Description

A Poster-Poem That Belongs in Your Classroom

This is more than a simple poster. It’s a pedagogical, love-instilling work of art that your classroom needs.

Let’s start with a question: what was the first thing your children ever learned the color coral from? Or pink? Maybe cyan or magenta? Was it a Disney publication? A rainbow-centered book? Did it connect them in any way to Allah or love of our Prophet ﷺ—or did it help set a foundation of secularization?

As a father whose parents lived through communism, it’s thoughts like these that keep me up at night. I didn’t want my children’s first relationship with most subjects to come from secularized marketing departments from BlackRock-owned companies.

That’s why, while writing the First Shamail Reader, I chose to focus—methodically and intentionally—on four foundational categories of vocabulary: numbers, body parts, family terms, and colors. These are not random. They form the building blocks of early language acquisition and are the most commonly used as vocabulary lists for most KG and first-grade standards. In fact, Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek emphasize in their studies that early vocabulary tied to familiar categories dramatically increases retention and emotional connection to learning.

Teaching color, in particular, in a way that increases their love of the Prophet ﷺ was deeply meaningful to me as I’m also a professional designer. And it was my background in design that inspired this particular poem and, later on, its layout.

I combined it in a child-friendly poetry form as nothing quite grabs a child’s attention like poetry.  As Voltaire once said, “Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.” And if our children are to one day explain Islam in English—clearly, confidently, and creatively—then we owe it to them to give them the music of the language along with its message.

I also insisted that the language be metrically sound. English, for all its global sprawl, still responds to rhythm. I believe that rhyme, when done with integrity to classical Western meter, becomes a vehicle of both mastery and beauty. This poem was carefully written in anapestic tetrameter, a meter often used in children’s verse for its natural, galloping rhythm and mnemonic ease.

This poem, now transformed into a poster, was crafted with all of that in mind. It brings together a trifecta: aesthetics, pedagogy, and Prophetic love. And the result isn’t merely a decoration. It’s a daily formative tool. One that instills meaning as it teaches names of colors. One that beautifies the wall it hangs on. One that reminds children each day of the point of all learning.

Here’s the technical side: the poster introduces 42 color names. It begins with the 16 hues originally introduced in the First Shamail Reader—colors like maroon, magenta, sand, silver, and coral. These aren’t filler words. They’re anchors. Each word, each shade, each line is meant to build familiarity with both linguistic variety and devotional association. For example, the inclusion of ‘amber’ isn’t arbitrary—it connects to a long Islamic aesthetic tradition of the natural yellow-orange misbaha and natural essential oils used in the Ottoman and Malaysian courts, palaces, and majālis al-dhikr.

The art itself? Painted in soft watercolor, framed with geometric patterns reminiscent of Fatimid-era woodwork and tile motifs found across the Muslim world—from Morocco to Uzbekistan. Besides the Islamic skyline at the bottom—featuring the Kaaba, Masjid Nabawi, and the Dome of the Rock—there are layered geometric ornaments in watercolor that subtly evoke the patterns of our ummah’s visual memory. As students use the artwork as a reference, their faith will steadily be reminded of the love the Prophet ﷺ instead of a secular color chart that has no long-term faith purpose.

And the materials? Let’s not skip this. They matter more than most assume. We printed it on archival-quality 170 gsm matte paper. Why does that matter? Because most classroom posters curl, peel, or fade. This one doesn’t. It’s low-glare, thick enough to last, and worthy of placement—whether taped to a homeschool shelf, pinned to a kindergarten bulletin board, or framed above the wudu sink in a prayer room. It comes in multiple sizes because one-size-fits-all never fit classrooms, anyway.

Why This Poster Belongs in the Classroom:

🌈 Teaches 42 color names through rhyme-driven instruction, reinforcing phonemic awareness and memory encoding. According to a 2014 paper published in Reading Research Quarterly, rhythm-based repetition significantly improves lexical retention in early childhood learners. Muslim children who master these color words early will gain a broader, more expressive vocabulary than most peers their age—giving them both linguistic precision and poetic fluency.

🕌 Features iconic Islamic landmarks with care, helping root geographic literacy in faith-centered aesthetics. This includes the Kaaba (built by Prophet Ibrahim عليه السلام), Masjid Nabawi (resting place of our beloved Prophet ﷺ), and the Dome of the Rock (site of the Miʿraj), each one layered with both emotional and theological significance.

🎨 Builds a foundation for understanding beauty. A strong grasp of color is one of the first stages of design literacy. It is the beginning of learning how to beautify. The Prophet ﷺ taught us that “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty”—and this chart becomes a small but profound way to guide children in perceiving beauty through a sacred lens.

📘 Fully integrated with the First Shamail Reader, making it more than a standalone product. It becomes an extension of lesson planning, a visual reinforcement of core vocabulary themes covered in formal literacy instruction.

✍️ Carefully written to spiritually tune the ear, preparing Muslim children to speak about their religion in natural rhythmic English without the clunkiness of poor meter or translated syntax.

📜 Printed with durability in mind. This is not a cheap and disposable item that fades quickly. This is a pedagogical work of art—designed to age well, survive spills, and hold its shape even after years worth of inquisitive fingers.

📌 Perfect as a daily reference tool during morning circle time or integrated into ELA anchor charts for thematic units on color, beauty, or the natural world.

This isn’t a gimmick. It’s not cute for cuteness’s sake. It’s a gorgeous visual anchor for every child learning to love the Prophet ﷺ from their earliest years. Not through trivia or boring worksheets. But through rhythm, color, and beauty.

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly,” said Buckminster Fuller. Every classroom tells you exactly what kind of soul it’s shaping. That’s why we build for all types of interaction. Since your wall will speaks, let is say something that is joyfully et profoundly faithful.

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Paper Finishing: Matte, smooth, non-reflective surface.

Paper Weight: 170 gsm (65 lb), thickness: 0.19 mm (7.5 mils), sturdy and durable.
Sustainable Paper: FSC-certified or equivalent for sustainability.
Available Sizes: sizes in inches (USA & Canada) and CMs (rest of the world).

Notes & References:

1. Hassinger-Das, B., Ridge, K., Parker, A., Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Dickinson, D. K. (2016). Building vocabulary knowledge in preschoolers through shared book reading and gameplay. Mind, Brain, and Education, 10(2), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12103
2. Rasinski, T. V., et al. (2014). The Role of Rhythm in Reading: Reading Research Quarterly, Volume 49.
3. Fuller, Buckminster. Quoted in: Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking.
4. UNESCO Early Learning Resource Bank (2022): “Children’s Cognitive Response to Religious Vocabulary in Multilingual Settings.”

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