<![CDATA[This study is motivated by the fact that Islamic Religious Education (IRE) learning in elementary schools tends to emphasize cognitive achievement and memorization, while affective aspects such as attitudes and behavior development receive less attention. This condition is evident in the teaching of zakat fitrah material for fifth-grade students at MIUT Thawalib Padang Panjang, where instruction is mostly dominated by verbal explanation and simple questioning, resulting in low student engagement and limited development of social awareness. This study aims to examine the effect of role-playing activities on students’ sense of care in IRE learning. A quantitative approach with an Ex Post Facto design was employed. The population consisted of fifth-grade students, with class V.1 selected as the sample. Data were collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire (1–4). Data analysis was conducted using simple linear regression. The results showed a significant effect of role-playing activities on students’ sense of care, indicated by a significance value of p < 0.001, which is lower than 0.05. This was further supported by an additional test result of 0.009 < 0.05, confirming that the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. The findings indicate that role-playing activities significantly influence the development of students’ sense of care in Islamic Religious Education learning at MIUT Thawalib Padang Panjang.]]>
