Session 28 — Animals We Know

حَيَوانات نَعرِفها

Level: 3 — Animals, weather, places, colors Time: 30 minutes Audience: Heritage learners + total beginners (ages 7–9) Letter of the day: ع ('ayn) Big idea: I can name common animals.

👩‍🏫 For teachers

This session works in a 30-minute slot with 5–25 students. You'll need: printed animal cards (1 set per pair of students), the audio file, and a whiteboard for the letter ع. Set up before class: pair students up, and place one set of animal cards face-down between each pair. If you have a real classroom pet or even a fish in a bowl, bring it forward — kids will remember the day they met it forever.

Differentiation:

• Heritage stretch: Ask heritage kids what animal sounds Arabic-speaking grandparents make — the miaow in Arabic might be miyaw miyaw but the rooster is kookookoo, not "cock-a-doodle-doo." Let them teach the class.
• Beginner warm: Stick to three animals (qitta, kalb, usfur) in Block 4 instead of all five. Add the others next time.

🏠 For parents at home

This session works one-on-one in 25 minutes. You'll need: 5 small papers or sticky notes, a pen, your phone for audio, and — if you have one — a real pet or a window with a bird outside. The kitchen window or balcony is perfect for spotting an usfur.

If your child is heritage: they probably already know qitta and kalb from sittu/teta. Today's job is just to make them feel proud they already know it — and to add the written word to the spoken one.

If your child is new to Arabic: the letter ع is the hardest sound in this whole language. Don't stress it. If they can almost say 'usfur, that is a win. We will come back to ع many times.

Materials checklist

• 5 small papers or sticky notes (for the animal matching game in Block 4)
• A pen or marker
• Audio file: session-28-audio.mp3 (vocabulary + animal sounds)
• Optional: a photo or stuffed animal of each: cat, dog, donkey, bird, fish
• Optional: print the workbook page

Block 1: Hello & today's theme (3 min)

Goal: Greet warmly, set today's theme — animals around us.

Script:

Say: "مَرحَبا! كيفَك اليَوم؟" (Marhaba! Kīfak il-yawm?) — "Hello! How are you today?" Then with a smile: "اليَوم رَح نَحكي عَن الحَيَوانات." (Il-yawm raḥ niḥki 'an il-ḥayawānāt.) — "Today we're going to talk about animals."

Ask the child (or class): Do you have an animal at home? Have you seen an animal today — even a bird out the window? Let them answer in English. Just get them thinking.

Write the word

Block 2: Listen & repeat (7 min)

Goal: Learn the 5 animals.

Today's vocabulary:

Script:

Play the audio once. Just listen. Then say each word slowly. Have the child echo.

Add a sound or movement for each:

• qitta → miyaw miyaw (Arabic cat sound!) and scratch the air
• kalb → haw haw (Arabic dog sound) and pant
• himar → bray loudly, hee-haw style, and flap "ears" with your hands
• 'usfur → flap arms like little wings, tweet softly
• samakeh → press palms together and wiggle them like a fish

Play the audio one more time. Let them do the movements along with the words.

Levantine note for parents: in spoken Lebanese, you might hear bsayneh for cat instead of qitta — both are fine. Qitta is what they'll see written everywhere.

Block 3: Letter of the day — ع ('ayn) (5 min)

Goal: Meet the letter ع — Arabic's signature sound.

Script:

Say: "هذا حَرف 'ع'. اسمُه 'عَين'." (Hādhā harf 'ayn. Ismuhu 'ayn'.) — "This is the letter 'ayn. Its name is 'ayn."

Write a big ع on the board. It looks like a little curl with an open mouth — almost like a 3 written backward.

About this sound: ع comes from deep in the throat. Tell the kids: imagine you're about to gargle water, but just at the very start of the gargle — that's 'ayn. Make the sound together. Laugh about it. It should feel funny.

Find it in our words today:

• **عُصفور**
  — starts with ع!
• **عَين**
  — the letter's name. It also means "eye"!

Stretch (heritage kids): Do you know anyone whose name has ع in it? Ali, Omar, Aya, Samia — all of them. Even the word for family — 'ayle — starts with ع.

Practice writing: Trace one ع in the workbook (it has four forms — beginning, middle, end, alone — but today we just trace the alone form). Then write one yourself. Don't worry if it looks like a number 3. That's basically what it is.

Block 4: Play with it — The Animal Match Game (8 min)

Goal: Connect the Arabic word to the animal — fast.

Setup: Write each of the 5 animals on a separate small paper:

Shuffle them. Place face-down.

How to play:

1. Child picks a card. They look at the Arabic word.
2. They say the animal name out loud — and make its sound or movement (from Block 2).
3. You guess in English which animal it is. If they're stuck on the word, give a sound clue.
4. Switch roles. You pick a card. Say it. They guess.

Play through all 5 cards twice. The second round, race the clock — how fast can you both get through them?

Classroom variant: Pairs do the same with their set of cards. Then play "Animal Charades" — one student draws a card and acts it out silently; the rest of the table calls out the Arabic word. First correct shout wins the card.

One real moment: ask the child or class — if you could have any of these animals at home, which one? Let them answer in Arabic:

Block 5: Tiny reading (4 min)

Goal: Read THREE animal words today.

Show these side by side with pictures:

Point to one. Have the child say it. Then point to another. Then another. Mix the order. Go fast, then slow.

Why these three? Their letters are easier to recognize. We'll add himar and 'usfur to the reading list in Session 29 — once the ع feels less new.

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

Block 6: Goodbye & try at home (3 min)

Goal: End warmly. Carry one animal word into the rest of the day.

Script:

Say: "يَلّا، مع السَّلامة!" (Yalla, ma'a as-salaama!) — "Okay, goodbye!"

Tonight at home (tell the child):

Find one animal today — a real one, in a book, out the window, on a screen — and say its name in Arabic when you see it. Tell us tomorrow which one you found.

For parents: When your child spots a bird and says 'usfur — even badly — say "Aywa! 'usfur!" back. ("Yes! A bird!") Don't correct the ع. Just affirm. The sound will come.

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 29 — Big Animals, Small Animals (حَيَوانات كبيرة وصغيرة), letter غ (ghayn).

Teacher / Parent observation notes (formative — not graded)

Watch for, this session:

No grading. No tests. Just notice and remember.

Yalla Arabic · Level 3 · Session 28 of 48