Feb 10, 2013

A wonderful on-line tool to help your child

The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13.

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• Next class is on Sunday, Feb 24

Pre-K 1 Rm D110

Pre-K 2 Rm D109

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Opening Prayer:

• OM Sahanaa vavatu

• Om sri Ganeshaya namaha, Om sri Saraswathye namaha, Om sri Sat Gurubyoh namah

Stotras:

• Karagre Vasate Lakshmi

• Sarasvati Namastubhyam

• Buddir balam yaso dhairyam

Quiet Time/Activity: Shell Dropping Game

Gita Chanting: Chapter 13, Shloka 1,2, 3, 4 & 5 (On-Line tool to help with memorization and pronunciation)

Story: King Banyan Deer from Jataka Tales

Bhajan: Jai Jagadisha Hare

Sanskrit Learning:

Krishna Vadati

Counting 1-5

Colors in Sanskrit 

Activity: Owl Sponge Drawing

Likhita Japa: Learning how to write Ram

Closing Prayers: Om Pūrnamadaḥ

Comments:

Before we recount today's class, let me first off say that the kids an amazing job at 'Quiet Time'.  They were able to focus and stay quiet for more than two and half minutes.  This is remarkable, since some older kids have a hard time with this.  Great job kids!

We started our class as usual with chanting Om followed by the morning prayers. We then did the chants "Om Ganeshaye Namaha". This is an excellent way to think of Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswati, and our Guru. This also gives us the opportunity to learn and practice some new stotras. So after our chanting we continued to practice the new stotra we learnt last week 'Karagre vasate Lakshmi'. We also spoke about the meaning of this stotra.   By saying this stotra every morning we remind ourselves that all the strength we need are in our own hands and each of our actions is an act of the Divine.

Quiet time was followed by chanting the first to fourth shloka from chapter 13 in the Bhagvad Geeta. We learnt the fifth shloka again today. The kids are doing amazing with their chanting. We thank the parents for continuing to pratice with them.

 

At story time we heard the story of 'King Banyan Deer' from Jataka Tales. In the story we see when Buddha was once born as a deer, King Banyan Tree, and how he taught the King of Benares to stop hunting and hurting animals.  The story beautifully demonstrates compassion and love towards all the creatures.

After story time we played a round of "Krishna Vadati" and added some new words to our Sanskrit vocabulary. We continued to practice our likita japa. Some of kids were ready to write 'Ram' on the white board all by themselves. They did an excellent job. We will continue to work on  this in the coming weeks.

After likita japa, we did an art activity.  We drew and colored 'Owls' today. The kids made some very creative Owls and learnt the Sanskrit word for owl as well. We then reviewed our colors in Sanskrit and practised reading our numbers from 1-5 in Sanskrit.

We ended our class with singing the first two stanzas of Om Jai Jagdish Hare followed by the closing prayers.  Aarth and pledge was in the auditorium.