Here is the class review

Alphabet test:  We gave a spelling test where we gave them words with 3-4 letters without maatras except in one case where we had an AA matraa which was explained during class prior to the spelling test.  We found that several students had forgotten their letters and even with three adults cajoling them to rethink their answers and sometimes leading them towards an answer,  we had poor results.  On the positive side,  they are able to "recognize" the letters and read them but they are unable to recall and write them given the sound.  There are two issues to think about.  We are reaching the end of Gurukul year and startng May we will focus only on the annual day.  We need to decide whether the children are ready for level 3.  At this point,  there aren't many who seem ready.  In level 3,  we expect the children to be completely at ease with alphabets and move into maatraas.  Unless,  we see this comfort level,  it may be best for the children to repeat the level.  Language learning can take time.
 

Culture:  

 We read out the great write ups the children brought in about Babar, Humayun and Akbar. Very impressive!  We loved the ones which were written by children in their own words.  It told us that they really imbibed the information.  We progressed with quick summaries about Jahangir and ShahJahan.  Next class will be an in dept discussion about ShahJahan and the TajMahal. 
Today's weather was great and we introduced the children to a game of Satholia.  After playing this game outside,  we went on to play a simpler version of Khokho which all the children enjoyed.

Here is the recap

Thank you to Anika's mom for helping us in the class.

 

After a quick review of the letters at different stations, the kids enjoyed the egg hunt in the class

Each child got to hunt for and egg and read the word written inside and got to keep the goodies. THE KIDS DID AMAZING.

For conversation, each child had to come up with a sentence using the word from the egg.

 

We started on a new jouney of regions of India.

For few weeks we will go in details about all the regions of India with the history of that region.

This week, we touched the Northern part of India and the Mughal Empire.

For activity, the kids mad a puzzle if India map.

 

Important reminder

For the annual function, i really need parent volunteers for the event. I need 2 volunteers which can be the room parents who can help coordinate with the other parents for the logistics of the function. Please let me know asap if you will be able to help as i have to give the name of the volunteers to the Gurukul.

Namaste

A very big thanks to Anika's mom for helping us in the class.

Here is the recap

Culture

There was a demo of Introduction to classical music’ By  Chitra Subramanian

 

Hindi language

The kids revised the letters and learnt to read new words Page 75 and 76 from their binder.

They also read and wrote words that rhymed.

 

 

 

Namaste

Thank you to Kajal's mom for helping us out in the class.

Here is the class recap

Hindi language

Revised all the alphabets.

The kids read words without matras from the binder on pages 73 and 74 Please go over those words and ask their meanings.

 

Hindi Language

Introduced the preposition se to the kids an how it is used in a sentence. The kids also learnt that if a sentence starts with Main it ends with hoon, but if a sentence starts with he she or other person's name, then it ends with hai

Eg

Main aankhon se dekhtaa/dekhtee hooon

Anu Aunty aankho se dekhtee hai.

 

Culture

Topic was Food of India

Kids learnt about different food from different parts of India and how banana leaves and Pattal donas are also used along with plates to eat food.

They shared their favorite indian food with the class

 

Namaste!!

First of all i would like to thank Nikhil M's dad for helping us in the class.

Here is the class recap

Hindi language

We finally finished all the letters in  the hindi alphabet PHEWWWW.....

Split the class in 3 groups and revised the letters and reading words.

Hindi Conversation

The kids had to answer questions based on  the picture they saw

For eg. A picture of a plate with a spoon in it was shown.

The question asked was इस थाली में क्या है ? 

The child had to answer इस थाली में चम्मच है and so on.

Please practice basic questions with your child in hindi and encourage them to answer it in Hindi

 

Culture

The theme was Dances of India

The kids learnt about different dances of India like Kathhak, Bharatnatyam, Dandia, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Bhangra, kathakali dance.

For acitivity they made a kathakali mask.

 

 

 

Namaste!!

Here is the class recap

The kids played a game of Alphabet Bingo to review for the test. They all enjoyed it thoroughly. Please look for the Bingo sheet in their bag.

After the Bingo game, they took a test to see how many letters they remember and there was a dictation of words as well.

Please check your child's bag for the evaluation results.

Most of the kids did very good.

 

Today's theme was Holi.

They saw an animated story  of Prahalad and Holika and also how Holi is celebrated in India.

For activity, each child was given 2 poster board to hang in front and back of themselves and were given crayons. They had to go and run to other child wishing them Happy Holi and coloring their poster boards. The kids enjoyed playing Holi like this in the class.

Since we did the evaluation, there is NO homework for next week. If your child has not finished previous homeworks, this is the time to catch up on those sheets.

Namaste!!

Here is the class recap

The kids saw a demo of Bharatnatyam dance by Vidya Guhan and her students. Kids saw how the story of Lion and mouse can be interpreted thru a dance form. They also saw a Krishna leela.

 

The kids told the meaning of their name and tried to write it on the board in Hindi. They all enjoyed finding out the meaning of their classamtes name.

The kids learnt the concept of मेरा, मेरी, इसका, इसकी 

They learnt how the pronouns change the gender depending on the following noun. They also learnt that the color(adjective) also changes the gender based on the noun.

Eg. यह मेरी भूरी मुर्गी  है
यह मेरा भूरा घोडा है 

 Parents, please show up on the day that you have signed up for volunteering. It will definitely help the class if we have parents in the class, as we can divide the class in smaller groups and pay more individual attention. The volunteer list is

 as follows

10/11/09  Vedant
10/18/09    Dhruv
10/25/09   Nikhil G
11/1/09    Sneha
11/15/09  Anika
11/22/09  Archisha
12/6/09   Nikhil G
12/13/09  Ram Chowdhary
1/3/10  NO Parent
1/10/10  Archisha
1/17/10  NO Parent
1/24/09  NO Parent
1/31/10  Ram Chowdhary
2/7/10   Nikhil M
2/14/10  Sneha
2/28/10  Nikhil M
3/7/10  Kajal
3/14/10  Nikhil M
3/21/10  No Parent

3/28/10  No Parent
4/11/10 Anika
4/18/10 Nitisha
4/25/10 Nitisha
5/2/10 Varun
5/9/10  Varun
5/16/10  No Parent
5/23/10  No Parent
6/6/10  No Parent
 
 
 
 

Namaste,

Thank you to Nikhil's mom for helping us in the class.

Here is the recap

The kids learnt new letters य र ल व 

As we are coming to the end of learning all the letters, it is very important that they keep practicing all the letters with correct pronunciations.

The kids also played a game in which each child had to come to the front and make a word using the letters learnt so far to get a point for their team and if the child could make a word using 3 or more letters, they got a bonus point. I was very impressed by the word formation by the kids.

There is NO Gurukul class next Sunday Feb 14th in lieu of the mid term break and there IS a class on 21st Feb. (It is different on the calendar)

A CD of Hindi poems and other Hindi songs was given to each child. Please play the CD as often as possible(even if it drives you crazy :-) ) as it has some really good songs  If your child was absent, please let us know.

We discussed about the national symbols of India like national song, national animal, national bird etc.
We also had a power point presentation to kids about Republic day of India and how it is celebrated.
As a part of cultural art kids made our real National Flag.

Namaste

Thanks to Panchali's mom for helping us in the class.

Here is the recap

Hindi Language and conversation

The kids learned new letters प फ ब भ म 

We played a game of Hangman to guess the words.

New words learnt in the class so far without any matras

छत, आग, ऐनक, आम, आप, आठ, एक, चमक, नमक, उग, उठ,

उग, ख़त, ईख, बतख, चख, उन, जग

Please help your child read and understand these words.

During the cultural session we had a demo delivered by Leena Shah on Gujarat and folk dances of Gujarat. She explained about the significance of garba dance, about various folk dances of Gujarat and taught the students 3 clap garba dance. Also she displayed some costumes and few pieces of jewelry.

Cultural:
We had a discussion and power point presentation on Pongal/Sankranti/Lohri  celebration in India.
As a cultural art Kids made a kite and decorated it.

Thanks to all the parents for filling in the Gurukul Survey and if you have not please fill the survey as it will help Gurukul  a lot.

If you have not signed up for the PTC, please send us an email for a slot. The PTC schedule will be posted on the website.

Namaste

Happy New Year to all of you

Since we had less children in class and some of the teachers absent, we combined 2A and 2B.

We did revision of all that has been taught so far.

Please sign up for the parent teacher confernce for 17th and 24th Jan. The sign up sheet will be in the classroom on 10th Jan.Your child's mid term evaluation sheet will be emailed to you before the conference so that you can come prepared with your questions and concerns.

Each slot is 15 min. It is on first come first serve base.

Please fill in the attached survey for Gurukul.

We revised all the letters learnt so far with the help of flash cards

The kids learnt about time and different parts of the day.

They also played a game in which they had to guess what the object was and where it was hidden. They did very good.

 

Culture:
In the cultural session we discussed about Christmas day which has been celebrated in India as Bada Din. We showed a power point presentation to the children on how Christmas has been celebrated in India. As a part of cultural art kids made a ‘Christmas in India’ card.

Namaste,

A big thanks to Nikhil G's dad for helping us in the class.

Here is the recap

We revised all the letters learnt so far and the kids learnt the next 5 lettersत थ द ध न

The children learnt the concept of this and that in Hindi by playing a game with flash cards where they had to make a sentence with यह if the flash card was in their hand and with वह  if the flash card was away from them.

sea shell    shankh

plant         paudha

balloon      Gubbaraa

ball            Gend

Ship          Jahaaj

Next class 12/13 is the last Gurukul class before the holidays.

The evaluation sheets for the Hindi conversation evaluation was sent with your child. Please take a look at the sheet and let us know if you have any questions.

We discussed about the various types of traditional clothes worn in different parts of India.
As a part of cultural arts we dressed up man and woman puppet with various types of Indian dresses (Sari,Salwar Kameez,  Kurta, Lengha/Choli, Dhoti, Pajama, Lungi)

A very big thanks to Archisha's dad for helping us in the class.

As you all know we spent the hindi language and the conversation slot in assessing each child in their Hindi conversational skills. Most of the kids did very well. The scores ranged from 12.5-25 out of possible 25 marks. Thank you to all the parents for helping their child at home. We will be sending the details of the test with your child in the next class. Please take a look at the test and help your child with the areas that he/she might be struggling.

While the evaluation was going on, Priya didi and Archisha's dad played the mystery game, the cup ke neeche kaun hai game and read a book to the children.

 

Culture:
 We had a DEMO on 'Tanjore Painting'  by Shelly Krishnamurthy.  
 The artist, Mrs. Indumathi Krishnamurthy, is  Shelly Kirshnamurthy's Mother-in-law.
 Shelly Krishnamurthy gave us a Demonstration on her Mother-in-law's work. 
 This is  Gurukul's  introduction to Visual arts!

NO class next sunday.

 

Here is the recap of the class.

Firstly a big thanks to Anika's mom for helping us in the class.

We did a revision of the Hindi conversation lessons, taught so far to prepare them for the evaluation next sunday.

It was a little dissapointing to see some of the children struggling with the colors and the animals. Please please practice these things with your child at home.

For the  evaluation, please take a look at the Spoken Hindi lesson plans on the Gurukul website http://gurukul-wa.org/Parents/default.aspx and practice speaking in Hindi with your child. He/she should be able to form a basic Hindi sentence like yeh kutta hai. Yeh aadmi bhaagta hai.

Culture
We discussed about Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Birthday celebration which is called as Guru Nanak Jayanthi. As a part of cultural art we made Bhangra puppet.

 

A very big thanks to Sneha's mom for helping us in the class.

Here is the class recap

The kids got another chance to practice the dandiya steps with Priya and Kanika didi in preparation for the Gurukul Diwali function.

 

The kids took a test on vowels and letters from क to ञ. I will check the papers and send the corrected papers with your child by next Gurukul class.

They also learnt next few letters ट ठ ड ढ ण from the Hindi alphabet. Please help your child in recognizing and pronouncing these letters properly.

 

The kids listened to a story about Upar and Neeche and we played a mystery game in which each child got an opportunity to take out an object from the bag and give clues about it and the other kids guessed as to what it was using full sentences,

For eg, if the kid took out an aeroplane, he/she gave clues like

Yah udtaaa hai, yah vaahan hai,

The kids had to guess by asking Kyaa yah aeroplane hai??

All of them did really well and the all made complete sentences.

I will be sending the new words that they learn every week and hope that you can incorporate those words in your conversation at home.

 

There is no Gurukul Class on Nov 8th, because of Diwali function.

Date: 8th Nov. 2009
Location: Inglewood Jr. High, Sammamish
Time: 2:30 PM

Please dress in your colorful Indian outfits and don't forget to bring your Dandiyas.

Up                      Oopar

Down                 Neeche

Heavy                Bhaaree

Light                  Hulkaa

Vehicle              Vaahan

Aeroplane          Hawaaijahaaj

car                    Gaadee

Tree                  Ped

Animal              Jaanwar

Walk                Chalta

Run                 Bhaagtaa

Jump               Koodta

 

All the children will  be evaluated in the coming weeks on the spoken Hindi. They are expected to say complete sentences like Meraa naam __________ Hai

Yah aadmi khaataa hai/ Yah aurat chalti hai etc.

We will be going through all the material taught so far in the next class to prepare them for the evaluation.

Please practice at home as well.

Namaste!!

 

A big thanks to Nikhil G's mom for helping us in the class.

 

Here is what we did in the class

The kids did revision of all the letters and vowels learnt so far. Please practice with them. There will be a dictation next week.

 

The kids learnt about time and subah, dopahar, shaam, raat.

We played a game of Mr. fox what time is it but in this case, Mr. fox was Anushri Aunty  and the kids had to ask kitne baje hain. We also went through different tastes found in different food items.

 

The kids got a chance to go down to the cafeteria and learn basic Dandiya steps with Priya and Kanika didi to prepare for the gurukul Diwali function.

 

There will be a dictation of all the letters learnt so far.

If you want to learn dandiya steps, please feel free to join us next Sunday from 11-11:40 and if you have dandiyas please bring them along.

Thank you Dhruv's Mom, Anika's Mom and Kaajal's Mom for helping in the class.

Hindi Alphabets:
 Today we revised the letters च, छ, ज, झ.  We learnt to write the cursive way.  We kept our hands in front of our mouth and learnt that च & ज do not produce air and छ, & झ do send out a whoosh of air.  The words we came up with were:  <chamach, chanaa, chair, chocolate, chapati> , <chhatrii, chhole,chhata>,  <jahaaj, jacket, juice, jaal, jug> and <jharnaa, jhagadna>
Snack Story (Review of adjectives and animals): 

  We read the Ultaa-pultaa Jungle story from the Level 2 hindi book.  Please re-read it to your children and ask them questions after every couple of sentences to make sure they understood the adjectives and the animal names.  The entire story was "performed like dumb charades" and everyone understood it.   We had quite a few giggles.  
Nouns and Verbs in spoken Hindi:   We created two teams of nouns (billi, kutta, ladkaa, ladkii, kachuaa) and verbs (chalnaa, bhaagnaa, kudnaa, sonaa, khaanaa, padnaa) and we combined two children from different teams and created sentences.  We finally learnt how the same verb takes ends with an "ee" sound or and "aa" sound depending on the noun.
 
CULTURE
We discussed about Diwali - Festival of lights. Kids enjoyed the power point presentation on Diwali celebration.
They where shown Rangoli arts, diya decorations, firework pictures and taught why, who and how diwali is celebrated.
Kids eagerly shared about their celebration experience on Diwali day. And we decorated a candle holder as a part of cutural art.
 

Namaste!!

 

Thank you to Vedant's grandpa for helping us in the class.

Here is the class recap

The kids took a test on vowels. Please check your child's bag for the paper to see how they did on the assessment. Most of the kids got 4/7 correct. Please work with your child on the vowels if they need extra help.

the kids played a mystery game in which they had to guess the object in aunty's hand by the clues given to them

For eg. Yeh haraa hai. Yeh jaanwar hai. Yeh koodta hai.

The kids guessed yeh mendhak hai.

They seemed to have enjoyed the game.

Cultural
We had a demo of two Indian classical instruments, Sitar and Tabla. Pandit Debi Prasad Chatterjee played few english rymes and classical music. Kids enjoyed the music and asked some interesting questions.
For more information about Panditji visit www.dpcsitar.com  OR  www.debiprasadchatterjee.com

Namaste!!

A big thanks to Ananya's mom for helping us in the class.

Here is the class recap

The kids learnt the next five letters of the alphabets च छ ज झ ञ 

They also revised all the vowels and the alphabets learnt so far.

We again revised the noun gender using common verbs like bhaagtee/bhaagtaa, tairtaa/tairtee, gaataa/gaatee etc.

We discussed about 'Gandhi Jayanthi' and made the Monkey puppet depicting "Bura Na Suno, Bura Na Bolo , Bura Na Dekho".

10/11/09  Vedant

10/18/09    Dhruv

10/25/09   Nikhil G

11/1/09    Sneha

11/15/09  Anika

11/22/09  Archisha

12/6/09   Nikhil G

12/13/09  Ram Chowdhary

1/10/10  Archisha

1/31/10  Ram Chowdhary

2/7/10   Nikhil M

2/28/10  Nikhil M

3/7/10  Kajal

3/14/10  Nikhil M

3/21/10  Nikhil M

4/11/10 Anika

5/2/10 Varun

5/9/10  Varun