Prayers:
• ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Yoga segment: Lion Pose, Stretching, Butterfly Pose, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose, Goddess Pose, chair pose.
Shlokas:
• वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
• वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
• बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)
• कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)
• सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
• Ganesha Gayatri –
ऎक्दन्ताय विद्महे वक्रतुन्डाय धीमहि तन्नो दन्ति प्रचोदयात्
EkadantAya vidmahe vakratunDAya dhImahi tanno danti prachodayAt
Bhajans:
• Bolo bolo sab mil bolo Om namaH SivayaH -
• Oh Great God HanumAnji, I bow to thee
• Oh Great God Ganapathy
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4
Art Project: bunny craft – provided by Meena Rajan (Diya’s mom)
Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)
Snack/Juice: provided by Shravamthi and family.
Story Segment: The proud lion and the clever bunny
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, Gods
End of class:
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः - sarve bhavantu sukhinaH
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: Spring is in the air and we find that the children are warming up to Balavihar. Each week, they surprise us by taking little steps towards being big kids! We began with our Yoga warm up and did the Shlokas. The kids are enthusiastic about coming up and leading the shlokas. This could provide a good opportunity for parents to review our shlokas with the children so that they can come forward to lead each week. We learnt the Ganesha Gayatri today. During Bhajan segment we had 2 dancing songs today – Our all time favorite – Great God Ganapathy and new favorite- Great God Hanumanji. It was a lot of fun! After Bhajans we chanted Geeta and reviewed the 5th verse. Then it was craft time. Meena Rajan, Diya’s mom, was kind enough to volunteer to bring in bunny craft kits that she had made for all the children. We are thankful to her for putting in time and effort to put this together. If you would like to volunteer to help with craft activities and ideas, please feel free to let us know. After we made our craft, we quickly reviewed our colors. When Rupa Aunty showed a color card, the children shouted out the color in Sanskrit, without being prompted! We had a new game today about Gods/Goddesses. Rupa Aunty gave clues about the Gods and their different names and the children had to guess which God. Today, it was Ganesha and Lord Shiva. Ganesha’s other names are: Vigneshwara, Vakratunda, Gajaanana. Lord Shiva’s other names are: Nataraaja, Neelakanta, Mahadeva. After this we moved on to story time. Our story was about a clever bunny who not only saved himself but also all the other animals in the jungle by his cleverness. There was once a very proud and mean lion who claimed to be the king of the jungle. He would always eat up the poor animals all the time. All the animals had a meeting about this and decided that they would send one animal each day to the lion for him to eat and he in turn promised to leave the other animals alone. It was decided that the rabbit was the first one to be sent to the lion. Now, the bunny rabbit did not want to be eaten and he thought of a clever idea that not only would save him but also his friends. He went late to the lion’s den on purpose! The lion was very upset and shouted at the bunny. The bunny said that he was about to be attacked by another lion in the jungle who claimed to be king of the jungle. Our mean Mr. Lion got very very angry when he heard this and asked the bunny to show him the ‘other’ lion. The bunny took him to a deep well and said that the ‘other ‘lion was inside the well. The silly lion looked at his reflection in the water in the well and thought it was the other lion and pounced inside the well to attack the ‘other’ lion and was never seen or heard of again! The bunny and his friends lived happily in the jungle. After the story, it was almost time to begin winding up. So, we counted from 1 – 10 in English and Sanskrit and got ready to sing Om Jaya Jagadeesha Hare and finished off with Sarve Bahavantu Sukhinah and Om Poornamadah. Remember to turn your clocks forward next Sunday. See you all at 10.00 AM at Balavihar.
