Hari Om Parents,
Welcome to 2022-23 Bala Vihar. It was wonderful to meet all the kids in person. They are adorable, full of energy and very curious throughout the class. We had a good first day of BalaVihar.
What we covered in the class today:
We started our class with chanting OM 3 times and saying our prayers
- We played an ice breaker game. Each kid introduced themselves by saying the following:
- Their name
- Name of a god/goddess they like and why they like them – Kids talked about Ganeshji, Krisha, Hanuman, Rama, Brahma and Shiva
- A superpower they wish for – It was a fun discussion. Most kids wanted the ability to fly (few wanted to fly to India to meet their grandparents😊). Some wanted power to be invisible and one smart kid wanted a new super power every week!
- Another fun activity. We had several simple yoga poses written down on pieces of paper. Kids had to pick up and do the pose, based on whatever they got. It was a lot of fun! It was amazing to see kids are familiar with the yoga poses.
- We spoke about our Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda. We told the kids that we are all together in Bala Vihar and learning all the good things due to one special person, and we asked the kids who he was.
- Next, we introduced them to the curriculum for this year, Bala Bhagavatam.
- We discussed on what the word Avatar mean, 'Coming Down'
- We discussed on why God had to come down to earth, 'This is to remove evil and protect good'
· Teach lesson - why is God trying to teach a lesson - So, we don't do mistakes and follow the right path
· Save someone nice
· Remove evil
- We reviewed the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu (The pictures of the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu were shown. The kids were able to recognize some of them. We asked them to note down the names of all of them)
· Matsya Avatara
· Kurma Avatara
· Varaha Avatara
· Narasimha Avatara - Half man and half lion
· Vamana Avatara
· Parashurama Avatara
· Rama Avatara
· Krishna Avatara - 8th Avatara of Vishnu
· Buddha Avatara
· Kalki Avatara
- When parents visited the room, we had just finished going through the Avataras. We did a quiz on the Avataras.
- We provided a quick overview of the curriculum and covered few of the questions from parents
- Ramji visited the room and interacted with children
- We chanted prayer and went to the assembly hall for Arathi and pledge.
We look forward to seeing the kids next week. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.
With sincere and warm regards,
Subbu and Aruna
(Chinmaya Vrindavan BalaVihar Grade 3 Teachers)
