rAs Kids All courses
Marhaba! Arabic · Module 1 of 8
🪨 No device needed

One Shape, Three Letters, Just Dots

ب ت ث are the same little boat — only the dots change — so you learn three letters for the price of one.

ب ت ث 🛶
One boat. One dot below is b. Two dots above is t. Three dots above is th.

🎒 What you need

✋ Do this

  1. Draw a wide shallow boat in the sand — a smooth curve with a small tail on the right. That is the shape all three letters share.
  2. Put ONE dot underneath it. That is ب — the sound b. Say it: baa.
  3. Wipe the dot. Now put TWO dots on top. That is ت — the sound t. Say it: taa.
  4. Wipe again. Put THREE dots on top. That is ث — the sound 'th' as in 'think'. Say it: thaa.
  5. Draw all three boats in a row and leave them. Bring someone over and make them tell you which is which just from the dots.
  6. Now remember which direction Arabic runs. Stand at the RIGHT edge of your sand and write towards the LEFT. Do it three times so your arm learns it.

💡 Why it works

Arabic has twenty-eight letters, but far fewer basic shapes — the dots do a huge amount of the work. Learning by shape family instead of by alphabet order means you meet each new shape only once, which is one of the genuinely fastest ways into the script.

🔥 Challenge

Draw a boat with no dots and dare a friend to add dots to make the letter you shout. Three rounds each.

📖 New words

باب bābdoor
بيت baythouse
تين tīnfigs
ثلاثة thalāthathree
🛶
Dot Master

Tap when you have finished this module.