Shlokas:
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2. "Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 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 rolled right in to 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. We introduced a new pose - Flower Pose, we had the kids sow a seed and pretend to grow that plant into a flower.
Bhajan time - we sang the bhajan twice Gauri Ganesh, Uma Ganesh Parvathi Nandhana Sri Ganesh Sharanam Ganesh Sharanam Ganesh Shiva Nandhana Ganapathi Ganesh
We then we went right into, "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.
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! Impressive how most of the kids are able to keep their eyes closed and concentrate.
After some meditation and calming down, we introduced the class to numbers 1-10 in Sanskrit. We showed images of the numbers in Sanskrit and in English on the screen as well as a a visual of circles with the corresponding number. We had the kids put up their fingers as we counted together.
Story Time
Geetha Chanting - We introduced shloka 2 in Chapter 2. We repeated shlokas 1 and 2 twice. Please refer to Swamiji's videos or Geetachanting.net for proper pronunciation.
Craft Time: With Thanksgiving around the corner, we decided to make a hand print 'Thank You" Trees for craft. We had the kids trace their hands (or use hand print cut outs) to look like tree branches and for every hand print, they were asked to tell us what they are thankful for and something they would like to share, as sharing is caring. Here are a few of our many trees:)
Story Time:
Stone Soup
The kids were eagerly waiting for story time :)
Once upon a time, there was a happy village full of happy families and a lot of friendly kids. The main occupation of all the families was farming. The kids were asked what it means by farming, they said growing food! Yes, we agreed that the village grew a lot of yummy veggies. Then the class was asked what was required to grow the crops and we discussed the importance of rain. A puppet of a boy farming in the rain was shown on the screen. Then the story of how the abundant crop that season was produced after all the rain. A puppet of yummy veggies was shown on the screen, then a puppet of a smiling mom and dad holding their fresh crops was shown on the screen. The kids were asked what expression was on their faces. They all responded that they are smiling. The kids were asked to show us a happy face:) With the abundance of crop, the villagers had the habit of selling their fresh veggies at their farm market. The kids enjoyed helping and playing together at the farm stand. A puppet of happy kids at the farm market was shown on the screen.
The next season came. The villagers kept looking up to the skies hoping for clouds and rain but there was no rain that season. A puppet of a sweating farmer on a dry cropless field was shown on the screen. The kids were asked how the farmer was feeling. The kids said sad and a few actually said mad! With no rains that season, there was limited produce. So there was an empty farm market, with upset kids everywhere. A puppet of an empty farm market was shown on the screen. The parents decided to save what they were able to harvest that season for themselves and their own families. A puppet of crying kids was shown on the screen. The class was asked how the kids were feeling, they all said sad. They then showed us their sad faces.
One day, the villagers heard the sound of a flute playing, that was the sign that the travelling story teller was in town! The kids all got excited, but the parents decided to shut their doors. A puppet of several closed doors was shown on the screen. The parents knew that the story teller expected to be fed when he came to town. The kids were always eager to spend time with the story teller. Unfortunately, the parents prevented the kids from doing so this season, as they decided not to share.
The story teller continued to play his flute and was conjuring up a plan. He saw a little girl walking towards the well along with her mom. The little girl was so proud to show off that she was able to draw water from the way bottom of the well. We all pretended to draw water from a well. The story teller decided to ask the little girl for one bucket of water. The excited girl obliged immediately! The story teller asked for her to pour the water into his huge pot. A puppet of a big black pot on an open log flame was shown on the screen. The water slowly began to boil. More and more kids were getting attracted to the sound of the flute playing. The story teller began stirring his pot every time the kids began to approach. The kids began to question what he was cooking. A puppet of a stone was shown on the screen. The kids said its a stone/rock when asked what it was. The story teller dropped that stone in to the pot and stirred it in!
The story teller decided to taste the stone water. He then commented to the few kids that were there that it would taste better if he had a little bit of salt and one potato. One kid said that he could ask his parents for some and ran off. That was added to the pot. Then another kids said that she could bring a carrot. The parents hesitantly agreed to share a little bit of their saved produce. Then we asked the class what they would like to add to the soup. The kids gave us all sorts of veggies! The puppet of the fresh produce was shown on the screen. By that time, all the kids in the village had joined the story teller and had contributed a tiny amount of something towards creating the soup. A puppet of a story teller surrounded by a lot of kids was shown on the screen. The story teller finally announced that the soup was ready and that everyone in the village are welcome to bring their bowls and dig in! Mmmmm!!! A puppet of kids drinking soup was shown on the screen.
As the kids were drinking the soup, a little girl commented that the magic stone made a lot of good soup. The story teller responded by saying that the stone makes a lot of friends. Then a little boy was quick to jump in and say that there is no such thing as magic stones! The story teller had the last words...he said that friends that share can make magic happen:)!!!
Sharing is Caring! On a slightly different note, we introduced the word "Obonato" - in an African language, it translates to, "I Exist Because We Exist". Is it possible for one to be happy if everyone else is sad?!? Je est un autre in French, means the Self is Other (Arthur Rimbaud). Just an extra emphasis on sharing is caring and Thanksgiving.
Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving. We will not have class this Sunday due to the long weekend. We will see you back on December 6th.
We concluded class with Om Purnamadha (page 15 in My Prayers book)
Pranaam,
Keerthi and Pramila
