Nov 08, 2020 - KG (Sunday PM)

Hari Om Parents,

Welcome to Week 6 of Balavihar 2020-2021 and the KG Sunday PM session. We had full attendance today and covered quite a few topics and enjoyed stories and puzzles as well. Thanks to the children for providing their full attention and participating enthusiastically.

 Weekly Update

Nov 8th 2020 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Om Chanting

2. Guru Stotram

om saha navavatu,

saha nau bhunaktu,

saha víryam karavavahai,

tejasvinavadhítamastu ma 

vidvishvahai.

om shanti shanti shantih

 

3. We revised the following Slokas for Goddess Lakshmi & Ganesha

Karaagre vasate Lakshmi 

                      Kara moole Saraswati
                      Kara maddhye tu Govindah
                      Prabhate kara Darshanam

 

Eka Dantam,Maha Kayam

Lambho Daram Gajananam

Vighna Nasham Karam Devam

Herambam Pranamamyaham

4. We played a crossword puzzle today on all the topics we have covered thus far. The kids had a wonderful time answering the questions and solving the crossword 

 

5. Each child then took turns to revise all the Alphabets that we learnt thus far along with the actions and descriptions for each alphabet.

1. A - Aspiration 

2. B - Brotherhood

3. C - Cleanliness

4. D - Daddy

5. E - Enthusiasm

6. F - Friendship

7. G - God

6. We followed this with an activity break in the form joining the dots nd coloring our Pujya Guruji Swami Chinmayanandaji's picture. Pictures below show the wonderful effort by the children

7. We learnt our next alphabet H - Happiness (Happiness is an Attitude) by discussing what happiness means to the children. We took a virtual "Chinmaya Happiness Train" ride to various stops where they felt happy: Pizza place, Candy store, Toyland, and all the way down to Disneyland in Orlando. Children gave their reactions on what would happen if any child had allergies and was unable to eat pizza, the Toy store inside had no toys, or if they were sick when then reached Disneyland and unable to sit on any rides. How that happiness was not attached to these objects but what they felt inside and in their mind.

8. We then moved onto our next Alphabet I - Intelligence 

Think before you speak, 

Think before you Act

    We first watched the story of Ganesha's victory. We then discussed the story with the children on the different characters in the story: Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati, Narada, Ganesha's slow vehicle, the mouse & Kartikeya's fast peacock. How Ganesha used his intelligence to win the race by just circling his parents. Children then reacted to how they must use their intellect and intelligence to NOT eat too many candies after collecting them during trick or treat, or keeping their community surroundings clean doing the right thing and throwing all trash in the bins. 

9. We started revising our first verse for Geeta chanting. 

10. And finally we closed with Aarthi

Next Session Agenda

1. Revise alphabets covered in previous sessions

2. We are going a little slow with Geeta chanting as kids are taking a bit longer to get the words. We plan to shift the Geeta chanting towards the beginning of the class when their attention span is better. Geeta Practice Verse#1 and proceed to Verse#2

3. Proceed with our curriculum on Alphabet Safari and start with letter J & K

4. Practice our Slokas / Prayers

5. Continue with the class drawing / craft activities with stories

6. Please print and have the following slides from this PDF document ready for next week's session: 

1. Slide# 24 & 26

 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Please practice reciting the prayers & slokas

2. Please Practice Geeta Chanting using the video links shared earlier (Geeta Chanting Introduction Video, Verse #1).

3. We use this slide deck during class to drive our discussion and stories relevant to the letters we are learning in the class. Some slides contain links to youtube Videos that we have used throughout this year for showing some relevant stories.

 

Pranams

Rajesh Jayakumar

Ulka Powar