Sevikas: Nanda, Indira, Ruchi and Jacqueline. Many, many thanks to all the helper parents today!
Home Fun Work: Print out and color this page. Discuss with your child who this is a picture of and how he is important to us.
Morning Prayers:
• Om Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)
Quiet Time: 1 minute of absolute silence and excellent shell counting during our focus game − उत्तमम्!!!
Gita Chanting: Shlokas 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6, and 7 (click here for audio, text and on-line registration.)
Likhita Japa
• ऊँ 21 times (click here for tracing sheet)
• राम 21 times (click here for tracing sheet)
Letter of the Week: Y is for Yagna
Story: The Enormous Turnip (Aunty did a very funny re-enactment of this story with the children)
Activity and Games: Sanskrit Learning (click here for our words this week)
• Reviewed our 5 colors (purple, red, blue, yellow and green)
• Reviewed our number identification in Devanagari (1-5)
• Introduced some animals
• Introduced you (masc. formal) and I/me
• KrishnaH vadati (we substituted animals' names for KrishnaH) (click here for complete text)
Comments: Our classes were combined again today — we will now continue to do this for the remainder of our Balavihar year. We have found that this is a much easier way for us to conduct class and do play practice. So, from now on please bring your children to the class nearest the front door.
We have to say that the children chanted their 7 shlokas today with tremendous confidence! We certainly hope that you have all registered them for the big day next weekend. Clearly these kids have been diligently practicing at home — उत्तमम् parents!!
After we did our prayers, quiet time, Geeta chanting and alphabet recap, we divided the class into two sections. A few of the aunties and all the helper parents took 1/2 of the children to the auditorium to do the play practice. The aunty posting this blog wasn't present, so unfortunately, she can't give you her first hand impression of the rehearsal, BUT word in the hallway is: "that things went EXTREMELY WELL on stage" Can't wait to see rehearsals at our next class ...
For the children who stayed in the classroom today, we focused our activities on some fun Sanskrit learning. We went over the numbers and colors that we have been learning. After our review we played a new game to help us learn some animals. Once we had a few animals "under our belt," so to speak, we then held up the picture of a color and a picture of the animal together — so that the children would start to create very simple sentences on their own. For example: a yellow bird, a green frog, a red cat, etc. We then tried a round of Charades using the animal pictures. The children are doing exceptionally well with remembering the games we have been playing. So, whenever we have to divide our rehearsals into two, we will be sure to bring out our game box for more learning. You can click here to view all the words we worked with today.
Our next play rehearsal and prop making session will be at the ashram on Saturday, May 1, 4-6 p.m. Please come and join us. The puppets are nearly finished! Next we will be working on the backdrop.
In the meantime, hope to see everyone on Sunday at the Geeta Chanting Competition. Have a super break and we'll meet back in class on Mother's Day, May 9th!
बहवः धन्यवादाः (bahavaH dhanyavaadaaH, many thanks) to all the parents who came to help with the practice today. We really appreciate your support and help with making this play a reality. We look forward to working with you again, and again, over the next several weeks!
Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
April 25, 2010
April 18, 2010
April 18 Class: Section 1 and 2
Sevikas: Nanda, Indira, Kalpana and Jacqueline. Special thanks to all the helper moms who joined the class today.
Home Fun Work: Print out and color this page
Have your child practice saying aloud numbers 1-5 and colors in Sanskrit.
Morning Prayers:
• Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
Quiet Time: Three OMs followed by one minute of silence
Bhajans: Ganapati, Ganapati (click here for text and audio)
Gita Chanting: none (click here for text, audio and on-line registration)
Likhita Japa: none
Letter of the Week: X is for Excellence
Activity and Games: Sanskrit Games
• Colors - red, green, blue, yellow and purple (click here for text)
• Identify Devanagari script numbers 1-5 (click here for text)
• KrishnaH Vadati (click here for complete text)
• Read Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton (in Sanskrit) (click here for text)
Comments: Today was another topsy-turvy day for us. We surprised the children by conducting our entire class on the stage in the auditorium. Because our annual program is literally less than 2 months away, we will be seizing every Balavihar opportunity we can to use the auditorium for class. We expect that the more our young friends can practice being up there, the less stage fright we will encounter on the big day itself.
After our morning prayers and quiet time, Aunty gathered all the children in a circle and reviewed the story of our play — "E is for Enthusiasm." For those who are not familiar with our play's script: we will be performing the tale when Lord Raama sroked the little squirrels for helping build the bridge to Lanka ... hence the three stripes that are on their back.
Our real fun and chaos began after the story recap. Several of the puppets were assembled and distributed to the kids. We started the rehearsal with learning how we should enter and exit the stage. After a few rounds of this, the kids clearly got the rhythm down. In fact, we all gave ourselves a huge two thumbs up — उत्तमम! (uttamam, excellent) This was a big moment of joy (and relief) for the aunties :-)
Now our challenge was how to rehearse with the puppets, script, and 40 children. After a few attempts to try and calm all the excitement down, we decided that our best strategy for today would be to divide the children into two smaller groups — one group remained on stage to practice their parts while the other group disappeared to the back of the auditorium and played games in Sanskrit. We're thinking that until our adult volunteers are able to consistently join us for rehearsals, that this might be the best solution to our "Kindergarten Enthusiasm."
Here's something hard to believe: our Geeta Chanting Competition is coming up in just a few weeks! Boy did time fly — it seems like it was just one or two months ago when we started working with the first two lines of the first shloka. Please be sure and reward your children for all their hard work this year by registering them for the competion. We have seen such growth with all the kids these past months ... with their pronunciation, enthusiasm and memorization. Clearly, the parents deserve a big "उत्तमम्" for all of their hard work!
We promised the children that we will keep last week's "Home Fun Work" coloring page on blog. We did not tell them what the picture was off — it is going to be a surprise for them, and they will come to class next week and let us know what they colored.
Today was defintely one active day — this aunty is willing to bet that all the adults took a good rest when they got home.
See everyone next week for another fun class!
Home Fun Work: Print out and color this page
Have your child practice saying aloud numbers 1-5 and colors in Sanskrit.
Morning Prayers:
• Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
Quiet Time: Three OMs followed by one minute of silence
Bhajans: Ganapati, Ganapati (click here for text and audio)
Gita Chanting: none (click here for text, audio and on-line registration)
Likhita Japa: none
Letter of the Week: X is for Excellence
Activity and Games: Sanskrit Games
• Colors - red, green, blue, yellow and purple (click here for text)
• Identify Devanagari script numbers 1-5 (click here for text)
• KrishnaH Vadati (click here for complete text)
• Read Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton (in Sanskrit) (click here for text)
Comments: Today was another topsy-turvy day for us. We surprised the children by conducting our entire class on the stage in the auditorium. Because our annual program is literally less than 2 months away, we will be seizing every Balavihar opportunity we can to use the auditorium for class. We expect that the more our young friends can practice being up there, the less stage fright we will encounter on the big day itself.
After our morning prayers and quiet time, Aunty gathered all the children in a circle and reviewed the story of our play — "E is for Enthusiasm." For those who are not familiar with our play's script: we will be performing the tale when Lord Raama sroked the little squirrels for helping build the bridge to Lanka ... hence the three stripes that are on their back.
Our real fun and chaos began after the story recap. Several of the puppets were assembled and distributed to the kids. We started the rehearsal with learning how we should enter and exit the stage. After a few rounds of this, the kids clearly got the rhythm down. In fact, we all gave ourselves a huge two thumbs up — उत्तमम! (uttamam, excellent) This was a big moment of joy (and relief) for the aunties :-)
Now our challenge was how to rehearse with the puppets, script, and 40 children. After a few attempts to try and calm all the excitement down, we decided that our best strategy for today would be to divide the children into two smaller groups — one group remained on stage to practice their parts while the other group disappeared to the back of the auditorium and played games in Sanskrit. We're thinking that until our adult volunteers are able to consistently join us for rehearsals, that this might be the best solution to our "Kindergarten Enthusiasm."
Here's something hard to believe: our Geeta Chanting Competition is coming up in just a few weeks! Boy did time fly — it seems like it was just one or two months ago when we started working with the first two lines of the first shloka. Please be sure and reward your children for all their hard work this year by registering them for the competion. We have seen such growth with all the kids these past months ... with their pronunciation, enthusiasm and memorization. Clearly, the parents deserve a big "उत्तमम्" for all of their hard work!
We promised the children that we will keep last week's "Home Fun Work" coloring page on blog. We did not tell them what the picture was off — it is going to be a surprise for them, and they will come to class next week and let us know what they colored.
Today was defintely one active day — this aunty is willing to bet that all the adults took a good rest when they got home.
See everyone next week for another fun class!
April 11, 2010
April 11 Class: Section 1 and 2
Sevikas: Nanda, Indira, Aunty (Vinay's Mom) and Jacqueline
Home Work Fun: Print out and Color this page
Have your child practice saying the numbers 1-5 in Sanskrit. Practice saying the colors aloud, too!
Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for view text)
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for view text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)
Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence — with some seriously accurate shell counting. Our kids are definitely moving up a grade!
Bhajans: Ganapati, Ganapati (click here for audio and text)
Geeta Chanting: Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (click here for audio, text and on-line registration)
Likhita Japa:
• राम (21 times) (click here for tracing card)
• ऊँ (21 times) (click here for tracing card)
Letter of the week: W is for Work
Story: Ant and the Grasshopper
Activity/Games: Sanskrit Games
• Numbers 1-5 (click here for text)
• Colors – red, green, yellow, blue, and purple (click here for text)
• KrishnaH vadati (click here for text)
Comments: It sure was nice seeing everyone today after our Spring Break. Lucky for us, we got to combine both of our classes for a very fun morning together. Didn't take long for us to get back into the groove. All the kids had fun stories to share about their vacation – many went away for vacation, some got to ride their bikes a lot, and one friend got a new dog!
Even though we had a shortened class because we needed to go to the auditorium for aarti, we managed to get through oodles of activities before packing up. Today was our first "official" play rehearsal for the end of the year program. We brought in some of our puppets — and the kids got a feel for manipulating them. After our prayers, chanting and story, we divided the classes into two. Half of the children left the classroom to begin rehearsals, while the remaining children stayed back and played some fun games in Sanskrit. (We were pretty amazed at how quickly they were able to identify the first 5 numbers and some colors — keep up the good work, kids!) From this point onward, we will be finishing our learning activities by 10:45 so that we can rehearse during the 2nd half of the class. Please continue to check the blog for our updates and reviews :-)
Geeta Competition, believe it or not, is only a few weeks away ... We really urge you to register your child, if you have not already done so. We have noticed that there are quite a few children in our classes that have all 7 shlokas memorized — and their pronunciations are perfect. Nicely done parents!
After our little cold front last week, this weather is truly appreciated and welcomed. Hope all of our young friends enjoy a good romp outside after their lunch. Kids, make sure to keep practicing your Geeta Chanting – and don't forget to print out the "Color by Number" page above. We're going to see how many of us were able to figure out what the picture is of :-)
By the way, the aunties were very impressed that some of you were able to tell us about our Chinmaya OM coloring page from last class :-)
See you all next week ...
Home Work Fun: Print out and Color this page
Have your child practice saying the numbers 1-5 in Sanskrit. Practice saying the colors aloud, too!
Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for view text)
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for view text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)
Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence — with some seriously accurate shell counting. Our kids are definitely moving up a grade!
Bhajans: Ganapati, Ganapati (click here for audio and text)
Geeta Chanting: Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (click here for audio, text and on-line registration)
Likhita Japa:
• राम (21 times) (click here for tracing card)
• ऊँ (21 times) (click here for tracing card)
Letter of the week: W is for Work
Story: Ant and the Grasshopper
Activity/Games: Sanskrit Games
• Numbers 1-5 (click here for text)
• Colors – red, green, yellow, blue, and purple (click here for text)
• KrishnaH vadati (click here for text)
Comments: It sure was nice seeing everyone today after our Spring Break. Lucky for us, we got to combine both of our classes for a very fun morning together. Didn't take long for us to get back into the groove. All the kids had fun stories to share about their vacation – many went away for vacation, some got to ride their bikes a lot, and one friend got a new dog!
Even though we had a shortened class because we needed to go to the auditorium for aarti, we managed to get through oodles of activities before packing up. Today was our first "official" play rehearsal for the end of the year program. We brought in some of our puppets — and the kids got a feel for manipulating them. After our prayers, chanting and story, we divided the classes into two. Half of the children left the classroom to begin rehearsals, while the remaining children stayed back and played some fun games in Sanskrit. (We were pretty amazed at how quickly they were able to identify the first 5 numbers and some colors — keep up the good work, kids!) From this point onward, we will be finishing our learning activities by 10:45 so that we can rehearse during the 2nd half of the class. Please continue to check the blog for our updates and reviews :-)
Geeta Competition, believe it or not, is only a few weeks away ... We really urge you to register your child, if you have not already done so. We have noticed that there are quite a few children in our classes that have all 7 shlokas memorized — and their pronunciations are perfect. Nicely done parents!
After our little cold front last week, this weather is truly appreciated and welcomed. Hope all of our young friends enjoy a good romp outside after their lunch. Kids, make sure to keep practicing your Geeta Chanting – and don't forget to print out the "Color by Number" page above. We're going to see how many of us were able to figure out what the picture is of :-)
By the way, the aunties were very impressed that some of you were able to tell us about our Chinmaya OM coloring page from last class :-)
See you all next week ...
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