Vocabulary Cards — Session 36: My 'Where I Went Today' Diary

Print this page. Cut along the dotted lines. Each card is index-card sized. This session is a project session — these cards are the words your kid will use to write captions in their diary. Keep them next to the diary pages.

Card 1

Say it: WAYN? Means: Where? (Levantine)

🎨 Picture: A child looking around the house with hands up, searching for a missing shoe.

Use it when: You can't find something. Someone walks in and you want to know where they were. You're asking a friend which park they went to.

This is one of the most useful Levantine words your kid will ever learn. Wayn baba? Wayn el-kteb? Wayn rihti? You'll hear it a hundred times a day in any Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, or Jordanian home.

Card 2

Say it: RIHT Means: I went

🎨 Picture: A child with a backpack, pointing back over their shoulder at a park behind them.

Use it when: You come home and someone asks where you were. You're telling teta about your day. You're writing in your diary: riht 'al souk (I went to the souk).

Try it:

• رِحت عَ السّوق — riht 'as-souk — I went to the souk
• رِحت عَ بَيت تيتا — riht 'a beit teta — I went to teta's house
• رِحت عَ الجَنينة — riht 'al-jneini — I went to the park

Card 3

Say it: BUK-ra Means: Tomorrow

🎨 Picture: A calendar page being flipped forward, with a child pointing at the next day.

Use it when: You're making a plan. Someone asks when you'll see them again. You're promising teta you'll call her — bukra, teta, bukra.

Try it:

• بُكرا بْروح عَ المَدرَسة — bukra brouh 'al-madrasi — Tomorrow I'm going to school
• بُكرا مْنِلعَب — bukra mnil'ab — Tomorrow we'll play

Card 4

Say it: as-SOUK Means: The market / the souk

🎨 Picture: A busy outdoor market with stalls of tomatoes, lemons, olives, and fresh bread. A child holding a parent's hand.

Use it when: You're describing where mama went to buy vegetables. You're remembering a trip to the old souk in Beirut, Damascus, or Amman. You're drawing it in your diary.

Card 5

Say it: al-jnei-ni Means: The park / the garden (Levantine)

🎨 Picture: A neighborhood park with a swing, a slide, and pine trees. Kids running.

Use it when: You went to the park after school. You're telling baba where you want to go this weekend. You saw a cat at the park (shift bsayni bil-jneini!).

Card 6

Say it: beit TEH-ta Means: Teta's house (grandma's house)

🎨 Picture: A warm apartment with a balcony full of plants. A small table with a plate of fruit and ka'ak. Teta waving.

Use it when: You spent the weekend at teta's. You're calling teta to tell her you miss her house. You're drawing her balcony in your diary.

Card 7

Say it: beit SAH-bi Means: My friend's house (say SAH-bti if your friend is a girl: بَيت صاحْبْتي)

🎨 Picture: Two kids on a couch playing a game, with shoes by the door.

Use it when: You had a playdate. You're telling mama where you'll be after school. You're writing about the best day of your week.

A bonus card — for the family

Card 8 (bonus)

Say it: al-YOM Means: Today

🎨 Picture: A child pointing down at the ground with a big smile, like "right now!"

Use it when: You're writing today's diary entry. Someone asks what you did. You want to brag about something good that happened — al-yom riht 'al-jneini!

Pair it with بُكرا (tomorrow) and your kid has two of the most useful time words in the whole language.

How to use these cards

1. Keep them with the diary. This is a project session — the words go straight onto the page. Card in one hand, marker in the other.
2. Build sentences out loud first. Before writing, say it: al-yom riht 'a beit teta. Then write it.
3. Ask "wayn riht?" every single day this week. Dinner, car, bedtime. Make it a habit. The answer is the diary entry.
4. Don't correct the handwriting. Level 3 kids are still building their letters. Messy Arabic is real Arabic.
5. Let them draw more than they write. A picture of teta's balcony with one word — تيتا — is a perfect diary page.

A note on the Level 3 review

These cards are new, but your kid already knows the colors, the animals, the weather words, and the days of the week from earlier sessions. Pull out the old card decks. Mix them in. A diary entry might say:

al-yom riht 'al-jneini. at-ta'is hilu. shift bsayni bayda. Today I went to the park. The weather is nice. I saw a white cat.

That's a full Level 3 sentence. Your kid can do this.

Yalla Arabic · Vocabulary Cards · Session 36