How to teach kids Qalqalah

Introducing Qalqalah to kids

How do you teach kids Qalqalah?

When a child is on Quran, one of the hardest pronunciations is reading the Qalqalah letters in the correct way.

At first I just familiarise the children with Qalqalah letters. I refer to them as echo letters when teaching children the saakin page. At this point, there is no need to go into too much detail.

Next, I introduce the rule. I set children 3 targets over the course of 3 weeks.

In the first week, I will explain the rule and the conditions in which we have to say the letter with Qalqalah. In this first week, the children just have to understand and learn the rule. Some may understand it and just get it straight away, for others, this may take longer. They then have to say the rule everytime they read their sabaq to me.

Once they have learnt it (a week is usually enough for them to remember it proficiently), we then move onto finding Qalqalah letters. So we will look through a page from the Qa’idah or Quran and the child has to spot any Qalqalah letters on the page. We do this for a week and then move onto reading Qalqalah letters. They will find a Qalqalah letter first (building on the the first week’s skill) and then start practising actually saying words with Qalqalah.

Sometimes finding and reading the Qalqalah letters can be done in one week, other times this needs to be split into 2 weeks to ensure they absolutely know it. In the last week, we just practise applying it in the sabaq. Some children need constant reminding, until they are doing it without being reminded. 

Qalqalah flash cards

Please subscribe for free to gain access to the powerpoint game and the Qalqalah flashcards.

These flashcards are a great little way to just go through with our class together. You can just hold up each one and ask the class in general or one kid in particular. You can also ask them why or why not a particular one is read with Qalqalah, just to reinforce the concept.

These cards also come with ‘Qalqalah’ and ‘no Qalqalah’ heading. You can get a child or a pair of children to work together and sort the cards into 2 categories: Qalqalah or no Qalqalah. They can get on with this independently and show you once they have finished sorting the cards. You can then ask them to pass it onto someone else. 

I find that my kids absolutely love hands on Tajweed. They like sorting and it helps them to remember the rule better than if I was just to teach them in the standard way. Also I just store the rules and the associated letters in a storage box. This allows me to just pull this out whenever I need to introduce it to a child learning it for the first time.

Qalqalah game

I have made a little Qalqalah powerpoint slide that teachers or parents can go through when a child is learning the rule and its application. The first few slides focus on the rule and goes through an example of Qalqalah with each of the 5 letters.

Towards the end there is a table of 16 words that may or may not be read with Qalqalah. The game involves getting a child to click on the words that should be read with Qalqalah. A ‘Masha’Allah’ page appears, if they click on a Qalqalah word. They just need to follow the directions (click on the books) to take them back to the 16 word page. If they click on a word that isn’t read with Qalqalah, a page asking them to try again will come up. Again, they just need to click on the books to take them back. 

Download this powerpoint on your phone for easy access. You can then get pupils to pass it on to the next child. This will allow all of them to get a chance to practise spotting Qalqalah words.

Finally, just remember to praise children when they implement or attempt to implement Qalqalah within their sabaq. 

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