Hari Om Parents,
Today was the twentieth class of Balavihar!! Here is the summary of what we covered in the class today:
Opening Prayers: We together chanted three OMs and then chanted the Opening Prayers - Sahana Vavatu. All the kids chanted together.
Opening Prayers: We together chanted three OMs and then chanted the Opening Prayers - Sahana Vavatu. All the kids chanted together.
Recap: We did the Alphabet chant together until the Letter 'W'.
Introduction of the Next Letter: For today's class, we had planned to cover 3 letters : X , Y and Z.
We introduced the letter of the day as 'X- Excellence is to do something outstandingly well'. Practice makes us excel.
Brainstorming: Through the story of Thomas Alva Edison, we learnt how Edison built the light bulb and how he was wrong 1000 times and succeeded the 1001th time which shows 'Perseverance succeeds'. And when asked about his failures, he said with a positive attitude and conviction that he knew he would succeed, and said he now knows a thousand ways of how not to make an electric light bulb.
Exploration: We discussed that to achieve excellence we need plenty of practice, dedication, and perseverance. We discussed Swimming, cycling, chess, hockey ,drawing, and painting,these are activities which take time to learn, but we can excel with practice.
Storytime 1: Arjuna and His Archery Expertise : We learnt that Arjuna practiced archery even at night, and became an expert at iit, and got the right aim just by listening to sound and identifying the object's location.'Practice makes us excel'.
Storytime 2: Through the story of the Big Frog and the Small Frog, we learnt that 'We should never give up and always keep trying'
Yoga time: Stretching exercises, Jumping Jacks.
Introduced the next Letter:Letter Y - Yajna is a fire ritual performed to please God. And the Yajna Spirit is to work towards a common cause with dedication, sacrifice and service.
Brainstorming: We discussed what Yajna is - a fire ritual performed by the priests with Vedic chanting and special offerings in order to appease Gods and bring about auspiciousness and good for all.
And we discussed Yajna Spirit - by explaining the work done by many people by their volunteer work in terms of food drive, blood drive, toy drive, helping in temples etc. And how all the scientists and doctors worked hard and created the vaccine for Coronavirus to help mankind.
Exploration: We discussed a couple of scenarios which shows Yajna Spirit how everyone got together to do the Akhand Ram Charit Manas in the ashram this week, how firefighters get together and help the family from fire.And how many organizations get together to help for a noble cause.
And then we showed them via youtube video how a real Yajna ( homam) is performed by priests sitting around the holy fire, and special mantras are chanted, while special offerings are offered in the holy fire.
And we discussed this as one way to please God.
Introduced the next Letter 'Z-Zeal is doing things with great passion, enthusiasm, fervor, and eagerness'
Exploration: We discussed a couple of scenarios and home projects which each of us perform with passion and eagerness. And we explained to kids, small projects like this help us build our passion and enthusiasm. And for the Alphabet chant we chanted 'Bal Vihar Zindabad'.
Attendance: was taken by each kid saying 'Hari Om' when their name was called out.
Exit ticket: KIds were provided Coloring Sheets for W, X, Y Z and were asked to complete their coloring during the Bhajan practice. All kids were asked to practice the Alphabet Chant.
Bhajan practice: Our Bhajan Coordinator joined the class at 10:20am and kids participating in the Bhajanotsav practiced singing the bhajans - Ganapathi bhajan and Krishna bhajan.Kids were singing together well and we had a good practice session.Missed some kids who could not come to class today.
It was another very collaborative session with kids. Kids actively participated.
Have a wonderful week ahead!! No class next week due to Spring break.
Upcoming Events for Kids to participate (any questions please reach out to us):
Bhajanotsav : April 29th 2023
Class Play on Annual Day June 10th 2023. -Please confirm availability of your kid for role assignment.
Next Class: April 16th, 2023. No class next week due to Spring break.
Pranams
Mahalakshmi & Chandarani.
