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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1- 12
Story: Faithful jaTaayu; slaying of kabandha
Words of the week: kabandha; jaTaayu
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of raama consoled by lakShmaNa; slaying of kabandha
Game time: I know my boundaries; I am not kabandha (with real life examples)
End of class:
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We have introduced a new prayer to our beginning prayers. It is the verse we say in the morning, as soon as we wake up, looking at our palm 'karaagre vasate lakShmIH...'. That should be followed by 'samudra vasane devI..'. In the gIta chanting we learnt till verse 12. Also, we had a few of our friends come up and chant the verses they could manage to say by themselves. A few of them volunteered and chanted alone! That was quite impressive!! Next week, they have all promised to try as many verses as they can, to chant all by themselves! Parents please encourage them and practice at home. Also ask them what chapter 11 talks about and what they understand about the conversation in the gItaa.
In the story time, we heard about how raama and lakShmaNa were in sorrow after discovering that sItaa was missing. lakShmaNa tried to console raama. They looked around and found an injured jaTaayu. He was holding on to his breath, so he could inform raama, the whereabouts of sItaa. He narrated to raama, how sItaa was struggling but evil raavaNa carried her away. He apologized to raama that his old frail body could not stop mighty raavaNa from his hideous act. He then passed away. raama and lakShmaNa, with due respect performed the last rites of the brave bird. It shows us that they were not engrossed selfishly in their own agony, but had the presence of mind to do the right actions at the right time. They went in the south direction, as per jaTaayu's description. There suddenly, they were grabbed by a huge monster called kabandha. He was hideous looking, for he did not have a head or legs. He just had a torso and two hands coming out of it. He had one eye on the top of his torso and an enormous mouth in the middle. He was a greedy and selfish being and he devoured everything that came his way. Anything he lay his eyes on, he would grab! raama and lakShmaNa, realizing that his only strength were his arms, drew swords and cut off his arms. Suddenly a divine being rose from kabandha's body. He was a siddha purusha, under a curse actually. This established to us, we would be like kabandha too, if we were so greedy and wanted anything and everything we laid our eyes on! We need to use our wisdom and weigh our own needs and excessive desires. With the Lord's help, when He cut off the arms, a siddha purusha was released. So shall we attain our best with the Lord's assistance.
We colored the pictures that went with the stories. Then, in the game time, we played our new favorite - do you know your boundaries. Our kids sure know theirs! Not a wrong step!! We also played the 'I am not kabandha', with real life examples. They knew when the attitudes were greedy like kabandha's and when the thoughts were noble! Do we have a bunch of wonderful kids or do we have a bunch of wonderful kids!!
We love our class and can't say that enough times :). Have a nice week everyone and see you next week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1- 12
Story: Faithful jaTaayu; slaying of kabandha
Words of the week: kabandha; jaTaayu
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of raama consoled by lakShmaNa; slaying of kabandha
Game time: I know my boundaries; I am not kabandha (with real life examples)
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We have introduced a new prayer to our beginning prayers. It is the verse we say in the morning, as soon as we wake up, looking at our palm 'karaagre vasate lakShmIH...'. That should be followed by 'samudra vasane devI..'. In the gIta chanting we learnt till verse 12. Also, we had a few of our friends come up and chant the verses they could manage to say by themselves. A few of them volunteered and chanted alone! That was quite impressive!! Next week, they have all promised to try as many verses as they can, to chant all by themselves! Parents please encourage them and practice at home. Also ask them what chapter 11 talks about and what they understand about the conversation in the gItaa.
In the story time, we heard about how raama and lakShmaNa were in sorrow after discovering that sItaa was missing. lakShmaNa tried to console raama. They looked around and found an injured jaTaayu. He was holding on to his breath, so he could inform raama, the whereabouts of sItaa. He narrated to raama, how sItaa was struggling but evil raavaNa carried her away. He apologized to raama that his old frail body could not stop mighty raavaNa from his hideous act. He then passed away. raama and lakShmaNa, with due respect performed the last rites of the brave bird. It shows us that they were not engrossed selfishly in their own agony, but had the presence of mind to do the right actions at the right time. They went in the south direction, as per jaTaayu's description. There suddenly, they were grabbed by a huge monster called kabandha. He was hideous looking, for he did not have a head or legs. He just had a torso and two hands coming out of it. He had one eye on the top of his torso and an enormous mouth in the middle. He was a greedy and selfish being and he devoured everything that came his way. Anything he lay his eyes on, he would grab! raama and lakShmaNa, realizing that his only strength were his arms, drew swords and cut off his arms. Suddenly a divine being rose from kabandha's body. He was a siddha purusha, under a curse actually. This established to us, we would be like kabandha too, if we were so greedy and wanted anything and everything we laid our eyes on! We need to use our wisdom and weigh our own needs and excessive desires. With the Lord's help, when He cut off the arms, a siddha purusha was released. So shall we attain our best with the Lord's assistance.
We colored the pictures that went with the stories. Then, in the game time, we played our new favorite - do you know your boundaries. Our kids sure know theirs! Not a wrong step!! We also played the 'I am not kabandha', with real life examples. They knew when the attitudes were greedy like kabandha's and when the thoughts were noble! Do we have a bunch of wonderful kids or do we have a bunch of wonderful kids!!
We love our class and can't say that enough times :). Have a nice week everyone and see you next week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We started with three OM's followed by shlokas. All the children remember the shlokas very well and all of us chanted out loud. Meditation came next and we all did excellent. As always we had a brief discussion about how important this practice is in order to be successful and confident in life. We asked the children to practice meditation at home as well.It could be done before bed time or soon after getting up. We had a very enthusiastic response. Let's see how many of us practice to remain quiet at least 2-5 min a day.
We completed 12th shloka in Geeta Chanting. We divided the class in different groups and let each group chant. It gave us a clear picture of how the kids are doing. We only have 3 more shlokas to go and we will be done with the number of shlokas 1st grade is supposed to chant in the competition. Please make sure that the kids bring their Geeta chanting book/photocopy with them so they can look at it and try to read.
Story time covered the episode of Rama and Lakshmana discovering that Sita was not in the ashram. How Rama was very upset and grief stricken. How Jatau told them about where Sita was taken. Also we covered the story of "The slaying of Kabandha". We learned that "Kabandha" is someone whose purpose in life is just to grab things and take as much as possible without thinking about others. It is miserable to be a "kabandha". Therefore do not be greedy. Learn to share. We all shared what was the most important things for each one of us and how we should learn to share with our friends and family.
Next we all did coloring. It was hilarious when some of the kids colored Rakhas Kabandha's teeth brown explaining that he never brushed his teeth and hence he had stinky breath. Many of us have a lot of coloring pages to finish.We will try to color more pages in each class so we all can finish the coloring book.
Before we knew,it was time to go home. The class ended with aarti and pledge.
Stay Warm and we will see you again on Sunday!!
