Next Class: Sunday, October 10, 2015
Hari Om!
Today was the day we started our Alphabet Safari curriculum... and our lesson was the letter "A."
After we performed our weekly disciplines (Morning shlokas, Geeta Chanting, and Concentration Game) we opened up our Circle Time discussion to the children, asking what they thought the letter A stood for. As you can imagine, lots of hands immediately shot up in the air, and the kids shouted out their answers. “A is for apple!” “A is for arrow!” and “A is for ant!”
After everyone started to settle back down, we took this opportunity to explain to the children that with our normal school alphabet we learn words that reflect things outside of our body. For example: an apple is not something that is found inside of us… it grows on a tree. It’s something we can hold in our hand, therefore it’s not a word that we will be learning in our Alphabet Safari. The same holds true with “arrow” and “ant.”
After a minute or so of silence and thinking… we then told the children that our letter “A stands for Aspiration.” What exactly is Aspiration? Aspiration is when you work really hard for something (a goal). And a person can only aspire when s/he is determined and focused. Those are the two main ingredients for reaching a goal!
The concept of “aspiration” is certainly not a very easy one for children to grasp. So to help illustrate this idea we shared a story and then played a game. The best part of these activities is that ot only did we accomplish learning our lesson for the day… but we also got to play around in the process!
We hope that your child had as much fun as the aunties did today.
p.s. Your child's homework assignment for the week: They must think about the letter B and give some thought about what it might stand for. But while doing this it's important to remember that our alphabet uses words that can only be found inside of us… not outside our body. "Things" are considered outside the body. However, feelings and thoughts are found on our insides.
Have fun!!!!!
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Shlokas
The children sat quietly, with their eyes closed, for one full minute... and then focused on counting shells as they were dropped into the bowl for another minute and a half. That means for 2 and a half minutes that sat quiet and completely focused. The aunties gave these kids several high fives and "four thumbs up"... These kids rock!!!!
Yoga Stretches/Exercise
We always need to burn off some energy before story time, so we got up and did some nice stretches and then burst into some super fast running (in place.) After a few minutes of frantic running... we found ourselves ready to sit back down so we could give our full attention to aunty during our story time.
StoryTime: "The Best Archer"
This is the story where Dronacarya asked all the Pandavas and Kauravas to stand in a line so that each one could shoot their arrow at a target placed high in the tree. Dronacarya became very displeased as he asked each student what they saw while looking at the target. Everyone answered that they saw the tree, the target, their brothers, and Dronacarya. So Dronacarya told each student to sit down... they were not ready to shoot their arrow at the target yet. Dronacarya then asked Arjuna to come to the front of the line. Arjuna was asked what he saw... and answered that he could only see the target — nothing else. This made Dronacarya very happy and he told Arjuna to go ahead and release his arrow. To everyone's amazement, they saw Arjuna's arrow soar through the sky and land smack dab in the center of the target high in the tree top.
Game: "Yes, I Can Reach My Goal!"
This is a game where the children all stood in a line and had to jump as high he/she could so that they could reach a balloon tied to a stick. After several attempts and lots of high jumping, each child succeeded in finally being able to hit the balloon. We learned in this activity that sometimes we are not able to reach our goal on our first try... but if we don't give up and and continue to work hard and stay focused... we will definitely reach our goal!
Ending Prayer
