December 14, 2014 Class

Next Class: December 21, 2014

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

Hari Om!

Hope everyone is outside enjoying this wonderful weather we've been blessed with! The weatherman said that we can these kind of warm days all week, so we better take advantage of them — these will probably be the last until Springtime. :-)

Today's lesson was "F is for Friendship"— something we all cherish and love, but something we often take for granted and don't really think about. During our circle time discussions, all the children were quite eager to share who their best friends were, and what they loved doing with their friends. We even talked about how animals can be dear friends, too. We then asked the children if they could draw a nice picture of their friends. And as you can imagine... everyone immediately sat down and got right to work. However, once we finished our drawing, we then asked everyone to crumple up their paper and lay it down nicely on the floor while Aunty tells us a story. At first, it felt a little weird to crumple up the drawings... especially because we love our friends. But Aunty told us that there was a very important reason for doing this, so everyone took a deep breath and went ahead and did it. Then we settled in for one of our favorite stories... "Lord Krishna and Sudaama."

After the story, we asked our young friends to open up the crumpled ball of paper and try to smooth it back into its original state... getting all the creases out.  Well, that definitely was an impossible task!!! The children were quite disappointed to learn that the creases in paper don't easily come out. We then explained to them that these creases represent mean words and actions... every time we tease or make fun of our friends we put a crease in our friendship. And like we just discovered, many of those creases can't be removed. Therefore, we have to be very kind and careful with our friendships... and help them whenever we can, even if we're not asked to — just like Lord Krishna did for Sudaama.

*****************

Shokas

• Saha Naavavatu

• Ekadantam Mahaakaaya

• Sarasvati Namastubhyam

• Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 15, Shlokas 1, 2 and 3

Concentration/Shell Game

We're definitely seeing some tremendous progress and growth in the children... 2 full minutes of absolutely quietness, excellent shell counting... all with our eyes closed and lips zipped. Four thumbs up for our young friends!!!

Yoga Stretches/Exercise

Jumping around is something we definitely LOVE doing... so we make sure to spend a few minutes  burning off energy before settling into our Circle Time activities. :-)

Likhita Japa

The children practiced writing "Raama" in Sanskrit 21 times. Many children are now able to write "Raama" in Sanskrit without using the tracing sheet... so we have started introducing them to writing inside Mandala drawings, using different colored pens/markers. (Creative Likhita Japa)

Craft Activity
We made a Friendship bracelet.

Ending Prayer
Om Poornamidah