• ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Yoga segment: Lion Pose, Stretching, Butterfly Pose, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose,
Shlokas:
• कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)
• सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
• बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)
Bhajans:
• गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• suBrahmanyam suBrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
• Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4
Art Project: Ant and the dove coloring sheet
Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)
Snack/Juice: provided by Advai and family: धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).
Story Segment: Ant and the dove
Sanskrit lesson of the week: रक्तः raktaH- Red; पीतः peetaH- Yellow; हरितः haritaH- Green; नीलः neelaH- Blue; श्वेतः shwetaH- White; क्रिष्नः krishnaH- Black; पाटलः pAtalaH- Pink; धूमलः dhUmalaH- Purple; Counting 1 - 10;
Game Segment: Colors, Mama Naama
End of class:
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
sarve bhavantu sukhinaH
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: Today was a nice and sunny day, a perfect Balavihar Sunday! We started by chanting Om three times and did our usual Yoga stretches and said our Shlokas. After Shlokas, we sang Bhajans and moved on to Geeta chanting. After Geeta chanting, we did some coloring of the ant and the dove which was our story of the week. Then we reviewed our colors in Sanskrit with Rupa aunty. Today we learnt 2 new colors पाटलः pAtalah – pink and धूमलः dhUmalaH- Purple. The children love the color game. We will continue to add more new colors in the coming weeks. All that learning made us really hungry and we sat down to have our snack after chanting ब्रह्मार्पणम् – brahmArpaNam. Today’s snack was provided by Advai and family. We quickly wound up the snack time by counting 1 to 10 in English and Sanskrit and got ready for story time with Nanda Aunty. Today’s story was about how the ant and the dove became friends. The ant accidentally fell into the river while walking along the banks and had a very hard time trying to get to land. The dove watched this from its tree and felt sorry for the poor ant and threw a leaf to the ant. The ant gratefully climbed on the leaf and reached the land safely. Another day, when the hunter was aiming to shoot the dove, the ant bit his leg thereby making him miss his aim and alerting the dove to fly away. The ant and the dove have become the best of friends since that day!
After the story, we played our favorite game of Mama Naama with little Krishna. Please remember this game as we are going to add a surprise element to it next week! Before we knew it, it was already time for our finishing prayers and aarthi. We will again meet next Sunday at 10 AM for yet another fun Balavihar session. Thank you for joining us today.
