October 16, 2011

Hari OM!

Beginning Prayers

• Om Saha Navavathu
• Vakratunda Mahakaya
• Saraswathi Namastubhyam
• Ramaya Ramabhadraya

Bhajans:

We reviewed the following two bhajans.  The children are now quite familiar with these.

• Rama Lakshmana Jaanaki Jai Bolo Hanuman ki
• Om Shiva Om Shiva Paraatpara Shiva

Stotram:

• GuruStotram (My Prayers, Page 9) - We reviewed slokas 1, 2 and 3. 

Story:

We recapped the story from the last class.

Then we moved on with our story where Rama couldnt wait to see Rudra's bow.  He looked at Sage Vishwamitra to ask for permission and after seeking his blessings, lifts the Rudra bow with his right hand and bendsit/breaks.  Everyone hears the sound of the string, and now Sita is to be married to Sri Rama.  Word is sent to King Dasharatha to come to his son's wedding.  Rama weds Sita, Lakshmana weds Urmila, Bharata weds Mandavi, and Shatrugna weds Srutakirti.  The wedding is very well celebrated in Mithila and Ayodhay.  King Janaka is a little sad that his dearest daughter will be leaving his home but he consoles himself saying that's her rightful place.

As King Dasharatha and princes are returning back to Ayodhya with their new wives they run into Parasurama who challenges Sri Rama to life Vishnu's bow.  Sri Rama does so, and fires the arrow to kill the fruits of all of Parasurama's penance.

Activity:

Wedding Gift:  We thought it appropriate to gift Sri Rama with some gift for his wedding.  The only thing we could coem up with that Rama does not have are bad habits.  So, we wrote down our bad habits/mischiefs on a piece of paper and dropped in a gift box for Sri Rama.  This way we lose our bad habits and Sri Rama being so perfect will not be affected by it.  The entire class came forward to hand over the gift to Sri Rama.

Diwali Diya:  The kids made a diya for Diwali and decorated it.

Meditation/Japa:
We did 'Likhita Japa' today.  We wrote the name of Lord Rama in absolute silence, 11 times.

Games:

Hangman: We played hangman to recap the story from last week. 

Conclusion:

We concluded by doing the Aarthi and Pledge in the assembly.

Comments:

We had 10 kids in class today.  It was nice to see everyone so well dressed for Sri Rama's wedding to Sita.  We also talked about Diwali in class today.  In the spirit of the wedding and Diwali, Diya's parents brought in savory and sweet puris to share with the class.  The class enjoyed the treat. Thank you Diya.

Please work with the kids to learn the Gurustotram.  They are struggling a little with shloka 2.  We would like to move on to the next set of stotrams but we need to make sure they all know the first 3 well.  We have a wonderful and enthusiastic set of kids in our class and it is a pleasure to be around them on Sundays.

Next week, there'll be CORD Walkathon and we hope to see all kids and family at Mercer County Park to show our support.  Please register ASAP if you have not done so already and be there at 930.  Kalpana aunty and Radha aunty will be there with their families.
Reminders:

Please try to send the following items in your childs bag:

1. Crayons
2. Pencil
3. Notebook
4. Glue
5. Snack/Drink
6. A folder to keep their pictures/artwork.
7. Scissors
8. 1st grade Balavihar books - Bala Ramayan, Ramayana characters and a copy of 'My Prayers'; assembly handbook.

 

Diwali Diya

Materials

Modeling Clay
Gem Stickers

Directions

• Make a medium size ball from the clay/play-doh.
• Shape it in the form of a diya
• Decorate the diya with gem stickers/glitter glue.
• Leave it outside for sometime to airdry.
• Add a tea-light in the middle and light it up on Diwali.

Home-made diya is ready for Diwali

October 2, 2011

Hari OM!

Beginning Prayers

• Om Saha Navavathu
• Vakratunda Mahakaya
• Saraswathi Namastubhyam

Bhajans:

We reviewed the following two bhajans.  The children are now quite familiar with these.

• Rama Lakshmana Jaanaki Jai Bolo Hanuman ki
• Om Shiva Om Shiva Paraatpara Shiva

Stotram:

• GuruStotram (My Prayers, Page 9) - We reviewed slokas 1, 2 and 3

Story:

We recapped the story from the last class. This week we learnt how Ahalya was turned into a stone by her husband Sage Gautama and led a hidden life of penance. When Lord Rama entered the Ashrama of Sage Gautama (on the outskirts of Mithila) and his feet touched the stone Ahalya was released from her life of penance and became a human being again.  She and her husband hosted Sage Vishwamitra and the two princes. 

We talked about King Janaka of Mithila and how he found a beautiful baby when he was ploughing the land before a yajna.  He name the baby Sita and thanked Bhumidevi for the gift of this divine child.  Sita was a perfect baby and her beauty rivaled that of Goddess Lakshmi.  As she grew older King Janaka was worried about how he would find a husband worthy of Sita.  He decided that the man who lifted and bent the bow of Rudra (given to his ancestors by god Varuna) would marry Sita.  When King Janaka heard about the presence of Vishwamitra in Gautama's Ashrama, he went with his court of ministers and invited the sage to be his guest.  There he saw the two sons of King Dasharatha and was struck by their brilliance.  He happily invited the princes of Ayodhya as guests to Mithila. 

Activity:

The kids put Sri Rama's feet on Mithila. (Part of the Sri Rama Trail)

The kids colored a page from the Ramayana workbook.

Meditation/Japa:
We did 'Likhita Japa' today.  We wrote the name of Lord Rama in absolute silence, 11 times.

Games:

Quiz - we had a quiz about last  week's story. The boys and girls participated very enthusiastically and the boys won by 6 points.

Radha Aunty played Four Corners with the kids using names from the Ramayana story so far. The children really enjoyed this game and we were happy to note that they did remember the names and places discussed so far.

Conclusion:

We concluded by doing the Aarthi and Pledge. 

Comments:

We had about 75% attendance today. We would like to see all the kids attend regularly.  We distributed the gold coins today for attending balavihar on time, class participation and good conduct.  The promise of coins motivated them to be well behaved in class today. The children should have dropped the coins in the Team Ganga jar on their way out.

The children will benefit by reading the stories discussed so far in the Bala Ramayana book

We noticed that there are some students who have not purchased the recommended 1st grade books. Please buy them as we don't have enough copies to share and we do use all the books quite regularly in the class.  Also some children did not have a snack/drink..please send them as we noticed that all the children are eager to have a snack break on Sunday mornings.

This week we had Back to Balavihar and the teachers reviewed the curriculum, class format, etc with the parents.

Reminders:

Please try to send the following items in your childs bag:

1. Crayons
2. Pencil
3. Notebook
4. Glue
5. Snack/Drink
6. A folder to keep their pictures/artwork.
7. Scissors
8. 1st grade Balavihar books - Bala Ramayan, Ramayana characters and a copy of 'My Prayers'; assembly handbook.

Next class is on October 16th 2011.   We will be celebrating the marriage of Rama and Sita (as the story will progress to that point) and also Diwali.  We encourage the students to come dressed in their Indian finery for this festive occasion.