Prayers:
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIh (My prayers, pg. 43)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratunda mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)
* वसुदेवसुतं देवं - vasudevasutaM devaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2 & 3
Bhajans:
- गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
- जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
- अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
- कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
Story: All about Sankranti (Pongal) festival
Art Project: Sankranti pot or lamp
Sanskrit segment: Colors.
Yoga segment: Stretches; ekapaadaasana; simhaasana; vajraasana.
End of class:
- ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
We have to tell you that we were quite impressed to see that all of you have been practicing your shlokas, bhajans and Geeta chanting thro' the break. All the children jumped right in to the class curriculum and did wonderfully! Children even came up and sat with aunty for the Geeta chanting today and did the first 3 shlokas. The first 2 came beautifully. That was good work guys. We are working on perfecting the 3rd one now.
Today's story time was a little different. Instead of a story, we got to learn about the upcoming festival 'Sankranti (Pongal)'. We learnt that it is a 'festival of harvest' and is celebrated to thank God for the food we are blessed with. We learnt that we worship Sun God, cattle and crops during this festival. Some of us also share 'til-gud' (a mixture of sesame seeds, jaggery, peanuts, sugar candy, etc.), sugar blocks, sugar cane, bananas, etc., with our family and friends. About the rangoli in front of the house, mango leaf torans, kite flying and much more... Good listening children.
The artists in the children, as well as parents, were brought out during the art segment when we made the lamps to light and pots to give 'til-gud' for the festival. We got to see wonderful and creative works of their art. Guess the pictures don't do enough justice for the creations...
Learnt more new sanskrit colors along with the basic ones we already knew. In the yoga segment learnt 'ekapaadaasana', 'simhaasana' and 'vajraasana'. We also learnt what those words meant since we have learnt some numbers, animals and shapes already!
Snippets: We were learning colors with flash cards and more new colors were being introduced. Aunty was holding the cards and the children were trying to name the color. Aunty, in an attempt at tricking the kids, held up a plain card thinking that they would say 'it is empty'. But, our toddlers almost always come up with very spontaneous and hilarious, at the same time, very cute answers. One toddler instantaneously goes 'white-aH'! He sure observed that a lot of words in Sanskrit end with an '-aH' sound! Very impressive...
