As part of our Islamic school Fiqh class, we are learning the 5 pillars of Islam. Understanding the pillars of Islam is one of our first and most important lesson in our homeschool. To allow the children to form a solid foundation, it is important to introduce the pillars slowly, one at a time, giving them the opportunity to fully understand each pillar before moving on to the next. We also wanted to use as many senses as possible for each pillar in order for the children to grasp the best understanding. Thus, this lesson will be divided intoz 5 parts. The first part, introduces the children to the concept of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), which is the foundation of Islam.
To highlight the importance of each pillar we designed the following demonstration
Using cake pillars, and a piece of printer paper. We were able to show how and why each pillar is important. Starting with the 5th pillar, we discussed each pillar and then removed it to see what happened. We discussed why or why not each pillar caused the “house” to fall. The middle pillar was Hajj and the first to be pulled out.
Because I intend to go further in detail as we work on adding each of the pillars to our 5 pillars of Islam lapbook, we made sure to keep our discussions very brief.
To make the lapbook, we used a 22x 28 poster board and cut out a 7×14 rectangle from opposite corners. Then cut 7×7 square pieces from the remaining 2 corners. Fold the poster board as shown in the image below. 
On the front cover, using a watercolor paint we added the right handprint and wrote down each of 5 pillars in order starting with the pointer finger of Shahadah.
Last couple weeks we have discussed tawhid as the first pillar of Islam and the meaning of each of the words of the first Kalima. So, this week we concentrated on salat.
Here’s another sample of our lapbook from my youngest (4 year old)
The first box was for the 1st pillar (we still have to label each of the pillars), the second 2 boxes were used for salat. We included a wudu sequencing cards, salat/namaz cards, a flip chart or what invalidates a wudu, a salat wheel to help remember the name, time of day at which the salat is offered and the number of rakaats in each of the fard prayer. The wudu sequencing cards are held in place by gluing the top 1/4-1/2 inch of a piece of card stock that is 3- 3-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches in size. At the bottom of the tab is a small Velcro circle to hold it all in place.
Lovely blog mashAllah. Have you seen the Safar Academy books? They are so useful for teaching children.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look through the blog. And I’m so glad you liked it. I haven’t seen or used any books by Sadaf Academy, but I’ll definitely check them out.