Hari Om! Parents,
We are very happy to welcome your children to Bala Vihar Grade 6 class! Please join the 2022-23 Parents WhatsApp Group (the link is in your BestClass account) to see the class announcements.
Supplies needed for every class:- Bala Vihar Handbook, My Prayers book, lined notebook and pencils for likhita japa everything in their Bala Vihar bag
Week 1 Class
Shlokas
We started with Om chanting, and then chanted Sahana vavatu, Vakratunda mahakaya, Saraswati namastubhyam, Sarva mangala mangalye (ref My Prayers book pg 39)
This year the children will learn - "Mahalakshmi Ashtakam" and "Mahishasuramardini stotram" (ref My Prayers book pg. 39 and 43)
Next we had an Ice-breaker Activity - all of us took turns to introduce ourselves and we shared what we did this summer. The children also spoke about their hobbies/ interests.
Mahabharata
We will review the first part of the Mahabharata story* with the children over the next few weeks. Today we started a recap of the Adi Parva and reviewed these main prasangas - sage Vaishampayana narration of the story to king Janamejaya, king Parikshit's curse, king Shantanu and Ganga's story, the story of Devavrath (Bhishma) and Satyavati, Amba's story, story of birth of Dhritarashtra/ Pandu/ Vidura, Kunti's boon from sage Durvasa and the birth of Karna, story of Pandavas' birth. We drew the Kuru dynasty family tree and brushed up on all the important names. We will finish the entire Mahabharata story by the end of this year. Your child can also go through the short Mahabharata recap videos, posted in the Resources in your BestClass account, if they missed class.
India, the Sacred Land
This is the second topic that we will be discussing this year. We have planned several interactive activities and hope to instill a sense of 'India pride' in the children!
We will also be doing likhita japa regularly, learning to chant Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita from our Swamiji and learning bhajans on Devi Maa. Bala Vihar concludes with Aarti in the prayer hall, please pick up your child from there.
We thank you in advance for your support for this Bala Vihar year. Looking forward to meeting all of you in the next class!
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Venu Sadda
*Reference books - Mahabharata by Rajagopalachari / Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam
