Next Class: January 4, 2015
10:00 a.m.
Crossroads Middle School
Class room assignments for your child:
Friday@ 7:00 p.m. — C-105
Saturday @ 2:00 p.m. — 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
Today's lesson was "G is for God." And the God that we learned about was none other than the beautiful Lord Ganesha, Himself. But what really made today's lesson so much fun was that we got to learn how to perform a puja. Aunty patiently and lovingly explained to us all the ingredients we should have when doing a puja, and exactly what their significance was. So even though we aren't allowed to light diyas or bring food items into our classrooms, we were still taken through all the steps in asking and welcoming Lord Ganesha into our homes and hearts. Honestly, we couldn't have had a more perfect lesson to end the year 2014 with...
And yes, it's hard to believe that Winter has officially arrived — today is the first day of the season. As much as most of us are not excited about snow... the aunties have to admit that we've got our fingers crossed for some white fluffy snow over break. "Why?" you ask? Well... because we agreed that this year we will build Lord Ganesha's in our front yards instead of snowmen. So if we're lucky and do get some snow... please make sure to take a photograph of your Lord Ganesha. We'd love to see Him. :-)
On that happy note...we want wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season/Break. We look forward to seeing everyone next year!!!
Oh yeah... and be sure to stay warm! Also, don't forget to drink lots of hot chocolate... especially after spending an afternoon building a Snow Lord Ganesha! xox
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Shokas
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 15, Shlokas 1, 2 ,3 and 4
Concentration/Shell Game
Today we topped all of our previous games... and we're not kidding! The children sat absolutely still and focused for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. So please make sure to give your child a big hug and "high five," because this really is tremendous progress so early in the school year.
Yoga Stretches/Exercise
As you are probably well aware by now, we never pass up the opportunity to jump around and burn off energy... so today was no different. We ran from that pesky imaginary mouse again... and then decided to bunny bounce back to our starting point so we could sit down and enjoy some quiet butterfly cocoon hibernation.
Likhita Japa
At this time of the year we like to introduce the children to creative likhita japa. Up until now they have been using the tracing sheet to learn the writing strokes for Raama (in Sanskrit). However, we have been noticing that the children are feeling pretty confident with their writing, so we are now ready to express our love and gratitude for God creatively, using colors and shapes. Please note that from this point onwards, your child will most likely not be able to finish their likhita japa art during class time. Therefore, they will be bringing home their paper to work on during the week. We encourage your child to bring their finished work with them to the next class. We will be having a "show and tell" segment where the children can share their artwork... and feelings, if they want to.
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If your child is interested in continuing their Likhita Japa over break, we are sharing the pages we use in class. Please feel free to download and print them for your personal use.
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If your child is interested in continuing their Likhita Japa over break, we are sharing the pages we use in class. Please feel free to download and print them for your personal use.
