Let’s go to Morocco!
Morocco is a very special country. It’s on the north-west coast of Africa, quite close to Spain. The Sahara desert runs through part of the country, but there are also mountains, beaches and beautiful architecture.
A group of people also live in Morocco called Amazighs or Imazighen. In fact, up to 80% of Moroccan people have some Amazigh blood. Some people call the Amazigh “Berber's” but this isn’t a nice word.
Berber means “barbarian” and so isn’t a nice word to call people. The Amazigh would prefer if people called them by their actual name.
Amazigh people live all across North Africa, in Morocco and Algeria and other countries nearby. There are 7 different languages which are considered Amazigh languages, including Shilha, Kabyle and Tuareg.
Amazigh people are famous for making beautiful jewellery with lots of different shapes.
This workbook is all about Morocco, including a bit about the Amazigh people! We’ve got some colouring in pages too.
This workbook has 6 different activities.
SCROLL DOWN
Before you start…
You’ll need some printed worksheets to complete this workbook. Start by clicking the button below and printing out the sheets.
Get a grown up to help you if you need it.
MAKE SURE TO CHECK ‘FIT TO PAGE’ WHEN YOU PRINT
When you’ve printed out the worksheets and got a pen or pencil, then scroll down to the begin the activities.
Here’s a bigger map…
You can click on the purple circles to learn more - it might help you later!
Delicious Moroccan food and drink…
Moroccan is known for delicious foods, including lots of fruits and nuts.
It’s also traditional in Morocco to drink mint tea. Mint tea is a bit different to regular tea. It doesn’t have milk in it, but it does have some sugar. It’s served in glasses, instead of mugs. If you want to try to make some yourself, all you need is a glass, some fresh mint leaves and some boiling water.
Make sure to get a grown up to help you!
We’re going to learn more about Moroccan food later…
Activity 1: First Questions
There are lots of interesting things to learn about Morocco! Can you answer the questions in this quiz?
Remember, try not to guess but actually do some research to find out the answers - ask your parents, or look on the Internet to find the answers!
Some colouring in sheets…
If you’ve got a younger brother or sister, they might be too young to do Deliberate Travel workbooks. But they can join in a bit with a colouring in page if they like.
Click on the button below to download a colouring in page. It shows a beautiful piece of Amazigh jewellery that you can colour in however you like.
Activity 2: Map of Morocco
Lots of Morocco is dry desert, with lots of sand and rocks. There are also lots of things to see, from markets - called souks - to plenty of animals and delicious foods.
Let’s explore!
Where are we going?
Can you answer these questions about the map?
I want to travel from Oujda to Agadir, how many cities do I need to go through to get there the fastest?
Which city is the most eastern city?
If you want to travel to Ouarzazate or Mount Toubkal, which city must you travel through first?
If you head south from Tangier along the road, what’s the first city you come to? ⭐
Which city is the furthest away from the capital?
Use the map on page 3 of your workbook to help you.
Activity 3: Saida and the gazelles
Saida was a young girl living in the old city of Marrakesh in the middle of Morocco. She lived with her parents in a house in the centre of the city, close to the souk, which is another word for market.
Sometimes she would go to the souk on her own to shop for food and spices. When she did, she always remembered to wear her djellaba - a long loose dress - and a scarf that she wore on her head, covering her hair. In the old days all women wore scarves over their hair when they left the house, but nowadays some women choose to and some women choose not to.
Saffron is a very expensive, yellow spice
One day, Saida went out to buy some saffron at the market. She got halfway through the market and then she remembered. She had forgotten to put on her headscarf!
She quickly ran back home to put it on but it was too late! Her father had already seen her. He was very angry with her. He told her she couldn’t live in the house anymore but must go and live in the desert as punishment.
Saida spent a whole day and night alone in the desert and was very scared. By the morning she was tired, cold and very hungry. Luckily a herd of gazelles found her. She liked the gazelles because they were gentle and showed her where to find water and some food.
She decided to stay with them, travelling around the desert with them.
One day a handsome prince was riding through the desert on his camel when he saw something strange. He thought he saw a girl standing in the middle of a group of gazelles. But the girl was covered in sand and walked on all fours like a gazelle. He wasn’t sure if she was a girl or a funny gazelle.
So he decided to set a trap. He put out two bowls of couscous, a food which is a bit like rice. One bowl had couscous with salt in it and one had just couscous in it. He hid and watched to see which bowl the girl would eat from. Gazelles don’t like to eat salt, so only a real human would eat from the bowl with salt.
Sure enough, Saida ate some couscous from the bowl with salt in it. The prince realized that Saida was a real girl and not a gazelle. He popped out of his hiding place and offered her a place to live so she could be with other people, like her. Although Saida was sad to leave the gazelles she agreed and went to live in his palace.
Later on they got married and as a wedding present, the prince made it against the law for anyone to kill a gazelle.
Now, a wordsearch…
To figure out the answer to this activity, you’ll need to complete a wordsearch based on the story above. You can find a copy of the wordsearch in your worksheets. Can you find all the words listed below in the wordsearch?
One of the words isn’t in the wordsearch. That’s the answer to this activity ⭐
palace
law
gazelles
gentle
prince
camel
sand
girl
trap
couscous
salt
Marrakesh
souk
market
spices
djellaba
scarf
saffron
desert
punishment
Activity 4: Time to cook!
In Morocco people often cook in a special cooking dish called a tajine. It has a lid like a cone and is usually made of clay. Moroccan food is delicious and is made with lots of spices.
It’s time to cook a Moroccan feast!
First you need to take a trip to the market. There’s a list of the ingredients needed below. Take a look at the map of the market on page 5 of the worksheets. Work out the quickest route to get all the ingredients you need. Start from the central square.
And keep an eye out for the star⭐! That ingredient is the answer for the Answer Grid.
Activity 5: The Arabic Alphabet
In Morocco people speak Arabic and French. Arabic is an interesting language because it has a completely different alphabet, with different letters. You can see some letters below.
They also write in a different direction. Instead of from left to right, they write right to left. So in Arabic, you would write MOROCCO as OCCOROM!
Take a look at pages 6 & 7 of your workbook. There are some names written in the Arabic alphabet. Can you translate them? We’ve done the first one for you.
The name with the star is the answer ⭐
Activity 6: Animals of Morocco
There’s lots of desert in Morocco. Sometimes deserts have lots of sand, and sometimes deserts are rocky. They are both deserts because they don’t have much water.
The desert in Morocco is hot in the daytime, but cold at night. Although it is difficult to live in the desert because there is not much water, some animals can survive there. They dig in the ground for water or they drink a lot of it when they can find it and then keep it in their bodies so they can survive for a long time without drinking.
Here you can see some of the animals that live in the desert in Morocco. On pages 8 & 9 of your workbooks you can see some descriptions of animals.
Can you match the description to the animal and fill in the right names?
Look for the star!
Congratulations!
You’ve reached the end. You should have 6 answers now. You can write them all in the Answer Grid to reveal the vertical word.
Have you heard of this before? If not, look it up on Google and find some pictures!
Do you want to check your answer?
Click the button below and type in your answer. If you’ve got it right, you’ll get a congratulations message. If nothing happens, check your answers and try again!