Feb 28, 2010

Next class : Mar 7, 2010;

Aarthi in the classroom.

Announcements:

There will be an open house on March 7th and March 21st for parents to observe what is going on in their child's balavihar class. Pre K parents are invited to come to the classroom on March 21st at 10.55am. One of the Sevaks will receive you and brief you and bring you inside the class for the last 30 minutes.


Feb 28, 2010:

Beginning Prayers:

• Om Saha navavathu
• Early morning prayer - Karaagre Vasathe Lakshmi
• Prayer for Lord Ganesha - Vakratunda Mahakaaya
• Prayer for Goddess Saraswathi - Saraswathi Namastubhyam
• Prayer after lighting the lamp - Shubham Karothi Kalyanam
• Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu
• Sarva Mangala Mangalye
• Prayer before eating - Brahmaarpanam

Story:

• The story of Rama.
  

Craft:

• Rama coloring page
  

Games:

• None
  

Ending Prayers:

• Asatho maa sath gamaya


• Om Poornamadah Poornamidam

Bhajans:

• Great God Ganapathy (click here for audio)


• My God is so Great (click here for audio)


• Ekadantaya Vakratundaya

Bhagavad Geeta:

• Chapter X Shloka 1, 2, 3 and 4

Comments:

• The children were very excited to see the projector that Jeevan Uncle had brought so we finished our initial prayers and Bhajans pretty quickly. They did the Ekadantaya bhajan on their own today and we were very impressed to see how well they can all sing..it is a tough one too!
  
• We prayed earnestly to Sri Rama for the projector to start up properly (there were some initial hiccups but it was smooth afterwards).
• Jeevan uncle told us the story of Sri Rama's birth and the children got to act out the roles. Many children did not get a chance to participate but not to worry because we are going to do more of it in the coming weeks. He then told us how SriRama Navami is celebrated in different parts of India..some of them worried how they would celebrate if they did not have a cradle in their house :-) We told them their imagination can do the trick!
• We then watched how Sri Rama broke the bow and married Sita. And also another small video of the last portion when Ravana carries away Sita. The kids were very thrilled to watch on screen - maybe we could do it once in a while though listening to stories can develop their imagination better, we feel.
  
• We colored a picture of Sri Rama..some of them chanted Sri Ram Jay Ram Jaya Jaya Ram to focus. And some of them had fun coloring his dress pink :-)
• We then tried to practice the Geeta. There was not much focus this week. Guess they were too excited. Hopefully next week will be better. We covered all the four shlokas again.
• After the ending prayers, we invited the parents to come in for a short discussion. We have come up with a chart to motivate the children to practice their Shlokas and Bhajans and Gita chanting at home. We request that the parents sign off as and when their child memorizes each one and they bring it to class to get sticker on the chart. Please click here to view and print the chart. We will hand it out at the end of the year. We wanted to know the interest and availability of the parents in putting up a show at the end of the year..we did one last year in the cafeteria on the last day of class. We would like to do the same or if possible do it at the Ashram on a Saturday afternoon and also offer Bhiksha as a class to Swamiji. All the parents present there seemed quite enthusiastic so we will start working out the details. We would like the children to present all the Bhajans they have learnt and a small skit. We request the cooperation of all the parents in bringing their children to class regularly.
  
• We talked about the Geeta Chanting competition on May 2nd. We would like every child in our class to participate. All of them can recite at least 1 shloka now and hopefully more before May 2nd. Please click here to register your child.
  

Reminders:

• Please remember to take the kids to the bathroom before class.