Shlokas:
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2. "Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
Activities:
Please have the kids make it a habit to chant the above shlokas every morning, after their bath/shower. This will help them learn, memorize as well as develop a lifelong habit of morning prayer and daily prayer.
We took attendance and kids responded by saying "Hari Om". We discussed the significance of the greeting.
We played the Concentration Game. After the chanting of 3 Om's kids tried to keep their eyes closed. They counted the number of stones being dropped into a box during the quiet time. Later they give the count of the stones dropped. The game quiets the mind and improves concentration. We muted everyone so that the kids wouldn't have any potential distractions from each other. Several students got the count correct! The rest of them were very close.
Bhajan time - We sang "Ganesha Saram" twice (page 31 in My Prayers Book)
We introduced the class to a new bhajan this week, "Great God Ganapathy" (page 36 in My Prayers Book). As we were sitting in one place for a while, this action bhajan got the kids moving a bit. We sang this bhajan twice.
As we were already standing up for "Great God Ganapathy", we decided to do some Yoga stretches. We began with the Tree pose with some swaying, then went into a Tiger pose and had everyone roar like a Tiger or a Lion (we had to prompt them to be louder!). Then we sat on the floor and turned into little butterflies, fluttering in the breeze.
Story time.
We introduced the class to Gita Chanting. We repeated the 1st shloka in Chapter 2 twice.
Craft time! We all made Ganesha Masks. The kids were super creative with their coloring and gluing! With the assistance of their parents, some kids painted, others used markers, crayons and colored pencils to decorate their masks. One of our kids even gave Ganesha a pair of glasses:)!! The kids were super excited to share their creations with the class. The parents did a great job doing the prep, helping the kids with the craft and sharing pics of the completed project.
Story Time:
Ganesha's Mousecapade
The kids were excited as soon as they heard the words "Story Time"! This week we had special surprise visitors to our story! I made some puppets of our main characters. The kids were happy to see them arrive on their screens.
Character intros:
Ganesha - Most of the kids knew who he was as soon as he was held up. Then the story began with describing his character traits. When asked what does he looks like, the kids said, "an elephant"! Then the kids were promoted by asking if he was sad...the kids then said he was "smiling". So we discussed that Ganesha was a happy boy, who always had a smile on his face and waved his trunk with overflowing love and glee. Then the kids were asked to show everyone a "Happy Face". They were all smiling and wanted to get as close to the screen as possible to show us their smiles. Ganesha was put away for a while.
Gajamukha - The next main character in our story was shown on the screen. In a similar manner the kids said "an elephant"! The same question was prompted and then the kids said that Gajamukha looked angry. Like his expression, Gajamukha always had an evil gleam and a trunk ready for destruction. Then the kids were asked to make an angry face. Some very scary faces showed up on the screen.
One day, Ganesha was walking down the street, smiling and waving at everyone. Everyone smiled and waved back at him. Everyone loved Ganesha and they wanted to be his friend and spend time playing with him. A little while later, Gajamukha rumbled down the street, with an angry expression on his face, no one wanted to greet him, even if they did, they were afraid that he would hurt them. So everyone stayed away from Gajamukha.
Ganesha's mom, Parvathi (many kids knew that!) told him that she was making laddus and modhaks that afternoon, so Ganesha decided to invite his friends over for a play-date. (All the kids nodded their heads when asked if they like play dates). All the kids were excited to go to Ganesha's house and Gajamukha wanted to be part of that. He did not understand why no one wanted to be his friend. But that was not going to stop him from stomping his way to Ganesha's house. (We had the kids act like Gajamukha with any angry face and some stomping). The puppets helped sort of animate the story:)
Gajamukha approached to the happy sounds of kids playing and enjoying the treats that Ganesha's mom had made. Gajamukha stomped in their direction demanding the kids to play with him. The scared kids ran away and hid. As Gajamukha's anger level increased, Ganesha started getting worried that his dad (kids responded by saying Lord Shiva when asked who dad is) would be disturbed. Ganesha tried to calm Gajamukha down but all his efforts were in vain till he decided to chip off a tiny piece of his tusk and he flung it at Gajamukha's forehead. Poof! Like magic, Gajamukha turned into a MOUSE! The last puppet in our story was introduced. The kids liked that surprise:) Gajamukha realized his actions weren't right. He was blessed to have been turned into a Mouse and he became Ganesha's car. He adored Ganesha and is by his side at all times and takes him everywhere.
Smile And The Whole World Smiles With You:)!!
We concluded class with Om Purnamadah (page 15 in My Prayers book)
Pranaam,
Keerthi and Pramila
