Next Class: March 9th
Om Sahanavavatu
Shlokas
Saraswati Namastubyam
Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu
Ekadantam Mahakayam
Mookam Karoti Vaachalam
Manojavam maruta tulya
Gita Chanting
Chapter 14 verse 1, 2 and 3, 4
Activities
Concentration Time : Shell game
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Section A : Ruchi Vyas and Reshma Arun
We had a great class today. In the beginning we talked about winter and of course more snow coming in our area. Some of us did not want any more snow and some were thrilled to have more. We also saw that the home room teacher of the class room we use had written a note on the white board saying that if the school was closed on Monday (because of the snow), the students were supposed to read two chapters on their own. The children were asked to remember this as it was something related to the topic of the day!
We then began our regular routine of prayers and meditation. In addition to the usual shlokas, we introduced Sri ' Hanuman' shloka today. We took some time to discuss about Sri Hanuman and how he travels faster than the mind and the wind. We closed our eyes to see how fast our mind travels. In a blink of an eye we imagined ourselves in Disney land or Sea world or any other country around the world! All of us were amazed at how fast our Lord Hanuman must be! We also learned to use a non verbal cue to get ready for our quiet time. Please ask your kids what we used today to draw everybody's attention to be quiet and attentive. We also introduced the 4th shloka of Bhagwat Geeta. We all are doing great with our chanting.
Now it was time to introduce the topic of the day 'T' for 'Truth'! What is truth? How can we be always truthful? and what is the benefit of speaking the truth ? We did a brainstorming session on this. We narrated several scenarios to understand what lying meant. We then came back to the teacher's note that we had read at the beginning of the class asking the students to read two chapters on their own in an event of snow closing. We discussed how many of us would be tempted to tell the teacher that they read the chapters even though they did not. We agreed that we may get away with such lies in the short run ,but in the long run we will be a loser as ultimately only truth wins!! We also shared our experiences about lying and heard a beautiful story about a boy who cried wolf.
We played a game called It is hard to Lie". It was so much fun and we concluded that dealing with truth is a lot simpler as compared to fabricating lies. At the end of the class we did some creative likhita japa and it was time to say good bye.
Have a great week and see you all next weekend!
Section B : Meena Rajan and Jacqueline Gaines
We started the day with 3 om's followed by shlokas. We were amazed to see how most kids had practiced their gita. Most of them know first 2 verses, many know the 3rd verse but yes we need some practice with 3rd verse and some more with fourth verse. But we have got all the pronounciation correct it is now for us to practice so we can memorise it. Parents pls go ahead and register the kids for the gita chanting competition it is definitely a great experience for the kids.
After shlokas and gita we proceeded to our favourite shell game. Kids are now doing a whole two and half minutes silence. This is definitely a great achievement as it helps them to concentrate. After shell game we proceeded to our alphabet safari. Today's letter was T. But as usual we are in search for the balavihar word for the letter and children came with very interesting words like teach, try, teacher, trick but the first word most of them came with and the word they all felt would be the balavihar word was truth. This was great to experience.
Today's story was the boy who cried wolf. As it is a very popular story many kids knew the story but yes it was an interactive discussion after the story as they said. If you do not tell the truth you would not be trusted and that you would not feel happy from within. As the class was a very energetic class we followed this with some Krishna vadati so the kids could release their energy.
Today instead of tracing the word Ram for likhita japa for the first time this year we gave them some drawing sheets to do likhita japa. Every child used their creative imagination as they chanted rama and wrote rama on the sheets. Finally we concluded the day with arati and pledge.
Parents we really need to thankyou for the amazing work you do with the kids at home. They are doing wonderful with it but pls do keep up the good work and pls do not forget to register for gita chanting. Keep warm and stay safe we will see you again next week.
