Hari OM.
Dear Sunday Morning Grade 4 Parents.
We had our 8th Balavihar session on Sunday, Nov. 4th. Our next class will be on Sunday November 11th.
Our discussion points for this week:
1. We started our class at 9:15 with Prayers and Meditation. We had 21 students in class today.
2. During our class on Oct. 21st, we started reading Krishna's birth story and today we finished it; again using the popcorn reading method. Then we spend quite a bit of time discussing this this story in more detail going more in depth on the following questions.
3. Why do we encounter and enjoy stories about Krishna so much? … It is a story of good overcoming evil… we are reminded that good and evil are in a constant battle within us, our community and in the world.
4. Who is Krishna?…. an Avatar of Vishnu.
5 Who is Vishnu? … one of the three aspects of how we define God in our Vedic tradition….Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva…what do they each do?
6. In the 2nd to last paragraph, on page 69 of the Bala Bhagavatam book, we find what may be the most important point of this story; the Asuras (the bad buys) point out to Kamsa, the limbs of Vishnu, which give the Devas (the good guys) their strength: Brahmins, cows, Vedas, asceticism, control of the mind and senses, faith, kindness, tolerance and sacrifice.
of the (we will delve into this deeper in future classes and this could be a great dinner time conversational topic)
7. We did Geetha Chanting with Swami. Please continue to practice chanting at home.
Suggestions for home activity this week:
1. Read ahead and read out loud, the following stories: Gokula, Poothana and Trivarata. 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.
2. See item #6 and #7 above.
3. 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
