Dec 12, 2021 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

HariOm Parents,

We had a highly interactive session this afternoon with active inputs from the children. We continue to progress on the Dharma & Karma topics, with feedback and discussion on how they would be applying this knowledge to their student life. . 

Weekly Update

Dec 12th 2021 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Please refer to the class material that we discussed today

2. Om Chanting and Opening prayer 

3. We have now covered up to verse# 8 from Guru Stotram.

4. We then proceeded to complete up to verse #2 of Geeta Dhyanam, which is part of our CNJ Balavihar Handbook, Page#19. 

5. Following this children proceeded to learn and recite 3 additional verses of Geeta Chanting. We have now covered upto Verse#50. Grade 8 is expected to cover upto verse 72 as part of this year's curriculum.

6. We summarize the completion of Pandavas exile, come back to Hastinapur and request for their rightful portion of the kingdom, Duryodhana's greed, and then ask Krishna for his army, while Arjuna settles for Krishna instead. The children then proceeded to discuss the top 5 most important 'things' that they need in their life. Most of them agreed on the top items as Air, Water, Food, Shelter& Family. With a couple of additional inputs like socializing and education. They proceeded to discuss which of these were tending towards being materialistic versus basic needs. The discussion tied this back to how the entire Kurukshetra war was mainly due to Duryodhana's greed being materialistic, and sticking to Dharma and basic needs.  

7. Following this we spent quite a bit of time discussing what is required by each student as inputs towards the class annual presentation (Play) scheduled for Jan 30th, 2022. As per prior discussions, the class has broadly agreed to the framework as described in this document. Now each student is going to note down 1-2 scenarios that they would like to see included as part of the storyline, along with the script to drive the questions and answers. Each student is expected to submit their inputs to us by Wednesday Dec 15th, 2021. 

8. We then wrapped up with closing Prayers & Pledge 

Next Session Agenda

1. Our next class is on Dec 19th and our focus is going to be on getting the script ready for the annual play. 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Kindly encourage children to practice Geeta Chanting at home using this video link.

2. Parents please ensure your child submits the homework identified in step 7 above.

3. Also kindly encourage participation in the various house events and activities

Namaskarams

Ankita Janakiraman

Rajesh Jayakuma

Nov 14, 2021 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

HariOm Parents,

Welcome back after the Diwali break. Wishing you and your family health, prosperity and joy forever!! Also a very happy Childrens Day. Here is a quick summary of the various topics covered in today's session, with some active participation from the children.

Weekly Update

Nov 14th 2021 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Opening prayer 

om saha navavatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha víryam karavavahai,

tejasvinavadhítam-astu ma vidvishavahai, Om shanti, Shanti, Shantih

2. We continue to our progress with additional verses from Guru Stotram, including revision.

3. As we have an important class presentation coming up mid-Jan 2022, and given the upcoming holidays, we requested the children to come up with ideas for what they would like to present. We split the class into two zoom breakrooms and agreed on a broad approach: Story with active participation from the audience in the form of QA to explore the topic of Dharma & Karma. To further solidify the story outline, we have identified two team captains: Vaibhav & Sahaana to discuss this offline, who may also be reaching out to other children, come back and share their outline in the following sessions.

4. Following this we proceeded with our next chapter (#5). We summarized the next several scenes /progression from we stopped last: 

1. Amba, Ambalika & Ambika getting married to Vichitraveerya

2. Birth of Pandu, Dhritarashtra & Vidura 

3. Kunti's boon from Durvasa and letting go of baby Karna

4. Kunti's marriage to Pandu, exile in forest and birth of Pandavas

5. Gandhari's oath and subsequent birth of 100 Kauravas with Vyasa's help

6. Dhuryodhana's jealousness towards Pandavas and attempt to kill Bheema

7. Bheema getting super natural strength as boon from Vasuki

5. We use the various aspects in the story to understand the cause & effect of specific situations. (Slide 8, 9, 10,11 from this deck). The children were then asked to explore how these cause, effect and lessons learnt can be tied to our day to day aspects of life, The class also talked about blind faith or action and the knowledge needed to take the right action, and tying it back to the Laws of Karma that we discussed in our earlier class

6. Closing Prayers & Pledge 

Next Session Agenda

1. Our next class is on Nov 21st and we continue to explore additional stories from Mahabharata. 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Kindly encourage children to practice Geeta Chanting at home using this video link.

Namaskarams

Ankita Janakiraman

Rajesh Jayakumar

Oct 24, 2021 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

HariOm Parents,

We had an engaging session this afternoon with the children engaging in active discussion around actions from the past week, practical lessons learnt  from the stories we explored in the class and some games. We have captured below what we covered in our class today, any activities they can cover at home and any announcements. 

RESENDING: One request for the parents, is to ensure that the children are logging into zoom, with their laptops and confirm that audio & video on that laptop works well. This helps the children participate in all the activities and helps us get some feedback from them realtime. This will help us adjust our teaching so students can find the class interesting and gain the maximum benefit from these sessions. 

Our next session will be on Oct 31st. 

Weekly Update

Oct 24th 2021 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Om Chanting & Opening prayer 

2. We revised the verse from Guru Stotram covered last week and proceeded to learn 2 more.

3. We leveraged this deck to drive the discussion in our class today. We recapped the key topics that we discussed in our last class: Dharma (Duty) & Karma (Actions). And further reviewed the 'sins' of the body, mind & speech that one needs to be aware of while performing their karma (actions). We have shared an activity, that we encourage all the children to monitor during the week, discuss & explore every weekend during our class. The idea is to develop a sense of introspection, how they can watch and improve upon their actions.

4. We shared the story of two brothers who fought bitterly, splitting their property & land, and how a third person performs a simple task that results in bridging the divide. The children shared their views on how this can be applied to their day to day life, avoid performing actions that causes rift with their friends & family, help someone resolve issues, and how bridging the gap between others help the community & society at large

5. We then introduced the topic of Mahabharata (Jaya - Victory). We discussed the importance of the scribe (Ganesha) and author Veda Vyasa. To drive home the point of the concentration, speed & accuracy the students played two online whack a mole games, based on the set of words that they were allowed to look at for just a few seconds

6. We continued to discuss the story of King Shantanu, Ganga & the Vasus, including the birth and growth of Devavrata. As part of this story we explored the actions of the Vasus in their previous life as celestial deities, resulting in why they were born as humans. Additionally children shared their views on cause effect & lessons learnt from this initial phase of King Shantanu's encounter with Ganga, as captured on slide 9 of this deck .

7. We revised all the verses of Geeta Chanting covered thus far. 

3. Closing Prayers & Pledge 

Next Session Agenda

1. Our next class is on Oct 31st we will be participating in the inaugural session of the Bala vihar houses. We will provide additional instructions prior to the session. 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Kindly encourage children to practice Geeta Chanting at home using this video link.

2. Parents who have not yet joined the whatsapp group please use this link to join. This way we can provide you with updates and notifications.

Regards

Ankita Janakirama

Rajesh Jayakumar

Oct 3, 2021 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

HariOm Parents,

Today we had a very engaging class. We had a couple new students added to our Grade 8 Sunday PM family as well. We extend a warm welcome to our new students. We have captured below what we covered in our class today, any activities they can cover at home and any announcements. 

One aspect that we encourage and request from the parents, is to ensure that the children are logging into zoom, with their laptops instead of mobile phones or devices. And confirm that audio & video on that laptop works well. This helps the children participate in all the activities and helps us get some feedback from them realtime. This will help us adjust our teaching so students can find the class interesting and gain the maximum benefit from these sessions. 

Our next session will be on Oct 17th. Wish you all a very Happy & Joyful Navratri!! 

Weekly Update

Oct 3rd 2021 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Opening prayer 

om saha navavatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha víryam karavavahai,

tejasvinavadhítam-astu ma vidvishavahai, Om shanti, Shanti, Shantih

 

2. We had one Bala vihar team coordinator team join and go through some evaluation exercise that results in assigning our students into specific houses. In the coming weeks & months, when the actual events, competition and tasks are held, our Grade 8 students will be leading the younger classes in their respective activities. 

3. We followed this by progressing further with a couple of more lines of Guru Stotram. Please access this document for lyrics and practice at home

4. Geeta chanting: We revised the verses 39-40 from last class, and proceeded to cover 41-42. For additional practice please feel free to follow this link and practice at home. 

5. We did a recap of the key topics that we discussed in our last class: Dharma (Duty) & Karma (Actions). 

6. We shared a short story of a King who was in search of the following: 

1. When is the right time to start work? "Now"

2. Who is the most important person? "Anyone in front of you"

3. What is the most important work? "Serve others"

    This example led to a discussion of how one should use their body to perform good actions (karma) and how doing good actions actually makes you feel good and positive about oneself. Children shared their examples like doing exercise everyday, ensuring that you are up to date with your homework, helping with chores at home, and helping a stranger.

3. In order to ensure that we perform good actions, what are some examples of actions we could avoid to ensure that we always feel good. One of the ways is through avoiding bad speech. We briefly explored avoiding bad words, hard language, lying, complaining, gossiping. Students gave their thoughts on day to day topics that they could watch out for in terms of speech. We requested the students to keep a mental note of their actions by speech in the coming week. They can use this spreadsheet to track the same, and we can review it in class next week

4. We learnt one new name of our Pujya Gurudev Chinmayanand: 

Om Pavakaya Namah!

Salutations to he who purifies

5. Closing Prayers & Pledge 

Next Session Agenda

1. Our next class is on Oct 17th Proceed with our plan of learning additional lines of Guru Stotram, Geeta Chanting verses 43-44, further discussion on Karma 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Kindly encourage children to practice Geeta Chanting at home using this video link.

2. Parents who have not yet joined the whatsapp group please use this link to join. This way we can provide you with updates and notifications.

Namaskarams

Ankita Janakiraman

Rajesh Jayakumar

Sept 26, 2021 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

HariOm Parents,

Welcome to the Grade 8 Sunday PM. We are excited to have your children as part of our Bala Vihar session. Our goal is to ensure the children look forward to attending these sessions every week, and actively participate in the discussions, Geeta chantings, reciting slokas, etc. We will try our best to keep the environment in the class highly interactive and hope they can grasp and apply the gist of what we plan to cover this year (Yato Dharma, Tatha Jayah -  where there is Dharma, there is victory), in their day to day life. 

Every week we will share a brief update on our progress in the session. Please feel free to share your feedback (send an email or call us directly) about how your children are perceiving this session, and we will try to factor that into how we approach our class. 

Weekly Update

Sept 26th  2019 / 12:45 PM

Today's Activities

1. Opening prayer 

om saha navavatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha víryam karavavahai,

tejasvinavadhítam-astu ma vidvishavahai, Om shanti, Shanti, Shantih

 

2. Followed by starting with a few lines of Guru Stotram. Some of the children in the class know this but for the benefit of everyone, we will start practicing this every week. Please access this document for lyrics

3. We started the Geeta chanting verses 39-40. They kids are very fast learners and seem to be grasping the pronunciation well. For additional practice please feel free to follow this link and practice at home. 

4. We followed this up with the introduction of a couple of new kids in the class. And then leading into a discussion on what they understood by the word Dharma and what role they have to perform given their stage in life (student / family member). This led to a good discussion around what each student understood or thought of dharma and their role: Be Kind to everyone, be a good student and focus on studies, be a good son/daughter and help family in daily chores, be a good global citizen by helping the planet & people. 

5. Following this the children started capturing activities (Actions) they performed yesterday (Saturday) and how they categorized them as good, mundane & negative. This initiated a good discussion on how each student considered their activities (Action) as important, good and will potentially result in good in the future or not have any impact. 

6. We concluded the topic today with another conversation on the importance of Good Action (Karma) in performing one's role (Dharma) keeping the tasks noted earlier by each student. Good Action (Karma) being one of the main theme of our curriculum this year, we explored with the students what is meant by Karma, how good actions lead to good results,etc. We will further continue this discussion in the next class, good & bad actions. 

3. Lastly every class we plan on leaning on new name of our Pujya Gurudev Chinmayanand: 

Om karma-parāyaņāya namaha 

one who is engaged in action

4. Closing Prayers & Pledge 

Next Session Agenda

1. Proceed with our plan of learning additional lines of Guru Stotram, Geeta Chanting version 3-4, further discussion on Karma 

Reminder & Activities for home

1. Kindly encourage children to practice Geeta Chanting at home using the video links provided above 

2. Parents who have not yet joined the whatsapp group please use this link to join. This way we can provide you with updates and notifications.

Namaskarams

Ankita Janakiraman

Rajesh Jayakumar

Welcome to Gr 8 - Sunday PM Session

Please look out for regular updates from 

the teachers 

soon after the session starts.