Hindi
Vyakaran Abhyas: p. 43 (complete the words)
Alphabet review: Half letters
Numbers: 1-40

Conversation
We practiced describing a family and action verbs. There is a new Parent's Corner page http://gurukul-wa.org/Parents/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx that has lesson plans as well as the chapter book for spoken Hindi. Our recommendation is to practice some of these with your child everyday for 15 min perhaps during dinner time. Repetition is the key.
Next week there will be a conversation assessment.

Culture
We watched the PBS documentary "The Story of India" and discussed the episode.

Vyakaran Abhyas:
p. 30: Match words with pictures
p. 32: Add ee maatra to form words

Numbers:
We practiced numbers till 40.

Alphabet bingo:
We played a round of alphabet bingo. The students won picture postcards of wild animals for being the first to complete a row, a column, or a diagonal.

We talked about the various traditional games and sports of India. The students were knowledgeable about many of the games and even demonstrated a few games like kho kho and kabaddi in the class. We also talked about some games that originated from India like chess, ludo and chaupar. At the end we briefly talked about the various spices and their English names in preparation for our upcoming classes on Indian food.

This week's culture class was exciting as we conducted a mock panchayat in class. The issue was that the young farmers in the village were approaching the panchayat for approval to use village funds to buy computers for the village. But the older generation are against the purchase.

The students were divided into three groups :
1) Panch - Simran, Rajan, Aashka, Siddharth and Anjali (appointed Sarpanch).
2) Vaadi (for the issue) - Aravind, Bharti, Aman, Surya, Saransh
3) Prativadi (against) - Ojasvi, Aarthi, Miti, Amol, Arjun

The 'vaadi' group argued that the computers will make them better informed. They said that the farmers will be able to sell their crops online and get better price, as also be able to bargain better.

The 'prativaadi' group had very strong views. They were of the opinion that the money can be used for the children. Also, they were worried that the youngsters would get too involved with computers and would not help out in the field. They also pointed out that no one knew how to repair computers and if anything goes wrong, it will be difficult to fix it.

The 'Panch' unanimously voted in favor of the 'prativaadi' group and voted against the computers. They said "You cannot have computers till we are alive, do what you want when you are the panch".

It was a lively debate. The students had a lot of fun and it was amazing to see the points they came up with.

We also had a brief discussion of the election process in India.

Hindi

Each student read aloud a few sentences from Vyakaran Abhyas, p.17. In vocabulary, each student mentioned the name of an edible: fruit, vegetable, sweets, etc. Then we went back to this list and discussed various shapes: round, long, big, small, etc.

Conversation

We practiced describing family, mother, father, siblings, etc.

Hindi

We began with an exercise matching words with pictures. Then we reviewed names of animals. Each student told the name of an animal and we made a list of wild and pet animals. Then we went over the list and discussed colors of the animals. Finally, we reviewed numbers till 35.

 

Conversation

We had the class divided into four groups. We started with simple sentences: describing things: yeh kitab hai, and progressed to more complex sentences, such as adding adjectives: yes nili kitab hai, and so on.

This week we introduced the form of government in India. We discussed the basic structure of the government (President, Prime Minister, Parliament). We did a comparison of the Indian and US Governments. We talked about the current and first presidents and prime ministers of India. We also introduced the Panchayat system of self governing.  Next week, we will be conducting a mock Panchayat in class and the children are already excited about it. We will also be talking more about the election process.

Namaste!

 

In Hindi, we started with an assessment to see where the students are. They were asked to write a few letters from the alphabet, some simple words, and numbers that were dictated. Except for a couple of students (we'll contact those parents separately), most students are ready, though all can benefit from practice and improve their recognition of sounds and writing of letters.

We started with fill-in-the-blanks exercise to review the alphabet, followed by alphabet bingo. The game proved popular as well as beneficial as some students' confusion with letters (for example, च / ज / ज्ञ) became apparent. Students who were first to complete a row, a column, or a diagonal received prizes such as bookmarks and stickers.
You might find the website hindibhasha.com helpful in reviewing letters, their sounds, and practice drills with your children at home.

 

In conversation the students introduced themselves (मेरा नाम ____ है.), asked questions (आपका नाम क्या है?). They also practiced simple sentences to describe things (यह कुर्सी है. वह कंप्यूटर है...) and asked questions (यह क्या है?, वह क्या है?). Please practice conversation at home. Even a few minutes of daily practice will make a lot of difference.

Namaste!

 

This week we briefly reviewed what the students had learned in the past year. We assessed their understanding of the national symbols and then talked briefly about the festivals in September. The hour was mainly spent in a lively discussion about what they liked and disliked about the Indian and American culture. The students had very clear opinions. Most of the kids pointed out that they liked the food, festivals and friendliness of the people in India. Dislikes were mainly centered around cleanliness and infrastructural issues. Safety, cleanliness and comparative lack of pressure were some of the points that were raised in favor of the Ameican culture. There were only few points of dislike for the American culture. All in all it was a good discussion and the students had a lot to contribute. We hope to see more of such discussions in the coming year.
 
We will be talking about Navratri next week. As an exercise, please help the students find out one fact about Navratri to share with the class.