March 22 Class

Words of the Week: शशक: (shashakaH, rabbit) and िंसहः (simahaH, lion)
List of the "Words of the Week"

Prayers Recited:

• OM saha naavavatu ("My Prayers," pg. 6 )
• Early Morning Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 43)
• Before Studies Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 44)
• Before Evening Lights Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 45)
• Guru Brahma ("My Prayers," pg. 9 -- third shloka of Shree Gurustotram)
• Lord Hanuman Shloka
  

Gita Shlokas: Chapter 9, Shlokas 1,2 and 3.

Bhajans:

• Ganesha Sharanam ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
• Jaya Ganesha ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
  
• Gopaalaa (2nd verse)
• Subramanyan (My Prayers," pg. 62)
• Aanjaneya Raghuveera ("My Prayers, pg. 21)
• Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya
  

Handwriting: None

Snack: Provided by Krishna Gurram and Kaavya Satish -- धन्यवादः!

Story: Foolish Lion and the Clever Rabbit

Art Project: Rabbit Puppet

Sanskrit: We read the book प्राणी (PraaNii, Animals) by SAMI, Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton and played shashakaH vadati. We also introduced two new opposite words "high उच्च and "low नीच." We plan to introduce "opposite" words in April with another fun book by Sandra Boyton.

End of Class: Poornamadah.

Comments: A new friend, Shreya Iyer, has joined our class. We want to extend a very warm "Hari OM" and welcome to her. Shreya, we are delighted that our circle has gotten bigger -- and hope that you will have lots of fun with your new friends!

Our Geeta Chanters are doing super! As of this morning (before 8:00 a.m.) we have eight children registered for April 25 -- and heard after class that more are planning to register. Parents, please be sure and do so -- these kids have been working hard since September, and we really want them to feel part of this special day. Everybody gets to have fun -- and everybody gets a medal!

Some parents have expressed an interest in their child chanting independently. Please be aware that our toddler group will not be competing among their peers -- rather our focus and goal is for the children to build their confidence and love for chanting by doing it in a group. If, however, you want your child to chant individually, please let one of the sevikas know in our next class and we will speak to the coordinators to see if we can have your child assigned a specific time slot -- in addition to our group time slot.

Indu Aunty, Priya and family: many thanks, again, for cutting out the turtle shapes for our future art project. We know how much work it was (and how long it took!) to do this. We all truly appreciate your helpfulness.

We also want to thank Abhi Uncle for bringing in his guitar (and other percussion instruments) today. We had a great time having him lead us in "Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya."

Please mark your calendars for April 4. There will be an evening of "East West Fusion" with instrumentation and singing by Sruti Ram and Ishwari. Place: Vrindavan Ashram. Time: 6 pm. For more information please contact Abhi and Sonia Kanitkar at www.krishnaleela.org. (click here for website.) Hope to see you all there for an evening of kiirtan energy.

Our next Balavihar class will be April 5. In the meantime, have a wonderful break. We hope all of our little शशका: (shashakaaH) will enjoy themselves as they jump around in this spring weather. Just don't let them forget to eat their carrots and greens ...

March 15 Class

Words of the Week: कीर्तन (kiirtana, praising or celebrating) and
कीर्तनं करोति (kiirtanam karoti, singing the glory of)
List of the "Words of the Week"

Prayers Recited:

• OM saha naavavatu ("My Prayers," pg. 6 )
• Early Morning Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 43)
• Before Studies Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 44)
• Before Evening Lights Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 45)
• Guru Brahma ("My Prayers," pg. 9 -- third shloka of Shree Gurustotram)
• Lord Hanuman Shloka
  

Gita Shlokas: Chapter 9, Shlokas 1,2 and 3.

Bhajans:

• Ganesha Sharanam ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
• Jaya Ganesha ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
  
• Gopaalaa (2nd verse)
• Om Namah Shivaya
  

Handwriting: OM Tracing Card

Snack: Provided by Priya Subramaniyan and Vikas Anand -- धन्यवादः!

Story: Sudhama and Lord Krishna

Art Project: Maraca

Sanskrit: We read the book प्राणी (PraaNii, Animals) by SAMI and reviewed our colors.

End of Class: Poornamadah.

Comments: A new friend, Kirtan, has joined our class. We want to extend a very warm "Hari OM" and welcome to him. Kirtan, we hope you will enjoy spending this class time with your new friends and we look forward to seeing you every Sunday. (Also, did you notice that your name is our word of the week? How cool is that!)

We had so much fun today that our class actually ran over 10 or 15 minutes! Ooops .... sorry parents.

First, we simply have to comment on how well the children chanted their Gita shlokas today. What started out as a quiet, slow start turned out to be a confident chanting session. Well done kids! We will continue to practice every week and by the time the competition comes around, there will be no stopping these children :-)

In the spirit of our kirtan singing with Abhi Uncle last week, we made maracas and used them to chant like Sudhama did when he returned home from a visit with Lord Krishna. "Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya." We hope that the children will use their musical instruments throughout the day, chanting the glory of Lord Krishna. (Although ... we are betting that the parents will be hiding the maracas by dinnertime.) Many thanks to Prayag and his mom for bringing back the bells from India -- they made the maracas much sweeter.

We were extremely happy to see our three friends back from India! The class now seems complete again. Wow, what a change in Vikram. He's not a little baby anymore...won't be long and he'll be leading us in bhajans -- especially watching him bounce around to the music today.

Please note that we had a mix up on the dates for a class room switch. We thought it was this week, however, it turns out that the boy scout breakfast will probably be next week. If so, then we will meet in another class room. A notice will be posted in the lobby to direct you to the room number (or you can ask at the Summer Camp table.)

It sure was a fun day today -- we look forward to seeing all of you on the 22nd. Have a peaceful week -- and kids, don't forget to practice chanting your shlokas!

March 8 Class

Words of the Week: कलहंस (kalahamsa, goose) and अण्डा (aNDaa, egg)
List of the "Words of the Week"

Prayers Recited:

• OM saha naavavatu ("My Prayers," pg. 6 )
• Early Morning Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 43)
• Before Studies Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 44)
• Before Evening Lights Prayer ("My Prayers," pg. 45)
• Guru Brahma ("My Prayers," pg. 9 -- third shloka of Shree Gurustotram)
• Lord Hanuman Shloka
  

Gita Shlokas: Chapter 9, Shlokas 1,2 and 3.

Bhajans:

• Ganesha Sharanam ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
• Jaya Ganesha ("My Prayers," pg. 7)
  
• Gopaalaa (2nd verse)
• Om Namah Shivaya
  

Snack: Provided by Srinidhi Mallapragada and Dakshatha Ravinder -- धन्यवादः!

Story: Goose and the Golden Egg.

Art Project: Sculpted a bird out of clay.

Sanskrit: Today we read "बृहत् लघु" (Big Little by SAMI) and played Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and khagaH vadati.

End of Class: Poornamadah. Aarthi was done in the auditorium.

Comments: We had lots of surprises -- first, Srinidhi turned 4 today and we all had fun singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Srinidhi, Happy Birthday again -- and we hope you had a really great day!

Speaking of singing ... Abhi Uncle brought in his guitar and tamborine. After our bhajan segment we invoked Lord Krishna by singing "Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaaya" to some groovy guitar strumming. We can't thank Krishna's daddy enough for playing guitar and leading us in kirtan. We hope to be able to do this on a regular basis.

Now that we are on the subject of kirtan -- please mark your calendars for April 4. There will be an evening of "East West Fusion" with instrumentation and singing by Sruti Ram and Ishwari.
Place: Vrindavan Ashram. Time: 6 pm. For more information please contact Abhi and Sonia Kanitkar at www.krishnaleela.org. (click here for website.)

Today was the first day that the parents were not allowed to chant our three Gita shlokas with their children. We know that the big people felt a little awkward not singing -- but we are pleased that all complied. There are definitely some brave toddlers ready to chant at the competition, so please continue to work with your children at home and make that leap to register them for the competition. Our toddlers will chant as a group that day, and this is the only age group that parents are allowed to sit with their children. Also, Vrindavan has made it easy for us -- all we have to do is go to the website and register online. (Click here.) Gee, how effortless is that? :-)

Also don't forget to rsvp for the pizza party on April 11 with Swamiji. We certainly don't want to be short of pizza or ice cream that day ...

Priya, hope you feel better. We missed you today and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Priyanka, hope you'll be over your jet lag next week -- can't wait to hear all about your adventures.

Everybody -- open your windows and let that fresh air in. Bhagavan has truly blessed us with some wonderful weather!

Hope everyone has a peaceful week and we look forward to seeing you on the 15th for another fun Sunday.