Session 26 — Weather

الطَّقس

Level: 3 — Animals, weather, places, colors Time: 25 minutes Audience: Heritage learners + total beginners (ages 7–9) Letter of the day: ط (Ta) Big idea: I can talk about the weather.

👩‍🏫 For teachers

This session works in a 25–30 minute slot with 5–25 students. You'll need: a window (or a printed picture of today's weather), six weather flashcards drawn on paper or printed, and space for kids to stand and move during Block 4. Set up before class: draw or print six big weather symbols — ☀️ 🌧️ ❄️ 💨 🔥 🧊 — and tape them to one wall. Have the audio queued.

Differentiation:

• Heritage stretch: Ask heritage kids whether their family says شَتا or مَطَر for rain. Both are right — different regions. Honor what they hear at home.
• Beginner warm: Stick to four words today (harr, bard, shata, thalj). Skip hawa and taqs if it's too much. They'll come back.

🏠 For parents at home

This session works one-on-one in 20 minutes — ideally near a window so you can actually look outside together. You'll need: 6 small papers or sticky notes, a marker, and your phone for audio. No prep beyond skimming this plan.

If your child is heritage: they almost certainly know harr and bard already — your job is just to name what they know. Say "you already know this one!" and watch them light up.

If your child is new to Arabic: start at the window. Look out. Ask in English, "what's the weather today?" Then tell them the Arabic word for it. That's the whole opening.

Materials checklist

• 6 small papers or sticky notes (for the weather wall game in Block 4)
• A marker
• Audio file: session-26-audio.mp3 (vocabulary + dialogue)
• A window, or a photo on your phone of today's sky
• Optional: print the workbook page on regular paper

Block 1: Look outside (2 min)

Goal: Anchor today's topic in the real sky outside the window.

Script:

Walk to the window together. Point outside. Say: "شو الطَّقس اليَوم؟" (Shu it-taqs il-yawm?) — "What's the weather today?" Then answer it yourself, based on what you actually see: "اليَوم… حَرّ!" or "اليَوم… بَرد!" (Il-yawm… harr! / Il-yawm… bard!) — "Today… it's hot!" / "Today… it's cold!"

Write the word الطَّقس on paper. Don't ask the child to read it yet — just point and say taqs.

Repeat together: Taqs. Three times. Then: Il-yawm… harr / bard / shata. Whatever fits today.

Block 2: Listen & repeat (6 min)

Goal: Learn the 6 weather words.

Today's vocabulary:

Script:

Play the audio once. Don't speak during it — let the native voice land first. Then say each word slowly. Have the child echo. Use gestures — kids learn weather words through their bodies:

• Harr → fan yourself, wipe brow
• Bard → hug yourself, shiver
• Shata → wiggle fingers down like rain
• Thalj → flutter fingers like falling snow
• Hawa → blow air, sway like a tree
• Taqs → point to the sky

Play the audio one more time. By now they should be echoing with the gestures.

Levantine note: In Lebanon and Syria, shata often means both "rain" and "winter." Tell heritage kids: "When teta says عَم تِشَتّي ('am tshatti), she means 'it's raining.'"

Block 3: Letter of the day — ط (Ta) (5 min)

Goal: Meet the letter ط and hear it inside today's word.

Script:

Say: "هذا حَرف 'ط'. اسمُه 'طاء'." (Hādhā harf 'ṭ'. Ismuhu 'ṭāʾ'.) — "This is the letter ṭ. Its name is ṭāʾ."

Write a big ط on paper. It looks like a little boat with a tall mast — an oval base, one vertical line standing up from it. Trace it together: oval first (right to left), then the standing line.

The sound: ط is a "heavier" T than the English T. Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, and say it deep — ṭa, ṭa, ṭa. It's the sound in taqs and in tomato the way your jiddo says it: طَماطِم.

Find it in our words:

• **طَقس**
  — starts with ط!

Find it in other words kids know:

• **قِطّة**
  (*qiṭṭa*) — cat
• **بَطّيخ**
  (*baṭṭīkh*) — watermelon
• **طَيّارة**
  (*ṭayyāra*) — airplane

Practice writing: Trace one ط in the workbook. Then write one yourself. Then write ṭaqs — the whole word.

Block 4: Play with it — The Weather Wall (8 min)

Goal: Match weather words to weather symbols, with the whole body.

Setup: On the wall (or floor, or table), spread out the 6 weather symbols you drew before class:

☀️ (harr) · ❄️ (bard / thalj) · 🌧️ (shata) · 💨 (hawa) · 🌤️ (taqs)

How to play:

1. Caller says a weather word in Arabic — for example, "شَتا!" (shata!).
2. Child runs (or points, or hops) to the matching picture.
3. Child says the word back: "شَتا!"
4. Switch — the child becomes the caller. You run.

Play through all 6 words. Then make it harder:

• Call out a country: "لُبنان بالصَّيف؟" (Lubnān bi-ṣ-ṣayf?) — "Lebanon in summer?" → child runs to harr.
• "الجَبَل بالشِّتي؟" (Il-jabal bi-sh-shiti?) — "The mountain in winter?" → child runs to thalj.

Classroom variant: Six corners of the room = six weather words. Teacher calls a word, all kids run to that corner. Last one there is the next caller.

Block 5: Tiny reading (3 min)

Goal: Read three weather words today.

Show the child these three words, side by side, with pictures:

Have them point to one. Say it. Then the next. Then the next.

Now try a tiny sentence:

Il-yawm harr. — "Today it's hot."

Read it together. Then swap harr for bard, then for shata. Three real sentences from three words. That's reading.

(In the workbook page, this is the "I can read these words" row, plus the first sentence frame.)

Block 6: Goodbye & try at home (2 min)

Goal: End warmly and send the weather word home.

Script:

Say: "يَلّا، مع السَّلامة! بُكرا شو الطَّقس؟" (Yalla, ma'a as-salaama! Bukra shu it-taqs?) — "Okay, goodbye! Tomorrow, what's the weather?"

Tonight at home (tell the child):

Tomorrow morning when you wake up, look out the window. Say the weather in Arabic — just one word. Harr. Bard. Shata. Tell someone in your family.

For parents: Make this a daily ritual for the next week. Every morning at breakfast: "Shu it-taqs il-yawm?" Even if the answer is just one word, you've built a habit. By Friday they'll say it without you asking.

After this session

• Send home the Family Guide (one page).
• Send home the Vocabulary Cards (cut on dotted lines).
• Workbook stays in folder/binder.
• Next session: Session 27 — Seasons (الفُصول), letter ظ (ẓa).

Teacher / Parent observation notes (formative — not graded)

Watch for, this session:

No grading. No tests. Just notice and remember.

Yalla Arabic · Level 3 · Session 26 of 48