Next Class: January 11, 2015
10:00 a.m.
Crossroads Middle School
Class room assignments for your child:
Friday@ 7:00 p.m. — C-108
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
Well, if you've watched the music video above, then you've probably figured out what this week's lesson was. Yep... you guessed correctly — "H is for Happiness."
Today we learned that happiness is not found in toys, favorite foods or "things." Instead, happiness is found within us. We can be happy any time... anywhere... and for any thing. We also learned that smiling and laughing uses less muscles in our body than frowning does, AND it helps us maintain good health. Oh, and we even discovered how contagious happiness and smiling is — absolutely no one can escape a good smile or a hearty laugh! We did try...
So on that happy note... we'd like to extend our warmest wishes to you and your family for a very Happy, Peaceful, and Healthy 2015! We are really looking forward to a New Year of a lot more fun learning with your children. We're only on Letter I, so we still have quite a few more alphabet letters to learn... soon... in our new ashram!!! Our moving date is rapidly approaching. :-)
Sending you all lots of Love and Peace for a wonderful week — and we'll see you next Sunday!
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Shokas
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 15, Shlokas 1, 2 ,3 and 4
Because our children are responsible for learning the first 12 shlokas, we will need to increase our learning curve a little with each class. During the fall, we only added one shloka per month. However, in order to meet our responsibilities, we will need to increase our shlokas by 2 a month. Next week we will introduce Shloka 5. Please spend a little time with your child each day practicing. Just 15 mins a day makes all the difference in the world. If you have any questions about tutoring, please feel free to talk with one of the sevikas. We are extremely lucky to have one of the Sanskrit teachers on our Kindergarten Team... and she will be very happy to answer any questions you might have.
Also, here is an audio blog that has archived all the Bhagavad Geeta chapters. It is a wonderful learning tool... and we highly recommend that you check it out. Here is the url:
Also, here is an audio blog that has archived all the Bhagavad Geeta chapters. It is a wonderful learning tool... and we highly recommend that you check it out. Here is the url:
Concentration/Shell Game
Even though we've had a few weeks off... everyone jumped right into position and played our concentration game beautifully. Nearly everyone kept their eyes closed throughout this activity... exhibiting very little restlessness. This is a great indication that the children are ready to try sitting silently longer... and spend more time in focused counting. We don't usually "up" our time until early/mid Spring... so believe us when we say that these children are doing impressively well!!!
Yoga Stretches/Exercise
10 mins. of jumping around, stretching... and laughing, of course.
Activity
The children drew a happy and sad face on two pieces of paper. When the teacher called out an activity/thing (i.e., "mango ice cream!") the children would hold up the face that best expressed how they felt about it. This allowed us to see that not everyone found enjoyment is the same things. We also explored and discussed how one scoop of ice cream might give us joy, but 20 scoops of cream would make us sick! So that's living proof that ice cream does not equal happiness. :-)
Story Time
"Yash Lost His Smile," by Nishita Chaitanya, Chinmaya Publications
Activity
The children drew a happy and sad face on two pieces of paper. When the teacher called out an activity/thing (i.e., "mango ice cream!") the children would hold up the face that best expressed how they felt about it. This allowed us to see that not everyone found enjoyment is the same things. We also explored and discussed how one scoop of ice cream might give us joy, but 20 scoops of cream would make us sick! So that's living proof that ice cream does not equal happiness. :-)
Story Time
"Yash Lost His Smile," by Nishita Chaitanya, Chinmaya Publications
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.
