Hari Om Parents,
We started our Balavihar class with our opening prayers.
We asked students what we covered in the last class and many students recalled what we did and we are very proud they remembered well on the topics covered so far.
What is a Smile called as – Million Dollar Smile and why do we call it Million Dollar, because when we smile we spread happiness which is priceless. Why should we speak Truth, because that is the right thing to do. Always speak the truth no matter what happens.
We learnt S for Smile, T for Truth.
We moved to the next letter U & V.
We tried to act, aunty tried to push one of the students. It was very easy to push the students, then we asked each of them to start holding the student and then they all started holding hands and then it became hard for aunty to push her and finally aunty could not push.
We asked what the reason was for aunty being able to push for the first time and why it got tougher and tougher.
They said it was because they all were together. We asked what that meant, our smarties caught the word instantly united.
The word was Unity which we were going to discuss and learn.
We watched two stories about Unity.
1) Farmer and his Sons: - A farmer had three sons and they always used to quarrel. The farmer was wondering how to teach them to be together. One day he asked to bring sticks. Each of them brought one. He tied them together and asked them to break, but none of them were able to break it. Then he broke the tie and gave them back their sticks and asked them to break it, they instantly broke it. They got the message that their father was trying to convey. Unity is strength and always being together.
2) Story of four Cows: - In a forest there were 4 cows which were always together. None of the other animals could ever come in between them. One day a lion saw the cows and bounced on them to eat but they fought against the lion. There was a fox who was watching all this and gave the lion a plan and then went to each cow and told that he was treated as an important cow and then the cows started to fight against each other.
Lion took this as a chance and seeing one cow at a time killed them and ate them.
We asked the children what they understood and our lovely kids told us that we should always be together.
V for Victory:-
We then played a game and aunty asked them to pick one thing, either jump, walk or run and touch the walk and come back.
They all had a lot of fun doing this act. We asked them what did they do, and what was their goal
Their goal was to run/walk/jump, go to wall and come back. So what was the inference here? Whatever way we do in the right way and achieve our goal it is a victory.
We watched a story about King Harishchandra.
Harishachandra was a very noble king who lived with his queen and son.
The gods were amazed at the way he lived and his nobility. Sage Vishawamitra said he wanted to test him. He asked the king to donate his wealth to him.
Harishchandra said that he would donate his whole kingdom to Vishwamitra. The sage agreed and asked for some Dakshina (fees) before leaving. The king who gave away his whole kingdom had no possessions left to give. The king begged Vishwamitra to provide him one month's time to earn something. The king left the kingdom along with his family and went to Kashi. The wife of Satyavadi harishchandra was Shaivya and raja Harishchandra's son's name was Rohitashwa. The king tried a lot but was unable to find any job in Kashi. Later on his wife's request, Harishchandra heavy-heartedly sold his son and wife to a brain for money. The money was still not enough, so he sold himself to a chandala ( One who works in a cremation ground), and began working in the cremation ground. The king's wife and son used to work hard every day under the Brahmin who used to trouble them a lot. One day while plucking flowers and fruits from the garden Rohitashwa got bitten by a snake and he died at the stop. Shiva took her son's body to the cremation ground and met her husband king Harishchandra. The king was devastated to see his only son Rohitashwa's dead body. Harishchandra then asked for tax in order to perform cremation even after knowing that her wife has nothing to offer, as he was bound to his duties. Shiva replied, "I don't own even a single penny, the only thing I had was my son who is no more. My only possession is this old saree that I am wearing right now". The king accepted to take the piece of cloth as a tax. When Shivaya was about to tear her saree suddenly, all the gods along with Vishnu appeared. Even the chandala showed his real form as Yama (God of death) and brought Rohitashwa back to life. The gods and sage told Harischandra that he had passed the test and proved his great virtue and bravery.
Then we all chanted Bhagavad gita chapter 12 we changed till verses 1-4 and learnt verse 5.
Please make children practice as Chapter 15 as this is for our global chanting on May 9th 2026. It was finally time to go home so we headed to the Prayer hall for Aarthi and Pledge.
NOTE:- The curriculum for Kindergarten is Alphabet Safari, Please purchase the book from book store, kindly collect the handbook as well since we will be learning Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15 (1-20 shlokas) and Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12 (1-20 shlokas) is available in the 2025-26 year handbook.
Few important notes and points.
1. We request everyone to make sure children are present in the class a few mins before 7pm.
2. Please send a folder to class to keep the handed out Letters and crafts as we plan to do a book with them. Please preserve the papers as we are often hearing students we threw them out.
3. Please send crayons, pencils, Glue and erasers in a box.
4. Make sure children use the bathroom before coming to class so that we don't take bathroom breaks unless there is an emergency.
5. Please join what's app group and communicate with teachers in case your child is unable to come to class.
6. Kindly check our messages and emails which are being shared so that important information is not missed out.
With Pranams
Kavitha & Anuradha
