Next Class: November 16, 2014
10:00 a.m.
Crossroads Middle School
Room Assignments for the class your child is registered in:
Friday @ 7:00 p.m. — Room C-108
Saturday @ 2:00 p.m. — Room C-108
Sunday @ 8:45 a.m. — Room C-106
Sunday @ 12:45 p.m. — Room C-107
Sunday @ 3:15 p.m. — Room C-108
Hari Om!
It was so nice to be back in Balavihar, seeing all of our young friends — especially after our "wacky topsy turvy" class a few weeks back. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Diwali... and Halloween!
And that nobody had to see the dentist for a toothache. :-)
Because we had a full class of activities today we decided to start right on time, even tho some of us were a little disoriented from the time change. After our morning disciplines we quickly moved onto a discussion about our Alphabet Safari, and how our Alphabet words will be reflecting something inside of us. The aunties were delighted and thrilled to see that everyone remembered what our letter A stands for: "Aspiration" — and that Aspiration can only be found inside of us. But what's more impressive is that these brilliant young kids instantly shouted out the definition word when asked if they knew what it meant!
We then moved on to the Letter B, asking the kids for their thoughts on what the word of the day should be. We got some pretty amazing answers... here are a few samples to give you an idea of how smart our friends are: Brave, Brain, Blood and Balavihar. Ok, the aunties can't lie. We actually thought that this letter was going to be a bit tricky for the kids. But NOPE — we were proven wrong.
Our word for the day, however, was "Brotherhood." Here are some of the highlights from our discussion:
• What is a family?
• Who are the people in our family?
• How should we treat people in our family? (Are we nice to them? Do we share with them?)
• Does "Brotherhood" only mean the people in your family?
• Could our neighbors be considered part of our family?
• Could people in other countries be considered part of our family?
• "What does Vasudhaiva Kutumbukam" mean? (Vasudhaiva means Earth, and Kutumbukam means Family.)
To help illustrate the concept of showing kindness towards others, the aunties brought in a little treat for each child. After we formed a perfect circle on our floor mats, we then handed each child an envelope and asked everyone to wait and open them at the same time. Well, it turned out that the aunties made a mistake!!! Not everyone had something in their envelope. In fact, some children had 2 dinosaur stickers while other children had zero dinosaur stickers. We felt so awful, because we really wanted each child to have one dinosaur sticker. What should we do?!!!!
We are proud to say that the children solved our dilemma. Those with 2 stickers volunteered to share with those who had none. And believe us, we know that this was not easy for them to do... but these kids opened their hearts and shared their stickers so no one was left out.
The aunties give four thumbs up to our young friends... they are truly the best!!!
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Shlokas
The aunties were surprised with just how well the children did after a two week break. However, we all agreed that in our next class we are going to try to keep our eyes closed for entire game. This will help our focus and concentration.
Yoga Stretches/Exercise
We spent a few minutes stretching our bodies and burning off some energy before settling into our Circle Time activities.
Likhita Japa
StoryTime: "Box of Crayons"
This is a story where all the crayons in a box didn't like each other. Red thought that Blue was ridiculous.... Green thought that Yellow was mean.... and Purple thought that Orange wasn't very smart. A young girl overheard all the crayons' bickering and decided to take the box home to make a picture with them, using all the crayons. She drew an orange sun, green mountains, pink lotuses, blue water and sky and yellow flowers. All the colors were absolutely speechless... they had no idea that each other had so much beauty in them. And from that day onwards they realized that everyone had something special about them... and together they made a beautiful drawing.
Game: Sharing Game
This is an activity where the children have to problem solve in how to make sure that nobody in the group feels excluded in having fun. This is a story where all the crayons in a box didn't like each other. Red thought that Blue was ridiculous.... Green thought that Yellow was mean.... and Purple thought that Orange wasn't very smart. A young girl overheard all the crayons' bickering and decided to take the box home to make a picture with them, using all the crayons. She drew an orange sun, green mountains, pink lotuses, blue water and sky and yellow flowers. All the colors were absolutely speechless... they had no idea that each other had so much beauty in them. And from that day onwards they realized that everyone had something special about them... and together they made a beautiful drawing.
Game: Sharing Game
Likhita Japa
The children practiced writing "Raama" in Sanskrit 21 times.
