* 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 - 7
Story: agastya; shUrpanakhaa
Words of the week: agastya, shUrpanakhaa
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of raama meeting sage agastya; lakShmaNa chopping off shUrpanakhaa's nose
Game time: Instead of playing a game, we invited the parents into the class and showed them the coloring books. The children proudly showed all their hard work to their parents!
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
It was so good to see everyone. We sure had a long break. Happy New Year all!
We did the morning prayers easily. But most of them had forgotten 'samudravasane devI..' We learnt and practiced it again. After meditation time, we learnt 7 shlokas of gIta. The competition is coming up fast. It is in the first week of April, for which 1st graders have to learn 14 verses. Practice with them regularly.
During story time, we heard how raama and lakShmaNa destroyed lots of demons in the forest who were troubling the sages. When sItaa got concerned for their well being, raama consoled her saying that he is here to do his duty as a kshatriya and protect the saadhU-s. We then heard about the great maharshI agastya. We heard how stopped the vindhyaa mountains from growing too tall. Just his appearance made the mountains to bow down to him in reverence and they plateaued across the central part of India. Once when all the great sages went towards the himaalayaas, their strength was so great that it was tipping the balance of the earth. Lord viShNu requested sage agastya to stay in the south, to keep the balance! Such was his valor. Lord raama visited this great sage and got his blessings. By then, almost 10 years of their exile had passed. Sage agastya suggested a serene and beautiful place called pa~nchavatI for them to spend the rest of their time in the forests. lakShmaNa quickly built a neat hut for them to live. They met jaTaayu, the eagle bird, who promised to look after sIta's welfare when raama and lakShmaNa were out. One day shUrpanakhaa (raavaNa's sister) came by and wanted raama to marry her. When raama refused, she asked lakShmaNa. When he too refused, she was infuriated and went after sIta. Seeing this lakShmaNa cut off her nose and ears. She went away screeching. We have stopped the story at this point and very curious to know what happens next.
We did the coloring pages. By then, it was time for parents to pick up the children. They all showed their books to their parents. Parents, please remember to purchase the 'My prayers' and 'Bala Ramayana' books for your children. They are the prescribed texts for their curriculum. We will meet again in 2 weeks kids. Until then, keep practicing the shlokas, gIta and the morals we have been learning!
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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
Welcome back to Balavihar and Happy New Year to you all! Although today was yet another chilly day, our warm smiles made us all cozy and cheerful. Most of us came to class on time. We all had a lively discussion on what we did during the winter break. We all shared our favorite thing to do during winter. Almost everyone agreed that making snowman was their most favorite winter activity.
Coming back to our class schedule,we did a quick recap on class rules and then started with our morning shlokas followed by two minute meditation. Everyone sat quietly for two minutes and then we did the Geeta Chanting. We introduced ninth shloka. Parents please register your children for the competition.Please visit the CMTC website for more details. We all are chanting very loud and clear. Good Job everyone. Please keep practicing.
After stretching and doing some yoga moves we all got ready for the story time. We did a recap of what we have covered so far and had a little question/answer session on the various lessons we have done so far. After this we moved on to the story of Rishi Aagastya and his spiritual powers. How Rama,Sita and Lakshmana moved to Panchvati and build their ashrama there. How Lakshmana build a little cottage with bamboo poles and grass. Even though Rama and Lakshmana were Prince,they had practical knowledge on how one should adapt oneself to circumstances. We also did the story of "Surpanakha".
By the time the story time got over, it was almost time to leave so we could not do coloring but we had just enough time to play "Zip-zap-zop!! It was a lot of fun. Ask your children about the game.
The class ended with aarti and pledge.
There is no class next week. So we will see you on 23rd of January. Dress warm and enjoy the snow!!
Hari Om!
