BE (part of) THE BOSS ... Special Opportunity for BBNJ Dharmam Class

This is a special opportunity for our BBNJ 5th and 6th Graders.  Parents, please use the embedded link to register your child/children as soon as possible so we can plan logistics for this event. 

Our BBNJ Chyk class (Tapovanam - Grade 11 & 12) has planned to conduct an overnight BOSS camp for tweens (Grade 5 &6) on Sat. Jan. 10th and 11th at our Vrindavan ashram.  Schedule and guidelines are as attached. Some of our sevaks will be guiding them in managing the camp. 

BOSS - Building Optimistic Smart Students  - acronym created by chyks and they are really excited. Follow the below link for website.

BOSS Tween Camp

Please check out the website for details and registration form. This is a free camp but we want all 5th and 6th grade children from BBNJ to register to plan the camp effectively. Also during registration, we have asked the parents if they are willing to sponsor food/gifts etc...We are planning to have a simple dinner like cooked pasta & sauce. For breakfast we are planning to make buttermilk pancakes with syrup. 

BOSS Tween Camp 2015

For Balavihar Children in Grade 5 & 6

January 10th Saturday and January 11th Sunday schedule

TOPIC DETAILS DAY 1

1:30 pm Drop-off/Registration Arrival at Vrindava ashram

2:00 pm Meet and Greet

2:15 pm Icebreakers

3:00 pm Social time / Snack break Nut free snack. Parents can sponsor when

3:30 pm Activities / Bangra dance

4:30 pm Team game / T-Shirt painting Children bring a plain T-shirt for activity work

5:30 pm Swamiji’s speech

6:00 pm Learn the BOSS camp song

6:30 pm Kung Fu Panda – Value based

7:00 pm Puja at Temple Maha Arathi

8:00 pm Dinner Parents can sponsor  when registering via

9:00 pm LEGO movie

10:30 pm Lights out

95 Cranbury Neck Road, Cranbury, NJ 

registering via online * discussion online

TOPIC DETAILS DAY 2

6:30 am Wake up /Get ready

7:00 am Yoga Children must bring Yoga mats / Beach towel

8:00 am Breakfast / Reflection

9:30 am Departure

Camp Guidelines for participants and Parents:

1. All campers must arrive on time @ 1:30pm on Jan 10th,2015, at Chinmaya Vrindavan Ashram

2. Parents should pick-up their child by 9:30am on Jan 11th,2015 from the venue

3. Children must wear comfortable clothing to do activities sitting on the ground.

4. Campers must pack the following items along:

• a. Sleeping bags
• b. Toothbrush
• c. Pillows
• d. Pajamas
• e. Plain white T-shirt or unused T-shirt
• f. Yoga mat / Beach towel
• g. Personal medication if under medication

5. Campers must NOT bring the following items along:

• a. Any video games
• b. Handheld games
• c. Chewing gum
• d. Sharp items (Scissors/knife)

6. Snacks , Dinner and Breakfast will be provided to all campers.

7. As this camp is at Vrindavan Ashram, following are key guidelines:

a. Maintain silence at all times within temple

b. Shoes must be placed only in the shoe racks

c. Messing up the serene ashram environment will not be tolerated.

d. Writing on walls/dirtying the floor is strictly prohibited.

(Campers and their parents will be held responsible)

Dec. 21st Class ... Dharmam Jeopardy Challenge! ... Start planning for our Assembly Presentation!

2015 Dharmam Jeopardy Challenge Planning

(Currently scheduled for Sunday, February 8th)

(Yes, this means that we will give up our January 25th slot)

Based on input from the class we have decided for our Assembly Presentation, we will be conducting a Dharmam Jeopardy Challenge (DJC). We have identified our topics and topic owner.  As a topic owner, your responsibility is to formulate 4 questions and answers for your category.  Please use the sample Google Sheet template to document your questions/answers and send back to the teachers...or better yet, save on the master Google Sheet (Google Sheet is part of Google Docs).

Here are the topic areas that were assigned: (IMPORTAT! ... if you did not attend class on the 21st, please make sure you look for you name on this list and know your topic area assignment.)

Dance Forms - Soumya

Literature - Rohan

Language - Varun

Food - Anish

Festivals - Karina

Freedom Movement - Veena

Education - Nandina

Awards - Smruthi

Technology and Education - Swetha

Religious/Social/Cultural Customs - Soumya

Epics - Neev

Politics and Government - Anish

Arts and Music - Meghana

Sports - Ishan

Religion - Bhavya

Famous People - ?

* some people have more than one topic area because they volunteered for it. However, we want everyone to have at least one topic area.  If you don't see your name on this list, please contact us today.  

Template to use when submitting questions/answers: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t1H4nvKQKIt-UHLPUdxGd34Ilzdk141lcHrQzEr3dc0/edit?usp=sharing

If you can create and save on line in the same document that is best.  Please try and get this done by Friday, January 2nd; that will give us one day to compile all the questions and answers for discussion during class on January 4th.

December 7th 2014

For today's blog update, we have enlisted the help of a student volunteer to share her experience both in words and a picture:

I learned about the 7 Kandas in the Ramayana and that the Tulsi Ramayana was in a language called Awadhi. I also learned about the Vedas, Rig Veda, Atharra Veda, Sama Veda, and Yajur Veda. Also, we learned that Smrithi means memory and Sruthi means what is heard. We finally learned about the caste system in the olden times in India.

-Smruthi

November 16th ... Back to Balavihar

November 16th was back to Balavihar.  Thank you to all parents who stopped by to visit and learn about what we do in the BBNJ Dharmam class.  For those parents who were not able to make it that day and for all parents who may have questions that come up, please know that Aparna and Raj are available at any time to discuss your questions/concerns.

November 2, 2014 ... Dharmam Class will be serving Bhiksha to Swami Shantananda

Today, we discussed question that Dharmam class can ask Swamiji and practiced Guru Stothram.

Mythri Aunty's 2014 Yoga Class Reference Information

Here is a link to a shared drive where we have Mythri Aunty's Yoga Reference Material.


https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0eAL1635M30eWZFd21OejN6NzQ&usp=sharing


Parents, it will be helpful if you print this information at home and review with your child.

If your child is new to chanting Mantras, it may also help them to practice saying it with you at home.

October 26, 2014 Class

Today we discussed the great India Epics which built the foundation of our culture.

* Next Sunday, November 2nd, Dharmam Class will be serving Bhiksha to Swami Shantananda. More information will be sent out via email.


* Our apologies to the 2 students who brought their yoga mats as we did not have yoga today.  We had to make some adjustments at the last minute.

October 19, 2014 Class

Today, we discussed the following:


1. How can the student can help their parents to arrive at Balavihar General Assembly on time.

2. We will have another opportunity for Yoga next week (Oct. 26th.).  Please bring your yoga mats next week.  We will post more information provided by Mythri aunty on the subject of yoga.

3. Festivals of India. We are rich in festivals with thousands of festivals observed in communities across the country.  In our class, we focused on the top 10 more popular festivals that are observed by a large plurality of the Indian community.

October 12, 2014 Class ... Bring your yoga mats to class on Oct. 12th

We reviewed the Dance Forms of India today focusing on the top 15 that the class could come up from their reading.  We could see that this a topic of high interest to the class based on their excitement in engaging the discussion.

Thanks to Mythri aunty, we had our first yoga session today.  We will look to capture some feedback from the students to post in future Blog updates.

Just a gentle reminder to 3 students who forgot their research homework for today; please complete this before the next class on October 19th.

September 27, 2014 Class Update...coming soon.

We discussed the heroes and heroins of India in class and assigned research homework to students to study individual heroes/heroins and report back to the class on October 12th.

Sep. 21st Bala Vihar Update

1. Discussion points today:

Old Business:

We reviewed the research topics from assigned on September 14th:

A. What are the 17 major languages in India?

Varun, Rohan, Smruthi and others aided in this research... 

B. Who made the Indian Flag and when?

Aneesh had this assignment but was not able to join the class today because he was not feeling well. He did email us his findings:

"Last week, I undertook the task of finding out who designed the Indian Flag. Here is my
research.

•  Pingali Venkayya designed the flag in 1916.
• Venkayya was from Machilipatnam
• The flag was adopted by Congress in 1931
• It was made the national flag with a few changes in 1947."

             

New Business:

We covered the following new topics from the book Awakening Indians to India.

Ancient Indian Civilizations

Temples

Independence Day

Republic Day

Government Facts

Civil and Military Honors

2. To prepare for next class on Oct. 5th

Read ahead and discuss at home with your parents.  Awakening Indians to India is the main text we use for reference and discussion.  If you spend 10-15 minutes every other day, reading ahead and discussing with your parents and family members, you will be amazed how much you can participate and contribute to in class discussions.  Parents, if you have anecdotal stories related to topic that we will be covering in class, please share that with your 6th grader so they can share it with the rest of us the class.  How would you, as a parent know, what topics are coming up next?  Ask your 6th grader what they just read in the book!  :-)

3.  Swami Chinmayananda Centenary Year Celebration

Looking ahead to Summer 2015, please make plans to join us for the next Chinmayay Mahasamdhi Camp.  This will take place in Somerset, NJ during the last week of July into the first week of August.  More details to follow.

3. Important dates to remember:

January 25th 2015, there will be a presentation by the Dharmam Class during the Balavihar assembly.  Please plan on arriving a little earlier than usual to get ready for our presentation.  During the next few classes, we will discuss the content of our presentation, which can involve singing (e.g. Jana Gana Mana) and/or a skit.  Bring your ideas and share them with your class.

Welcome to 2014-2015 BBNJ Balavihar Dharmam Class!

Sunday, September 14th was our first class for this academic year.  We all got to know each other through a short introduction of ourselves including where in India our family came from, what language is spoken by the parents etc.  Most of the students in class were born in the US however, most of them appear to have at least visited India in recent years.  They all appear to be eager to learn more about India, which is a lot of what we will be doing this year.  With over 5000 years of dynamic history, we have lots to look forward to.

As of this Sunday, we have 14 students in this class.  This number may still go up as new students enroll in upcoming Balavihar sessions.  Currently, here is who we have by their first name:

Akshay
Aneesh
Arjun
Bharya
Ishan
Kareena
Megana
Neev
Rohan
Smruthi
Soumya
Swetha
Varun
Veena

If we misspelled a name, please let us know.  We will get to know each other more, as the year proceeds.

Here is an important date to remember: Sunday, January 25th 2015, there will be a presentation by the Dharmam Class during the Balavihar assembly.  Please plan on arriving a little earlier than usual to get ready for our presentation.  During the next few classes, we will discussthe content of our presentation, which can involve singing (e.g. Jana Gana Mana) and/or a skit.  Bring your ideas and share them with your class.  .

If you don't already have the book, Awakening Indians to India, please purchase it from the book store during next Balavihar.  You will also need the Slokathon book.

If you're interested in where your class name (Dharmam) came from, here is a short book by Swami Chinmayananda that will help.  It's also available at the book store or you can borrow it from a friend in the 8th grade. (This is not a requirement for your class)

Jan 5th BV Session Update - Happy New Year and Welcome back to Balavihar

Hari Om Parents!

Happy New year and our wishes for the very best in 2014 to you and your kids!!

Class Happenings

Today's session was the first Balavihar session in nearly a month as the Dec 15th session was cancelled to inclement weather. We are going to look for another date and time for "Bhiksha with Swamiji" which was also canceled. Anand and I really appreciate the efforts and enthusiasm from all of you for the event. We hope it will be the same for the next time as well.

Today, the discussion centered around the contributions of Swami Vivekananda, his lessons from his visit to America, his insights on religion and science. Kids also attended the Yoga session with Mytri-ji. She has given them a simple goal to attain by end of  BV this year - touch the toes with their fingers!This involved getting the technique of stretching right which was taught today. Mytri-ji taught them the correct way to straighten/lengthen the spine as well as the stretching of hamstrings.

As preparation for the next BalaVihar class, we have requested the kids to research on famous Indian physicist Sir C.V. Raman, Nobel prize winner for Physics in 1930. Please help them.

Class Seva Project - Brown bags for Trenton Soup Kitchen

We still have bunch of items to be claimed for this important event part of our BBNJ curriculum. Please check the details below and encourage the children to sign up and participate.

The sign-up sheet for this seva activity can be found here : http://luckypotluck.com/cgi-bin/display/potluck.pl?id=138491456570633124774 

We expect all the 6th graders (11 of them) to sign up for at least one thing. The kids will bring all elements (including pre-assembled PBNJ sandwich in a sandwich bag/wrap) -- and in the class room they will assemble the brown bags. 

Please ensure that the sign-up sheets are completed by January 19th 2014.

Jan 26th Stage Performance

As we do not have enough sessions to prepare for the stage performance on Jan 26th, the skit/play originally planned for Jan 26th has been deferred for the occasion of Samiskrithi planned for the end of the Balavihar year. For Jan 26th, the kids have agreed to play/sing the Vandhe Maatram ( version renditioned by Lata Mangeshkar ) as the on stage performance. Anand will share the details on the assignment for each of the kids as well as the Western notes required by the instrumentalists.

We are also looking to get together over the weekend at least once before the performance for the kids to rehearse together and get organized. Please stay tuned.

Regards
Ranga & Anand ( Dharmam class Teachers)