June 10th class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  20 shlokas

Story time

·         None

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare kRuShNa hare

Game time

      ·    bhaagavatam Jeopardy

·        Are you smarter than a balavihar 3rd grader

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati - auditorium

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare - auditorium

      ·        pledge - auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Today was a bitter sweet day for all of us!  It is the last day of balavihar for this year.

We started off with our prayers.  They guru stotram, gItaa chanting, raama hare song are going really well.  We spoke about how we need to keep practicing the raama hare song.  We will be needing it for next year as well.  We have learnt only half of the bhaagavatam story in this year.  The children will learn the rest of it in their 4th grade class.

We have learnt so much through out the year, that it calls for putting our knowledge to a test!  For doing that, we had two really fun games.  We combined both the sections and divided into teams.  They teams chose their names.  The first was 'Team kRushNa', the second was 'Team narasimha', the third was 'Team quiz masters' (comprising of the teachers ;).  The rules were set and game explained.  The teachers' team would get a turn only if the 1st two teams didn't answer.  We started the game, projecting the questions on the screen.  We (teachers) were waiting and waiting for our turn to answer, but wow, do we have a great team or do we have a great team of kids!!  They were ready to give us more details than we asked them for in the questions!  The teachers team got only two turns!  We were very happy to see the enthusiasm and accuracy of their answers.  That was the best reward they could have given us to culminate a great year at balavihar!  

We have accomplished so much in the year and had so much fun along the way!  We got to know each other  well and shared so many wonderful learning moments in class.  It was a momentous day today as we reached the end of the year milestone.  We will miss you all next year, but very proud to see what you have accomplished.  We are certain that you will all do very well in your future years and bloom into wonderful Samaritans!  All the best for a bright future and feel free to stop by to say 'hari om' to us next year :).
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

June 3rd Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  20 shlokas

Story time

·    Recap of previous stories

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare kRuShNa hare 

Game time

·         Ice cream party!!

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Today was a special day at our balavihar class.  We were going to have an ice cream party after class (for our enthusiastic participation in the gItaa chanting competition), so all the children were super excited :).

We did our beginning prayers, guru stotram and gItaa chanting.  We had an extempore quiz, in preparation for the big quiz game we will be having in our next balavihar class.  We were amazed at how many details the children remembered, from the beginning of the year!  Kids prepare well for the next week as well.  We will have a combined class.  We will have teams and may play 'hang man' game with bhaagavatam questions.  As always, teachers have the choice of belonging to the winning team :).

Then we sang the dashaavataara stotram 'raama hare'.  Today was extra special because we all got to take home a momento from this year's learning.   To make it easy for us to remember this year's song raama hare, along with all the stories, the children got a book with pictures of the dashaavataara, along with the song for each avataara.  The most special part was, it was blessed by our pUjya swaami-ji, with his signature on the front.

We all got together in the back lawn, along with the other 3rd grade section, for a fun ice cream party.  We had to celebrate all the kids and their wonderful participation in the gItaa chanting competition!

Can't believe it is almost end of the year.  The aunties are going to miss you all very much!  But we had a lot of fun through out the year and at the ice cream party too.

See you all next week.  All the best for the quiz competition kids!!
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: