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
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2
Story: The coronation; I know raamaayaNa
Words of the week: pushpaka vimaanam; ayodhyaa; pattabhiShekam; raamakathaa
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring page of raama's coronation
Game time: Quiz on raamayaNa IQ. Discussion on the relevance of ethics and values that we have learnt through hearing raamaayaNa.
End of class:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We had quite a few kids in class, inspite of it being the spring break week! We did miss a few of you though. We did the morning prayers, followed by meditation time. Today's gItaa chanting was the bestest! Aunties did not have to help them one bit!! They did all the 14 verses, all on their own, to perfection, without any stuttering or pauses!!! We were so extremely ecstatic! We don't have enough words to express our joy :). Parents, thank you very much for all the practice and encouragement you have been giving them at home. It truly is showing its colors now! Many of you have already registered. Those who have not, please make sure you register them, as the registration will be closing on Tuesday. After that, you will receive an email with your child's allotted time slot for the 23rd. Best of luck everyone! We are rooting for you all :).
After the chanting, was our favorite segment - story time :). Today, we were finishing up our raamaayaNa! We did a review of what we have heard so far in the story time. raavaNa was slain. The city of lankaa was handed over to vibhIShaNa as king, for restoring it to its original glory. By now, the 14 years of exile were almost up. They all sat in the puShpaka vimaanam. (A small tidbit - puShpaka vimaanam was an aerial chariot, which would always have room for as many people who wanted to ride AND an extra seat!). So, raama, with his wife sItaa, brother lakShmaNa, dearest hanumaan, sugrIva, vibhIShaNa and all the monkeys, sat in the chariot and left towards ayodhyaa. They were reminiscing their experiences as they flew over the mountains and valleys of panchavatI, chitrakUtaa, etc. They sent word to bharata and guhaa, about their arrival. The joy of the people of ayodhyaa was unbound. The whole city was festive and joyous. Everyone celebrated the arrival of their beloved prince raama and princess sItaa. bharata came running on bare feet to raama. He fell at his feet and embraced him with love. He returned the throne to raama immediately. At an auspicious time, raama was crowed the king of ayodhyaa. Everyone rejoiced and there was celebration for days. After the coronation, sItaa gave a pearl garland to hanumaan. He said that it did not have the sweet taste that chanting raamanaama gave him! He asked to be blessed that he would be able to sit and listen to raamakatha, where ever it is being told with love, always! That meant that hanumaan was sitting in our class every balavihaar Sunday, though out the year and listening to the raamakatha we were learning!!
Aunty told a small side story after that. When all the monkeys were feasting, they were seated in a line for lunch. Varieties of food was served. A pickle was served too. One of the monkeys was trying to pinch a piece of it, when it slipped and jumped off it's hand. This monkey thought that the pickle was jumping and so, he jumped up to show that he could do that too. The monkey sitting next to him, said 'I can jump too', so he jumped. The one sitting next to him... he jumped too :). Like this, the whole line of monkeys were jumping! When raama came, he was surprised. When he questioned one monkey about the jumping, it was clueless! The whole line of monkeys pointed at each other, without knowing why they were really jumping. Finally the first monkey pointed to the pickle :) and everyone rolled with laughter :).
After coloring the last page of the book, the kids were very excited to learn that they get to take their precious books home today, to keep! They had kept the books very well though out the year and aunty had promised a surprise if they did so. Sure enough, they all go key rings of hanumaan, to go on their back packs or balavihar bags, reminding them to keep ALL their books well, always!
We have also given a consolidated list of relevant values from raamaayaNa, that we want to absorb through the years. We had a quiz on those values and lo and behold, we got each and every answer correctly from the children!
It was a wonderful class in all! Enjoy your spring break everyone and keep practicing the gItaa chanting. We are sure you will all do a wonderful job on 23rd. Best of luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2
Story: The coronation; I know raamaayaNa
Words of the week: pushpaka vimaanam; ayodhyaa; pattabhiShekam; raamakathaa
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring page of raama's coronation
Game time: Quiz on raamayaNa IQ. Discussion on the relevance of ethics and values that we have learnt through hearing raamaayaNa.
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We had quite a few kids in class, inspite of it being the spring break week! We did miss a few of you though. We did the morning prayers, followed by meditation time. Today's gItaa chanting was the bestest! Aunties did not have to help them one bit!! They did all the 14 verses, all on their own, to perfection, without any stuttering or pauses!!! We were so extremely ecstatic! We don't have enough words to express our joy :). Parents, thank you very much for all the practice and encouragement you have been giving them at home. It truly is showing its colors now! Many of you have already registered. Those who have not, please make sure you register them, as the registration will be closing on Tuesday. After that, you will receive an email with your child's allotted time slot for the 23rd. Best of luck everyone! We are rooting for you all :).
After the chanting, was our favorite segment - story time :). Today, we were finishing up our raamaayaNa! We did a review of what we have heard so far in the story time. raavaNa was slain. The city of lankaa was handed over to vibhIShaNa as king, for restoring it to its original glory. By now, the 14 years of exile were almost up. They all sat in the puShpaka vimaanam. (A small tidbit - puShpaka vimaanam was an aerial chariot, which would always have room for as many people who wanted to ride AND an extra seat!). So, raama, with his wife sItaa, brother lakShmaNa, dearest hanumaan, sugrIva, vibhIShaNa and all the monkeys, sat in the chariot and left towards ayodhyaa. They were reminiscing their experiences as they flew over the mountains and valleys of panchavatI, chitrakUtaa, etc. They sent word to bharata and guhaa, about their arrival. The joy of the people of ayodhyaa was unbound. The whole city was festive and joyous. Everyone celebrated the arrival of their beloved prince raama and princess sItaa. bharata came running on bare feet to raama. He fell at his feet and embraced him with love. He returned the throne to raama immediately. At an auspicious time, raama was crowed the king of ayodhyaa. Everyone rejoiced and there was celebration for days. After the coronation, sItaa gave a pearl garland to hanumaan. He said that it did not have the sweet taste that chanting raamanaama gave him! He asked to be blessed that he would be able to sit and listen to raamakatha, where ever it is being told with love, always! That meant that hanumaan was sitting in our class every balavihaar Sunday, though out the year and listening to the raamakatha we were learning!!
Aunty told a small side story after that. When all the monkeys were feasting, they were seated in a line for lunch. Varieties of food was served. A pickle was served too. One of the monkeys was trying to pinch a piece of it, when it slipped and jumped off it's hand. This monkey thought that the pickle was jumping and so, he jumped up to show that he could do that too. The monkey sitting next to him, said 'I can jump too', so he jumped. The one sitting next to him... he jumped too :). Like this, the whole line of monkeys were jumping! When raama came, he was surprised. When he questioned one monkey about the jumping, it was clueless! The whole line of monkeys pointed at each other, without knowing why they were really jumping. Finally the first monkey pointed to the pickle :) and everyone rolled with laughter :).
After coloring the last page of the book, the kids were very excited to learn that they get to take their precious books home today, to keep! They had kept the books very well though out the year and aunty had promised a surprise if they did so. Sure enough, they all go key rings of hanumaan, to go on their back packs or balavihar bags, reminding them to keep ALL their books well, always!
We have also given a consolidated list of relevant values from raamaayaNa, that we want to absorb through the years. We had a quiz on those values and lo and behold, we got each and every answer correctly from the children!
It was a wonderful class in all! Enjoy your spring break everyone and keep practicing the gItaa chanting. We are sure you will all do a wonderful job on 23rd. Best of luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
Today was the most exciting day of all.Today we finished our Ramayana Book and were able to give all the coloring books back. Since the books were kept so neatly and carefully everyone got a beautiful Hanuman key-chain as a reward.
The class started with three loud OM's followed by morning shlokas. Today we discussed the meaning of each shloka and the God associated with them. Meditation time came next. We all sat silently for three minutes chanting and counting the names of Lord Rama.
Geeta Chanting came next.Today was the last day to practice the Shlokas. We have been practicing for almost 7-8 months. The kids are now ready to participate. Best of luck to all of you.
Story time was the grand finale of our chapter book "Bala Ramayana". Today we described the coronation of Sri Rama and the festivities and celebration in and around Ayodhya. What a joyous ending of the great epic.
We distributed the coloring books back to the students and looked at each and every picture that was colored. Each child described what they thought about each picture.We also discussed about the qualities and values each character represents in Ramayana. We have given a card to all the children with the symbolism in Ramayana.
Lots of pictures were taken today and everyone got the Hanuman keychain for their participation in class as well as keeping their coloring book nice and neat.
The class ended with Arti and pledge.
Enjoy the spring break and we will see you soon!
