December 18, 2016

Hari Om, Parents

Can't believe this is the LAST class in the year 2016! A moment to pause, and reflect on how blessed we are, how fast time is passing and on how 'Days are long, but Years are short'! The list just goes on! Of course time flies when you are having fun!

Today's class was another fun class with the kids' active participation on the topic, 'Saints of India'. First we learnt and chanted the first three verses from Geeta Dhyana Sloka, followed by the kids' presentations on the Saints of India. 

Geetha Dhyana Sloka:

Om paarthaaya pratibodhitaam bhagavataa naaraayanenaswayam, 
    Vyaasena grathitaam puraanamuninaa madhye mahaabhaaratam; 
Advaitaamritavarshineem bhagavateem ashtaadashaa dhyaayineem, 
    Amba twaam anusandadhaami bhagavadgeete bhavadweshineem.

Om. O Bhagavad Gita, with which Partha was illumined by Lord Narayana Himself, and which was composed within the Mahabharata by the ancient sage, Vyasa, O Divine Mother, the destroyer of rebirth, the showerer of the nectar of Advaita, and consisting of eighteen discourses—upon Thee, O Gita, Oaffectionate Mother, I meditate!

Namostu te vyaasa vishaalabuddhe phullaaravindaayatapatranetra; 
Yena twayaa bhaaratatailapoornah prajwaalito jnaanamayah pradeepah.

Salutations unto thee, O Vyasa, of broad intellect and with eyes like the petals of a full-blown lotus, by whom the lamp of knowledge, filled with the oil of the Mahabharata, has been lighted! 
 

Prapannapaarijaataaya totravetraikapaanaye; 
Jnaanamudraaya krishnaaya geetaamritaduhe namah.

Salutations to Lord Krishna, the Parijata or the Kalpataru or the bestower of all desires for those who take refuge in Him, the holder of the whip in one hand, the holder of the symbol of divine knowledge and the milker of the divine nectar of the Bhagavad Gita!

Saints of India:

We learnt about Ramanujacharya, Andal, Eknath, Swami Vivekananda, Mirabhai, Bharadwaja, Mother Teresa, etc.,. A shout out to the kids who have been so sincere to submit their 'gimme 5' and 'take 5' to this email!! Good and keep it coming!!

January 8th Class

Next class is on January 8, and we have a three week break. So we all agreed on the following:

1] Memorize and learn to sing the Indian National Anthem. 

2] Memorize the first three verses of Geetha Dhyana Shloka (The verses and the audiofiles are in the Slokathon, My Prayers, and also in the website www.bbnjbalavihar.com. You need to login to access all these resources. 

3] Next class (Jan 8th 2016) is on 'Music, Musical instruments'. Why ? This is only appropriate during this 'Maargazhi' month (Dhanur Maas) when India is celebrating its music festivals, we will have our own version of Indian Music Festival.

Please read the chapters, and come prepared to sing or play an Indian song on your chosen instrument, or 'Gimme 5' on your chosen topic.

Nxxxx  Nikitha - Play Indian National Anthem on Clarinet

Sxxxx Seema - Likely Play Indian National Anthem (or any other Indian Song) on Clarinet

Powerful Prajit - Gimme 5 on Tabla or Play Keyboard ?

Sxxxxx Shyam - Keyboard ?

Dauntless Diya - Gimme 5 on Veena

Delightful Diya - Gimme 5 on Flute

Sxxxx Sitara - Gimme 5 on Sitar

Dynamic Dhruv - ?

Intelligent Isha - ?

Sxxxx Suchir - ?

(Please confirm your choices)

4] Email '5 Takeaways' from today's class as soon as you can, to this email id: bbnjdharmam@gmail.com

5] Keep up with the gratitude journal, and you can bring it if you like to share

January 22nd Class:

Topic is Festivals of India. We will cover festivals ranging from Sankranthi (Pongal, Harvest or Thanksgiving Festival) Students please go through your book, pick your choice, and let us know.

January 29th Class:

Dharmam class will be presenting on January 29, 2017, to celebrate Indian Republic Day. We will be singing Indian National Anthem. We will also present on Indian National Leaders that day at the Assembly. Kids are to come dressed in their chosen Indian National Leader costume, and talk 5-6 sentences as that leader. This is a head's up so that they can start thinking about their leader's choice, how they are going to get dressed up. Remember there is a Balavihar Costume Store that you can rent from. Here is also a chance for the parents to get involved, and a golden one for the artsy-craftsy parents to showcase their talent! We will also talk about Indian Freedom Movement and the leaders in the class, and draw parallels to other countries' freedom movements. We believe at this grade the children know only about the American Independence! Please feel free to chime in.

Seva Project: 

Here's another head's up on the Seva Project for this year. We will be focusing our efforts on raising funds for CORD - Chinmaya Organization of Rural Development. As we mentioned at our B2B session, there will be a CORD Walkathon in Spring. We are thinking of doing bake sales, etc., Ideas, suggestions, welcome!

2016 has been so good to us ! We wish all of you a very happy and blissful 2017, and the rest of 2016 also!

See you in the new year!

Reminder:

Please send the text book, note book, pen/pencil along.

December 11, 2016

Hari Om, Parents

Thanks for taking the time and meeting us this morning. It was really nice to meet you all. Hope all your questions were answered. If not, please feel free to email us here.

Earlier in the day, we had Yoga with Mythri Aunty. Kids chose the saints that they are going to present on, next class. Remember it is only a minimum of 5 facts. It's heartening to hear a parent say that she wants her kid to choose more than one topic to do research, and to present. So, please feel free, in case you are/your child is interested, to do more than 1.

Here is a list of chosen topics:

Adi Shankara - Suchir

Andal - Nikhita

Bharadawaja - Dynamic Dhruv

Eknath - Powerful Prajit

Mahaveer - Something Seema (considering adjective change)

Mirabhai - Delightful Diya H (considering adjective change)

Mother Teresa - Delightful Diya A (considering adjective change)

Vivekananda - Shyam

As you can see above, all kids are encouraged to add a memorable and easy prefix adjective that best describes them. Those who are absent today, please choose a topic and 'gimme 5' next class.

Reminders:

Please send the text books with your kids to the class. Details in the thread above.

Please encourage your kids to continue with their gratitude journal

See you all next Sunday, December 18th

December 4, 2016

What a riveting and insightful discussion did we have! Today's topic was 'religions of India'. As we progress through the year, the level of participation and quality of discussions keep going up! Way to go, Dharmam kids!

We talked about Sanatana Dharma, how it became 'hinduism', its ageless and founderless nature, what is unique about Hinduism, and how it compares to other world religions. Of course, we also talked about Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Children presented on their chosen topics - 'Gimme 5' - five facts about their chosen topic from last class. 

As mentioned in our last email, the other 5 is 'Take 5' - 5 takeaways from the current class. We had asked the kids to email it to this email id. We already received the first one - Thanks, Dynamic Dhruv!!  A great job! Please encourage your kids to email it via your/their email id, while it is still fresh in their memory. and Thanks!

Reminders:

1] Next week is the much awaited - 'Meet the teachers'. We will present the current year's curriculum, expectations from the students, parents, goal of the class, etc., followed by 'Q&A'. It is about 15 minutes. You will hear more about it soon! Please mark your calendar, and attend. Parents engagement make learning so much easier!

2] We had talked the importance of attitude of gratitude in the pursuit of happiness in the earlier classes, and touched upon it again today. A few students are still keeping up with the gratitude journal ! Kudos to them! We would request you to encourage them to continue with gratitude journal. 

3] Next week's topic is Saints. Kids are free to choose any of the Saints of India, such as Sankara, Ramanuja, Swami Chinmayananda, Mirabhai, Sri Ragavendra, etc., (For more ideas, please refer to their text book) and present 5 things about their chosen topic. 

4] Please ask your kids about the 5 take aways from today's class. 

5] Please send text books, a note book, and a nut free snack with your child.

Next class is on December 11, 2016

November 13, 2016

We had another wonderful session last class. We talked about languages, and learnt all the languages we or our parents speak, and which parts of India we/our parents are from. The major focus of the class was on literature - great works that India produced, starting from Vedas to Kambaramayanam. Next week we are going to discuss, 

• Religion
• Schools of Philosophy
• Sat Darshan

Children have chosen to learn atleast 5 things about their topic (such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Advaita Philosophy, Buddhism, etc.,) and present in the class. Going forward, we will be focusing on FIVE - Five sentences about a chosen topic, Five Takeaways from the day's class. Since there is a lot of facts in this year's curriculum, this practice, will hopefully, ensure learning and retention.

Reminders:

As announced in the past assemblies, we have the annual Vrindavan Fundraiser Dinner 'Surabhi' on Saturday Dec 3, 2016. There are only a few tickets left. If not done already, please come out and show your support, and have fun doing so. Based on past attendees'  feedback, this event seems to be so much fun!! 

November 6, 2016

We had a fun filled class with almost full strength, as we not just learnt 'about dance', but also 'learnt to dance' ! We learnt the history of dance, various Indian dance forms, famous dancers, and learn to recognize and to dance a few Indian dance forms. Ask the kids about the fifth Veda, classical dances vs  folk dances, dance exclusively by men, dance where the dancers also say dialogues, dance forms with themes on Radha and Krishna, dance on a brass plate and a pot balancing on head, harvest dance. Also ask them about how dance is used to communicate, and what 'Navarasas' are. In fact ask them to emote the navarasas. We played a game with one person emoting, and others guessing, and you can imagine the laughter in the class. Got to say, the kids love a 'Scramble' puzzle, and are really good at it ! Hearing that we are going to learn about/to dance today, we had visitors from 7th grade, who wanted to catch up on some fun missed earlier! Our 6th graders were good sports to share their class with the 7th graders, for the last few minutes of the class.

We had some sweets in the name of Diwali. 

For next week, parents, please ask the children to read up on 'Literature' and 'Poets' (page # 204-223, 326-334).

Please note, we have Thanksgiving Luncheon this Sunday Nov 20th. Hope to see you all there. Here is the link for potluck:

http://www.luckypotluck.com/potluck/ThanksgivingLuncheon2016

This will be held in the cafetaria.

As you know, this year theme is all about India. This is a great opportunity to share your childhood memories in terms of arts & crafts, famous personalities, languages, games, dance & music, etc., with your kids. As you know, we played traditional Indian games such as Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Nondi etc., and learnt to recognize classical/folk dance forms. We will continue on these lines, and highly encourage you to engage in similar activities at home too.

October 23, 2016

Hari Om!

We started our class with starting prayers and then we chanted Gita Dhyana Shloka 1 and 2.

The topic we chose to discuss today was the contribution of India in the world of Science, Education fields. We talked about how progressive India was some 2500 years ago in the fields of Medical Sciences, Education, Astronomy, Mathematics, Yoga etc.  We also talked about great people like Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya, Charaka etc.

Kids couldn't believe that we already had the knowledge of gravity, atoms etc. They were wondering why we did not share the knowledge with the rest of the world, please talk to them about it.

We also played Hangman, it was a lot of fun. 

Next week, we will be discussing the Dances of India. And so, students are asked to read up the relevant pages from the book (page # 121) and also gather information so they can quiz each other next class. 

Please continue to encourage the kids to keep up with their gratitude journal.

Wish you a very Happy Diwali!! No class next week.

See you all next week class Nov 6, 2016.

October 16, 2016

Hari Om!

Surya Bhagwan likes us after all....Today's Gurukul style class/picnic turned out to be a huge success with the sun shining on us throughout the day! How blessed are we!

And the topic we chose to discuss today was...the games of India...of course, we cannot just DISCUSS the game....we needed to play it...and 'Play we did'!! How much fun was that ! The kids gave an almost 10/10 for the class !

The small class strength was no telling of the enthusiasm the kids had for learning and playing the games... Kabaddi, Kho-kho, Langdi (Nondi)...we played it all.... we needed to modify the rules given the small class size. Ask them about the games, what impact do team sports have on the individual players, how these games were developed creatively, and what other sports originated in India. 

Next week, we will be discussing the contribution of India in Science, Education fields. And so, students are asked to read up the relevant pages from the book (page # 151-159) and also gather information so they can quiz each other next class. 

Please continue to encourage the kids to keep up with their gratitude journal.

See you all next week class Oct 23 2016.

October 9, 2016

Hari Om, 

We had a great class this sunday.

We had our first Yoga class today.

Amongst other things, we talked about the architecture of the Indian temples, why do we go to temple and steps to follow for the installation of the idol in the temple and also practiced singing Indian National Anthem. We also learnt the first Gita Dhyana Shloka.

Assignment:

• Read about the  'Dances' of India in your text book. We will discuss in the class.
• Practice singing the Indian National Anthem
• Practice singing the first Gita Dhyana Shloka

Please bring a notebook, pencil/pen, Gratitude journal, folder to keep any hand-outs, and a nut free snack.

Next class is on Sunday October 16, 2016

September 26, 2016

Hari Om,

After a quick overview of last class, also for the benefit of those who missed it, we started today's class off by discussing what India is to each one of us, and then went on to see what eminent scholars such as Prof Max Mueller, G.B. Shaw, etc., had to say about India. To Prof Mueller, India is 'Paradise on earth'. It is 'rescue of mankind', and 'the spiritual India fulfilled many many great souls' to others. As you can see in the attached picture, Dharmam kids don't see India the same way. Hopefully by the end of this academic year, we will have a different viewpoint.

Next we learnt the story of the kingdom of a tree, which was rich, prosperous, wise, and generous. Everybody around it prospered. People that lived far heard about the tree, came, stole all of its parts - leaves, fruits, branches, and in some time, all of the tree was gone. So, the people who lived around it started to leave, to look for better livelihood. The tree pleaded with them not to leave, and that it would regrow to its original tree, because of its strong roots. But they did not listen. The tree regrew, just as it said. This tree is the country of India. It survived many a invasions, and is growing strong, thanks to its roots in the faith of the Lord, and in the scriptures. Annie Besant famously asked, 'if the people of this sacred land, Hindustan don't maintain Hinduism, who shall save it?'  Our Pujya Gurudev gave a clarion call to study the scriptures (where our roots are), understand the meaning, and live by its teachings in our everyday life. Chinmaya Balavihar facilitates the learning of the scriptures, and helps us understand the meaning of life.

Next, we located the places where we/our parents/ancestors are from, in the India map. (attached)

Talking about scriptures, we learnt about the vedas, epics, how Mahabharata was written, how there is no founder/author for Hinduism like other religions, importance of Bhagavad Gita, and some scholarly perspectives on Gita.

Awards and Honors: Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards, Sahitya Academy, Ashok Chakra, Param Veer Chakra, Dronacharya, Arjuna, Dada Saheb Palke, Bravery, Gallantry Awards....these are some of the awards that we learnt about in the class. Parents, these are things that we learnt growing up...please share your memories of/information about the recipients/awards. Any personal information, and family discussion, as you know, immensely enhances your kids' learning experience.

Puzzle: Since last week's word puzzle was a big hit, today we tried a crossword puzzle with Indian states/Capitals. Attached shows some kids near the map, hoping to find some answers.  Got to say, our class loves puzzles!! Please encourage them to finish the puzzle at home.

Comments/Assignments:

• Good job to the kids who have made an earnest attempt to start and write the 'Gratitude journal' daily. Thanks to all the parents for your support and encouragement. If you have not started already, please have the kids started in today or soon. We are sure this will be meaningful and fun exercise. Early starters, please continue with the daily exercise.
• As your kids might have told you, we are inventing our new selves in the class. So far, we have Super Suchir, Superior Shyam, Sunny Sitara, Dynamic Dhruv in the class. We are waiting to hear from the 'rambunctious' rest of the class! ;)
• This year's theme lends itself to endless learning material. While we go through the content in the book in class, we strongly encourage the kids to read ahead, which might lead to more questions and hence discussions at home, research, and more learning and sharing in class. We will also try to connect with comparable histories that they already know. Before next class, please encourage your kids to read upto page # 49 (Architecture)
• We see that some kids don't have their books. Please stop by the book store in the cafetaria, and get them so the kids are able to keep up with the class lessons.
  
  
  
  
  Next class is on 9 Oct 2016. Meanwhile enjoy the break celebrating Navarathri/Dusshera. Even if you don't celebrate, please don't forget to talk about the festival, and share your childhood memories etc., with your kids.

Happy Navarathri/Dusshera

September 18, 2016

Hari Om, 

We had a great second class yesterday. 

First off, kudos to all the kids who prepared and presented on their chosen topic, including Indian National Anthem, Flag, Raksha Bandhan Festival, King Cobra, National Song, Taj Mahal. Great job, Kids

Amongst other things, we talked about why India is a sacred land, Guru Sishya Parampara, meaning of Namaskara, and having an attitude of gratitude towards everything, and also practiced singing Indian National Anthem. We also played a mini puzzle that the kids loved. 

Assignment:

• Start a Gratitude journal, and write 1-3 specific things that you are grateful about, that day (Please bring the journal, and be ready to share some of your entries)
• Read upto 'Awards and Honors' in your text book. We will discuss in the class.
• Practice singing the Indian National Anthem

Mark your calendar for Fall Fest , scheduled for Oct 16th in Duke Island Park. Same time - Class will be in the park. More information to follow.

Please bring a notebook, pencil/pen, Gratitude journal, folder to keep any hand-outs, and a nut free snack.

Next class is on Sunday September 25, 2016

Open House & First Dharmam Class of 2016-2017 Sep 11, 2016

Hari Om!

A warm welcome to all of you!

What a beautiful breezy day to start the new Balavihar school year! We are so excited to start the new school year with these smart, enthusiastic and fun-loving returning as well as new children. We had a great first class outside in the shade, (thanks to a non-working air conditioner in the classroom, but who is complaining! well, we did, and hopefully we will be in a classroom next class ;))  introducing ourselves, and learning about the others in the class ! We indeed are a diverse class with representations from various parts of India, and are yearning to learn about the diverse cultures, saints, leaders, festivals, and all about India.

As you know, the theme of this class is 'India - the sacred land', and children already signed up to learn about, and talk 5 things about their chosen India related topic. We can't wait to hear from them. We also learnt to sing the Indian National Anthem, and re learnt the meaning of opening and closing prayers. 

If you have not already, please buy the prescribed books from the book stall. 

CLASS

TEXT/SYLLABUS

SLOKAS

DHARMAM  (Righteousness) Grade 6  (Age 11-12)

Awakening Indians to India                                                  We Can! We Must!

Geeta Dhyana Shlokam Tapovana Shatkam

Almost all of you are familiar with the supply needs for the Balavihar class - notebook, pencils for now. We will send a detailed supply list shortly. Also please feel free to send a nut free snack.

We are looking forward to a spiritual and blissful year filled with learnings and fun! Next class is on Sep 18th.