Namaste Parents,
 
This is our last class before the Annual Day. I hope kids have enjoyed coming to Gurukul , learning Hindi and they had good time in Gurukul.
 
Today we had Hindi + culture and spoken Hindi test. The testing went well.  After the snack break we had a practice for Annual Day program
Kids got their props that they will be using on Annual Day. They are half done. Kids have to write the assigned Hindi letter on the foam sheet at home. The letter should be big in size and kids can decorate it the way they want.

Kids have created a funny story during one of the classes. They thought of a Hindi sentence about weird Jungle animals on their own . We put all the sentences together and the output is a funny, topsy turvey story. On Annual Day they will be reading this story. Please ask your child to go through his/her sentence at home. This will help make the pronunciation clear and fluent.
 

Hindi:
Kids were given a worksheet to solve in the classroom. The questions were based on the vowels and consonants we have learnt so far in the class. Pl have a look at it.
 
Spoken Hindi: We practised Swar Tarang poem's lines in the class as an annual day preparation.
 
Culture:  Kids actively participated for Indian Icon day. We had three Chacha Nehru , 3 Zansi ki Rani , Bhagat singh, Sachin Tendulkar etc as Indian icons in our class. They talked about these historic / famous personalities.
 

Hindi:
Revision of vowels and previously learnt consonants.
Introduction of new letters - न (N) ग (G) स (S)  च (Ch)
Kids listed so many words that they know starting with these letters.
 
Spoken Hindi: No spoken HIndi session. We practised few things for Annual Day.
 
Culture: Kids were received chocolates from Gurukul's youth board for dressing up in India's flag colors. Almost all of them were wearing clothes having indian flag colors .
We had a demo of flute playing (Bansuri) by Seattle's famous Bansuri artist Satyajit Limaye with his students. They together played few Ragas and songs on different flutes and also answered to kids questions .

 

Namaste Parents,

We are coming to an exciting end for the Gurukul 2010-2011 year in 4 weeks. We had a lot of fun teaching your kids. Here is the review for today's class.

 

Class started with Tumhi Ho Mata Prayer. We practiced Swar Tarang poem in the class. Kids practiced both the common lines and their individual lines. Then we sang Lakdi ki Kathi song with some actions.

Rest of the class time was spent in review of the material covered in the class. The class was divided into three teams and each team were asked questions. Questions consists like name five animals in hindi, colors, birds, numbers, body parts etc. Kids had fun answering the questions as each right answer had a point for their team.

We concluded with National Anthem.

 

Today is the last class of Hindi. I hope kids have enjoyed learning Hindi in Gurukul. Next Sunday we will be having annual evaluation and on June 5th we will be celebrating Annual day. Here is a review of today's class -
 
We finished  the remaining last chapter in the binder - (page # 65) - Vocabulary for houses and buildings (Ghar aur Imarat).
We had a revision of all the chapters. Also had a brief revision of culture class
 
We had a practice for Annual Day program. Kids are on the right track ...just a little more practice at home will make our program successful.

Kids are really excited about their participation in the spirit month. Here is last Sunday's review.
 
Hindi:
Revision of previously learnt alphabets and sight words
- vowels from अ  to  अ:  
- consonants - क, म, य, र, व
- sight words -  यह, वह, है, मेरा
 
Introduction of a new letter - प (pa)
Kids listed so many words starting with letter प. Pl practise these letters and sight words at home too.

 

Spoken Hindi : We practised a Hindi song in the class.
 
Culture:  Since this Sunday was Indian sports day in Gurukul and weather was ok we took the kids outside the grass to play some Indian games. We played Lagori (kind of similar to dodgeball),
kho kho and Langadi (Tag the runners walking on one leg). Kids enjoyed these games very much.
After the snack break we asked the kids to come forward and talk about the sports dress they were wearing and tell their favorite player's name who plays that sports. Kids actively participated in this and were very eager to show the sports stuff they brought.
We had carrom board , hockey stick , soccer ball , cricket bat ball and other accessories to show . We also had some of these Indian players in the class - Dhoni , Sania Mirza , Baichung Bhutiya, Chhetri etc .

Namaste Parents,
I hope you had a wonderful spring break and all of you had enjoyed India's Victory in the World Cup Cricket Championship 2011.
 
Here is this Sunday's review -
 
Hindi:  

Revision of Hindi vowels and previously learnt consonants - क म य ह
New letters - व र  - we listed many words starting with these letters.
Sight words - यह,  वह, मेरा,  है 
 
Spoken Hindi:
We played Simon Says game using Hindi action words and giving commands in Hindi.
 
Culture:
We had a true spirited class for this Sunday's theme - Regional dress day. Most of the kids beautifully dressed up in their ethnic native costumes. Kids were asked to come forward and talk about their dresses in Hindi. All of them were given small treat for dressing up so beautifully. Later they all had fun dancing on the bollywood songs. After this they did a coloring activity too. We had a class picture and other pictures taken.

 

 

- Revision of few Opposite words.
- Revision of Hindi vowels.
- Introduction of few consonants - क म य ह - Kids learnt how to read and write these consonants.
- We listed several words that start with the above consonants.
- Introduction of sight words - यह (yeh - this) and  है (hai - is). Learning sight words makes reading process easy. Kids learnt how to read these words. Later we put pictures of different objects in between यह and है and kids read the whole sentence. e.g. यह (picture of apple/ mango/ ladkii ) है and kids read - yeh seb hai , yeh aam hai, yeh ladki hai etc. You can also try this at home.
 
Spoken Hindi:
Review by Ruchi:  We had students practise some basic question and answer skills ( what is your mom's name, what color do you like, etc ) and revised nouns and verbs learned though the year. The aim was to do the questions answers without reverting back to english at any point.

The question sheet is the homework for this week. Please practice these questions with your childern.
 
Culture:
Priyanka and Jinesh talked about different Dances of India -
Classical dances like kathak , kuchipudi, bharatnatyam, kathakali etc and folk dances like Garba, Dandiya, Bhangara  etc.
Jinesh showed the kids the videos of the glimpses of these dances from Internet.
Later Kids were given Kathakali face pictures to make Kathakali Masks. They have to color the face and attach elastic to it to make a mask. Some of them couldn't finish it in the class, they will do this activity at home.

 

We had a very enthusiastic Sunday. Here is a review .
 
Hindi :
Revision of all the Vowels .
Kids were asked to identify the randomly written vowels and were also asked to identify the sound of the first letter in a word that starts with vowel.
After this kids were asked to identify the sound of the first letter in their names.
e.g. Manan has fisrt sound as म (ma), Tanisha has first sound as त (ta) , vivek has first sound as व (va) in his name.
Kids found this a bit confusing initially but later they got what to say after hearing the answers by first few kids .
Kids can practice this at home too - Give several familiar or unfamiliar words to your kid and ask him / her to identify the sound of first letter (consonant or vowel) in that word.
 
We also had revision of Feeling words . Later we learnt opposite words in Hindi like chhotaa Badaa , kaalaa safet, upar Neeche , motaa, patalaa etc.
Many kids already knew these simple opposite words . Kids were given a worksheet based on feelings words and opposite words as a class activity .
They have to finish this activity at home if they didn't finish in the class.
 
Spoken Hindi :
Our New volunteer Ruchi got several pictures on school scenario. Kids were divided into 4 groups so that they would get one on one attention.
They were shown pictures about typical school day and were asked to describe the pictures in Hindi.
They were also introduced how to give command in Hindi. e.g. Bhagnaa (to run) : आप भागिए (Aap bhaagie) - (you) run ,

आप उठिये, आप कीजिये
 
Culture:
We had  holi celebration in our class. Jinesh showed the kids a song on Holi and some other images that show how holi is celebrated in India. Kids were then given the activity in which they had the blank paper sheet around their neck and had to color each others pages, signifying holi. Some kids loved this while some did not :).
While kids were doing the activity story of Prahlad was shared.

We had a Guitar demo performed by Arun and his student Vishnu. They played few nursery rhymes, Om jay Jagdish bhajan, rock music , a song from bollywood movie etc. Kids enjoyed all the songs.  The demo was in the first half for one hour.
 
Hindi: We have completed all the vowels in Varnamala (from अ  to अ:). This Sunday we had its revision.
Next to next Sunday kids will have a test on vowels (writing , pronunciation , identifying the first sound in a word that starts with a vowel.)
 
Spoken Hindi:

Ruchi and Jinesh had the students sing a song 'Lakdi ki kathi' (kids' song from film Masoom) and learn all the nouns and action words in the first paragraph. We would like to encourage parents to show the kids the song again at home and help them revise the words.
The song is available on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi4ugh4WG-g&playnext=1&list=PL344ED2DCE3CE32BC
Kids loved the song ...watching , singing and enacting it.
 
One of the teams from last time story creation time recited their story about an 'ulta pulta jungle'. We will have other groups recite their stories in the next classes.
Students also recieved their spoken hindi homework 4.

 

Culture: Since we had a demo we didn't have any cultural activity in the classroom.

Hindi:

1) Introduction of last two vowels अं (Ang- Angoor or Am - Ambar)  and अ: (Aha)
2) Revision of the vowels
3) Feeling words - Bhavnaae . Kids were introduced different feeling words like - Khush (Happy) , Udaas (Sad) , Gussa (Angry) , Chintit (worried)...etc
 
Spoken Hindi:   Review by Ruchi -

In the last class we introduced words related to sleeping and waking up rituals. We worked on incorporating words like sona, palang, bistar, uthana, snan karana, sabun, toliya, pochhana into the conversation. In addition we added a new homework sheet for this week which focusses on action verbs learned in the last few classes. Please practice these with the kids.
In addition we spent some time on creating a story within groups (Janwar group, Phal aur Sabzi group, Chhuttiya group and Khel group) that we are going to ask the students to recite in front of the class in 2 weeks.  We will practice the story in the next two weeks in class to provide each child with the opportunity to practice their spoken hindi skills.

Culture:  Jinesh had a very nice activity for kids in culture session. Kids were given door hangers, some pictures of animals and English alphabet stickers to decorate their door hangers.
 

Hindi:
Revision of previously learnt vowels,
Introduction of next vowels after ऋ  (ri) - ए (e - as in elephant)  ऐ (ai)  ओ (O)  औ (au or ou),
words starting with these vowels
 
Kids were asked to practise the vowels by writing them 5 times each in their notebook . Later each of them came forward and wrote the vowels on the board.
 
For correct pronunciation of vowels you may refer this site - http://www.anu.edu.au/asianstudies/hindi/alphabet/vowels.html

Spoken Hindi: 
Kids were asked questions about dinner scenario in Hindi ..aap ratko khaanaa kab khaate ho, khaanese pahale kyaa karte ho, kyaa khaate ho, maa kyaa pakati etc.  They were also introduced few new action words - pakaanaa , khaanaa , haat dhonaa, daat saaf karnaa etc.
 
Culture:
Mahashivratri, the Great Night of Lord Shiva was on the corner. And hence we had "Mahashivratri " lesson for culture session. Jinesh showed a very good short animated movie about Lord Shiva from youtube. Kids were very eager to see the movie . And they liked it very much. All our chatterboxes sat very quiet without being told while watching the movie.
 
The Kids who were absent can watch this movie at home - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOrLaFUXMCE .

For craft activity kids made Damru , Shiva's small drum using two small plastic cups stuck together like hourglass , covered the open ends with brown paper and by wrapping  twine around it. For the sound small round dried beans  were placed inside the cups. Kids enjoyed this activity. It was something new for them. 

Hindi:
We started Hindi session in the next half of the class because of the demo.
Kids revised first 4 vowels and learnt next 3 vowels - उ ऊ ऋ. Kids were asked to tell some Hindi words starting with these letters
and they came up with - Uloo, udhar, uthana, unt, oon, Rishi, Rin etc
 
For correct pronunciation of vowels you may refer this site - http://www.anu.edu.au/asianstudies/hindi/alphabet/vowels.html
 
Spoken Hindi:
Kids were introduced how to tell time in Hindi - Kitane baje?
We used toy clocks with hour and minute hand. We discussed about kids' schedule on a week day - aap kitanje baje uthate ho , kitane baje sote ho? etc
 
Culture:
There was a demo of musical instruments.

It was performed by our own Gurukul students along with their Gurus Mr.  Albright (Tabla player) and Ms Anjali Joshi (keyboard and other instruments).

 

 

Revision of Directions and Seasons

Introduction of first 4 letters in Hindi Varnamala

Practice of writing of the letters.

Words starting with these letters.

 

Spoken Hindi: MAking one sentence in Hindi by seeing a picture.

 

Culture: Information of India's National Emblmes and symbols, National Anthem and song. Kids were given pictures of National symbols. They colored them , cut them and made a book with those pictures.

 

Our PTC went very well. Thanks for coming and talking to us .
 
Hindi : Parent volunteers taught Dishaaye (directions ) - Uttar Dakshin Purab n Pachhim and Mousam (Seasons) - Basant, garmi, patazar and Sardi.
 
Spoken Hindi : Parent Volunteers read 3 different stories in 3 groups of kids
 
Culture:  We didn't have any culture learning.  Kids played Hindi Bingo game. They enjoyed it even though they don't know any Hindi alphabet yet.

 

We also had a survey in the class about Kids' Gurukul experience so far. And the answers are amazing and show that the kids really enjoy coming to Gurukul.

Namaste Parents,
 
Hindi:
Today we had the assessment in the class. They were helped in reading and understanding the questions.  Parents will get to see their answer sheets on Parent teacher's conference day.

Spoken Hindi:
We played Dumb Charades game for practicing Action verbs in Hindi. The volunteer kid did the action by reading the action word in English.

Other kids told what that action is called in Hindi.

For example : action of Running - Bhaaganaa, Action of eating - Khaanaa etc .

 

Culture : Jinesh talked about the festival of Makar Sankranti. He told the kids how it is celebrated and by what name it is celebrated  in differnt 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 .
Kids also talked about Republic Day of India.
For activity they finished crossword puzzle . The words in the puzzle were based on the terms related to Republic Day.

 

 

Hindi: 
we revised all the vocabulary words from the topics which are to be prepared for the test.
 
Culture : Jinesh gave lot of information on India's Republic Day - When and why it is celebrated , How it is celebrated etc.
He also showed the children some good short videos of Republic day parade in Delhi , bravery award ceremony , President addressing  to the nation etc.
Later children were given plain canvas flags to color. They were collected back from the children for furthur activity to be done next time.
 

Hindi Review :

We revised last week's topic - Swaad (Tastes). I asked kids to tell swaad for different food items.
We also solved riddles based on the topic - Birds
Due to less attendance I didn't start any new topic. We revised almost all the topics that kids have learnt so far.

Hindi Review :
 
I asked kids to solve the riddles based on vegetables and fruits. They enjoyed solving the riddles. Some of the kids prepared very well.
Later we revised Saptah ke Din. I introduced them 2 new words 'Kal' (yesterday and tomorrow) and 'parso' (day after tomorrow).
After this we learnt differnt tastes (Swaad) in Hindi.
Kadva - bitter , Mithha - Sweet , Namkin - Salty , Khatta- Sour , Tikhaa - spicy , Hot - Garam , cold - thhandaa.
 
 Spoken Hindi - We Divided kids into 3 groups. We had discussions on various topics in Hindi in each group.

Culture Review :
  :
We talked about the significance of Christmas (which was on every kids mind anyway :)) and also talked about what we do on Christmas. In India Christmas day is also known as "Bada Din". Then we all sang jingle bells together.

In activity, kids made paper christmas trees and decorated the tree with stars, lights and ornament stickers.

Hindi Review  : 
We revised fruit names and asked the children to tell in hindi what their favorite fruit is. Later we learnt Hindi names for lot of vegetables. We recited a Hindi poem based on vegetable names - "Aloo bola muzako khalo." Many kids loved the poem. They tried to memorize it and said it loudly in front of the class.
Please remember - Repetition is the key - so please ask your child to revise these new words at home.
While cooking or having meal together you can ask your child to tell Hindi names of the vegetables being used in your meal.
 
Spoken Hindi :
We had Hindi conversation in 3 groups on different topics. Kids tried to talk in Hindi as much as possible.

Culture Review  :
In culture we talked about Guru Nanak Devji and his Jayanthi (Birthday). He was the founder of the religion Sikhism in Punjab, which involves teachings from both Hindu and Muslim religion. He was the first Guru out of the ten gurus of Sikhism who created the holy book "Guru Granth sahib". Guru Nanak's birthday is celebrated for three days. On the first day the holy book is read, on second a procession is organized and on the final day after the morning prayers a huge "Langar", community lunch, is organized in the Gurudwaras followed by lots of dancing. The famous dance of Punjab done mostly by men is called Bhangra while the dance done by women is called Giddha.

In activity today we made men puppets doing Bhangra. Kids had fun cutting the two halves, coloring them and then joining them by a pin to make it a puppet.

Hindi Review:
Today we had a quiz on the topics colors, body parts, numbers and Animals (domestic n wild).
Most of the kids prepared well. We divided kids in two teams - A and B.
They were asked 30 questions (15 each). We announced both teams winner because they had a tie .
I am really happy to see kids showing interest in Hindi  and prepared well for the quiz.
 
After the quiz we revised names of the fruits and learnt some more fruits names in Hindi.
 
Spoken Hindi : Kids were encouraged to talk in Hindi. They were introduced some new vocabulary and we asked them to form sentences with that.

Culture Review  :
Today in Culture we talked about why we celebrate Diwali. A big big Kudos to both Vishnu and Varun, they were literally able to narrate the whole of Ramayana to the class. If your kid missed the story it would be nice time for you to narrate the great Indian Epic to them. We then talked how we celebrate Diwali, by lighting firecrackers, Diyas (Deepak) since there was no electricity at that time and people wanted to celebrate the return of their beloved King Rama, Sita Mata and Lakhshman after they returned killing the Demon Kind Ravana.
 
In activity kids were given a paper plate and a diya which they decorated very beautifully. You can light those diyas which would make it special for them.

Hindi Review :
We revised domestic animals and learnt Hindi names for wild animals.  We also learnt Hindi names for few fruits - like
Banana - kela , Orange - Narangi , Grapes - Angoor , Cococnut - Nariyal , Watermelon - Tarbooj , Apple - Seb etc
Kids told us their favorite animal and favorite fruit in Hindi.
Kids who came in Halloween costumes talked 1 or 2 lines in Hindi about their costumes. 
 
Culture Review  :
Today in Culture kids saw the Demo of a famous style of classical dance From India called "Kathak". The performance was given by Antara Dutta and her students

For our children following were the performances
(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
 

Hindi Review :
 
Most of the kids could count 1 to 20 in Hindi now. We have made this our routine. After Prarthana they tell us in Hindi what colors they are wearing and they count 1 to 20 in Hindi.
Today We revised animal names in Hindi and learnt few new animals. Some of the animal words were hard for kids to pronounce and remember like Gilhari , chhipkali , dariyai ghodda, magarmachha etc . But it says  that 'Repetition is the mother of learning'  so do ask your child to repeat these words at home. We will also do it in our class .
We also did one activity related to animals - Hindi version of 'Brown bear , brown bear what do you see?'. Kids were given toy animals to hold in their hands.
The activity was like this - A kid would ask another kid on his left and holding a black horse in his hand - "kala ghoda , kala ghoda what do you see?"
Other kid would see a kid on his left that he is holding a white sheep in his hand. He would say - "I see a safet bhed looking at me". Then he would ask - "Safet bhed , Safet bhed what do you see?" and it goes on in a circle until everybody gets a turn.
 
Culture Review  :
Today in Culture kids learnt different words for Indian costumes that man and woman wear in India from various states. Different forms of sarees, lehenga, kurta, pyjama etc. We had Nidhi, Vivek, Manan, Sonya and Dhruv speak some words in hindi about their Indian costume. Good job kids..

In the activity section kids decorated their Dandiya sticks which they are going to use on Nov 13th Gurukul Diwali function. Please make sure that kids bring their sticks that day so they can play dandiya.

 

Today in Culture kids learnt a few steps of Dandiya. They would be performing these steps during the Diwali celebration on Nov 13.
Dandiya is very popular during navratri because it is performed in honor of Goddess Durga. Dandiya is believed to be the dramatization of a fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura – the mighty demon king. The sticks of the garba dance represent the Sword of Goddess Durga, therefore, this dance is also known as ‘The Sword Dance.’ Kids were told the story of how Goddess Durga defeated and killed the demon last week.
Today in the activity section the kids were given a "rangoli" design with dots on one side. The kids had to make the geometric design by using those dots and then color them. A lot of kids were able to do it themselves while some needed some help. It was really interesting to make the design by joining the dots.

Hindi Review -
 
We started our Hindi session with revision of colors and numbers. Most of the kids could say numbers from 1 to 20 in Hindi. Few kids said numbers from 1 to 10 or 1 to 5 in Hindi.
 
Later we learnt animal names in Hindi and played a game of acting out an animal and guessing its name in Hindi. 
 
Repetition is the key to remember all the new words we learn during Hindi hour. Parents, please make sure to use some Hindi words that kids have learnt,  in your conversation at dinner time, at story time or at play time or even while driving the kids to their after school activities.

Hindi Review -
 
Revision of colors and body parts . One new color was introduced - Chandani - Silver
 
New Vocabulary - Counting in Hindi 1 to 20. 
Kids were asked to tell their age in Hindi .
 
We played 2 games -
1) Hanumanji kahte hai (included body parts in this game) - Hindi version of 'Simon says'
2) Dumb charades - One child would do the action with his body parts and others would guess the name of body part (in Hindi) involved in the action -
   for example - Nodding head - Sar, wiggling of fingers - ungaliyaa
 
Kids also learnt a new poem related to body parts - 'chhote chhote paav kya karte hai'
 
Spoken Hindi - We encouraged kids to speak in Hindi. We showed them few props and asked them to describe them.
 

We talked about both Durga Pooja and Dussehra today.
For Durga Pooja I told them a story of why Goddess Durga was created. During that time a very powerful monster/demon named Mahishaasura was defeating all kings and gods and ruling the whole universe. Seeing that a lot of "Devtas" from Swarg went to Lord Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma to request them to destroy the powerful demon. By pooling their power all three gods created the Goddess to defeat and kill the demon. In another story "Kali Maa" also killed demons and as a symbol used to cut the demon heads and made a necklace out of it. Although it sounds barbaric the kids were fascinated with the story. If you need more info you can always search online.
Dussehra : This festival is celebrated as the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana (the powerful demon king of Lanka). I am sure most of you know the story of Rama's "Vanvaas" (His exile to forest for 14 years), the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana. Help given to Lord Rama and his brother Lakshman by Hanuman and his monkey army in crossing the ocean to reach Lanka and defeating and killing Ravana. Kids knew a lot about Hanuman, the floating stone bridge that the army formed to cross the ocean, kidos to them.. They were fascinated by the fact that Ravana had ten heads, some knew that he could not killed by aiming his head and the heads grew back. He could only be killed by aiming at his naval. If you want more information on this then you can also search online for the whole story or more explanation.
Activity: Kids made Ravana puppets. We gave them brown paper bags with Ravana's ten head face. They made necklaces around his neck from the sparkling flowers and stars that were also given to them.

Hindi Review:  We learnt few more colors in Hindi - Gulabi (Pink) , Sunehara (Gold), Saleti (Grey) and revised other colors. They told what colors they were wearing today in Hindi and also identified colors of differnt objects. We played a color game 'Tipi Tipi Tip Top, What color do you want?'

We also learnt Sharir ke Anga - body parts. Kids performed a song - Sar Kandhe Ghutane Paav - Hindi version of nursery rhyme 'Head shoulders knees and toes'.

Kids enjoyed these activities and some of the kids loved to lead the activities.

 

Spoken Hindi Review:  Kids were introdued 'Yeh - Woh ' and Haa - Nahi words.

We did 'Question Answer Drill' using these words.

Example - "Yeh table hai , Woh khidki hai "

"Kya yeh pen hai?" "Nahi, yeh pen nahi hai , yeh pencil hai"

 

We talked about Mahatma Gandhi today. 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. Please say good job to your kids. 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.

 

Hindi Section:
After our routine (chanting OM and Prayer) kids had a revision of Family (parivaar) words - Ma, Papa, Dada, Dadi, Nana, Nani, Bahen / didi and Bhai/Bhaiyya.
Most of them memorised these words. few were still struggling with the words Dada-Dadi and Nana- Nani. But that is absolutely fine. Repetition and practice would make them remember these words.

I introduced them 4 new Parivaar related words - Words for Uncle and Aunt in Hindi
Father's brother - Chacha / chachaji , Father's sister - Buaa
Mother's brother - Mama , Mother's sister - Maasi / Mausi

Introduction to Colors (Rang) -
I brought a mystery bag in classroom and kids were curious to know what would be there in the bag. Today's mystery object was color Book.
Kids were introduced few color words -

Rang - Color , Indradhanush - Rainbow

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

Kids were asked to name the objects of these colors and they also identified Rang (colors in Hindi) of different objects .

Do encourage them to tell Rang for objects around the house.

Spoken Hindi :
For spopken Hindi Session we divided the class in 4 groups . Two parents helped us. Thanks to both Sanjay and Meena.
Each group had a chain drill starting with telling their name & asking other kids his/her name.
"Namaste, Mera naam ...... hai. Apaka naam kya hai?
"Namaste, Aap kaise ho? " other kid would answer and ask another kid - Mai thik hu/ achha hu - Namaste, aap Kaiso ho?

After this Kids played 'musical chair' game and they really enjoyed it.

Culture Review:

Hindi Review -
Namaste Parents,
This was my first day as a Hindi teacher in your Kids class 1D. Our day went well with all eager learners.
We started off our session with chanting Om and prayer "Tumhi ho Maata Pita tumhi ho"
First session of Gurukul Day is Hindi. And in this session I will focus on Vocabulary of Hindi Language.
This week we learnt abt words for family members in Hindi.
It took time for some of the kids to remember the new vocabulary especially Dada - Dadi / Nana - Nani - different words for paternal and maternal grandparents
Kids talked about who are in their family and used Hindi words for telling about their family members. (e.g. - I have maa, Papa and Bhaiyya in my family.)
Few Kids shared their poster / photos of their family.
We also learnt two new words - Namaste (Hi - Hello) and Dhanyavaad - Thank You .
A Pat on the kids back who finished their Hindi homework - Vivek, Rishi Vora, Krish, Nidhi, Asim, Tanisha, Ishaan and Ria.
Pl ask your child to finish his/her homework before coming to next class. Homework have been posted on our class site http://gurukul-wa.org/2010/classes/1D/default.aspx
Dhanyavaad
Ashwini Kshirsagar
Culture Review -
We talked about Ganesh Chaturthi
- We started by asking kids if they who Ganesha is, a lot of them knew about Lord Ganesh
- Then I told them about how Ganesha was born and why we worship him. All the kids were amazed by the story of Elephant head.
- We then did a small puja, with clapping, chanting Ganpati bappa morya and immersing the statue of lord Ganesha in bucket full of water. Every kid also got a small bag or prasad.
We then played a game of directions. I drew North, South, East and west and the kids were supposed to run to the direction that was called upon. I introduces "Uttar" for north and "Dakshin" for south. Please parents if you can do ask the kids to review these two direction words. I would introduce hindi words for East and West also in future.
Homework: Most of the students completed their homework, good job to all of them..
Priyanka Gupta
Homework Assignment:
Homework is due the immediate week following the class.
- The homework is posted on the website.
Volunteers:
Thanks to all the parents who have volunteered. If you still haven't done so please talk to us next Sunday. Every parent has to volunteer twice a year. We still have quite a number of days when parents have not volunteered. You might be getting a email from Gurukul Staff about this as well.
Attendance:
We still had few kids missing, Ritvik Vasisht, Raunak Manchanda, Nikhil Jain and Vani Daryani. If your kid has moved to a different class or is not coming, please do let us know so we could update our records. Also this week we were pretty easy about time, but from next time we would have to mark tardy to kids who come later than 11:05 a.m. So please do have all the kids in the class at 11:00 a.m. so that the class can start on time.
Action Items:
· Please confirm if you receive this email. For those who already responded last week to my test email, you do not need to confirm again. Rest, please do. It is your chance to verify your email communication are going to the right aliases. Important communication about class and class progress happen through email so it is important that we have right email on the file. For those I would not get confirmation through email, I will try to get in touch personally during the Sunday class. Folks who are not getting email communication need to contact office or send an email it@gurukul-wa.org to get their aliases added to the class1D distribution list.
· Please make sure your child’s bag and belongings are clearly marked. Please mark your child’s bag clearly in the front to avoid misplacing.
· Please have your child write his/her name and date on each of homework sheet.
· What to Pack in Every class: Pencil/Eraser, Colors, a pair of Scissors, Glue, Water bottle, light snack

Namaste Parents,

 

Welcome to Gurukul Community!!!

 

I am really excited to work with your child and you (parents).   We have 23 beautiful smart kids in our class and we look forward to teach, interact and know all of them.  Sorry for the long mail, but we had few things that we wanted to let all the parents know.  Please take time to read and review this email. It does contain some important information and reminders.

I have included material from today’s orientation that should answer most of questions you might have. Refer attached.

Gurukul site and Class 1D will be your single source of information – Class review, assignments, volunteers assignments. 

Since this is our 1st week, I have also included the same information below for your reference.  For future weeks, this information will be available through site and class teacher will send an email reminder for anything important.

 

·         Attendance: Drop off time 10:50am, Class promptly starts at 11:00 am, Child will be marked tardy if late. 70% attendance is required for next year enrollment

·         Please pack light non-messy nut-free dry snack. Although we don't have any kids with nut/egg allergy in the class (as far as we know) but it would be better not to take any chances.  Please also pack a water bottle with your child’s snack to minimize class interruptions.

·         Every week child will be sent a short homework assignment – it would be communicated through Class website by Wed of each week.

·         Class Review and Home assignments will be communicated via Class 1D site which can be accessed from the gurukul main home page http://www.gurukul-wa.org/default.aspx

·         Please supervise and help child complete homework assignment for the week. It should be less than 30 min/week. Please make sure your child completes homework with minimum or no mistakes, you don’t want your child to feel bad or left behind in the class.  And PLEASE do NOT complete child’s assignment on his/her behalf since they are their to learn.

 

Review of the First Session: 

Kids had a great start on the first day.

·         Morning OM chanting following by “Tumhi Ho Maata” prayer

·         Icebreaker; Played games with the teacher while counting in Hindi

·         Learnt counting in Hindi

·         Enjoyed telling few states and cities in India. They specially enjoyed telling their favorite Indian dish. Kids learnt what is the national bird, animal, flower etc of India

 

·         Finished with National Anthem

 

Volunteers:  Thanks to the Dads and Moms for staying back and volunteering in the class today!!   Thanks to those who signed up on volunteer sheet.  Those who have not, please get in touch with me or Ashwini. According to the Gurukul policy every parent have to volunteer atleast twice a year for the class.

  We had quiet a few room parents (a lead parent volunteer).  That is really great, it gives us the opportunity to concentrate on the lessons while getting the help from the room parent.

Absentees:   Total 5 . Hope to see these kids this coming Sunday.

·         If your child did not receive the child bag/CD/folder, please let me/Ashwini know. So, we can arrange as soon as possible.

if anyone of you is carpooling with other parents to pick up your kids, then you do need to fill and sign a Release Authorization form. Those of who did it last time don't have to do it again, but those who didn't please contact us on Sunday so we can give you the form.

I will be sending another email to check the common email address that was created for our class. Please let me know if all of you received the email so that we can use that for future correspondence.·      

We look forward to working with you all.  

 

Thanks and welcome again!!

- Priyanka Gupta  & Ashwini Kshirsagar

(1D Gurukul Teachers)