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Moon phases with biscuits and a paper-plate clock

When Hilwaa was a toddler, science happened at home with whatever we had: sandwich biscuits for the moon, a paper plate for a clock and cardboard tubes for a ball run.

When Hilwaa, our third child, was a toddler, a lot of our science happened on the table at home, using whatever we had. These photos are from those years, around 2012 to 2014.

The moon on a plate

We wanted the children to see why the moon looks different from night to night. First we made a big chart: a hand-drawn Earth in the middle of a large sheet, a yellow line for the moon's path, and picture cards of the phases laid around it.

Moon-phase cards laid in a circle around a hand-drawn Earth on a large sheet
Moon-phase cards laid in a circle around a hand-drawn Earth on a large sheet

Then came the biscuits. The children opened sandwich biscuits and scraped away some of the cream with a wooden stick, until the plate showed the moon going from new to full.

Biscuits on a plate with the cream scraped to show the phases of the moon
Biscuits on a plate with the cream scraped to show the phases of the moon

Today this kind of activity sits under what we call science Tadabbur: looking at the moon and the crescent, the sky, plants and time as signs from Allah.

A clock with two sets of numbers

The Arabic clock is a paper plate. The numerals are written in Arabic around the edge, and the hands are cut from orange and green foam and fixed with a split pin. By one of the numbers is a little flap. Lift it, and the familiar 3 is written underneath in red, so a child can check.

Four steps of making a paper-plate Arabic clock with foam hands and a lift-up flap
Four steps of making a paper-plate Arabic clock with foam hands and a lift-up flap

We link clocks and time to Surah Al-'Asr.

A ball run from the recycling

The ball run is cardboard tubes taped inside a plastic bag holder. Coloured balls go in at the top and drop from tube to tube. In the photos Hilwaa peers through a tube to see where the ball has gone.

Hilwaa as a toddler looking into a home-made ball run of cardboard tubes and coloured balls, face blurred
Hilwaa as a toddler looking into a home-made ball run of cardboard tubes and coloured balls, face blurred

Clouds, rivers and plants

Clouds were among our first steps into science. One piece from our cloud series is a cumulonimbus cloud, cut from silver foil and labelled by hand.

A silver foil cloud cut-out labelled Cumulonimbus
A silver foil cloud cut-out labelled Cumulonimbus

Hilwaa also drew "Reflect: The Benefits of the river", a comic with a panel for each use of water she could think of: wudu, drinking, washing clothes, a shower, reading, food in water and watering crops. This is Integrate in the 4-I: taking what we have learned and finding it in a child's own day.

Hilwaa's comic, Reflect: The Benefits of the river, with panels for wudu, drinking, washing clothes and more
Hilwaa's comic, Reflect: The Benefits of the river, with panels for wudu, drinking, washing clothes and more

We made growth charts too. This one is for a lesson on asexual reproduction in plants, using Bryophyllum, also known as the air plant, with boxes to measure it from Day 1 to Day 14.

IqraSaurus growth chart for Bryophyllum, the air plant, with boxes from Day 1 to Day 14
IqraSaurus growth chart for Bryophyllum, the air plant, with boxes from Day 1 to Day 14

Plants were part of home as well. A young curry leaf plant grew in a pot beside the children's slides.

A young curry leaf plant in a clay pot beside children's plastic slides
A young curry leaf plant in a clay pot beside children's plastic slides

For parents

None of this needed special equipment: a packet of biscuits, a paper plate, some tubes from the recycling and a plant in a pot. In Investigate, we look at what Allah has made, compare it with what people make, and talk about the difference. Science does not prove that Islam is right. It is one of the many signs Allah has shown us.

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