February 27th class

Prayers:
• ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Yoga segment: Lion Pose, Stretching, Butterfly Pose, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose, Goddess Pose

Shlokas:
• वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
• वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
• बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)
• नमस्तेस्तु महामाये – namastEstu mahAmAye (Mahalakshmi shloka)

Bhajans:
• Bolo bolo sab mil bolo Om namaH SivayaH -
• Oh Great God HanumAnji, I bow to thee
• गायत्रि मन्त्रं - ॐ बुर्भुवः सुवः Gayatri Mantram – Om burbhuva suvaha

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4

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

Snack/Juice: provided by Diya Rajan and family.

Story Segment: Shiva drank the hAlahAla poison during the churning of the ocean

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;
आलुकः AlukaH - Potato
Parts of the body: शिरः shiraH - head; नेत्रम् nEtram – eye; कर्णम् karNam – ear; नासिका nAsikA – nose; मुखम् mukham – mouth; पादः pAdaH - foot
Counting 1 - 10

Game Segment: Colors, Mr. Potato Head (Shri AalukaH)

End of class: ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Aarthi and Pledge at the auditorium

Comments: Today was yet another fun filled session. We are so glad that it is slowly beginning to warm up, weatherwise and also in our class! The children are opening up more easily. It seems like they are having a good time! We started with Yoga stretches and moved on to shlokas, followed by Bhajans. Some of the children came forward to lead the shlokas. Great job Vikram and Sravamthi! We learnt a Bhajan on Lord Shiva, Shivaratri is around the corner. We also sang our new favorite Great God Hanumanji and the Gayatri mantram. We will be learning more Gayatris pertaining to the various gods in the coming weeks. Then we had our Geeta chanting practice. The children are pretty much getting the hang of it. We came to know that the toddler class has to recite verses 1 – 5. The online registration form is now available in the Chinmaya Vrindavan website under the Geeta Chanting Contest 2011 section. After chanting practice, we went to work on our colors in Sanskrit. This is becoming one of our most favorite sections of Balavihar. The children did extremely well with the colors, especially, when they had to identify the colors on various objects. Then we said ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam and had our snack and juice. Then we counted 1 – 10 in English and Sanskrit and then got ready to hear Nanda Aunty’s story. Today’s story was about how Lord Shiva drank up the deadly poison that came out when Devas and Daityas churned the milky ocean using Vasuki the snake as the rope and Mantara mountain as the mortar. Shiva drank up the poison to save the Devas and the Daityas from the effect of the poison. But Parvati was worried that Shiva would get sick from all the poison so she held his throat to stop the poison from going down into his body. As a result, Shiva’s neck turned blue, hence the name Neelakantha. After story time, we had a new visitor today! He is Shri AalukaH (Mr. Potato Head). We learnt about the parts of his body in Sanskrit such as eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hands and legs/feet. We decided to try naming these parts on ourselves. Before we knew it, it was time for Aarthi and Pledge at the auditorium. We said Om PoornamadaH and ended today’s session. See you all next week at Balavihar.

February 13th class

Prayers:
• ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)

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

Shlokas:

• वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
• कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)
• वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
• बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)

Bhajans:

• Oh Great God HanumAnji, I bow to thee
• गायत्रि मन्त्रं - ॐ बुर्भुवः सुवः Gayatri Mantram – Om burbhuva suvaha

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4

Art Project: Decorated hearts door knob hanger

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

Snack/Juice: provided by the Toddler Team.

Story Segment: Hanuman helps Rama and Lakshmana

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; मित्र – mitra – friend; Counting 1 - 10

Game Segment: Colors, Mama Mitra

End of class:
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे- Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
sarve bhavantu sukhinaH
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: Our topic today was about Hanumanji. We did our 3 Oms and some Yoga stretches. We learnt a new pose, the Goddess pose, today! After the warm up, we sat down and said our shlokas and then had Bhajan time. Today, we learnt a new song today just like our favorite Great God Ganapathy called Oh Great God Hanumanji! The children had a lot of fun singing it. Then we sang the Gayatri mantram. We moved on to Geeta chanting practice. Today we heard many of the kids recite loudly and confidently. They are beginning to feel more and more at home, which is very good to know. After Geeta chanting we had craft time. We decorated hearts today and made door knob hangers for Valentine’s Day. We reviewed our colors just before snack time. We were very impressed that all the children remembered even the new colors. It was very cute to hear some of them say ‘bluetah’ for blue! After snack time, we got ready for today’s story by counting 1 – 10 in English and Sanskrit. Today’s story was about how Hanuman brought the Aushadi mountain to save Rama, Lakshmana and the other monkeys and bears in Rama’s army. Indrajit, the son of Ravana, sent the Brahmastra, the biggest weapon there is, to put the monkeys and bears in Rama’s army to sleep. Rama wanted to protect the monkeys and bears that love him so much and decided to take the astra on his self and so did Lakshmana. Only Hanuman and Vibheeshana, Ravana’s brother, were immune to the Brahmastra. Everyone including Rama and Lakshmana had fallen asleep under the spell of the Astra. Then Vibheesana adviced Hanuman to bring three plants from the Aushadhi Mountain, the smell of which will wake up Rama and Lakshmana and the entire army. Hanuman flew to the Himalayas and reached Aushadhi Mountain but didn’t know where the magical plants were. So he decided to bring the entire mountain. As soon as he brought it to where Rama and the others were, the smell of the magical medicinal plants revived Rama and Lakshmana and all the others! Hanuman went to all the trouble out of love for Rama. After story time we played a new game called Mama Mitra. It is very much like Mama Nama except when the music stops we had to say Mama Mitra… and say a friend’s name. Then it was time to leave! We sang Om Jaya Jagdeesha Hare and finished with the ending slokas. We had a really great time today. Hope you enjoy the class as much as we do! Enjoy your week!

February 6th 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)

• 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.