Prayers:
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 - 8
Story: khara & dUShaNa; golden deer
Words of the week: sUrpanakhaa; khara; dUShaNa; maarIcha
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of raama waging war with khara & dUShaNa; sItaa spotting the golden deer frolicking in the forest.
Game time: Zip-zap-zom with 'raama-lakShmaNa-sItaa'
End of class:
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
It was a cold cold winter's day and yet all our little friends made sure they made it to the balavihar class! We loved seeing you all.
After our morning routine, we practiced chanting the geeta. The kids were really comfortable with the first 4 verses. We worked on the next 4. It was fun learning to pronounce the new and difficult words which are tricky. But by the end of it, we all got a hang of it.
To begin with today's story segment, we needed to know where to begin with. Our awesome kids gave us the 'facts and figures' and filled us in :). Then on, we saw that sUrpanakhaa goes and complains to her brothers khara and dUShaNa about raama and lakShamaNa. She tactfully leaves out the parts where she was bothering the brothers. So her brothers come with an army of rakShasa-s against raama. raama destroys them all wielding his bow called 'kodaNDa'. Then sUrpanakhaa goes to lanka to complain to her older brother raavaNa about her nose and ears being cut off, as well as the deaths of their brothers khara and dUShaNa. She also lies to him and tells him that she was there, trying to obtain the beautiful sIta as a bride for raavaNa himself and that is when these incidents followed! An infuriated raavaNa decides to avenge all the misgivings of raama and lakShamNa. Also, on hearing the description of sItaa's beauty, he started to hatch a plan to obtain her as well.
He met with maarIcha, his raakShasa friend, who after being brandished badly by raama at vishwaamitra's yagna, had become a hermit. He was a great magician too. raavaNa asked him to disguise himself as a golden deer to entice sItaa. When raama stepped out to get the deer, he would abduct sItaa. Having seen raama's valor in person, maarIcha advised him against such a ploy. But raavaNa was adamant. He would not heed to any words of wisdom at all. He was focused on getting what he wanted and threatened to kill maarIcha if he did not cooperate. At that, maarIcha told him, he would rather die at the arms of raama rather than raavaNa. He disguised as a beautiful golden deer with silver spots and jewel embellishments! This never seen before, one of a kind, deer, started prancing gracefully in front of raama's kutIram, so that sItaa would spot it. And she did!
We were all so curious as to what would happen after that, but... we had to stop! We are all very eager for the next part of the story now. After coloring the pages with the stories we'd heard today, played a new game called 'zip-zap-zom'. Everyone stands in a circle. One person 'zip-zap-zom'-s someone across the circle. That person immediately 'zip-zap-zom'-s someone else, so on and so forth. But ours being a raamaayaNa class, we brought in a twist. The words were 'raama-lakShamNa-sItaa'! Everyone had so much fun saying it faster and faster and passing on the 'zom' to someone else :). We then finished the class with our ending prayers and made our way to the auditorium.
See you all again next week. Until then, stay warm and keep practicing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 - 8
Story: khara & dUShaNa; golden deer
Words of the week: sUrpanakhaa; khara; dUShaNa; maarIcha
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of raama waging war with khara & dUShaNa; sItaa spotting the golden deer frolicking in the forest.
Game time: Zip-zap-zom with 'raama-lakShmaNa-sItaa'
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
- aarti and pledge in the auditorium.
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
It was a cold cold winter's day and yet all our little friends made sure they made it to the balavihar class! We loved seeing you all.
After our morning routine, we practiced chanting the geeta. The kids were really comfortable with the first 4 verses. We worked on the next 4. It was fun learning to pronounce the new and difficult words which are tricky. But by the end of it, we all got a hang of it.
To begin with today's story segment, we needed to know where to begin with. Our awesome kids gave us the 'facts and figures' and filled us in :). Then on, we saw that sUrpanakhaa goes and complains to her brothers khara and dUShaNa about raama and lakShamaNa. She tactfully leaves out the parts where she was bothering the brothers. So her brothers come with an army of rakShasa-s against raama. raama destroys them all wielding his bow called 'kodaNDa'. Then sUrpanakhaa goes to lanka to complain to her older brother raavaNa about her nose and ears being cut off, as well as the deaths of their brothers khara and dUShaNa. She also lies to him and tells him that she was there, trying to obtain the beautiful sIta as a bride for raavaNa himself and that is when these incidents followed! An infuriated raavaNa decides to avenge all the misgivings of raama and lakShamNa. Also, on hearing the description of sItaa's beauty, he started to hatch a plan to obtain her as well.
He met with maarIcha, his raakShasa friend, who after being brandished badly by raama at vishwaamitra's yagna, had become a hermit. He was a great magician too. raavaNa asked him to disguise himself as a golden deer to entice sItaa. When raama stepped out to get the deer, he would abduct sItaa. Having seen raama's valor in person, maarIcha advised him against such a ploy. But raavaNa was adamant. He would not heed to any words of wisdom at all. He was focused on getting what he wanted and threatened to kill maarIcha if he did not cooperate. At that, maarIcha told him, he would rather die at the arms of raama rather than raavaNa. He disguised as a beautiful golden deer with silver spots and jewel embellishments! This never seen before, one of a kind, deer, started prancing gracefully in front of raama's kutIram, so that sItaa would spot it. And she did!
We were all so curious as to what would happen after that, but... we had to stop! We are all very eager for the next part of the story now. After coloring the pages with the stories we'd heard today, played a new game called 'zip-zap-zom'. Everyone stands in a circle. One person 'zip-zap-zom'-s someone across the circle. That person immediately 'zip-zap-zom'-s someone else, so on and so forth. But ours being a raamaayaNa class, we brought in a twist. The words were 'raama-lakShamNa-sItaa'! Everyone had so much fun saying it faster and faster and passing on the 'zom' to someone else :). We then finished the class with our ending prayers and made our way to the auditorium.
See you all again next week. Until then, stay warm and keep practicing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
