Dear Parents, Hari Om, Welcome to the virtual Balavihar class of 2020-2021! We are so excited to have your child in the Chinmaya Vrindavan Balavihar ! We hope you are all looking forward to another year of learning and fun. While Virtual balavihar class will be a new experience for some students, for others it will be a continuation of the past year. We want this year to be a very enjoyable experience for everyone involved; new and returning students, and parents and teachers, alike. The curriculum for this grade comprises 2 books, the great epic, Ramayana and Key to Success. The goals of this class are to acquaint the children with the values of the Hindu religion by grade curriculum accompanied by Chinmaya slokas, bhajans, and Geeta chanting. We will explore how the Ramayana molded, not only the characters, but the civilization of the world for the first part of the BV year. The Ramayana is one of the greatest epics of Hindus written by the sage Valmiki. The underlying messages conveyed are the values and ideals, particularly in relation to duty, morality and social responsibility. This epic is a great pillar of Dharma, which supports our experience of our own humanity. It is "victory of dharma (good) over adharma (evil)". It teaches us how to live a dharmic life, which finally leads to liberation. The second book "Key to success" is an odyssey of mind that uses the analogy of Chariot. Sri Rama used it to enlighten Vibhishana about inner preparation for the battle.
This year the students will learn to chant chapter 2 of Bhagavad Geeta for the Geeta chanting competition in April, and they will give a "mini" stage performance In January, either virtually or in person on stage if the Ashram opens as the things return to normal. And still yet, in May, the class will perform an Annadanam at the soup kitchen, as a service assignment. A very full year, indeed! Adding additional dimensions to virtual learning, we include many virtual games, discussions, videos, enactments and other creative activities to reinforce each week's theme. We hope to enhance our classroom learning even further with a field trip when things return to normal. We encourage each student to participate fully and actively in all activities. Again, for the children to get the full benefits of this program, we encourage them to participate actively, and to strive to attend all the sessions for the year. Every year students with perfect attendance will receive a Special Recognition Award at the annual graduation ceremony. As an added bonus, we have a blog for the seventh grade Balavihar team that is written by our students if they are interested and reviewed by teachers or just written by teachers itself. We encourage you to check it out frequently for class information and updates. The blog can be found at http://cmnjparentportal20-21.blogspot.com/ Please note that we would like each child to bring a Balavihar folder, a "My Prayers" book, pencil/pen, and a "Fat Little Book" (or a composition book) for Likhita Japa, in his/her Balavihar bag.
Looking forward to a great Balavihar year with our students! Balavihar Class 9/20/2020
Today we kicked off our virtual 2019-2020 Balavihar year!
The class opened up with breathing exercises, the chanting of OM 3 times, and daily prayers including: Sahanaavavatu, Vakarathunda, Karaagre vasate Lakshmi, Saraswati namastubhyam, Gurubrahma, Brahmaarpanam, Shubhamkaroti, Kara-charana. ( My prayers, green book pages 11, 12)
We then had a short icebreaker where the kids all introduced themselves with the game, two truths and a lie. The students enjoyed getting to know each other.
Then the class was taught bhajan " Prema mudita mana se kaho" ( My prayers green book 144)
Then we moved on to explore the authenticity of the Ramayana. The class watched this very interesting 7 minute video clip of Ramayana being Itihasa (history) rather than Mythology.
The video explained that several of the key events of the Ramayana are properly dated in relation to each other using the cosmic alignments given within it. It also spoke about how several other cultures used variations of Rama's name and described heroes similar to him.
We gave them a little introduction and advised the students to buy the Ramayana by Rajagopalachari from Amazon. It's a great book and we encouraged them to read a few chapters before coming to the class. We also told our students that they can also borrow from the senior students as well!
As we will be learning chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita this year, we watched a video on Sanskrit Chanting Primer and repeated the sounds along.. This is to familiarize kids with transliteration of characters in Sanskrit.
Soon it was time to wind up to go to the main session! We will be delighted to see them next week!
Pranaams, Lakshmi and Vyjayanti |
Sept 20, 2019-Grade 7 (Sunday PM)
