January 30th class

Prayers:

· 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)

· वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa

· सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)

· बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)

· नमस्तेस्तु महामाये – namastEstu mahAmAye (Mahalakshmi shloka)

Bhajans:

· gAyatri mantraM - oum bhUrbhuvaH swaH

· – nandalAlA yadunandalAlA (My prayers, pg. 53)

· suBrahmanyam suBrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)

· Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4

Art Project: Tortoise

Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)

Snack/Juice: provided by Sourya and family: धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story Segment: Bunny and the Tortoise

Sanskrit lesson of the week: raktaH- Red peetaH- Yellow haritaH- Green neelaH- Blue shwetaH- White krishnaH- Black ; Counting 1 - 10;

Game Segment: Colors, Hanuman vadati

End of class:

ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).

sarve bhavantu sukhinaH

ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: We had yet another fun filled Balavihar class yesterday and there were again many new friends who joined us this time. We started with the Yoga warm up followed by our shlokas and bhajans and Geeta chanting practice. Then we made the tortoise magnet for craft. Then it was snack time. Today’s snack was provided by Sourya and family. After snack time we wound up, and got ready for the story about a bunny and a tortoise having a race. The tortoise kept on walking slowly but steadily while the bunny, though he started early and went very fast, got distracted along the way. He ate too much and fell asleep! In the end, although the tortoise was walking slowly, he kept his focus and that made him win the race! Whereas the bunny was very lazy and so came in last! Then we had a game of colors with Rupa Aunty. We tried out a new game where we tried to play Hanuman Vadati with just the

colors. We played Hanuman vadati after a really long time. As usual, the children loved to touch and play with our little Hanuman who visited us! Then it was time for Aarthi and ending prayers. We hope to see all of you next Sunday again at Balavihar. Have a wonderful week and stay warm!

January 23rd Class

Prayers:

· ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)

Yoga segment: Lion Pose, Stretching, Butterfly Pose, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose, Namaskara

Shlokas:

· कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)

· वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa

· सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)

· बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)

Bhajans:

· aÉÉrÉÌ§É qÉl§ÉÇ - Á pÉÔpÉÑïuÉÈ xuÉÈ gAyatri mantraM - oum bhUrbhuvaH swaH

· lÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ rÉSÒlÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ – nandalAlA yadunandalAlA (My prayers, pg. 53)

· xÉÑoÉë¼hrÉqÉç xÉÑoÉë¼hrÉqÉç - suBrahmanyam suBrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)

· Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4

Art Project: coloring blocks

Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)

Snack/Juice: provided by Avni and family & Special snack from Satvik and family : धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story Segment: Theme: sharing: Aansi and the turtle(a Nigerian tale)

Sanskrit lesson of the week: U£üÈ raktaH- Red mÉÏiÉÈ peetaH- Yellow WûËUiÉÈ haritaH- Green lÉÏsÉÈ neelaH- Blue µÉåiÉÈ shwetaH- White Ì¢üwlÉÈ krishnaH- Black ; Counting 1 - 10;

Game Segment: Colors

End of class:

ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Aarati and Pledge in the auditorium

Comments: On behalf of the Toddler team we would like to extend a warm welcome to our new friends! We hope you enjoy your Balavihar sessions as much as we do. As usual we started by chanting ॐ three times and went on to Yoga with Rupa Aunty. After warming up with Yoga stretches, we said our shlokas and sang Bhajans. We learnt to sing the aÉÉrÉÌ§É qÉl§ÉÇ (Gayatri mantram). Many of our toddlers have memorized the shlokas have started requesting favorites! We moved on to Gita chanting with Nanda Aunty. Our Sravamti did an awesome job of chanting all the 4 verses!! Way to go! As Nanda Aunty rightly pointed out, even though the children are used to different languages spoken at home, they have caught the right Sanskrit pronunciations just by listening. So, let’s put the sponge in their brain to work and help them absorb all the good stuff! We reviewed colors in Sanskrit. We played a color guessing game and the children loved it! Most of them have the colors memorized. They had colored a rectangular block each with one of the colors: U£üÈ raktaH- Red, mÉÏiÉÈ peetaH- Yellow, WûËUiÉÈ haritaH- Green, lÉÏsÉÈ neelaH- Blue. We will be using these to play a surprise game next Balavihar class. We will also be adding more colors in the coming weeks. We had our snack break following this. We thank Avni’s family for providing the snack and juice today.Also, our special thanks to Satvik and family for bringing us special Sankranti treats! After snack we wound up by counting 1 - 10 and got ready for story time. Today Nanda Aunty told us a story about a little boy named Aansi and his turtle friend. The turtle wanted to get out of the water where it lives and decided to take a walk. Meanwhile, Aansi, a little boy, went looking for some delicious yam to cook and eat for lunch. By the time lunch was ready, the turtle had reached Aansi’s home. Aansi let the turtle in. The turtle was hungry too and hoped that Aansi would invite him to lunch. Now Aansi did not want to share his food and wanted to have it all to himself! So he set the place for the turtle and when the turtle walked up to the dining table, he told the turtle that his hands were dirty as he walked all the way and he needed to wash up. When the turtle slowly went to wash up and get back, Aansi had finished one of the yams. Now, again, he told the turtle that his hands had again become dirty and sent him back to wash up once more! Before the turtle could get back, Aansi ate up all the yams and did not leave anything for the turtle. The turtle decided to teach him a lesson for not sharing. So he invited Aansi for lunch in turn and made the yummiest of dishes and set them at the table in his home under the water. When Aansi came he wore a jacket filled with stones in the pockets to make it heavy for him to sink under water to get to the turtle’s table. The turtle told him that he needed to take out his jacket and sit down to lunch. The moment Aansi removed his jacket, he became light weighted and floated up and up and away to the surface of the water and never got to eat the delicious food at the turtle’s place! The moral of the story: We should always be willing to share with our friends and not be selfish! If Aansi had been kind and shared his lunch with the turtle, the turtle would not have played a trick on him! At the end of class, we chanted ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH and completed today’s class. Today’s Aarati and Pledge were at the Auditorium. Hope to see you all next week. The new parents, please be sure to provide us with the name of your child and your e-mail ID to be included in our mailing group.

January 9th class

Prayers:

· ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)

Yoga segment: Lion Pose, Stretching, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose, Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation)

Shlokas:

· वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa

· कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)

· बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)

· वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg.15)

Bhajans:

· lÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ rÉSÒlÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ – nandalAlA yadunandalAlA (My prayers, pg. 53)

· आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera HanumAntashUra

· aÉÉrÉÌ§É qÉl§ÉÇ - Á pÉÔpÉÑïuÉÈ xuÉÈ gAyatri mantraM - om bhUrbhuvaH swaH

· Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4

Art Project: coloring blocks

Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)

Snack/Juice: provided by Anushka and family: धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story Segment: Theme: Pongal/Makar Sankaranti/Uttrayan/Lodhi:

Sanskrit lesson of the week: U£üÈ raktaH- Red mÉÏiÉÈ peetaH- Yellow WûËUiÉÈ haritaH- Green lÉÏsÉÈ neelaH- Blue µÉåiÉÈ shwetaH- White Ì¢üwlÉÈ krishnaH- Black ; Counting 1 - 10;

Game Segment: qÉqÉ lÉÉqÉ - mama nAma – My name is ….. with Hanuman

End of class:

ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).

xÉuÉåï pÉuÉliÉÑ xÉÑÎZÉlÉÈ - sarve bhavantu sukhinaH
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: A new year, with lots of promises, has started and has brought a few new friends to our Toddler class. On behalf of the Toddler team we would like to extend a warm welcome to our new friends! We hope you enjoy your Balavihar sessions as much as we do. As usual we started by chanting ॐ three times and went on to Yoga with Anitha Aunty. After warming up with Yoga stretches, we said our shlokas and did Bhajans with Rupa Aunty. We learnt to sing the aÉÉrÉÌ§É qÉl§ÉÇ (Gayatri mantram). We moved on to Gita chanting which we were reviewing after quite a break. We learnt about colors in Sanskrit today. The children colored a recatangular block each with one of the colors: : U£üÈ raktaH- Red mÉÏiÉÈ peetaH- Yellow WûËUiÉÈ haritaH- Green lÉÏsÉÈ neelaH- Blue. We will be using these to play a surprise game next Balavihar class. We had our snack break following this. We thank Anuska’s family for providing the snack and juice today even though they were not able to join us for class. After snack we quickly wound up and got ready to talk about a festival coming up over the next weekend. In Tamilnadu it is called Pongal. In Andhrapradesh, Karnataka it is called Makar Sankaranti. In Gujarat it is called Uttrayan and in North India it is known as Lodhi. It is the harvest festival, a thanksgiving to the Sun God and Nature for a good harvest. We shared a few views about how it is celebrated in different parts of the country. We could continue to discuss some more during the next Balavihar session if anyone is interested in sharing more information. We did manage to find the time to play a game of mama naama. We passed our little Hanuman around and introduced ourselves to him. It is amazing how quickly time flies when you are having fun! At the end of class, we sang ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare and chanted xÉuÉåï pÉuÉliÉÑ xÉÑÎZÉlÉÈ - sarve bhavantu sukhinaH and ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH and completed today’s class. We will meet on the 23^rd of January, 2011.