Hari OM.
Dear Sunday Morning Grade 4 Parents,
We had our 5th Balavihar session on Sunday, October 7th. Our next class is on October 21st.
As we started this Sunday morning, we had 10 students in class and by 9:30, we had 21 students. As communicated before, we want to be respectful of the prayer and meditation session and ask that anyone arriving after the start of that session, please be seated along the wall outside the classroom. At 9:15AM one of the teachers will start the class with Opening Prayer and Meditation. The other teacher will wait outside the classroom and conduct a prayer session for anyone arriving after 9:15. Meditation and concentration game of counting the beads/marbles will only be done during the session in the classroom. We are both parents ourselves and know the challenges of getting everyone out of the house for Balavihar. We sincerely appreciate all your efforts in helping your child arrive at Balavihar on time. We found from past experience that delaying the start of class will not leave enough time for us to finish our curriculum material and is also demotivating for the children who do arrive on time.
Our topics for this week:
1. Krishna-Krishna-Everywhere: Each child had an opportunity to share a fact about Krishna that they researched. (50 Minutes)
- Even those who said they had none could easily come up with at least one fact when prompted in class
- All had at least one fact
- Quite a few had gone the extra mile to collect 24 facts; which was good for them and the peers they helped, since we had 21 students in class today.
2. My 24 Teachers: The first teacher that Sage Dattatreya talked about with King Yadu is Mother Earth. She is eternally patient and forgiving; in offering us all that she has to give, without asking for anything in return. (25 Minutes)
- Resources that the Earth offers us. Trees are an example. Trees give us a lot without asking for anything in return
- A story written by Shel Silverstein, called: The Giving Tree. We used the "Pop Corn Reading" method to readout this story out loud. Each child would read a line or two until someone else in the room is called out. Everyone has to be paying attention for this work. This was out first exercise using this technique. We will do more of this when we get into the Bala Bhagavatam stories. We encourage you to have your child read those stories out loud together with you. It is good practice or them and will increase their confidence in class for future popcorn reading opportunities.
Some topics for upcoming classes: (any changes and/or updates to this, we will communicate via WhatsAPP)
- Review the discussion on the attitude of a desciple, importance of Humility, how do we recognize a teacher, how do we gain knowledge and the story of King Jadu
- New material: Air, as one of the 24 teachers.
- Review the story of the Birth of Kaliyuga, how King Parikshit is cursed, How mother Earth is in distress, The tale of Prophecy et al.
- New material: The story of Sri Krishna's birth
"Parked" items we will go back to in future class discussion:
- Story of Dhurvasa
- Time-line of the Yuga
Geetha Chanting: We used Swami Shantananda's video in class today. Please see prior class notes in the Teacher's Blog for more information on resources available to help one practice their Geetha Chanting. This week we focused on verse #45 and #46 of Chapter 18 in class. For this year we are focused on chapter 18 starting with verse #41. Please encourage your child to spend some daily time practicing.
CORD Walkathon and Field Day:The walkathon sevaks came by to remind the class to Register for CORD Walkathon which is on Oct 28th, Sunday 10:00 AM at Mercer County Park. East Picnic area. Note that walkathon is followed by Field Day with fun, age appropriate activities. Parents, we need your help here: Please make sure you register for the walkathon. You can find more information about the Walkathon and register here. Yes - Please bring in all your friends and family members. $25/walker and the funds raised goes to CORD. Raffle and prizes for the most number of pledges collected and fun for the whole family. Each child who participate from this class will earn 100 points for the House of Krishna's Cowboys. That is 2400 points if everyone who is registered for this class participates in the Walkathon!
Class Blog: For a repository of past class discussions (for all Balavihar grades), we have a Chinmaya Vrindavan Teacher's Blog located here
That is all for this week. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you for helping make this Chinmaya Balavihar program possible.
Sincerely,
Yamuna and Raj
Sunday AM Grade 4 Teachers
