Namaste Parents,
We started our day after prayers with Vishesh Vidyarthi Presentations. Divij got A " Dholak / Dumroo and spoke five sentences about his dumroo. Kshiraj did a presentation and spoke about his favourite Indian sport Cricket and very aptly brought a Cricket Bat for show & tell. Aarna also made her much due presentations and our three Vishesh Vidhyarthis did a great job!
Our next Three vishesh Vidyarthis are- Sai Yuvraj, Pramiti & Shauryan.
Hindi: We learned two more vowels ओ & औ. Revised Animals (domestic & wild); Vegetables & Fruits along with their colors. For homework, please finish writing these in the folder at home and practise writing at least 5 times.
Spoken Hindi: We divided students into two groups and played a game with flash cards. The game is attached below, you may play at home as it helps them revise their spoken Hindi curriculum.
Culture Hour: We revised festivals of India.We shall now focus on revision of topics and shall be practising for our Annual Day performance during our Culture hour.
Parent Volunteers: Many thanks to parent volunteers Archana ( Pramiti's mother) & Jaya ( Rishi M's mother) for all their help.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION for May 20th Evaluations:
The format of the final evaluation will be similar to that of the mid-year evaluation. There will be a couple of videos , kids will be shown the videos and asked to translate as well as answer questions in Hindi about the video. There will also be a section where we will ask them a few other random questions in Hindi, and see how they respond.
Broadly the entire binder handed out to the students and teachers is expected to be covered for the final evaluations. However here is a brief list of expectations.
HINDI:
1. Say, Recognize and write all Hindi vowels (a, aa,....)
2. Count 1 - 20 in Hindi.
3. Vocabulary:
a. Family members
b. Colors
c. Body parts
d. Animals (wild and domestic) and common birds
e. Weather and seasons
f. Fruits and vegetables
g. Directions
h. Days of the week
SPOKEN HINDI:
The final evaluation for Spoken Hindi will be based on the grammatical constructs and vocabulary from following two documents put together by Gurukul Hindi Committee. But please note that the exact sentences and phrases on the evaluation will not be exactly identical to the example sentences in the document. We shall be reviewing these in class from now onwards. Also, please practice these at home with your child.
Semester 1 Spoken Hindi Review
Semester 2 Spoken Hindi Review
CULTURE:
They need to have basic understanding of following topics covered in Culture during the year.
1.Ganesh Chaturthi
2. India ( Bharat, India on map etc)
3. Raksha Bandhan
4. Gandhi Janyanti ( 3 monkeys, oct 2)
5. Dussehra/ Durga puja
6. Diwali
7. Dresses of India
8. Christmas
9.. Foods of India
10. Lohri,pongal, sanskranti
11. Republic Day
12. Symbols of India- National Flag, Anthem, Song( vande mataram), Bird ( peacock), Animal( tiger), Flower ( lotus),Tree ( Banyan), Fruit( Mango), Game ( Hockey)
13.Musical Instuments Of India
14.Mahashivratri
15.Dances of India
16. Holi
17. Animals of India
18. Games of India
-----------------x-------------------- That is All :-)

Dhanyavad,
Anshu ( on behalf of Class 1A Teachers)

Shubh Prabhaat & Namaskar Parents !
For some Spring Break was over last week and for some of us this has been our busy Spring Break week with outings, unending activities and kids at home who will not nap !! My spring break starts next week when the kids are in school...at least that's what I'd like to think ;-)
Anyways, we are coming to our Gurukul year end soon. Most of our class activities from now on will focus on revising the curriculum and preparing for the Annual Day Performances. That's pretty much what we did in this past class. We will soon send out email to parents requesting their help & role for Annual Day Preparations.
Two Very important Announcements:
1. Please be in the class by 11am. Last class out of 17 kids present there were only 7 kids who arrived on time.. 10 kids were tardy!!. We lost time in the morning settling down and thus missed having presentations by the Vishesh Vidhyarthis during the circle time.. Please be on time.
2. Please continue reading & conversing with your child and filling in the log. As the Reading Program is coming to an end this month the kids have awards/ certificate awaiting them when they complete a target of 240 minutes by next class. Lots of kids have made tremendous progress and they feel very proud showing off their reading log.
CLASS REVIEW:
Hindi: The class learnt the next new vowels ' ए ' & ' ऐ '.
Spoken Hindi: The kids played game of Snakes & ladders in three groups working on & reviewing their Hindi speaking skills. From now on we will revise our Spoken Hindi Curriculum for remaining classes.
Culture: During our culture time we started our preparations for Annual Day Performance.
Vishesh Vidhyarthi: We missed our Vishesh Vidhyarthi presentations due to lack of time and other activities. Therefore, we will have three Vishesh Vidyarthi Presentations for April 22nd Class - Divij, Kshiraj, and Aarna. Parents please make a note of this and as Vishesh Vidhyarthis they can bring anything in context with India to share with their class, could be a handicraft item, a toy, a book, a dress etc. Please help the child to prepare minimum four lines to say in front of the class. We will be doing this during our circle time.

Volunteers: Many thanks to Jeetendra ( Anjali's Father) for all his help in the class.

HOMEWORK:
Hindi: Finish writing ए & ऐ in work sheet in folder. And Practice writing each vowel 5 times.
Spoken: Please revise previous lessons at home as that is what we shall be doing in the class. I am attaching a link to the game we played in class and maybe at home you can play this to make Hindi fun for your child. April 8 Snakes and ladders review game
Please remember no Gurukul on April 15th. Its Spring Break !!
See you all on April 22nd...
Dhanyavad,
Anshu and teachers of class 1A.

Namaste Parents,
Here is the review of the last class at Gurukul.
Hindi: We did letter 'ri' - ऋ (as in Rishi, ripple, grip, rip)
Practiced writing it in the class. Its a bit complicated letter with very minimal usage in general Hindi. But its important that the children learn the correct way of writing it in the beginning itself.
Culture: This was the last class of Culture. From now on we will be using this time to prepare for the Annual day. This time we did a overall revision of all the topics covered so far.
Spoken: In spoken hindi, we reviewed TIME (SAMAY). We had the children translate a lot of sentences in Hindi using time and different time of the day eg--Subha,Dopahar,Shyam and Raat. Most of them were able to get it ,but there are still a few children who will really benefit with practice at home.
Homework: Practice writing ऋ 10 times. Also, please make sure that your child has finished the pages of अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ in the folder.
Other important things
Vishesh Vidhyarti : Our next one is Divij. I am sure he will have something nice to share.
Parent Volunteers: For the first time we had two Dad's (Rohinee's and Raghav's) instead of moms :) Thank you! so much for your help.
Reading Log: It's nice to see some of the parents conversing and reading to their child in Hindi. We had distributed pencils to all the children who had their reading log updated. I would like to encourage rest of the parents to please participate and spend some time using Hindi at home in any form (talking, story telling, listening music, watching movie) then log it. Your child will be rewarded. Its a great feeling for them to receive these prizes.
Dhanayvad,
Eela Nair (on behalf of teachers of 1A)

Namaste Parents,
Our Review First:
Hindi: Eela revised vowels from previous classes अ, आ, इ, ई and the class learnt the next new vowels उ small "u" sound & ऊ long uu sound.
Culture: We took advantage of our beautiful " sunny" day while learning about Games of India. The class reviewed the National Game of India - Hockey ( similar to Ice Hockey); Favorite sports of India - Cricket and Soccer. ..and out in the sun we played Kabaddi, Kho-Kho & Pittu. Other games of India that were explained were Gilli-Danda ( similar to baseball), Kite Flying, Archery, Ikri-Dukri ( Hop-scotch).
Spoken Hindi: The exercise involved telling time per se in Hindi. Anubhuti introduced kids to different times in a day - Din (day), Subah, Dopahar, Shaam, Raat. The class was also introduced to actual time telling looking at a clock which was a challenge as now-a days most kids at this age just know a digital clock. Concepts like a clock hand moving to sava ( quarter past), Sadde ( 30 minutes past hour), paune ( quarter to) etc in Hindi were introduced. These were then incorporated in sentences i.e Subah ke dus baje hain; Shaam ke paanch baje Khelne jaante hain….. and so on.
New Vocabulary:

Vakt, Samay ,Baje, Subah ,Raat, Dopahar, Shaam ,Din ,Dedh (1:30), Dhai (2:30), Paune, Sava.
Din (day), Subah, Dopahar, Shaam, Raat.

o Introduce Paune – used for :45 = Paune e.g. : 2:45 == Paune Teen
o Sava – used for : 15 = Sava e.g. : 3:15 == Sava Teen
o Saade – used for :30 = Saade e.g : 9:30 == Saade Nau
Vishesh Vidhyarthi: Anjali was our vishesh vidhyarthi. She wore a sari and spoke 5 sentences in Hindi and got everyone " Little hearts" snack for treat. Good job !!
We are going to have 2 Vishesh Vidhyarthis next Sunday April 1st and they are going to be Chavvi & Aarna. Parents make a note of this and as Vishesh Vidhyarthis they can bring anything in context with India to share with their class, could be a handicraft item, a toy, a book, a dress etc. Please help the child to prepare minimum four lines to say in front of the class. We will be doing this during our circle time.

Birthday: We celebrated Aditya's 6th birthday in class and he got cake for the whole class. Eela & class sang in Hindi a birthday song and then of course the class sang Birthday Ch-cha-chaa song for him. It sure was a fun day :-)
Volunteers: Many thanks to Anisha ( Rishika's mom) for her help and Rohini's father who helped with class when needed.

HOMEWORK:
Hindi: Finish writing उ and ऊ in work sheet in folder. And Practice writing each vowel 5 times.
Spoken: Help your child with speaking 5 sentences about a friend in class. A sheet explaining this home work was sent with each child and is also attached here just in case. Please make sure your child is prepared to speak in front of the class.
Now to some notices:
1. Please continue reading and conversing with your child in Hindi and do fill in your logs so the child can get the much deserved recognition of his/ her hard work and learning. Those who are missing the log I have attached a copy please print and fill up for your child.
2. Next Sunday April first is last day of our Spirit Month -
* April 1st - INDIAN FLAG COLORS - Please dress kids in colors of Indian flag. Remember those who participate are rewarded with Kiss chocolates by Youth Committee of Gurukul. Don't let your child feel left out. Get into the Spirit :-)
3. It is also the Food Drive's last collection day this Sunday so please make sure if you haven't done so yet bring non-perishable food items to class! There will be a competition to see which class gets the most items. The first place prize is a pizza party and Class 1A wants it !!!!
4. Please send water bottles with your child we do not want to spend too much time going to water fountain after every session.
Dhanyavad,
Anshu ( on behalf of Class 1A Teachers)
Namaste Parents,
Our Review First:
Hindi: Eela revised vowels from previous classes अ, आ, इ, ई and the class learnt the next new vowels उ small "u" sound & ऊ long uu sound.
Culture: We took advantage of our beautiful " sunny" day while learning about Games of India. The class reviewed the National Game of India - Hockey ( similar to Ice Hockey); Favorite sports of India - Cricket and Soccer. ..and out in the sun we played Kabaddi, Kho-Kho & Pittu. Other games of India that were explained were Gilli-Danda ( similar to baseball), Kite Flying, Archery, Ikri-Dukri ( Hop-scotch).
Spoken Hindi: The exercise involved telling time per se in Hindi. Anubhuti introduced kids to different times in a day - Din (day), Subah, Dopahar, Shaam, Raat. The class was also introduced to actual time telling looking at a clock which was a challenge as now-a days most kids at this age just know a digital clock. Concepts like a clock hand moving to sava ( quarter past), Sadde ( 30 minutes past hour), paune ( quarter to) etc in Hindi were introduced. These were then incorporated in sentences i.e Subah ke dus baje hain; Shaam ke paanch baje Khelne jaante hain….. and so on.
New Vocabulary:

Vakt, Samay ,Baje, Subah ,Raat, Dopahar, Shaam ,Din ,Dedh (1:30), Dhai (2:30), Paune, Sava.
Din (day), Subah, Dopahar, Shaam, Raat.

o Introduce Paune – used for :45 = Paune e.g. : 2:45 == Paune Teen
o Sava – used for : 15 = Sava e.g. : 3:15 == Sava Teen
o Saade – used for :30 = Saade e.g : 9:30 == Saade Nau
Vishesh Vidhyarthi: Anjali was our vishesh vidhyarthi. She wore a sari and spoke 5 sentences in Hindi and got everyone " Little hearts" snack for treat. Good job !!
We are going to have 2 Vishesh Vidhyarthis next Sunday April 1st and they are going to be Chavvi & Aarna. Parents make a note of this and as Vishesh Vidhyarthis they can bring anything in context with India to share with their class, could be a handicraft item, a toy, a book, a dress etc. Please help the child to prepare minimum four lines to say in front of the class. We will be doing this during our circle time.

Birthday: We celebrated Aditya's 6th birthday in class and he got cake for the whole class. Eela & class sang in Hindi a birthday song and then of course the class sang Birthday Ch-cha-chaa song for him. It sure was a fun day :-)
Volunteers: Many thanks to Anisha ( Rishika's mom) for her help and Rohini's father who helped with class when needed.

HOMEWORK:
Hindi: Finish writing उ and ऊ in work sheet in folder. And Practice writing each vowel 5 times.
Spoken: Help your child with speaking 5 sentences about a friend in class. A sheet explaining this home work was sent with each child and is also attached here just in case. Please make sure your child is prepared to speak in front of the class.
Now to some notices:
1. Please continue reading and conversing with your child in Hindi and do fill in your logs so the child can get the much deserved recognition of his/ her hard work and learning. Those who are missing the log I have attached a copy please print and fill up for your child.
2. Next Sunday April first is last day of our Spirit Month -
* April 1st - INDIAN FLAG COLORS - Please dress kids in colors of Indian flag. Remember those who participate are rewarded with Kiss chocolates by Youth Committee of Gurukul. Don't let your child feel left out. Get into the Spirit :-)
3. It is also the Food Drive's last collection day this Sunday so please make sure if you haven't done so yet bring non-perishable food items to class! There will be a competition to see which class gets the most items. The first place prize is a pizza party and Class 1A wants it !!!!
4. Please send water bottles with your child we do not want to spend too much time going to water fountain after every session.
Dhanyavad,
Anshu ( on behalf of Class 1A Teachers)

Namaste,

 

Time is just flying by, can't believe we are starting to plan our end of the year annual day celebrations. So from next week onwards we will be dedicating some portion of our time into the preparations. For now, below is the brief of what we did last week.

 

Hindi

We introduced the set of next two vowels i.e इ 'small 'e' and ई long 'ee' sound. Good thing about Hindi is that it is very good with phonetics, there is only one sound to a character and that makes it very easy to read. We explained that just like how English has the vowels 'a e i o u' Hindi too has same vowels but the small and long have slightly different character.

 

Spoken

In spoken we reviewed adverbs "ke saath" -with and "ke pass" -near. and we bulid a lot of sentences using these.

We moved on to learning 2 new grammer constructs- want--"chahiye" and want to do--"kya karna hai".The children were also introduced to infinitive verbs such as--

 

 

 

kha + na=khaana = To eat
 

khel +na= khelna = To play
 

 

daud +na=daudna = To run
 

baith+na = baithna
 

 

bhaag +na= bhaagna = To run
 

gaa +na= gaana
 

 

naach+na= - naachna
 

ja+na = jaana
 

 

 

We build a lot of sentences for the children to understand and by the end of the lesson they all knew what the above constructs meant.

 

 

Culture

In culture we did wild animals of India. It was also of good revision excersice for the chilldren to learn the names of many animals in Hindi.

 

HOMEWORK

•
 2 sheets of spoken were sent out dated March 18th and April 1st.The children ONLY have to do the one due on 18th March--its a crossword.the link to the hw is below.

•
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=55607894c85e7326&id=55607894C85E7326%21927#!/view.aspx?cid=55607894C85E7326&resid=55607894C85E7326%211102.

•
In Hindi, each child should practice writing इ 'small 'e' and ई long 'ee' 5 times

 

 

OTHER IMPORTANT UPDATES

 

 

Vishesh Vidhyarti - Due to lot of kids being absent during winter break we had discontinued this program but now we would like to resume it. I remember it was Anjali's turn, so I would request her parents to please let me know if she could bring something with Indian feel to share with her class. Please have here prepare few sentences in Hindi to say in front of the class.

 

Tardiness- Its just sad that inspite of reminders, many students came late to the class. Please remember that this disrupts the smooth functioning of the class, it is only taking away valuable learning time from you own children. I am sorry say but if it continues like this then we will have to hand out slips to the children for coming late to the class. Please have a healthy discussion about this with your child at home. I am sure they will understand.

 

Volunteers - I would like to thank Sheetal (Raghav's mom) for her continual support to our class. We are looking forward to have Anisha (Rishika's mom) for the coming week.

 

Looking forward to see all lovely children (on time) in the class.

 

Dhanyavad,

Eela Nair

On behalf of 1A

 

 

Namaste Parents,

Last class was a day full of activities, games and lot of learning through fun. Below is the brief and some important updates.

Hindi: Learnt about weather/mausam : Sardi, Garmi, Basant and Patjhar.

Spoken: We played a special kind of bingo in which the child who has the word chosen from the flash card had to make a sentence using that. Children had lot of fun doing it and came up with some really good sentences.

Culture: We learnt about the significance of Holi and the story of 'Bhakt Prahlad'. We also made special sheets to hang around our neck and played holi with our markers and crayons. This way they got some essence of holi and the rest of it they will be able to enjoy during our year-end picnic :)

HW: This week there is no spoken HW. In Hindi I would like them to practice writing letter अ, आ ten times each on any sheet of paper (it will be a good idea for them to have a small note book to do such extra hw, but its totally optional for the parents to keep a notebook or not)

Other important updates

Tardiness: Last class many students arrived late. This disrupts the smooth functioning of the class and Gurukul has a strict policy about any child who is late more than three times to be sent to the office. So far we have been easy because we thought the students of our class are a bit young but from now on we will be following it seriously.

Absence: You need to let the teacher know in advance if your child is going to be absent. Some parents have already been doing this so many thanks to all those for doing it and I would request the rest to please keep that in mind for future.

Volunteers: So far we have been really fortunate to get good parent involvement. But it has been coming from same set of parents repeatedly. I would request rest of the parents to make sure they come and participate equally. The parent lead volunteer had send you the schedule earlier and they should be sending you the calendar once again soon. Please look for your day of volunteer. Just as a note: This week we did not have any parent volunteer and teachers had difficult time taking students for bathroom breaks and doing other activities. So your help is substantial in the over all success of their learning experience. If you have time, dont hesitate to just ask if we need help.
Parent volunteering is not only about helping in the class, it also helps boost your child's confidence and interest in learning.

Annual day preparations: June 3rd will be Annual day celebration at Gurukul. Every year each class prepares something special to present to the families. Its lot of fun and this year committee is also planning a assembly and level 6 graduation ceremony at the end. We will be finalizing the theme of our class very soon. More updates later

Lost and Found: We found a red over coat and a blue pencil box. Whoever it belongs to, please come and collect it from me in the next class.


Looking forward to seeing you child coming Sunday.

Dhanyavad
Teachers class 1A

Namaste Parents,

Here is wishing you and your family Happy Holi !!

Please make a note of the following first -

1. Next week starts the Gurukul Spirit Month !!! Make sure you dress up to fit the themes and have fun !!
* March 11th- Color Wars - Our Class all the kids need to wear RED. All teachers and parent volunteer please wear anything and every thing WHITE.

* March 18th - REGIONAL WARS ( Information to follow)
* March 25th - SPORTS DAY
* April 1st - INDIAN FLAG COLORS

2. There is also a food drive going on this month, so bring non-perishable food items to class! There will be a competition to see which class gets the most items. The first place prize is a pizza party!!!!!!

3. Parents who pick their kids before the class is actually dismissed please let the teachers/ parent volunteer that you are doing so.

4. Please continue reading and conversing with your child in Hindi and do fill in your logs so the child can get the much deserved recognition of his/ her hard work and learning.

Now the class review -

Hindi:
We revised previous class work and then learnt our second vowel and a book about AAMU the AAM was read to the class.

Culture:
The culture topic was Dances of India. The children learnt about various classical dances like Kathak, Bharthnatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali etc. Folk dances like dandiya & bhangra. Aarna is learning Kathak, Pramiti & Aarna volunteered to perform a dance & song about Krishna they learnt as little girls. Then we also had a few kids very interested and into Bollywood dancing.
The activity included coloring a mask as worn by Kathakali Dancers.

Spoken:”The spoken Hindi topic was "Going to the Park" and introduction of Adverb : “Ke saath” – “WITH” ; * Adverb: “ Ke Paas” – “BESIDE” and POSSESSIVE form – “HAS”.. Anubhuti explained how to use them with the new words like -
Baag (garden)Ghaas (grass) Phool (flowers) Ped (Tree)

Dost (friend) Saheli (Girl friend) Jhoola (swing) Jhool (v) (to swing)

Homework:
Class was sent home with spoken Hindi homework sheet and flash cards to revise at home. I have also attached them in case they are missing in your child's folder.

Many thanks to Parent Volunteers Swarnima ( Divij's mom) & Sheetal ( Raghav's mom) for all their help in the class.
Don't forget to send your kids all dressed in RED and parent volunteers please come dressed in white :-)

Dhanyavad,
Anshu and Class 1A teachers.

Namaste Parents,
It was with immense pleasure and excitement that we stepped into the second half of the school year at Gurukul this Sunday. We felt an even stronger bond with children after meeting with you all on the Parent-Teacher conference day. Feel blessed to have such supportive and involved group of parents.

Below are the highlights of last week's class

Hindi: We revised 'Days of the week' and 'actions we perform with our body parts.' It was a really special day for kids as they took their first lesson on writing Hindi vowels. From now on we would be doing some writing every week along with building new vocabulary.

Culture: The Youth Board of Gurukul did a nice presentation on 'Rani ki Jhansi'. Be sure to ask the kids about the famous poem by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan that they narrated -"Khoob lari mardani, woh to Jhansi wali rani thi"

Spoken: Due to extra long culture demo we had very little time for spoken. We explained the kids about the difference between the present and present continuous verb. We know that they may be very young to understand the technical difference between the two verbs but if we give them example from real life they make good sense for eg. the difference between
'Main khelta hoon' and

'Main khel raha hoon'

Homework: Finish the sheet given for the spoken and page 46 from the folder

NO GURUKUL NEXT WEEK, due to the mid winter break.

See you all in March.

Dhanyavad,
Teachers 1A

Namaste Parents,
We had our Parent Teacher review with Teacher Eela so there was no Hindi lesson taught that day.
Culture: The topic was Musical Instruments of India. The class was introduced to:
String instruments like- sitar, sarangi, veena, santoor.
Percussion instruments- tabla, dholak, mridangam, ghatam, jaltarang, khartal & khanjira
Wind Instruments- Basuri( Flute), Shahnaai, Pungi
The culture exercise involved cutting and pasting of images of instruments & matching with their names. Hopefully, you have had time to help them finish the activity at home ;-)
Spoken: The children took turns to tell class about their morning breakfast scene at home. Thank you to parents who were able to send show & tell breakfast items with their child.
HOMEWORK
Spoken Hindi Homework -
1. A Sheet with 2 sets of conversations were sent home with each child. please review and practice them with your child so that he/she is prepared to be paired up with someone and repeat the conversation in class.
2. Please revise breakfast scene conversation from last class/ Homework with your child. We will revise again in the class.
Reading Program-
A Reading & Conversation log was sent home with each child to encourage everyone too follow the program and read to your child a book/story in Hindi and fill in the log.
FYI: During Culture Time there will a demo on Sunday 2/19/12 by Varsha Mital and the Youth board members.
The topic of the demo is - Jhansi ki Rani.
Last but not least many thanks to our parent volunteers - Dolly ( Aditya 's mother), Sonal ( Rishi V's mother) and Sheetal ( Raghav's mother).
Dhanyavad,
Anshu
(on behalf of Class 1A teachers)

Namaste Parents,

We had our Mid-Year evaluation done and it went on quite smoothly . We are proud of all the students in class for their efforts. It was nice to see all of them come in and perform with so much of excitment. This definitely shows dedication and hardwork you have put in at home.

The hindi and Spoken hindi time slot was taken for the evaluation. In culture the children made The Indian flag.

Students are suppose to finish both Hindi and Spoken HW given last week.
The spoken HW was to prepare few lines about the breakfast routine at home. Please have them come prepared.
It will be really nice if they can bring any one of their's breakfast item for show and tell .

The Parent Teacher is coming up on 12th Feb 2012. Many of you have already signed-up. For those who have not done, please make sure to do it this time.

Report-card will be emailed individually to each parent early this week.

If your child missed the evaluation last week, they will be given the evaluation this Sunday i.e Feb. 5. This is the last chance to take the evaluation.

Thanks to all the parent volunteers for taking care of the class so well while teachers were busy with the evalutions. I feel really blessed to have such supportive group of parents.

Like always, if you have any questions then please feel free to email us.


Dhanayvad,

Teachers 1A.

Dear Parents,
In the last class we did the review of all the topics in both spoken and hindi section. In culture students learnt about the festival of pongal and also colored a kite in the class.
Good luck for the mid term evaluation.
SPECIAL NOTE: We will need some volunteer to be in the class during the evaluations. Please let us know if you are available.
Thanks
Eela

 

 

 

 

 

Namaste Parents,
 
I hope you all had a great start to this New year. I am sending this email to give you a heads-up on latest Gurukul activities. Jan 15th is the Mid-term evaluation date. I know many of you were travelling or have missed the classes in the last few weeks. So below is the list of topics which I am sending again. Please find time to review some of these before the next class. On Sunday we will do the review but it will be helpful if you could spend some time before hand.
 
TOPICS
1. Family members
2. Color
3. Body parts
4. Number up to 20
5. Animals and birds
6. Fruits and vegetables
7. Some questions from Culture covering the topics covered so far.
8. Basic Hindi Grammar like Likhna, baithna, khelna. Koodna, khaana, Peena,sunana, padhna etc.

 

Below is a link to all our spoken lessons we have done so far. Please make full use of it at home so that the kids can get lots of practice.
https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx/Public/Gurukul/Spoken%20Hindi/Spoken%20Hindi%20Semester%201%20Full%20Review.docx?cid=55607894c85e7326&app=Word

 

 

Thanks for your co-operation.

Best Regards,

Eela

 

 Namaste to all the parents,
 
First an important update: We are almost at the end of the first semester at Gurukul and mid-term evaluation is just around the corner and for evaluation of Level 1, we hope that the children know these below topics by the end of Dec. This message is really crucial for students who have been missing classes, parents need to work with them at home.
 
TOPICS
1. Family members
2. Color
3. Body parts
4. Number up to 20
5. Animals and birds
6. Fruits and vegetables
7. Some questions from Culture covering the topics covered so far.
8. Basic Hindi Grammar like Likhna, baithna, khelna. Koodna, khaana, Peena,sunana, padhna  etc. 
 

Below is a link to all our lessons we have done so far in fists semester. Please make full use of it at home so that the kids can get lots of practice.
https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx/Public/Gurukul/Spoken%20Hindi/Spoken%20Hindi%20Semester%201%20Full%20Review.docx?cid=55607894c85e7326&app=Word

 
Review of last class 12/11/12

Hindi: Introduced different kinds of fruits. There are some fruits which are not popular in local grocery stores e.g. Guava, litchi and chikoo. Next time when you go to Indian grocery it will be nice to show them some. If not fresh there are juices in refrigerator section. This will be really helpful.
 
Spoken: In this lesson we taught the possessive pronouns and relationships using various objects that the students have already learnt. It is important to teach the kids about that fact that the objects have genders unlike the English language.
 
Vocabulary to be learnt:
 
Mera / Meri, Iska / Iski, Uska / Uski, Aapka/Aapki, Unka /Unki
Kiska / Kiski, Ram ka, Ram k,i Radha ka, Radha ki
 
Home work:
1.Hindi - Page 33 from the folder
2.Spoken- There is a sheet given in which the student is suppose to circle the correct Hindi phrase to match the English phrase and picture.
For those who do not have the HW for some reason, below is the link
 https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=55607894C85E7326&id=55607894C85E7326%21937#!/view.aspx?cid=55607894C85E7326&resid=55607894C85E7326%211064
 
 
 
Culture: There was a Tabla demo on Sunday 12/11/11 in the commons area by Shrinath Acharya. You can read more about the artist below this email.
 
Vishesh Vidhyarti: Navika brought a very musical instrument called Jhansa in marathi (Navika's dad- please correct me if I am wrong ). It is very commonly used in all religious prayers and is popular in almost all the parts of India. I remember it using myself at the time of Aarti and other prayers. We called it Chimti. At the time of demo we sang our morning prayer with that instrument and all the kids had a chance to use it. It was lot of fun!
Next week's Vishesh Vidhyarti is Pranav.
 
Volunteers Many thanks to Rishi's mom - Sonal and Kshiraj's mom- Pragya. Our class will have the pleasure of having Pragya coming to culture hour next week too. She will be talking about how Christmas is celebrated in India.
 
 
Your child should have developed good amount of vocabulary by now to be able to enjoy conversing in Hindi. PLEASE PLEASE talk as much as you can to them in Hindi. Immersion is the most effective way to language acquisiton.
 
Wish you all a very happy rest of the week. Stay warm!
 
Dhanyavad,
Eela Nair
 

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  Tabla Arstist Shrinath Acharya is from Udupi, Karnataka State. He has been in Seattle for the past 4+ years. He is passionate about accompanying percussion instruments.He started learning Hindustani Classical style of playing tabla at the age of 5 from his guru Shri Vittal Das Bhat (Adopted Son of Late Vidhwan Madhav Bhat) in Udupi for 10years. Since then he has been accompanying concerts, bands, shows, programs etc. His style of playing is based on Pt.Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and Pt.Vinayakrao Patwardhan practices and gharanas.

Shrinath has been a part of well known Indian musical bands in Seattle - Prathidhwani (Hindi), Geetanjali (Tamil), eSwara (Telugu), Saptaswara(Malayalam), Pallavi(Kannada).

 

Shrinath teaches Tabla to enthusiastic students including kids (above 5 yrs of age) and adults in VCC, Sammamish for a nominal fee. You can find detailed information on Learn.Tabla@yahoo.com.

 

Shrinath will be accompanied by his students

Kids - Anish, Saketh, Amogh

Adults - Ravi, Nishanth.
 

Namaste Parents!
 
It was great to see all the children dressed up in Indian attire, that too at such short notice. Thanks for the support :)
 
Hindi : Domestic Animals
We had the pleasure of taking the kids out in the sun and learn the names of some domestic animals. With the help of flash cards and toys we invented some quick games and children had lots of fun. For complete list of the animals please refer to page 23 of the folder.
 
Culture: Indian Dresses
Our cultural team has put in lot of effort and made some fabulos cut outs of the popular Indian dresses of different states. Hence, using those, Anshu did a great job of displaying and talking about them with the class.
 
Spoken: About Me
All the children had an opportunity to come up in front of the class and speak about themselves. I would give the credit to all the parents for helping them at home prepare their speech. All did great!! It really helps boost their confidence when they speak in front of the crowd. So thanks for all the effort you put in your child at home to come prepared.
 
And talking about your effort here comes some Home work for next week :)
 
Home work
 
1.Page 24 from the folder
2.An activity sheet for spoken was given to all the children. Please complete that. If the child was absent or has lost it for some reason, please request Anubhuti for the copy.
 
Vishesh Vidhyarti
Today Gia was our Vishesh Vidhyarti. She came dressed in a beautiful lengha and spoke to her friends about herself and her favorite sport i.e. is swimming. Our next weeks vishesh vidhyarti is Abhinav and we really look forward to what he has to share with the class!
 
Parent Volunteers
Thanks to Rishi's mom and Rohini's dad for helping us during the whole session and also to all others who stepped up with out asking and helped us set the class at the end.
 
I wish you all a very good week ahead,
 
Take care and Dhanyawad
 
Eela Nair
(on behalf of 1A Gurukul)

Hindi -
We started of with another round of introduction in Hindi. At circle time we learned counting from 1 to 10. In order to make the learning more interesting we incorporated some games which involved understanding of numbers. And looking at their continued interest and prior knowledge of some kids, we ended up reviewing it till 20. Which I must say was amazing for day one.
Culture -
The topic was Ganesh Chaturthi. Kids listened to Ganesha story in which they learned about how he was formed with an elephant head. Then we displayed a small idol of Ganesha with some flowers and diya. Towards the end we had a pretend Ganapati procession within the class.
Spoken-
In Spoken Hindi class, we covered the following phrases:

Hello. (also “goodbye”)

namaste.

नमस्ते ।
How are you?

aap kaise hai.n?

आप कैसे हैं?
I am fine.

mai.n Thiik huu.n.

मैं ठीक हूँ ।
I am good (m.)

mai.n achchhaa huu.n.

मैं अच्छा हूँ ।
I am good (f.)

mai.n achchhii huu.n.

मैं अच्छी हूँ ।
What is your name?

aapkaa naam kyaa hai?

आपका नाम क्या है ?
My name is Rajeev.

meraa naam Raajiiv hai.

मेरा नाम राजीव है ।
Homework:
Please incorporate these phrases into daily conversation at home. (E.g., every day when you pick up your child from school, you can say, “namaste, aap kaise hai.n?”, and they should respond with “mai.n Thiik huu.n” or “mai.n achchhaa/achchhii huu.n.”. Daily practice is necessary in order to become comfortable with a new language.
PS: A sheet of homework related to the above phrases (spoken) was handed out in class. Kids should complete it (with your help) and bring it back on Sunday. If your child did not bring a homework sheet home, please print out a copy from the file attached.