Hari OM Everyone,
We got off to a great start today. Most of the kids were on time. We had put up the Agenda on the screen. We requested them to do Likhita Japa until everyone joined in. Please pick up a likhita japa notebook from the bookstore if you go on Sunday to pick up the Balabhagavatam book. Also the Balavihar Handbook. Almost all of them had their My Prayers book. That was good. Most of them were returning kids and only a couple of new students. We started off with 3 OMs, Sahana Vavatu, and Vakratunda. Then we did Karaagre Vasathe Lakshmi (Pg 11 My Prayers book), Samudra Vasane Devi, and Saraswathi Namastubhyam from the Daily Prayers. We will add more every week.
We then did a word search - Who's on our Zoom? - they had fun finding their own names and those of their classmates. It is really helpful if they join the class on a laptop since some zoom options are not easily accessible on chromebook or iPad. After that we did a Vinayaka Bhajan. We are attaching the lyrics - please ask them to show you. We practiced it in different speeds and everyone got a chance to repeat after us.
After this we did a Bingo game online - just to get to know them - what their favorite foods were, what languages they spoke, who were their favorite Gods, what places in India they have visited, if they had siblings or not etc. Everyone had fun - it took a little bit longer since a couple of them had to get a new device to join in.
We started off with a story about Ganesha and how He got the Elephant head. A couple of them knew the story already. We then talked about Ganesha's big ears and how they help him listen better and how we should also listen more and talk less.
We shared a short video of the same story. After that we did a small Drawing activity - we learned how to draw Ganesha by connecting dots like a Rangoli. Everyone loved this activity.
We then did a short primer on Sanskrit Pronunciation to prepare ourselves before we started Geeta Chanting. They all followed along nicely. We are learning to read the English transliteration and pronounce Sanskrit vowels and consonants properly. We will be learning the 2nd Chapter of Bhagavad Geeta this year.
As mentioned in the WhatsApp group, if you haven't yet then please pick up the Balabhagavatam book, Balavihar Handbook and Likhita Japa Notebook from the bookstore on Sunday evening between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. We will also give you the 3rd grade activity packet at that time. We will be using that for our class activities throughout the year. If you can't pick up from the Ashram then please let us know and we will let you know what to print at home and other supplies to get.
At the end of the class we asked them to join the parents on their Zoom session for Arathi and Pledge. We look forward to seeing all of them next week. We will start our topic for the year BalaBhagavatam from next class. Have a great weekend!
Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja
Jayashree & Suja
