Hari OM.
Re: Sunday Morning Grade 4 Balavihar Class
Dear Parents,
We had our 10th Balavihar session today, on Sunday, Nov. 18th. Our next class will be on Sunday December 9th. Of course, on December 1st, we have the Surabhi; fun, food and festivities for the whole family. Please try and make every effort to be there. It is chance for the whole family to dress up and celebrate with our Chinmaya Vrindavan community at its best!
Our class started at 9:15 with Prayers and Meditation. We had 23 students in class today; an all time high and just one shy of our total roster. Thank you parents for making Balavihar a priority and for bringing your child to class on time.
As you know, 4th Grade had the privilege of leading Aarti today. Each and every one of the students did a fantastic job. They also did a great job working together as a cohesive group. Please recognize your 4th grader for what they did today and treat them special. We won't get together as a class for 3 more weeks and we will be sure to call it out again at that time. Many thanks to those parents who spent time with their children to prepare. We had many confident voices today.
Our discussion points for this week:
1. We read the Gokula, Poothana and Trinavarta stories from the Bala Bhagavatham book. We had an opportunity to see the movie version of this during the last class and today we read the story from closer to the source (as compared to the movie version). We gave students who wanted to; an opportunity to summarize their understanding of the story. We also observed that Yashoda for the first time is starting to see the Devine nature of her little baby Krishna, at the end of the Trinavarta story.
2. We are starting to learn Govinda Damodara Stotram. Today, we started on the first two stanzas.
3. Geetha Chanting with Swami Shantananda (verses 49-50).
4. We practiced and prepared for our Aarti session.
Preparing for next class:
1. We will try and get you a PDF copy of the Govinda Damodara Stotram via WhatApp that you can use to practice ahead should you want to do that. (Note-If you're not receiving WhatApp updates from us and want to; please make sure we have the mobile number that you use for WhatsApp)
2.. Read ahead and read out loud, the following stories: The Naming Ceremony (pp, 74-77), Kubera's Son Release (pp. 77-80). As you know,we use popcorn reading to engage the students and help them focus on the story. We find that all students participate in this willingly. However if they're reading this story from the book for the first time, they may run into big words that are difficult to pronounce. It will help their confidence immensely, if they've seen in at least once before and know how to tackle it. So, please read the story out loud to them and have them do the same back to you. We suggested that they keep a dictionary and thesaurus next to them when they read to look up words they don't understand. If you hear the request for a dictionary; this is where it is coming from. If they use the tablet or notebook to search online, please work with them to show how the online resources can be best used.
3. Continue to practice Geetha chanting. See previous blogs for practices aids or feel free to contact us.
4. Please make sure your child's book bag, books etc are clearly labeled with their name. Our books and book bags all look very similar.
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
