May 23rd Class - Parent Participation Week

Today's class was just so awesome! The teachers took a break and let the parents engage the class. Stared off with 'Om sahanaavavatu..' in chorus. The parents led the class through various bhajans, shlokas and geeta chanting. Some of the kids volunteered in leading the bhajans and telling shlokas as well. That was the coolest!

• Pushti did 'gaayatri mantram'.

• Ishaan's dad taught the bhajan 'aatmaa raama anadaramaNa...'

• Abhijith led us with the bhajan 'ambaa devI saraswati...' beautifully.

• Nithin's 'vara veeNaa mRudupaaNi...' was very sweet.

• Shivani got comfortable on aunty's lap and led us through 'ambaa devI saraswati...'. (All kids seem to like that bhajan a lot.)

• Aarush's mom led us though 'Geeta chanting'.

Then, there was a double treat - two stories today.

• Prayag's dad read us the story 'Don't be scared little cub'. It was a nicely illustrated book where the Lion encourages his little cub to venture out in the night without being scared.

• Aarush's mom told the story 'Krishna, the invisible friend', along with showing the pictures. It was about a little boy who is scared to walk alone to school. But his mom reassures him that Lord Krishna is there to accompany him anywhere he goes.

• Ishaan chanted 'sarvopaniShado gaavo...', as if inspired by the Krishna story!

We had a fun, busy and extended art segment today. Didn't know we had such creative parents! (Would have given you more work otherwise ;). All the art projects brought by the parents were so wonderful. The kids enjoyed making the many projects.

• Aayush's mom and dad got a summery art project for everyone. All kids got to make foam visors decorated with stickers and personalized with their own names specially!

• Samaya's mom and Samiksha's mom brought foam robot projects for everyone.

• Akshay's dad showed us all how to make paper origami butterflies.

• Dakshata's mom led us in 'brahmaarpaNam...' before all the kids enjoyed the varieties of snacks on the menu today :-).
  

(They sure had a blast. Snack time was a total treat. The kids had a blast eating all the goodies. We had way too many snacks and got to take home some as well (hopefully :)).

• Harshini's mom got a fun foam project. There was a monkey, lion and an elephant. Kids got any one of these stick puppets to make and take.

• Udgita's mom brought a fun pencil holder mug for everyone. The kids were supposed to color and decorate them with crayons. As we were running late, the kids took it home to finish it later.

Wrapped up the class with 'pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam...' in chorus.

We were having so much fun that we ran over time. We needed to disperse as parents had to pick up their older children, or we would have continued our fun activities for some more time! Not to worry, we will come back with more fun for the last day of balavihar class.

Really, it was an awesome and fun class today! We truly have a wonderful set of kids as well as parents, who take keen interest in all activities of the class. We are more encouraged to come to class every week because of your active participation. Once again, thanks parents for all your contributions and your sportive spirits! You are the best!!

Below is the link to view the pictures taken today. Nithin's dad, thanks for sending it over so quickly.

Parent Participation Week pictures

We will see you all on June 6th for a brief class as well as party, and bid farewell for this year.

May 16th Class

Words of the week: कलहंसः (kalahaMsaH - goose/duck)

Prayers:

* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIh (My prayers, pg. 43)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratunda mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)
* वसुदेवसुतं देवं - vasudevasutaM devaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
* सर्वोपनिषदो गावो - sarvopaniShado gaavo (My prayers, pg. 15)
* अन्नपूर्णे सदापूर्णे - annapUrNe sadaapUrNe

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - subrahmaNyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  
• अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
• गोपाला गोपाला - gopaalaa gopaalaa
• कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
• आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 5 & 6

Story: Goose that laid the golden egg

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- Aaryan Nair -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Art Project: Rocking duck

Sanskrit segment: Numbers; Alphabet; Shapes and Colors; Head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Yoga segment: vajraasana; simhaasana; uShTraasana; kUrmaasana; padmaasana; dolaasana.

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
• aarati and pledge were done in the auditorium.
  

Comments: After our shlokas, bhajans and Geeta chanting, we listened to the story of 'The goose that laid the golden egg'. We learnt that it is not nice to be greedy and also that we need to be patient. Along with snack and juice today, the kids had a special treat (chocolates), celebrating Aaryan Nair's birthday! Happy birthday again Aaryan!

Since a goose and duck are both called 'kalahaMsaH', we heard the story of the goose and transitioned the art project to a duck! We made a cute rocking duck with paper plates.

In sanskrit segment, we practiced numbers, which all kids are experts at! We then repeated the sanskrit alphabet after aunty and read the book of shapes and colors. We finished it with the song 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes...' for which the kids rolled with laughter, as we went faster and faster :-).

In yoga time, we learnt a few new aasanas - kUrmaasana, padmaasana and dolaasana.

Technically today is our last regular class :-(Boy! Are we going to miss you all...) From now on, every balavihar is going to be more fun and different!!

Next week is our 'Parent Participation Week'. Thanks parents for all the sign ups. The sequencing of the activities is listed in the 'Announcements' segment above. We are so excited about all the activities!

Thanks for sign ups for the 'Class Party' as well. See you all next week with lots of fun and excitement!!

Snippets: During the story of 'The goose that laid the golden egg', aunty said, 'how will he get eggs if the goose is hurt?' Our toddler replies 'I get eggs from 'Stop and Shop'!' Now, why didn't the farmer think of that option :-).

May 9th Class

Words of the week: सिंहः गर्जति (siMhaH garjati - Lion roars)

Prayers:

* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIh (My prayers, pg. 43)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratunda mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)
* वसुदेवसुतं देवं - vasudevasutaM devaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
* सर्वोपनिषदो गावो - sarvopaniShado gaavo (My prayers, pg. 15)
* अन्नपूर्णे सदापूर्णे - annapUrNe sadaapUrNe

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - subrahmaNyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
• गोपाला गोपाला - gopaalaa gopaalaa
• कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
• आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 5 & 6

Story: Androcles and the Lion

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- Vivek Nagarajan -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Art Project: Lion Face

Sanskrit segment: None

Yoga segment: sUryanamaskaara

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: Once again, 'Happy Mother's day' to all you hard-working moms. Hope you all had a special day because, all moms are very very special! As if in honor of mother's day, we started learning a new shloka for mother Paarvati - 'annapUrNe sadaapUrNe..'. (With two children - one an elephant faced (Ganesh) and one with 6 faces (ShaNmukha), what would Lord Shiva do and how would he feed them all, without mother Paarvati at home :-)

It was nice to see some of you wearing the 'geeta chanting medals' to class today. Carrying over the spirit of chanting beyond the 'presentation', we started to learn the 6th verse of the 10th chapter.

We heard the story of 'Androcles and the Lion' and learnt how rewarding it is to be good to other fellow beings and how nice it is to help others.

We did a cute Lion Face for our art project. We were so involved with all these activities that we almost ran out of time today! We had to wrap up with doing a set of sUryanamaskaaras.

The balavihar year is coming to an end soon. As discussed in class, we will have the May 23rd class exclusively for parents to participate and engage the kids! You can come up with any creative ideas either individually or in a small group. Even if the kids want to come up and do something they like, they are very welcome as well.

On June 6th, we will have a class party. We can have it outside, weather permitting. We can have food, let the kids play and run around.

Parents, thanks to all of you who have signed up for the 'Parent participation week' as well as to bring food and snacks for our 'class party'. You all have been very supportive through out the year and your participation is very much appreciated.

As much as we are excited about the upcoming events as planned, we are sad that the year is coming to an end :(. Good news is, we still have a few classes left, to think about it :-). Until then, enjoy the special day moms and have a nice week everyone!

Snippets: 1. During shloka time, aunty applauded all the kids for their participation last week in the geeta chanting. Aunty asked 'do you know who told bhagavadgeeta?'. One of our toddler lifts his hand up indicating that he did! Ofcourse, he did - last week!! But after rephrasing the question as to 'who bhagavadgeeta came from originally?', only then did we get the answer 'Krishna'!

2. During the story time, aunty was trying to establish a point and she said, 'do you think someone would volunteer to be eaten by a Lion?' with her hand raised. Suddenly a very concerned toddler said, 'then we will have nobody to tell us stories!'. How thoughtful!! Don't worry, aunty is going nowhere. She will come back with another story next week :-).

May 2nd Geeta Chanting Presentation

The Geeta Chanting presentation today was fabulous! Kids you did so wonderfully that you all deserve another round of applause!! Guess what, everyone at the ashram thought you were all 7 yrs old! That is how nicely you all did :-). Great practicing and beautiful presentation! Do wear your medals to the balavihar class next week. We are so so proud of you all!

Parents you did an awesome job, encouraging the kids to practice regularly and making it a point to come to the presentation today. Three cheers for that and thank you as well. We have a wonderful class with very smart kids and awesome parents!

As we have said earlier, we will start with the 6th shloka from next class. Good job kids. We are very impressed...... Sounds repetitive, but truly, we are very impressed :-).


Click here to view some pictures!

Here is a video clipping as well!!