Hari Om! Parents,
Week 10 Balavihar began with the class doing the "Sri Rama Nama" deep breathing exercise and Om chanting. After "Sahana vavatu", the class chanted "Sri Ganesha Stavah" and all the verses of "Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam" (pg 28 and 30, My Prayers book). Going forward each child will memorise assigned lines to chant one by one in class.
Geeta Chanting
Grade 5 is the Partha group and will be learning verse 1- 30 of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Geeta (pg 18, Balavihar Handbook). This week we completed learning verses 13 and 14 with our Swamiji. Please use the link on the Parents WhatsApp group for your child to practice Geeta chanting at home.You can also send your child's Geeta chanting recordings to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn Houses points for Arjuna's Arrows.
Mahabharata
We had a substitute teacher, Rekhaji, join us in class today. The children enjoyed playing the Adi Parva Quizizz game with her. It was a good review for the names of all the Mahabharata characters. The Mahabharata story continued with Pandavas hearing of the grand archery tournament organised by King Drupada of Panchala. With mother Kunti's approval, they travelled to the capital city of Kampilya. We discussed how the enemity towards Dronacharya, led King Drupada to go in search of Yaja and Upayaja. The rishis performed the Putrakama yagna for the king. A young warrior arose from the sacrificial fire and soon after a beautiful girl followed him. King Drupada named them Drishtadyumna and Draupadi. The king's plan was his son to kill Dronacharya and give his daughter in marriage to Arjuna. Messengers were sent to all parts of Bharatavarsha to announce a spectacular archery contest. The devine bow had to be strung and five arrows had to pierce the revolving target, a fisheye.The winner would win the hand of Draupadi in marriage. The city was beautifully decorated and the tournament hall was filled with suitors from all over the country. Among them were Duryodana, Karna and Sisupala. Lord Krishna and Balarama were there to watch the swayamvar. The Pandavas disguised as brahmanas also joined the spectators. Drishtadyumna led Draupadi to the hall. She was dressed in royal silk, decked with jewels and had a garland in her hands. Dhrishtadyumna announced the contest to begin. Several great kings tried but failed to even string the mighty bow. Many others could not hit the target. Duryodana and Sisupala missed by the width of a seed. Soon it was Karna's turn and the audience were very sure that he would definitely win the contest. After stringing the bow, Karna let loose the five arrows. He missed the target by the width of a hair. No one from the ranks of the kings was successful.
Saints of India
It was Akshaj's turn for the saint presentation on Swami Vivekananda. He shared the interesting life story and several famous quotes with his classmates. We continued with the 'deck of compassion' activity and discussed examples of acts of compassion. We concluded that by kindness and sharing, even our small acts would help make the world a better place. Next the children shared how they used the values learnt from the saints. For example, forgiving a sibling in spite of their rude behaviour, and appreciating mom by giving her a hug everyday.
Reflection Journal Weekly Activity: The students pick one value from the 20 values followed by our Saints covered so far in class, and apply that in daily life. They write down one example of how they followed that value each day of the week. The children are given a chance to share their journal notes every class. This reflection will help them notice their behaviour and change their reactions to everyday situations.
We had to wrap up our class early to watch the Grade 9 monthly performance.
Wishing all Balavihar Grade 5 families a safe winter break and very happy new year!
Pranaam,
-Rashmi and Shanthi
Resources : If interested, your child can read Kamala Subramaniam's "Mahabharata", available on Amazon and Kindle. On the Youtube, "Epified- The Mahabharata" channel, has bite-sized videos of the stories we are covering in class. The individual episodes are available, in case your child misses class. This is the playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5AjK1x6A8j5KPRft76yRbu3A5T_uxY7s
Class materials needed: Journal/ notebook, pencil, Balavihar Handbook, My Prayers book.
