ProgrammeDari arkib2012

The Honest Hudhud: where StoryBuzz began

StoryBuzz started with animals in the Quran, double-sided tape and a bag of feathers. The Honest Hudhud kit was one of the first.

Our first StoryBuzz sessions were small, eight to ten children at a time, and they were built around stories from the Quran. One of the first was about the hoopoe, the bird in the story of Prophet Sulayman (peace be upon him) and Queen Balqis. We called it The Honest Hudhud. This was around 2011 to 2014, when Syauqi and Nurin were just starting primary school.

Making the hoopoe

Each child made a hoopoe puppet: a printed bird, double-sided tape, feathers, a googly eye, and a stick with "Honest Hudhud" written on it. Hands-on and colourful, with something to take home: that became the hallmark of StoryBuzz.

Three hoopoe puppets at different stages: plain, with tape, and finished with feathers and an eye

Rhymes and jingles

In every session the children sang short rhymes and jingles together. For this story it was "3 little Hoopoe went out one day". Short rhymes are easier to remember, and the children carry them home in place of jingles that have no benefit for them.

Rhyme card: 3 little Hoopoe went out one day, with three yellow hoopoes

The take-home kit

Everything came in a clear folder: the puppets, a follow-up workbook with a line for the "Name of storyteller" on the cover, and a card with a short verse in Arabic and English.

The Honest Hudhud folder with the follow-up workbook, puppets and a verse card

The workbook is for toddlers and belongs to a series called Animals in the Quran. Activity 1 is the nursery rhyme, with three hoopoes to colour. Activity 2 asks the child to cover the hoopoe's body with feathers. Activity 5 is science: trace the words for the bird's bill, crown, feet and tail.

Activity 1: Nursery Rhyme page with three hoopoes to colour

Activity 5: Science page to trace the words bill, crown, feet and tail

Telling the story back

The heart of each session was storytelling. We told the story together, and then one child who was brave enough stood up and told it to everyone. Then the puppet went home. That is Impart, the last step of our 4-I approach: the child shows their family the puppet and tells the story again.

Stickers on envelope labels

Back then we did not have many resources, so we made do. For our face-to-face programmes we printed stickers on mailing labels and pasted them on the children's shirts or on their sheets. One series, Animals and Nature, paired a verse with a question for the child, such as which part of a mountain amazes them most. Another set simply said "Quran Journaling Starter Kit".

Sheet of printed labels from the Animals and Nature reflection series: mountains, day and night, and the elephant

Sheet of Quran Journaling Starter Kit labels with the old IqraSaurus logo

Where it led

Many of our later programmes and materials grow from these early sessions. The rhymes, the hands-on making and the object that goes home with the child all started here.