Feb 5, 2021 - Grade 3 (Friday)

  Hari OM Everyone,

Last two weeks have been very eventful! We had a surprise guest in our class the previous week - our own Swami ji came for a short visit and stayed with the class for more than 30 mins patiently answering the barrage of questions from the kids. Initially the kids had memorized and recited one Shloka from the Daily Prayers or 1 stanza from Madhurashtakam! Even though we had only asked them to memorize the English version, Siddharth and Neel memorized the Sanskrit version and sang! Great job by all the kids! Now the kids all want to do only the Sanskrit version of the song which we practiced this week! 

They all asked Swami ji so many questions - here's a sample - unfortunately we could not record the session! 

1. How was Lord Shiva born and if he had no parents who fed him and raised Him?

2. How can Hiranyaksha hide the earth under the ocean when Earth is already covered by the Oceans?

3. Why was Lord Rama there when Jatayu died but not when Dasaratha died?

4. Why did Lord Rama kill Ravana - is He not a God?

5. Are there people born now in Kali Yuga who might have seen Lord Rama and Lord Krishna in Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga?

6. Why did Lord Krishna give the Bhagavad Gita only to Arjuna? And if it happened in the battlefield how did someone write about it?

7. Why did Lord Krishna have to die by a hunter's arrow? Was He not a God? Could He have not anticipated it?

Swami ji asked them why they all liked Dhruva and also what was it that Prahlada told his father Hiranyakashipu when he asked him what he had learned in the Gurukula. Children did not recall clearly the nine modes of devotion that we had covered a few classes earlier. So we have decided to review it again in class. So in the last class we started talking about what is Bhakti, it is nothing but Love for God. We love only someone we know - so that's where Shravanam comes in - only when we listen to stories of Bhagavan we develop love for Bhagavan. King Parikshit is the example of a great listener. We talked about the difference between merely hearing and listening with a funny story of a school boy who is distracted in class by a mouse climbing up the wall into the cracks and when the Math teacher asks him when you take 2 away from 4 what remains he answers 'the tail'! :-) 

Then we talked about how when we love someone we cannot stop talking about them - we asked them about their favorite Sports teams! Constantly talking or singing about Bhagavan is Kirtanam. That is another step in the nine modes of devotion. We also told them about Saint Mira Bai and how she was always singing about Krishna. We discussed how Narada ji who is a familiar character to them is constantly chanting Narayana Narayana. When we do our prayers and sing Bhajans we are doing Kirtanam.

Then we talked about  why even when we had heard all the stories before, but when Swamiji asked we could not recall immediately - that is because we are not constantly remembering it. Smaranam  is making a constant effort to remember the Lord. Bhakta Prahlada is a great example of someone who constantly remembered the Lord even when his father's army tried to kill him in so many ways. 

We asked them to write it all down in their notebooks so they can remember it :-) Please talk to them about it and ask them to tell you the stories so they will remember! Some of them are already reading the Bala Bhagavatam book at home - please ask them to read it to you as well. We will continue with the 9 modes of devotion next class as well. 

We then played a game to review the names etc learned in the previous classes. It was then Geeta time - we quickly reviewed the first 7 and we spent a lot of time learning to chant Verse 8! We will record it next class. 

For the next class we have assigned everyone one Daily prayer and one Madhurashtakam stanza to memorize. Since this week we don't have class it would be great if they can memorize two! All the kids are very eager to participate in the Shlokathon on March 20th. Please register them here.

Our next class will be on 19th Feb and we will be having House Spirit Day activities! Please ask them to dress up in Green! Go Arjuna's Arrows!

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja

Dec 18, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

Hari OM Everyone,

We started the class practicing Bhagavad Geeta V5 with those students who joined earlier. Then when the class was assembled, we started with 3 OMs and Sahana Vavatu and Vakratunda Mahakaya followed by each one leading one of the Daily Prayers. We then recorded Tejas chanting Verse 5 and then practiced Verse 6 for a long time. We recorded Srinadh chanting Verse 6. 

We then watched a short animated English video of the Prahlada story - this version had the Holika episode missing from the movie clips last week  :-) We then talked briefly about the 9 modes of devotion that Prahlada talks about namely - Shravanam, Keertanam , Smaranam , Archanam, Padasevanam, Vandanam, Daasyam, Sakhyam and AtmaNivedanam.Shravanam is when we listen to stories of the Lord. Keertanam is when we sing about Him like the Bhajans we learn in class. Smaranam is remembering the Lord - that is why we have pictures of the Lord and the idols in the temple to remind us of Him. Archanam is when we chant the names of God and offer flowers - we reminded them of the Saraswati Puja we usually get all children to do in the Ashram. Padasevanam is serving the Lord - we talked about how if we can remember that God is in everyone and serve others it is also Padasevanam - we talked about how they can serve their elders at home too! Vandanam is bowing down to the Lord - like when we do Namaskaram in the temple.  For Daasyam We talked about Hanuman ji and how he considered Sri Ramachandra ji as his master and served Him. Sakhyam is considering God as your friend - we talked about Arjuna and Krishna and Krishna and Sudama. Many children didn't know about the Sudama story - maybe we will tell them some other time. 

For Sakhyam we then told them the story of the boy Gopal - he is the only son of a poor woman and his father is no more. His mother works very hard to make ends meet and when he is a bit older enrolls him in a school which is in a different village. Gopal is excited about school but comes home crying because the forest on the way is very scary. He requests his mom to drop him off and pick him up - but his mom can't do it and she feels upset. Then she prays to her favorite deity Krishna and has faith that He will help her - she tells Gopal that he has an older brother whose name is also Gopal and is a cowherd who lives in the forest and will help him. Gopal is very thrilled to hear that and goes to school eagerly the next day and calls out 'Gopal Bhaiya..Gopal Bhaiya' and sure enough Gopal Bhaiya comes - clad in a dhoti and carrying a flute and a peacock feather in his hair. They both play together for a long time and then he drops off the little boy in school. From then on Gopal becomes very cheerful and spends a lot of time with his brother. Soon it is the end of the year and all kids are getting presents for their teacher and Gopal asks his mom but his mom asks Gopal to ask his brother. His brother gives Gopal a small mud pot of yogurt and Gopal happily takes it to his teacher but all the other kids look down at his simple gift. But when they start eating, the teacher serves the yogurt and everyone loves it so much and wants more - to their amazement the teacher discovers that the small pot never becomes empty - they pour the yogurt into a much bigger vessel and the vessel becomes full but the pot also remains full! Everyone is astonished and the teacher asks Gopal where he got the magic pot - Gopal shares that his brother Gopal in the forest gave him the pot. Everyone goes to the edge of the forest and Gopal calls out to his Gopal Bhaiya but after a long time they can hear the sound of the flute but no one except Gopal can see Him because they don't have the faith yet. 

We played a word search game for a few minutes before we had to leave to watch the Grade 9 monthly program at 8.20pm. 

We don't have class for the next 2 weeks. We have the Story telling contest on January 16. Please ask them to prepare and participate. They can work on their Art projects as well during the break. If you can practice the Geeta verses we have learned so far and help them memorize that would be great. 

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and we will see them back in the New Year! 

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja

Dec 11, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

Hari OM Everyone,

We haven't been in touch since the Inaugural Assembly late October. Apologize for the delay. We had 2 classes in Nov and one in Dec so far. In all classes we start with the three OMs, followed by Sahana Vavatu and Vakratunda Mahakaya. While we are waiting for kids to join we encourage them to write Likhita Japa in their notebook - Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaaya. Then we do the Daily Prayers - children have become more familiar and chant with confidence now. Everyone gets to lead one. Last class when we were doing the Kara charana krutam and asked where else they had heard the word Kshamasva - Sai Jahnavi remembered that we do that in the Samudra vasane Devi (the 2nd one in the Daily Prayers) - then we discussed how Kshama means forgiveness and in the last Shloka we are asking for forgiveness for any mistakes that we do during the day. Tejas then had a question what if we didn't do any mistakes at all during the day - then we talked about how we unknowingly hurt others without even realizing it and how in this Shloka we ask for forgiveness even for that! Sai Jahnavi then remembered another Shloka with the work 'Kshama' - the 'yadakshara pada brshtam maatraa heenam' where we ask for forgiveness for any mistakes we have done while chanting! 

We have also been learning the English version of "Madhurashtakam" - kids just love this Bhajan and are eager to lead! They all sing so sweetly! 

Last two weeks we have also been learning the Sanskrit version of it - we have covered two stanzas so far..since it is the same tune, they are able to sing it on their own. We just have to help them with the transliteration a little bit.

We covered the Varaha avatar in the first class - including how Jaya and Vijaya, the door keepers in Vaikunta were cursed by the Sanat kumaras to be born as Asuras. We talked about Diti's mistake in approaching Kashyapa Muni at an inappropriate time and how because of that she had to give birth to 2 Asura kids Hiranyaaksha and Hiranyakashipu. But because she repented her mistake, the Lord Himself would come to redeem them. And also how a great devotee (Prahlad ji) will be born in their lineage. 

Brahma ji creates the first man and woman - Manu and Satarupa and asks them to go and procreate but the Earth is hidden under the Oceans by Hiranyaksha - Lord Vishnu then takes the form of a boar (Varaha) and emerges from Brahma ji's nostrils and then becomes huge and fights and kills Hiranyaksha and saves the Earth. 

The last two weeks we have been discussing the story of Hiranyakashipu and how he wanted to take revenge on Lord Vishnu for killing his brother. He decides to do severe Tapas (we tried to remind the children about the four legs of the Bull Dharma that we talked about in the beginning - one of which is Austerity or Tapas) to please Brahma and gain the boon of immortality. Indra sees that as an opportunity to kidnap Hiranyakashipu's pregnant wife Kayadhu so he can destroy his son but Narada Muni stops him and takes Kayadhu to his Ashram where Prahlada is born. Brahma ji is pleased with Hiranyakashipu and grants him a boon  - Hiranyakashipu tries to be clever and asks that he will not be killed by any being created by Brahma ji and neither on earth or in the sky, neither inside or outside, neither in the morning or night and not be killed by any weapon. He then conquers all the three worlds and terrorizes the entire world and prevents people from worshipping anyone except him. But to Hiranyakashipu's great disappointment his son Prahlada turns out to be a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and despite his many attempts to try to change him by sending him to the Gurukula etc fails. Instead Prahlada converts even his classmates (we discussed how that was probably the very first Balavihar :-) - Hiranyakashipu then tries to kill Prahlada in several ways but Prahlada is protected by Lord Vishnu everytime frustrating him even further - we talked about how Prahlada's Gurus Chanda and Amarka created something like a dementor to kill him - the entire class was excited to hear the Harry Potter reference :-) and there were talks about how Harry Potter would have just used his magic wand and a spell - then we discussed what Prahlada's magic spell was (Om Namo Narayanaaya)  - Lord Vishnu sends His Sudarshan Chakra to kill that creature and it kills the Gurus as well. Then Prahlada prays to Vishnu and the Gurus are restored to life. Finally Hiranyakashipu asks Prahlada where he gets this much power and Prahlada says your power and mine are all derived only from Lord Vishnu and He is everywhere - then Hiranyakashipu points to a pillar and asks if Vishnu is in there and Prahlada says Yes without doubt. Hiranyakashipu takes his mace and hits the pillar and Lord Vishnu jumps out of the pillar in the form of Half Lion and Half man and kills Hiranyakashipu at dusk in the threshold of the house holding him on his lap and kills him with his claws (without a weapon) ! Aditya then pointed out that we had made a mistake when we described Hiranyakashipu's boon!! We had said he can't be killed with or without a weapon! :-)  Glad to discover that the kids are paying attention! Good job Aditya!

Last week we watched snippets from the old movie - Bhakta Prahlada as a recap. Even though it was in Tamil and Telugu, the costumes and the settings were fascinating to the children. Some of them loved it and wanted to watch the whole movie. If you have the time this winter break please watch with the children - there are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi versions available on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bhakta+prahlada+full+movie

The children were excited to see the climax when Narasimha appears from the pillar! But they were a bit disappointed that the Holika story wasn't there! 

We then played a game - Chase the Maze and reviewed everything done in the last 3 weeks. Children loved it and tried to get the first spot in the leaderboard! You can encourage them to play it at home as well. Here's the link - https://wordwall.net/play/8377/135/952

We have been learning to chant the Geeta Chapter 2 - last 3 weeks we have been trying to record them chanting as well. So far we have recorded 4 verses - we tried recording verse 5 past week but ran out of time. We will do it next week. Here is Swamiji's video of verses 5 and 6 for the kids to practice at home. https://youtu.be/JhFJXjzJcMg 

Also here is a jamboard version with words split up so it is easier for them to read - https://jamboard.google.com/d/1zsUDlwBNHC9Bo6rt6GXT06NHz13E8E46S9iwiW_9plA/edit?usp=sharing - the letters underlined in yellow - the 'Sh' has to be pronounced as in 'Shut' and the letters underlined in red it has to be pronounced as in 'Sugar' - we went over this in class as well. 

Some of the kids were very interested to know who was leading in the House Contests now and how they can earn more points to help our House Arjuna's Arrows. Bajrangi's Bolts are leading currently with 3216 points and Arjuna's Arrows are in second place with 2647 points. Best ways to earn points are by writing Likhita Japa - every 10 pages you can take pics and send to bvhouses@chinmayavrindavan.org for 50 points. We have the Storytelling competition coming up on Jan 16. They can earn 50-75 points.  They can participate in the Shlokathon - everyone gets 25 points and depending on the level of Shlokas chanted they can get up to 100 points for each shloka chanted from memory. A lot of them in our class are very good Artists - they shared their beautiful paintings and drawings on zoom with us - they can submit their best works for the Art fundraiser this year. Artists among parents can also submit their artwork this year! But sorry no points for them :-) Those who have memorized the Geeta, can record and send videos of every 4 shlokas to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn 50 points. Please encourage them to participate in all these. 

We look forward to seeing all of them again next Friday 18 Dec. We have two weeks of break after that!

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja

Oct 9, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

Hari Om Everyone

We began our class by greeting one another as we all joined the Zoom call. Once all of our friends arrived, we started writing our Likitha Japa and tried to learn how to write "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" in sanskrit. But it will take some time so we will stick to English for now :-)

Next we chanted our daily prayers one by one, learning the meanings of all the slokas we are chanting, and when we should chant them. Following this,we provided a Recap on the previous lessons by presenting an interactive and informative slide show. This was done to see how much our students remembered from the earlier weeks of the school year. 

We reviewed the Vinayaka Bhajan by giving everyone a chance to sing one stanza quickly.

This week's topic revolved around who Pariksit and Kali are and the places where Kali can live. With this, we also learned about how Pariksit got cursed and learned about Moksha, or Liberation. 

The kids learned about how the impacts of Kali confused Pariksit and caused him to act disrespectfully towards Sage Samika. This made Sage Samika's son, Sringi, very angry and led Pariksit to be cursed within seven days to die by a deadly snake named Takshaka. Hearing his fate, Pariksit came back to his kingdom, gave away his throne to his son Janamejeya and went to meditate on the banks of Ganges. There Pariksit met Sage Suka, the son of Veda Vyasa, who enlightened Pariksit about the practice of meditation and how to pray. Sage Suka also recounted the Bhagavatham: the stories of Vishnu and his devotees. After listening to these stories for seven days, Takshaka, the deadly snake, bites and liberates Pariksit.

From the story of Pariksit, another important lesson we learned in Friday's class is that two wrongs can not make one right. Also, we learned the value of a smile, and why it is more important to smile than to use hurtful words. 

After going through this week's story, we completed a word search that summarized all the chapters covered in class as a group. It is always so fun to see the excitement on the childrens' faces when they try to solve the puzzle.

Following this, we learned the "Madhurashtakam", a beautiful song that describes Krishna. Before we learn the Sanskrit version, we started with a beautiful and simple English version. As usual, the kids never fail to surprise us as they are able to repeat the song with little help after only one listen. We are so proud of our kids and their consistent enthusiasm and energy. They all loved this song and requested we share it so they can practice at home. We concluded class by reciting the Aarti and Pledge.

We will not have class the next couple of weeks but please be sure to participate in our Virtual Navaratri Gala and help our House Arjuna's Arrows earn points. Neel is already planning to play Tabla and submit a video! Hope everyone will participate as well! Please join our Facebook group Chinmaya Vrindavan Balavihar to post your pics and videos.

Thanks and Best Regards, 

Jayashree and Sujatha

  

Oct 2, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

  Hari OM Everyone,

We started the class off requesting the children to write Likhita Japa! There was a lot of enthusiasm and many kids wanted to know how many points they will get - we will check and let them know soon :-) 

We afterwards did the Opening Prayers (3 OMs, Sahana Vavatu and Vakratunda) and then the Daily Prayers (Pg 11 in My Prayers book - for those that don't have the book these are the shlokas we do - Karaagre Vasate Lakshmi, Samudra Vasane Devi, Gange cha Yamune chaiva, Saraswati Namastubhyam, Brahmaarpanam, Shubham Karoti kalyanam and Karacharana krutam). We also explained to them when we do it during the day and why we do it.

We then reviewed the Bhajan Vinayaka Vinayaka. Suja Aunty sang it once to remind them and then they all sang it individually picking up the pace and singing very fast! We were very impressed that they have got it by the 3rd week itself. We will share some of the recordings in the Whatsapp group.

Next it was time for the Activity that we couldn't get to last week - Drawing Bhagavan Veda Vyasa. Some of them also colored it beautifully in the given time and Kashyap actually cut it out nicely as well. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed this activity. Please make sure they have extra papers or a notebook for activities and they don't use their Likhita Japa notebook for this. Crayons and colored pencils will also be useful.

We then did a pictorial review of last week's story - we showed them the setting of the Naimisharanya forest, and the Yagna, and how Suta ji visited Shaunaka Rishi and his disciples, and the story of Bhagavan Veda Vyasa and Narada and Narada Muni's backstory etc and asked them to retell the story. Even though they remembered the events in the story they were not able to recall all the names! 

From next week, we will be using the Index cards that we had handed out in the Activity pack to get them to create Character cards for important characters we encounter throughout our curriculum. If you didn't get a chance to pick up the Activity pack please do or at least ensure they have a pack of index cards to use in class.

We then moved on to the story of King Parikshit meets Kali. We explained how Parikshit was Arjuna's grandson and Abhimanyu's grandson (We are the Arjuna's Arrows :-). We talked a bit about the 4 Yugas and then explained the scene of Parikshit encountering a bull standing on one leg and a cow standing nearby and a mean spirited man with a sword in his hand standing nearby. King Parikshit asks the bull who has done this to you and the bull says it is all because of my own past actions and doesn't blame the man standing nearby. King Parikshit understands that the bull is none other than Dharma and the cow is Mother Earth. He then tries to punish Kali but Kali seeks refuge and begs him - so Parikshit gives him 4 places to live - wherever the name of the Lord is forgotten - places where people gamble, drink, hoard wealth and are cruel.

We also discussed about the 4 legs of the Bull Dharma and what it stands for - Austerity, Purity, Kindness and Truthfulness. In Satya Yuga, the Bull had all 4 legs, but now in Kali Yuga only Truthfulness remains. We explained how purity meant not only a clean body but also a clean body and then we discussed how sometimes our mind can look pure from outside but not actually be pure because even if we do certain actions that are good if our motive is not good, then our mind is not pure. We illustrated with a simple experiment - 3 glasses of water - we added sugar to one, salt to one and dirt to another. The glasses with sugar and salt looked pure but we knew they were not while in the case of dirt it was obvious. Similarly when we help someone having an ulterior motive in mind, it is like the Sugar water. We will discuss more about the 4 legs of the bull in the following classes.

We then learned the first two verses from Geeta with Swamiji's video. We encouraged them to repeat along with it and then asked a few people to chant on their own. If they keep practicing from now they will be able to memorize and be ready for the Geeta chanting Yajna in April next year. Here is the recording for you to help them practice - https://youtu.be/-d4EIe2V-Vc

We again had a couple of kids lead the pledge this week - Samyukthalakshmi and Aditya did a great job! It would be really helpful if you have the handbook for them for the Arti and pledge. If it is possible, please pick up from the bookstore - they are open Fridays and Sundays 5.30-6.30pm.

We have the Virtual Navaratri Gala event coming up. Please participate enthusiastically as a family. You can share pics and videos of any creative ways you celebrate this year on our private Facebook Group - www.facebook.com/groups/ChinmayaVrindavanBalavihar. All entries will receive 40 House Points. Our class is very enthusiastic about winning the House Trophy and they have assured us that they are the lucky group -  Jayashree Aunty and Suja Aunty have been trying for 3 years now ! - they have won every year except last year it seems so we have a lot of hope :-) 

It would be helpful if everyone is in class on time. We had kids joining as late as 7.20. We look forward to seeing all of them next Friday. Have a great week!

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja

Sept 25, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

Hari Om Everyone,

We started the class by requesting the kids to write likhita japa in their notebook until everyone joined and were ready. We asked them to write 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya'. It is new and a bit long for them so they wrote it only a few times this week. We will continue writing in the beginning of class every week. Please encourage them to write at home as well. They can also earn House Points for this :-) 

We then did the beginning prayers - 3 OMs, Sahana Vavatu, and Vakratunda Mahakaya - followed by Daily Prayers (Pg 11 My Prayers Book). We unmuted one child for each shloka so that everyone got a chance to be heard. 

We then continued with the same Bhajan (Vinayaka Vinayaka) as last week following the same pattern. Each child repeated one stanza so we got to repeat the Bhajan multiple times until they got it. In the end we made them sing it on their own and they were able to do it nicely. Please ask them to sing it to you. We had shared the lyrics in the last email. 

After that we played a wheel game - brain breaks - we spun a wheel to decide what activity to do - the board had things like do Super Brain Yoga 5 times, Spin around 5 times, Do the Tree pose for 3 secs etc. We also included some eye exercises such as trace OM with your eyes. Thanks to Sreenadh's dad who suggested this when we met at the Meet and Greet. We will continue to include more eye exercises every week. 

We then moved on to our topic for the year which is the Bala Bhagavatam. We explained what an Avatar is (kids immediately started talking about the TV Show Avatar :-) and how God comes down to earth to destroy evil and protect the good people and teach us lessons. Tejas wondered why God has to kill - is that not bad too? We explained that it is similar to when our parents punish us it is for our own good so that we change for the better. He then wondered why Lord Shiva had to destroy the whole world in the end! We have promised we will discuss more about it in a couple of classes when we will actually do an activity about Pralaya. 

We explained the setting where it happens (Naimisharanya) and the background of the story. We talked about what a Gurukula was and how Saunaka Rishi with his disciples lived in Naimisharanya and performed yagnas and Sutaji visits them. Then Saunaka Rishi enquires what is it that gives us the highest good and happiness for all time. Sutaji explains that the answer is in Bhagavatam and how Veda Vyasa Maharishi came to write about it. Even after classifying the Vedas - we asked them if they knew and they could list Rig Vedam and Sama Vedam - and writing the Maha Bharat and many Puranas, he was still not satisfied. At that time Narada Muni visits him and says you have not yet sung the Glories of the Lord and His devotees - do that and you will feel fulfilled. Then Narada Muni relates his own back story - how he was born the son of a maid servant and had an opportunity for Satsang with Sadhus who visited his village and how after his mother's passing, he continued his Sadhana and gets a vision of Lord Vishnu but is not able to see it again. And how at the beginning of the next cycle of creation he is born as Narada. 

We had quite an interactive class with many kids asking questions and sharing what they knew. We were quite impressed when we mentioned Satsang, Lakshita immediately said she had learned about it in the summer camp last year - how Satsanga leads to Nissangathvam and from there to Nirmohatvam and then Jivan Mukti! It turns out there were a couple of other kids who had also attended the same camp! We have a bunch of intelligent and thoughtful kids this year! Even the quiet ones in class responded well when asked to participate. We are looking forward to a great year with these kids! 

We then showed them a short movie about Avatars and the Naimisharanya forest and Saunaka Rishi, Sutaji etc. We had planned for a drawing activity but did not have the time for it this week. We will do it next week.

We then did the Geeta Primer - learning how to pronounce some important words from the Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 2. We had a set of 15 words and we repeated along with it. Afterwards we went around asking each child to read one. Here is the video - please ask them to listen to it and practice it at home - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56DjMORpeI&feature=youtu.be. It will be very helpful when we start learning the actual verses from next week. 

We then concluded with Arathi and pledge. Apoorva did an excellent job of leading the pledge. We will give each child a chance to lead in the coming weeks. 

As mentioned earlier, please make sure that the children are seated at a desk (not a sofa or bed), and they have at least a notebook and pencil and crayons with them. Also we will be doing some physical activity once in a while so it would be better if there is some space to move around a bit. Please ask them to login using a desktop or laptop as Chromebooks and Ipads don't always have all the Zoom options. And ask them to use headphones if possible. 

If you are on Facebook please do join our Private Facebook Group -  www.facebook.com/groups/ChinmayaVrindavanBalavihar - we will be doing virtual events during the year. 

We look forward to seeing all of them next Friday - Oct 2nd. 

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree and Suja

Sep 18, 2020 - Grade 3 (Friday)

Hari OM Everyone,

We got off to a great start today. Most of the kids were on time. We had put up the Agenda on the screen. We requested them to do Likhita Japa until everyone joined in. Please pick up a likhita japa notebook from the bookstore if you go on Sunday to pick up the Balabhagavatam book. Also the Balavihar Handbook. Almost all of them had their My Prayers book. That was good. Most of them were returning kids and only a couple of new students. We started off with 3 OMs, Sahana Vavatu, and Vakratunda. Then we did Karaagre Vasathe Lakshmi (Pg 11 My Prayers book), Samudra Vasane Devi, and Saraswathi Namastubhyam from the Daily Prayers. We will add more every week. 

We then did a word search - Who's on our Zoom? - they had fun finding their own names and those of their classmates. It is really helpful if they join the class on a laptop since some zoom options are not easily accessible on chromebook or iPad. After that we did a Vinayaka Bhajan. We are attaching the lyrics - please ask them to show you. We practiced it in different speeds and everyone got a chance to repeat after us. 

After this we did a Bingo game online - just to get to know them - what their favorite foods were, what languages they spoke, who were their favorite Gods, what places in India they have visited, if they had siblings or not etc. Everyone had fun - it took a little bit longer since a couple of them had to get a new device to join in. 

We started off with a story about Ganesha and how He got the Elephant head. A couple of them knew the story already. We then talked about Ganesha's big ears and how they help him listen better and how we should also listen more and talk less. 

We shared a short video of the same story. After that we did a small Drawing activity - we learned how to draw Ganesha by connecting dots like a Rangoli. Everyone loved this activity. 

We then did a short primer on Sanskrit Pronunciation  to prepare ourselves before we started Geeta Chanting. They all followed along nicely. We are learning to read the English transliteration and pronounce Sanskrit vowels and consonants properly. We will be learning the 2nd Chapter of Bhagavad Geeta this year. 

As mentioned in the WhatsApp group, if you haven't yet then please pick up the Balabhagavatam book, Balavihar Handbook and Likhita Japa Notebook from the bookstore on Sunday evening between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. We will also give you the 3rd grade activity packet at that time. We will be using that for our class activities throughout the year. If you can't pick up from the Ashram then please let us know and we will let you know what to print at home and other supplies to get. 

At the end of the class we asked them to join the parents on their Zoom session for Arathi and Pledge. We look forward to seeing all of them next week. We will start our topic for the year BalaBhagavatam from next class. Have a great weekend!

Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja

Welcome to Gr 3 - Friday Session

Please look out for regular updates from the teachers soon after the session starts on Sept 18th