Ramadan Indian Food Word Search {Printable} plus Let’s Celebrate Ramadan & Eid {Book Review}

May 13, 2019May 18, 2019 | acraftyarab

We are once again taking part in the Multicultural Kid’s Blog fifth annual Ramadan & Eid for Kids blog hop, where bloggers come together to share ideas for teaching kids about and honoring Ramadan & Eid.

Last year, we created a word search of Ramadan foods and this year we thought we would do the same, but specifically food that is eaten in India, during the holy month.

I was recently sent a beautifully illustrated book about two kids, Maya and Neel, that go on an India adventure to learn about how people there observe fasting and the types of food they eat.

Let’s Celebrate Ramadan & Eid: Muslim Festival of Fasting and Sweets, written and illustrated by Ajanta Chakraborty and Vivek Kumar, was published by Culture Groove. It is part of an 11 book series, a few of which also teach about the holiday of Holi, visiting Mumbai and what you might see at an Indian wedding.

When I was sharing it with my daughter, she asked me what Sheer Khurma, a drink talked about twice in the book, tasted like. She was shocked to learn that I had never had it before. She assumed that all Muslims eat the same food during Ramadan.

We started researching other Indian foods that are only eaten in that region and came up with these eight:

Chapatis is an unleavened flatbread.

Chorba is a kind of soup or stew.

Dahi Vadey are fried chickpea-based fritters soaked in a savory yogurt base.

Falooda is a cold dessert made from mixing rose syrup, vermicelli, sweet basil seeds with milk, often served with ice cream.

Haleem is a type of stew that includes wheat or barley, and sometimes meat and/or lentils.

Rooh Afza is a syrup generally served mixed with cold milk and ice; the closest Western equivalent is strawberry milk.

Sharbat is a drink prepared from fruits or flower petals, that is sweet and usually served chilled.

Sheer Khurma is a festival vermicelli pudding made with dried dates.

I put them in a word search for her to find and we hope to visit our local Indian store soon to try some together. Download it here:

ACraftyArab-Ramadan-Indian-Foods-Printable-3.pdf Download

Please check out the book Let’s Celebrate Ramadan & Eid: Muslim Festival of Fasting and Sweets to learn about other new adventures that Maya and Neel discover together in India.

Be sure to stop by our resource page to see more book reviews that included educational printouts.

Ramadan for Kids | Multicultural Kid Blogs

Multicultural Kid Blogs is proud to be hosting its fifth annual Ramadan & Eid for Kids blog hop, where bloggers come together to share ideas for teaching kids about and honoring Ramadan & Eid. Don’t forget to check out our blog hops from last year, 2017, 2016, and 2015. Be sure to follow our Ramadan & Eid boards on Pinterest for even more ideas!

Participating Blogs

Eid Al-Fitr Around the World by The Multilingual Home on Multicultural Kid Blogs
Ramadan Indian Food Word Search by A Crafty Arab
Family in Finland
Five Pillars of Islam Counting Cards by Jeddah Mom
Green Ramadan by AlizehmySoul
Ramadan For Preschoolers by Multicultural Motherhood

Arabic Valentine’s Day Cards {Printable}

February 12, 2019May 6, 2019 | acraftyarab

Valentine’s Day is this Friday. It is a day to celebrate romance in many regions around the world and slowly starting to make it’s way into the Arab culture.

Children, where I currently live, give each other miniature Valentine’s Day cards in school, often attached to candy. Sometimes they build little mailboxes to collect these mini cards on their school desks.

This year, due to the severe snow storm that has hit our area, my daughters will not be at school. I decided to make them the mini cards so they could exchange them with neighborhood friends.

Of course, I had to add an Arabic twist. Each card has a little bit of fun with the alphabet. I used the same letters from my Arabic Parents Guide.

You can download them for free here.

Check out other fun holiday downloads on A Crafty Arab Printables board.

Celebrate Diwali Word Search {Printable} Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali {Book Review}

January 24, 2019January 24, 2019 | acraftyarab

I made this free Celebrate Diwali Word Search to learn new Hindi words with my children.

We learned all about Diwali because we received a beautifully illustrated book called Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali! from Culture Groove to review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day.

The story starts with meeting Maya and Neel, who live in Chicago, and their squirrel friend Chintu. They all travel to India to learn about Diwali, India’s biggest festival, also called the Festival of Lights.

They meet their mausi (Hindi for aunt), who shares the origins of Diwali. She then shows them the five days of how this special event is celebrated. As each day is shared, Hindi words are italicized. Hindi is a language of Indo-European origin spoken widely in India.

One of the things I appreciated was having a Hindi pronunciation guide right at the front of the book. This allowed us to practice a few of the words before my daughter and I read it together. Usually such information is placed in the back of the book, but it was a great idea to change it up.

The back of the book has a story recap, along with blank pages for kids to fill out. There is a lined sheet for them to write their own Diwali story, as well as a number of pages for drawing some of the new things the kids saw.

I shared the book with our neighbor, who celebrates Diwali, and she was excited to help me put together a special word search. My daughter and I hope to continue to practice these words so we can use them when Diwali occurs at the end of the year.

You can download the Celebrate Diwali Word Search here.

Be sure to check out our other Multicultural Children’s Book Day Reviews

Stop by A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more of our free downloads.