Design and make a prayer mat for Ramadan

This fun STEM teaching resource focuses on designing a prayer mat for Ramadan while nurturing an understanding of the religious festival of Ramadan.

In 2024 Ramadan starts on Sunday 10 March and ends on Monday 8 April. It is estimated that globally 1.6 billion Muslims will take part in Ramadan and will fast from sunrise to sunset for one lunar month.

In this lesson activity learners will look at what Ramadan is, what happens during Ramadan and what is important to Muslims during Ramadan. They will look at existing prayer mats and design a prayer mat using a provided template.

We’ve created this design activity to support the teaching of key topics within design & technology (D&T), religious studies and art. This resource focuses on designing a prayer mat for use during Ramadan.

This could be used as a one-off lesson activity to develop designing and sketching skills or an understanding of Ramadan. Alternatively, it could be used as a part of a wider scheme of work to develop designing and modelling skills in design & technology and engineering.

Activity: Designing a prayer mat for Ramadan

Learners will look at what Ramadan is, what happens during Ramadan and what is important to Muslims during Ramadan. They will look at existing prayer mats and design a prayer mat using a provided template suitable for the KS2 level.

Tools/supplies needed:

Resources required:

• Paper and card
• Drawing implements: colouring pencils or pens, pencils and rulers
• Scissors
• Optional, if available – examples of actual prayer mats
• For extension activities: glue sticks, string, wool, selection of materials

Follow our step-by-step guide on how to design a prayer mat

Learners will design a prayer mat for Ramadan using traditional shapes and colours.

1. Learners create their designs using the template on the activity sheets.
2. Learners can present and discuss their designs, the patterns used and colours.
3. The mats from the whole class can be attached together to create one large class prayer mat
   1. Cut out your paper prayer mat
   2. Lay out all the prayer mats as a class and determine the top and bottom of the prayer mat
   3. Staple or glue the prayer mats together
   4. Lay the class mat on the floor and talk about which way is Mecca
4. As an extension, learners can make their prayer mat by cutting out different materials such as card, paper and felt and stick them on to their design. Using a hole punch and wool, learners could add tassels to their prayer mat. They could think about plaiting or weaving the wool.

The Engineering context

All designers and engineers need to be able to produce ideas related to certain themes and follow a design brief. This ensures that the products they design will meet the needs of the end users, customers or clients.

Suggested learning outcomes

It is important for learners to understand all types of religious festivals as part of their religious education. This resource combines religious education with art and design and technology with the aim that the learners will be able to generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches and pattern pieces.

Specifically, children will learn the main considerations and features for designing a prayer mat for Ramadan and be able to design a prayer mat that reflects Ramadan using shapes and patterns.

Download our activity sheet and other teaching resources

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

You can download our step-by-step instructions below as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation.

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