Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by kids volunteer. 
Cultural:
Our session started with “Guitar” demo that lasted for about first hour of the class.
Hindi/Spoken:
Our class has covered all material for Level 1.  For rest of the year, we will be mainly focusing what we covered and using them in spoken Hindi.  During break, kids enjoyed watching a short story “two frogs” in Hindi. Later in the class, we practiced making sentences using action verbs.  We divided the class in 2 groups and played dumb charades.  Each group was led by a parent volunteer and I being the umpire. I gave each lead parent an action verb to act out and have their team will guess e.g. sleep – kids will guess Aunty soti hai.   We essentially covered all waking up/dinner/school scenarios.  Kids (and parents ) really got into this game.  Kids were engaged till end and wanted to get more involved and act out. Class really had fun and at times was difficult to control.  Most importantly, I noticed a couple of student who never speak in the class helped their team win points.  We probably use this technique again to encourage participation.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem led by kids volunteer.

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by kids volunteer. 
Hindi:
• Review of vowels (sound/writing) अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ऋ ओ औ
• Introduction of new vowels “अं अः” –. No trouble picking new vowels as they are relatively simpler to write. At this point, we have covered all vowels in the class and most material for Level 1.  Rest of the sessions will be review, spoken Hindi, and possibly stretch goals for the class.
Spoken
Every kid was given a chance to pick a vowel letter or an animal prop or an animal from a chart and say one sentence in Hindi about the animal.  It helped us review animals and reinforced making sentences in Hindi. 
Cultural:
Kids learned about animals of India.  It was good follow on the review of animals kids did during spoken session. In the cultural section, we talked about what animals are found in various states of India and what qualities are they known for. Kids also made a door knob hanger  for cultural activity.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem led by kids volunteer

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by kids volunteer. 
Hindi:
• Review of vowels (sound/writing) अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ . 
• Introduction of new vowels “ऋ ओ औ” – kids show great enthusiasm learning and writing Hindi vowels – they look forward to challenging writing letters. We had no problem keeping them engaged . ऋ  (ri) could be a bit challenging to write at first and once they know the trick and they can break the letter into small parts that makes it easier to grasp.  The way I taught them to write “one” and a small k in other direction, and a hanging hook and a small c on the right side..  Please use this source to help learn exact sounds of vowels covered.  This would help kids to associate sounds with English words.  For words, you can try English words that have these sound in it e.g. for ri (Kriti, Rishi, Dhriti, and son)
Spoken
We focused majority of the class in spoken session.  Our focus was to make sure every kid at least have one chance to come up in the front and speak a Hindi sentence
• Class played a game dividing into three teams - Kids were given a word on a chart e.g. hot, cold, small, large, long, short, on, off, beginning, light, dark and so on.  They had to make a sentence in Hindi using that word.
• We also used fruits props to simulate kids thinking to come up with small Hindi sentences using fruits in hindi.   
Cultural:
Kids learned about Lord Shiva and why we celebrate Shivaratri.  Cultural work today involved making “dhamrroo”, which was a bit involved.  We did not have enough time to finish in the class.  Some kids brought unfinished material to home.  If you are interested in finishing at home, Dhriti can send instructions to the parents.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem led by kids volunteer

Updates from last Sunday;
Reminder: No class this Sunday, 2/20 (Winter Break)  - class resumes 2/27
Class Site: Class 1C at Gurukul site
Session Review:  
Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by kids volunteer.  Hindi:
• Review of vowels अ आ इ ई . 
• Introduction of     Kids really enjoy writing more than listening to teachers.    could be a bit challenging to write at first and will need a bit more practice.  Please use this source to help learn exact sounds of vowels covered.  This would help kids to associate sounds with English words and makes easier for them to remember rather than using with Hindi words unless they are already familia with it.  E.g. use Ullu (Owl) and OOth (Camel) for  , instead of OOn (Yarn)

Session Review:  
Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by kids volunteer.  Since we started Gurukul class, one important change we observed in most kids is that they all want to volunteer and and lead class.  This is a big accomplishment for kids and us!
Hindi:
• Review of vowels ‘a’ and ‘aa’ and introduction of ‘e’ and ‘ee’.  For some reason, all kids really enjoy writing part and take pride in coming up in front and writing on board so we did not have any trouble motivating kids to write Hindi vowels.
Cultural:
In the cultural section, kids learned about the National symbols of India.  It was a fun exercise for kids, where kids played guessing game trying to come up with national symbols.  I don’t think they would have any trouble remembering those.  Later in the class today, kids used the same symbols to make a small book. 
Spoken
We are still struggling with improvising on spoken skills and this is where we want to focus more rest of the year.  We could really use parents help at home.  If only one thing you need to focus, this would be it.  We took on dinner scenario and each kid were given an opportunity to come up front and say a complete sentence in Hindi related to dinner – to eat, to drink and so on. They were provided help as needed but most could make short sentences like “Mein Khata hoon”.  Also we also emphasized on the difference between making sentences for different gender e.g “Khata” for boy and “Khati” for girl.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem led by kids volunteer

Ran by parents volunteer
Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer  led by kids volunteer – Shruti, Dharshini, and Zubin. 
Hindi/Spoken:
• Review of vegetables/fruits/tastes of food
• Story reading from book
• During break kids watched Panchantantra stories
Cultural:
In the cultural section, kids made a kit, and colored and decorated it with stickers.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem.

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer  followed by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Saamya and Siddharth) speech. 
Cultural:
We started the day with Republic Day Demo in observance of Jan 26th republic day.  Kids took their Flag craft creations to the presentations to create the ambiance and mood for Republic Day.  Our 1hr demo schedule was as below.  I captured a 3 pictures from my mobile from the demo to share with parents – you can find them at class 1c site – in pictures library here
• Welcome of the Chief Guest
• Homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
• Flag Hoisting
• National Anthem
• Skit Presentation by the Youth Board on Republic Day
• Beating Retreat Presentation
• National Anthem
• Releasing of the Balloons as ending ceremony
Celebration was followed by distribution of some goodies.
Hindi/Spoken:
• Introduction of directions in Hindi (pg. 45) and revision of ‘a’ and ‘aa’ vowels:  It is a bit challenging for kids to remember Hindi translation to these 4 words. So, we spent most of the Hindi class reiterating directions in Hindi through a game, where each kid had a chance to come up to the board and write Hindi vowel ‘a’ and ‘aa’ in a direction (in Hindi0 told by teacher.  Kids really enjoy practicing Hindi writing and I can’t remember any kid who had trouble writing ‘a’/’aa’.
• Class also enjoyed a short story about a ‘a greedy dog’.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem.

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer  led by our kids volunteer.  No vishesh vidharthi speech was scheduled for today. 
Hindi/Spoken:
• Assessment, followed by review of assessment questions
• Kids watched 2 short Hindi stories
Cultural:
Kids learned about the festival of Makar Sankranti, why it is celebrated and by what name it is celebrated  in different parts of India .
In South, festival of harvest is known as Pongal , in central India it is known as Makar Sankranti and in North part of India it is known as Lohri .

For activity Kids finished crossword puzzle . The words in the puzzle were based on the terms related to Republic Day.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer  led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Ashwika and Rimjhim). Good job and thanks to parents for making this extra efforts.  All kids really had a great show saying prayers and National Anthem mostly on their own.
Hindi
•         Poem – “Chote Choote Paav (Page 72)” –  to build kids vocabulary on use of Body Parts and helped review body parts that they learnt in the past class
•         Learnt four seasons in Hindi.
• Introduced Hindi Vowels – Kids learnt writing two vowels:  a (for ‘anaar’ and aa/A (for aam)) – Kids really enjoyed this exercise and very enthusiastic about coming up front and practice on board. 
Spoken: Divided in 3 groups led by parent volunteer and teacher
• Went in circle where we all introduced ourselves and  then talked about color of their clothes, what they ate, how it tasted, and picking 1 body part what is it used for
Cultural
• Practiced how the cultural questions would be presented for evaluation next week (in the form of multiple choice questions)
• Learned why Jan 26th Republic day is celebrated
• Kids made and colored Indian flags (it was collected back by teachers post class by teachers as we will need them for Jan 26th celebration)
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer. 
Hindi
•         Review of last week topic – Days of the week.  It was really interesting to learn how Kids use creative way to remember days of the week
•         Introduced Tastes of Food
Spoken and Culural Combined:
• Show and Tell by Kid – each kid spoke a few lines about food they brought to the holiday party, followed by fun small holiday party.  It was fun for both kids and adults.
• Learned about Indian food from different parts of the country
• Cultural – performed 2 activities: decoration of ginger bread cookie and arranged Indian food on Thai (cut and paste food pictures on a leaf shaped plate)
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer.  Rhea was absent today.  So we had a single star student presentation by Zubin.  Shruti also volunteered to lead the morning prayer.  It is really great to see many more kids show excitement to stand up and speak in front of class.
Hindi
• Review of last week topic - Birds
• Covered fruits and vegetables in Hindi.  Few were easy as kids were familiar, but many words were still new in their vocabulary.
• Kids enjoyed 2 short stories in Hindi Crow and Sparrow  and Cap Seller –  during break time.  After each story, I quizzed kids and have 1 kid come in front and narrate the story.  Both kids did fantastic job!  It build my confidence that they are comprehending Hindi well.
Spoken Hindi:
If there is one area we need to focus more is this one.  I still see kids struggling making short sentences even though they remember individual words in vocabulary and shy away from talking.  We need parents help here!! Please try to converse with kids in Hindi as much as you can.  Even if they don’t speak, they absorb  words. 
• We divided class in 3 smaller groups – each group led by parent volunteer, youth volunteer, and me.  We used flash cards and asked kids to make sentences.  Kids still struggle in this session.
Cultural:
• Today’s topic was Guru Nanak Jayathi – why we

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Arjun and Maya). AWESOME presentation by both kids! Kudos to parents for their efforts.
Hindi & Spoken Hindi Combined
• Kids went in circle and talked about their dresses color they are wearing and spoke the sentences they wrote in Hindi for their last week’s assignment
• Kids who did not have their sentences completed were given a bird name in Hindi and come up with sentence and speak in the class.  This helped us introduce Birds’ names in Hindi
• Kids enjoyed a short movie on Ed Chidiya during break time (a popular hindi story shown on Indian TV) - (this helped us introduce concepts of Ek-Anek, power of team work, and few names in Hindi)
Cultural:
• Kids were told story why we celebrate diwali, how we celebrate diwali, and for the craft work decorated diyas on a plate.
• Enjoy kids pictures on the class site holding proudly their diya creations.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Dharshini and Nandini). Appreciate parents help getting these kids ready for their presentation. It takes time and efforts but it shows when they start talking.  It is not always trivial especially when parents native language is not Hindi.  I would like to recognize Dharshini parents for their special efforts.  Thanks much. 
Also, we had much better participation from kids saying their morning prayers. I could tell the difference from the last time, now they started to remember most of it.  Thanks to all parents for helping kids learning their routine. Keep up!!  We and you all (parents, students, teachers, school)  are taking this big step of making a commitment of investing our personal time.  That’s a BIG commitment so let’s take advantage of it.  You send your kids to learn Hindi and about India culture and if you already made such a big commitment  Isn’t it? It is really commendable how many parents are keeping this commitment.  Let us go that last mile and do those small things that would make everyone’s time investment worthwhile and it does make a big difference!!!
About our class review, we had a bit different routine than usual.
Cultural:
Commenced class today with Kathak Dance Demo (40mins) by Antara Datta and Team. We took kids to the cafeteria area after the morning prayer.  Kathak is a very well-known classical Indian dance form from Northern India. Brief Introduction of Antara Datta:is included at the end of this mail below.

Spoken Hindi:. Reviewed numbers 1-20 and each kid had a chance to talk about what color clothes they are wearing making full sentences : Maine x and y rang ke kapde phene hai!
Hindi:
• Story time (Haathi Ki Mithratha (Elephant’s friendship) ): Revision of animals and story comprehension. Kids watched a short movie in Hindi that had many wild animals in the story. Kids were asked to repeat story and quizzed about story to evaluate their understanding. They all did fairly well.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem
-----

Antara Datta started learning Kathak at the age of five from Laxmi Bannerjee in Kolkata, India. She earned her degree in Kathak from Bangiya Sangeet Parishad in Kolkata. She started specializing in the Lucknow gharana style of Kathak in 2004 under the tender care of Kiran Chauhan (a senior disciple of Pandit Birju Maharaj ), who is currently a visiting faculty at the Anila Sinha Foundation in Chicago. In addition, Antara currently receives intensive training from Sringarmani Srimati Anuradha Nag (another senior disciple of Pandit Birju Maharaj), artistic director of the Tarangini School of dance in San Jose, California.  At present, Antara Datta holds an adjunct faculty position in the Cornish College of Arts, Seattle, WA.  She also started her own Kathak school “Anga Kala Kathak Academy” in the Puget Sound area in 2010. Antara believes that learning a classical Indian dance form such as Kathak is a lifelong endeavor. She relentlessly strives to perfect herself. She has attended workshops by the legendary gurus Pandit Birju Maharaj and Kumudini Lakhia.
 website: www.antaradatta.com
 
First performance - (1) Guru Vandana ( a salutation to the Guru, the Guru is compared to the three Hindu Gods of Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar)
                               (2) Technical item - Teentaal (16 beats). Demonstration of short compositions in Taal Teental.
                               (3) Bhajan - composed by poet Bindadin Maharaj. Will depict the stories of Prahlad, Ahalya and Govardhan
                               (4)Tarana in taal teentaal
 
Second performance1) Guru Vandana ( a salutation to the Guru, the Guru is compared to the three Hindu Gods of Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar)
                               (2) Technical item - Jhaptaal(10 beats). Demonstration of short compositions in Taal Jhaptaal                              
                               (3) Thumri - Will depict Krishna and Radha playing Holi - a very significant item in Hindu mythology
                               (4)Tarana in taal teentaal
 
Antara Datta
http://www.antaradatta.com/
Ph.# (425)502-9636 Home
(425)463-7235 Cell

 

 

 

 

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Divya and Shreya). Divya and Shreya did an AWESOME job today with their speech.  Kudos to their parents for raising the bar higher.  Both kids speak very fluently like native speakers without any help.  Thanks much, parents!
Hindi:
• Introduction of Wild Animals: Through “guess the animal” game and review of color through animals
• Review of numbers 1-20 and Domestic Animals – Reviewed domestic animal through “guess the animal” game followed by numbers review on board
• Indradhanush poem – to review numbers, colors, and body parts
Spoken Hindi: Kids divided in 3 small groups lead by parent volunteer and teachers. Used flash cards to build vocabulary where each kid will be given a flash card and he/she need to say a sentence about the card.
Cultural:
Kids decorated Dhandia in preparation of Diwali celebration.

Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: “Om”, “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Kavya and Shreyash) and their speech about themselves.
Hindi:
• Introduction of Domestic Animals: Played “guess the animal” game where a kids will go on the thinking chair and give clues about the animal in Hindi and their team has to guess “animal” name – a fun game for teachers and the class!
• Review of numbers 1-20 – Each kid say the next number in sequence and we went in circles a couple of times.  Also reviewed number on board, like in typical class fashion  where kids need to tell the number on board in Hindi.
Spoken Hindi: Kids divided in 3 small groups lead by parent volunteer and teachers. Simple sentences – have kids say “yeh xxx hai”, ‘veha xxx hai” – while having them say sentences, introduce new verbs in vocabulary.
Cultural:
Kids went to Cafetaria to practice/learn playing Dhandia in preparation of Diwali celebration.

Activity portion included about talking about Rangoli and coloring Rangoli patterns on paper in colors.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

Today was mainly our review week for whatever we learn in the past month
Morning Routine: “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our 2 little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Srivanth and Yashvi) followed by their Hindi presentation about their family members
Hindi:
• Story telling: Story about “A Chatur chidia (a clever bird) – small story about how bird saves herself when she is in trouble  – Kids really enjoyed story and comprehended – a couple of students retold the story back to class.
• Review of colors through a “Mystery Bag” and vocabulary building  A mystery bag full of random objects where each kid was asked to pick an object and tell color and object in Hindi e.g. hara ped (Green tree) 
• Review of numbers 1-15 and body parts (introduction to 20).  Class played game of counting colorful eggs in Hindi and touching egg to one of random body parts as prompted by another kid in their team
Spoken Hindi: Today we worked on building vocabulary/using verbs in sentences by playing dumb charades where kids will come and act out something e.g. run  and the other kids guess “xxx Bhagti hai”
Cultural:
We talked about Durga and told story about Ravana – How Ram won over Ravana? Why do we celebrate Dusshera?  What was Hanumaanji role?

Later we had a small activity where kids made a small puppet of Ravana.
Finally, class concluded with National Anthem

 

Morning Routine: OM chanting , “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer led by our  first 2 first little Vishesh Vidhyarthis (Shruti and Aryan) followed by their beautiful speech. Thanks to kids and their parents for stepping up.
Hindi:
• Review of colors through a game “Guess the fruit/vegetable color” game.  We presented few plastic fruits/vegs for kids to revise color and build up vocabulary for veg/fruits. Kids did excellent!
• Introduction of numbers 1-10 (for advanced kids upto 15).  Divided kids in 2 groups
o Played “x monkey jumping on the bed” and Ek fell down and “x” left
o Number chain – all kids sitting in circle and saying loud the next numbers on their turn.  Kids just loved this game, it got pretty competitive as kids started to get out if they forgot the number 
Spoken Hindi: Worked in 3 small groups in circles based on their Hindi exposure (beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).
• Review of Introduction
"Namaste, Mera naam ...... hai. Apaka naam kya hai?”
• Vocabulary building:  'Yeh - Woh ' and Haa - Nahi words and review of colors and introduction of few animals in Hindi - Haathi.  “Question Answer Drill' using these words, using props like color cups and foam animals..
Example - "Yeh hara rang hai , Woh peela hai hai "  “haa ki naa?”  and so on..
Cultural:
We talked about Mahatma Gandhi today through presentation and videos. Oct 2nd is Gandhiji's birthday. He was also known as "Bapu" (father of India). It was surprising to see that many kids knew about him and contributed to the discussion today.  Gandhiji was known for his diplomatic non-violence approach to India's Freedom. He taught and helped poor people how to make cloth from cotton and also salt from sea water as those things were really expensive at that time.

His famous gesture is the description of "Teen Bandar" (three monkeys).

1. Bura na Dekho (don't see bad)
2. Bura na Suno (don't hear bad)
3. Bura na Bolo (don't speak bad)

We then did a little activity in which kids make Gandhi stick by cutting a photo of Gandhiji and his famour "Loongi" (white cotton cloth pants) and sticking them on to a stick and then putting a magnet on the stick. Please do review the significance of Gandhiji in Indian History as he is one of the most famous person from India.
Concluded with National Anthem

Morning Routine: OM chanting followed by “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer
Hindi:
• Review of last week’s body parts through a game “body part” guessing where each kid in a team will think of a body part by giving clues and other teams would have to guess
• Introduction of Colors (Rang) – most kids knew colors pretty well and did not have trouble adding more to their vocabulary

 

Lal - Red , Peela - Yellow, Neela - Blue, Hara - Green, Kesari/Narangi - orange, Kala - Black , Safet - White, Bhura - Brown
Halka - light for example - Halka Hara - light green, Halka lal - Light red

• Learned colors by picking out beads of the right color
Spoken Hindi:
• Divided in 3 small groups in circles based on their Hindi exposure (beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).
• Went in circle starting with telling their name & asking other kids his/her name.  All different circles were led by teachers and volunteers.  Overall theme was around introducing new words

"Namaste, Mera naam ...... hai. Apaka naam kya hai?”
Reemphasized colors – going in circles – maine <x rang> ke kapade pehne hai!
Played Simon says game – asking color – Simon says find Neela or so on,
Will repeat ” Haan” or “Na” words
Cultural:
• Talked about Rakhi/Raksha Bandhan and Eid.
Eid: It is a three day festival celebrated my Muslims.
Raksha Bandhan: It is a festival to express love between brothers and sisters.

Please see more detailed description of the two festivals on our class website and if possible review the significance of these two festivals of India with your kids.
• Activity: Kids made Lantern (Fanoo) for Eid and Rakhi for Eid: It is a three day festival celebrated my Muslims. Eid, the celebration of breaking the fast, marks the end of Ramadan (considered the holiest month in Islamic calender) on the new moon day. People fast from dawn to dusk and eat only before and after sunrise and sunset.

Everyone goes for special prayer in the morning and then celebrate the whole day. People hug each other by saying "Eid Mubarak" to each other. Kids get Eidi which could be gifts and money from adults.

Raksha Bandhan which means bond of protection is a festival to express the love between brothers and sisters. It is also known as Rakhi in which the sisters tie decorated thread known as Rakhis on the wrist of their brothers. Everyone then eat sweets and brothers give their sisters gifts or money as a token of their love.

 

• Morning OM chanting followed by “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer
• Review of family members’ names – great participation in the game activity
• Introduction of body party in Hindi thorugh poem (Sir, Kandhe, Ghutne, paanv (head shoulder knees and toes)
• Ganesh Chaturthi celebration – history why we celebrate, short videos on celebration in Mumbai, followed by aarti/visarjan (in a mug) and distribution of Prasad, and coloring Lord Ganesha
• Finished with National Anthem

• Morning OM chanting following by “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer
• Icebreaker; Kids shared summer experiences and get to know their class friends
• Learnt family member names in Hindi
• Enjoyed story time – how India was named Bharat and discovered India on Map.
• Finished with National Anthem