s program divides those steps into the following:

1. Warming Up and Its Evaluation

Before starting on the activities, the students need to warm up. The teacher begins by introducing some form of stimulus to activate the students’ thinking process. The stimulus could be in the form of questions, relevant pictures, graphs, maps, etc. The objective is to get the students ready for and interested in the coming activities. At the end of the warm-up, students should be able to recognize what they already know and what they need to discover about the topic under study.

2. Ongoing Activities and Their Evaluations

Ongoing activities provide the main lessons. There are four lessons in each project. These aim at introducing the children to different types of writing: nonfiction prose, stories and poetry. The first two lessons are based on nonfiction texts; the third is based on a short story; the last is based on a small piece of poetry. The lessons aim at developing the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The activities are conducted in a way that encourages children’s analytical thinking process.

3. Final Activity and Overall Evaluation

It is recommended that this activity be based on team work. Students are asked to give presentations, prepare wall charts, videos or papers bringing together all elements of the research topics they studied. At the end of the project, they are to evaluate their experience working on it.

This step lets teachers write about their experience working with their class. Teachers will say how this project worked for them: how children received it, how much they learned from it, whether they enjoyed it or not, etc. Teachers will also note any problems they might have faced and their recommendations for other teachers who may be teaching this project in the future.

These courses are based on the curriculum of the Egyptian Ministry of Education. These courses are designed for young children who wish to study Arabic as a First language as of first grade.
For a complete list of all our courses, including those for children, be sure to check out our catalog.