Learning About Islam – Free Worksheets and Resources for Kids
This year we are studying World Cultures and our focus has been on Africa. Before we delve further into the culture and history of northern Africa, I wanted to help the kids understand a bit about Islam.
Here is a set of worksheets I made for the kids as we learned a bit about Islam. This might also be helpful if you are doing an introduction to world religions.
You can download the free Learning about Islam Worksheets here
The kids also did this cut-and-paste activity about the Five Pillars of Islam:
I also came across a couple other useful resources that I used with the kids:
- The Story of Mohammad – A two page summary of Mohammad’s life and accompanying fill-in-the-blank pages. The kids listened to the story and then filled the pages out for their history notebooks.
We also read Muhammad by Demi (affiliate link):
Maps that show the major world religions:
Other useful Resources on Islam (for kids).
Finally, here are some of the books I checked out of the library to share with the kids. They mostly deal with Ramadan and Eid. We read a new book each day for about a week and a half. Here are some of them, though I missed a few others we read (I returned them to the library already and forget what they were.)
Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns is gorgeous book which highlights some of the key words of Islam. It is a “book of colors” but definitely worth checking out because the illustrations are so captivating (for any age!).
I also highly recommend What You Will See in a Mosque. This had a lot of interesting information (like the practice of washing hands, arms, feet and face before praying). We learned lots and lots from this book:
You might also be interested in our Africa Unit or India Unit. Where you’ll find lots of free printables, book lists and hands-on ideas.
Find more World Religion posts here including Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and more.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.
If you are going to teach about Islam then you need to tell the whole truth and not sugar coat it! Islam allows for beheading gays, beating women, forcing women to cover themselves from head to to, they allow for men to have multiple wives and to stone people to death (women) for adultery. Countries who live under Islam will imprison those who won’t conform to their ideology… Lets be factual when teaching children… Political correctness needs to go out the window… Teach them about Daniel Steele who was a reporter whom had his head cut off while he was alive and filmed for the world to see… This is Islam… There is nothing peaceful about it…
I totally agree with you but not all islamic countries allow men to have multiple wives. (this interferes with tradition as well) thanks for standing up for women in the muslim nation.
I believe your comments are coming from a very negative place, because as we all know Israeli’s really do dislike Muslims/Arabs. Lets look at what is happening in Palestine right now for example bombing schools , hospital etc , stopping aid coming in to the country, invading ,controlling. So yes, you hate Muslims and that much is clear, but just because YOU HATE ISLAM doesn’t make ISLAM a bad religion.
I can’t believe that here in America, you would even post this. Did you know two Islamists just beheaded and cut off the hands of an American-Egyptian man? I’ll never read your magazine and will discourage everyone I know to do the same.
Islam is such a great religion of possibly more than 2 billion people. Bethany, I urge you to go study Islam (be open minded) and maybe you’ll come to learn Islam is not what you had imagined it to be :).
Oh heck no! Like Raina said – you had better be telling the truth about Islam! Which from what I see, you are not. Darn shame that so many feel the need to be politically correct & not tell the whole truth – or just tell the “truth” of what the liberal media reports. I welcome you to come on over to Murfreesboro & Nashville to see how they treat us Americans over here….you’d be shocked & horrified by how blantant their hate towards America is & they make no secret about their plans for us. I could give you countless stories of the things they are doing right here in our area, not to mention the rest of our country….then there’s alaways what they are doing to their own people in the middle east.
I can see you are passionate in your views. Discussions like these are important among adults, perhaps points of discussion for high schoolers, but at this point these are not topics I would bring up with my young kids as we look at and get a glimpse of other countries and cultures around the world. It’s the same reason why our family has chosen not to study the Civil War, World War I or World War II yet. These topics are just too rough for my kids at the ages of just-turned-5 and 7 (We’ve read and discussed some of these topics with my 9 year old at an age-appropriate level.). As a parent, I limit what TV shows or movies my kids can watch and in that same way, I choose to share with them that there are other religions than just our own, but choose not to bring up much about extremism.
I can see you are passionate in your views. Discussions like these are important among adults, perhaps points of discussion for high schoolers, but at this point these are not topics I would bring up with my young kids as we look at and get a glimpse of other countries and cultures around the world. It’s the same reason why our family has chosen not to study the Civil War, World War I or World War II yet. These topics are just too rough for my kids at the ages of just-turned-5 and 7 (We’ve read and discussed some of these topics with my 9 year old at an age-appropriate level.). As a parent, I limit what TV shows or movies my kids can watch and in that same way, I choose to share with them that there are other religions than just our own, but choose not to bring up much about extremism.
Thank you so much for providing these resources. We are studying Islam right now and some of these worksheets are perfect. Thank you so much! My husband lived over there for a while and loved the people. Actually, anyone I know who has lived there have loved the people. I’m so glad I am able to teach my children the truth of how these people are and not just the bad things described in local media. So, thank you again for sharing!
Glad you found the packet useful, Linda. We’ve studied a number of different world religions the past few years. Other cultures are so beautiful and fascinating! I wish we could travel more (abroad that is), but at the very least we enjoy being armchair travelers for now! 🙂 ~Liesl
Liesl,
Before I began homeschooling, I was a Middle East specialist – and a terrorism expert. I can assure you that your efforts to introduce the basic tenets of Islam are important. Indeed, the individuals that the other commentators feel so passionately about are notable in that they could do with a refresher course in their own religion. Very little of what they purport to be “Islamic” actually is. Like all religions there are many divisions and interpretations. This does not preclude the need to study the religion’s basic tenets and to discuss (when children are older) why there is such a disconnect between those tenets and how the religion is manifested. (One only needs to look at the history of Christianity to know that no religion is immune to human beings perverting the tenets of their faith for decidedly non-religious reasons.) Finally, robust democracies thrive on civility, information, and free speech. Denying these feeds directly into the worldview of the extremists your commentators are so fundamentally opposed to.
I really liked your comment, Karla. It was so thoughtful. This post (and these worksheets) have had (and continue to have) thousands of downloads, so I think there are many of us who feel it’s important to have an understanding of all world cultures and religions. You really can’t understand history without an understanding the role the world’s religions have played. Thank you for you for leaving a comment! 🙂 ~Liesl
As much as i love my religion i have to say that smothering it is not the ideal image to put into someones mind. For those who do not teach and inquire into islam (all respect) do not think that this is the way that everybody is. we do not need other ideas getting put into other beliefs mind. I also would like to say that i need a good website for surahs. so if someone could comment the link.. Thank you.
Thank You.
I really appreciate this post and Karla’s comment! The only way to defeat ignorance is through education, especially in todays world. Thank you!
We really like your worksheet on the five pillars of Islam. Keep up the good job !
Thank you so much for this resource. We are using Susan Wise Bauer’s “Story of the World Vol. 2: The Middle Ages” as our spine in 2nd-grade History and I needed some hands-on craft work today. I’m going to be pinning this page for use when my younger child is in this grade.
Regardless of my faith, it is important to me to teach my children about world religions from an unbiased point. Thank you for this!
I’m so glad it was helpful! 🙂 We have used Story of the World quite a bit too… both the books and the wonderful audio book versions! ~Liesl
These worksheets are really great and useful.Thanks for the tremendous effort in putting them together. It is only through the right communication that people will be able to know of the beauty of islam. Islam teaches only peace and it will be great if we can teach that to our children too.
I just came across these sheet and these comments. Wow, in the 7 years since this was posted not much has changed. Education, courage, commitment and hope to all.