Hari Om! Parents,
With Pujya Gurudev's Grace and our Swamiji's blessings we concluded this year's Balavihar today. Children's attendance and participation was excellent, in spite of the challenging situation.Thank you all for your support and cooperation!
Our last class for this year began with deep breathing, Om chanting. After Sahana vavatu, the class chanted the three Shri Rama slokas. Next we chanted the Guru Stotram (ref. Balavihar Handbook pg.24). Today we had a 'daily prayers challenge' (ref. My Prayers Book pg.11&12). The children were given a daily activity and they had to chant the corresponding prayer for it. For example, before eating food - "brahmarpanam" shloka. The class did very well in recollecting all the prayers! We also chanted 1-16 Verses of the Bhagavad Geeta chapter 1 (ref. Balavihar Handbook pg.15). The children have promised to keep practising their prayers through summer break.
As a year end recap, the children played the "I Spy..." game using their Ramayana coloring books. They were given a character from the story and had to find the page they appeared on in their coloring book. We then discussed what was happening in the story. The children enjoyed telling us the stories for a change! We discussed how Hanuman appeared in most pages and how he was with Lord Rama in both sad and happy times. For always helping, Hanuman is the greatest friend and true devotee of Lord Rama. The class also completed final Ramayana coloring activity with lesson 38 - the coronation. Ayodhya welcomed Lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana back from exile with flowers and lamps. Special decorations for the coronation were prepared in the palace. For our own Lord Rama's virtual coronation celebration, Grade 1 decorated a crown for King Rama and a crown for queen Sita. Next the class decorated a coronation picture and wrote messages for Lord Rama. We sang the "Atma Nivasi Ram" bhajan and asked for Bhagwan to bless us always. We all said "Purnamadah purnamidam" and wrapped up class early to join the Zoom assembly for our grade's final presentation, aarthi and pledge.
We enjoyed spending time with your children and will really miss them. Have a fun and safe summer break!
Jai Shri Ram!
- Rashmi and Uma
Here are the pictures of the class activity and video of the final class presentation:
