1. SSSE Group 1 Archives
02/18
- Self respect
- Empathy
CLASS SUMMARY
Continuing with the topic of self-respect, we narrated the story of Abraham Lincoln in yesterday’s class. Born into abject poverty, grew up in the frontier with little resources, dropped out of school to work on the family farm, largely self-taught, and experienced profound loss early in childhood with the passing away of his mother and sister, Abraham Lincoln’s life was riddled with hardships. And yet, his life story is an extraordinary story of hope, self-respect, self-confidence, honesty, perseverance, equality, great statesmanship, and much more. We talked about how, right from childhood to becoming the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln exhibited these qualities at every step of his life—we shared some anecdotes from his life that showed how a poor farm boy rose to the level of president and became instrumental in abolishing slavery. We also shared the story that Swami often narrates about the role of his mother, Nancy, in shaping his character.
Children showed great interest in the story and pointed out some of the qualities of Abraham Lincoln that inspired them.
Life application:
The new life application activity/challenge for this month is to ‘Brush Teeth TWICE a Day’
Children will put a tick mark in their tracker only when brushing twice, both morning and night. Just one-time brushing doesn’t count for the challenge! The Be On Time Challenge continues!!
02/11/23
In yesterday’s class, we watched the story ‘Mukti-The Lion Cub’, one of Uncle Lion’s Tales
from Radio Sai. It’s a story about a lion cub who is fostered by a flock of sheep. As he grew
older, forgetting that he was not part of the flock, he was criticized for not growing horns and for not
growing the fleece to yield wool. Confused and dejected, Mukti runs away from the flock only to
be found by the lion king, Guru. Guru makes him realize that he is not a weak little lamb who
cannot bleat but he is a lion who can roar.
We did a retelling of the story and discussed how we faced similar situations that Mukti faced in our
own lives, of being ignored, of being left out, and of being criticized. We talked about how we can
stay positive and believe in ourselves when facing such challenging situations.
We plan to continue our discussion on the same topic in the next class as well
02/04/23
We started the class with 3 OMS and 3 Sai Gayathri. We revised till the 5th stanza in Lingashtakam, and practiced bhajans for Sai Madhuram.
The children sat for 1 minute meditation where they tried to focus on the rainwater sound and tune out all other distractions during that time.
We continued our theme duty and responsibility. We had a lively discussion on roles and responsibilities of elders in our home and those outside. Then the children were encouraged to imagine what if parents stopped doing this responsibilities and passed it on to someone else. Similarly if people working different jobs stopped completing their assigned responsibility because they didn’t feel like it. Children had a lot to contribute! We then heard the story about the farmer and his 4 children who kept passing their responsibilities to each other and what happens when you do so! They learned a valuable lesson about the importance of completing their own responsibilities.
At the end we had a really fun lemon and spoon race where the children were partnered to complete their responsibility to carry the lemon on the spoon to where their partner were standing without dropping the lemon so the partner could bring it back to the start line. Thank you parents for sending the spoons with the children!
1/28/2024
- Do your duty without being told
Class summary:We started the class with 3 OMS and 3 Sai Gayathri. We practiced the 5th stanza in Lingashtakam, reviewed our “Love is the way” bhajan and learnt a new bhajan” Govinda Gopala Prabhu Giridhari ” that the kids will be leading in the upcoming Sai Madhuram bhajan on Feb 4th.
We begin by learning about ants. How responsible and hardworking they are and how all ants in the colony have a job to do and they just do it. Then we solved a jumbled sentence that said ‘ We can do our work without being told to do it’. We continued our discussion on how we have different responsibilities and how we can do it without anyone reminding us. We concluded by discussing how powerful and responsible we feel when we complete our job and when we do it without reminders we become ‘RESPONSIBLE SUPERHEROES’.
Request to parents: Discuss what they learnt from ants. You can work together and make a daily checklist that will help them to do their daily work without reminders. Example given below.
https://www.mkewithkids.com/post/chore-charts-kids-free-printable-templates/
Life Application: We discussed in smaller groups with children about how they are doing with the tracker, what challenges they have and how to overcome the forgetfulness to fill the tracker. Teachers should be sending message individually to all the parents specific to each child. children who completed their tracker got stickers as a reward.
Link for printable tracker
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10J_AkKIoRJU3MCz2Ek4SIEqUmdkoPPya/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=114795113955382270768&rtpof=true&sd=true
1/21/24 Class summary:
We started the class with 3 OMS and 3 Sai Gayathri. We learnt the 5th stanza in Lingashtakam, reviewed our “Love is the way” bhajan and learnt a new bhajan” Govinda Gopala Prabhu Giridhari ” that the kids will be leading in the upcoming Sai Madhuram bhajan on Feb 4th.
We continued our theme duty and responsibility. We had an amazing interactive session and we learnt about taking care of our teeth through a story about a toad who gets a new set of teeth . We talked about how our teeth health is closely related to our heart health. We continued the discussion of how it’s not just enough to take care of teeth but our whole self and our surroundings also because swami has said “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. We summed up the class saying Our body is the temple and God dwells in our heart. So it is important to keep our temple(body and mind) clean.
Request to parents: Talk to kids and ask them about the “Toothy toad” story and the importance of personal cleanliness and hygiene. Involve them and encourage them to keep their room and house clean by giving them some duties.
1/14
We started the class with 3 OMs and Sai Gayathri followed . We practiced lingashtakam and learnt a new bhajan – “Love is the way, Love is the only way”
We continued with the theme of duty and focussed on Duty as a family member, and doing our part. We had a very nice interactive session. We talked about each of us have different role, Adults are either mom or dad at home, they are employee at workplace, customer when they go to the stores etc. Similarly children were asked if they too have different riles, they said yes – Student, Son/Daughter, Sister/Brother, Team player(in games) etc. Every role has different responsibilities. In the class we talked about what is their duty as a family member. We explained it through a role play by teachers in which a 3rd grader Anu does not do her duties at home after she is back from school. It was about the consequences of not doing your duty. Children listed down a lot of responsibilities at home which will help them and also is a way of showing their love to their parents as when do their job or help at home, it’s a big help for parents and their work becomes lesser.
Request to Parents: Please talk about what duties they do as a family member. Please also talk to them about Swami’s childhood life : https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01APR14/HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-01.htm, https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01JUN14/HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-04.htm
Life application discussion : We discussed in smaller groups with children about how they are doing with the tracker, what challenges they have and how to overcome the forgetfulness to fill the tracker. Teachers should be sending message individually to all the parents specific to each child
1/7
Topics for Quarter 1
- Duty – Be on Time
- Be a responsible family member, do your part
- Do not pass your responsibility to someone else
- Do your duty without being told
We started the class with 3 OMs and Sai Gayathri followed . We practiced lingashtakam and learnt a new bhajan – “Love is the way, Love is the only way”
We had a great interactive session on “Duty”. Children were asked to list different kind of jobs that adults do. They listed different occupations – teacher, doctor, chef, engineer etc. Surprisingly they thought being Mon and Dad is also a job :). Then we discussed how each of the profession has a duty to perform. Then they were asked if children also had duties. They answered an affirmative yes and they talked about different duties they have like studying, helping their sibling, picking up the mail from mailbox etc.
We narrated the story of little Satya as an ideal student. How Satya in his childhood was always on time to school, was organized with his books, uniform and was ready to go to school ahead of time. He was liked by students and teachers alike and he was a bright student and was always had answers for the questions teachers asked him
Then we discussed is it challenging to be on time for the school and children answered that they have to do 10 different things to get ready to school right from making their bag, charging their laptops, getting dressed etc. They also agreed that being on time feels good and they are peaceful when they reach ahead of time and ready for the class. they also get time to do their morning work at school
We agreed that we will take up the “BOT Challenge” (Being on Time Challenge) – for school and SSSE class. They will use the new activity in the tracker pasted in the book for tracking their challenge. Please encourage children to do it every day.
Request to Parents: Please talk about what duties you do as a parent/employee/spouse etc. Please also talk to them about Swami’s childhood life : https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01APR14/HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-01.htm, https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01JUN14/HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-04.htm
12/10
We started the class with 3 Oms and Sai Gayathri followed
In yesterday’s class we practiced for next Sunday’s Sai Madhuram bhajans to be sung by SSSE children in the main Bhajan hall. Please encourage children to practice at home as well
We also continued learning Lingastakam (1st stanza) in preparation for Shivtatri, coming up in March. Have posted the audio recording for the 1st stanza, please help children with word pronunciation and chanting.
We also took part in a service activity and made goodie bags, along with handmade cards, for senior citizens in a rehabilitation center. Hope children enjoyed it.
12/3
We practiced 2 bhajans for the upcoming Sai Madhuram bhajans on 12/17( please refer 3&4 below). We also started learning lingashtakam in preparation of Sivaratri in Feb, request you all to help children practice the first stanza before the next člass
we continued with the theme of God is our best friend. Started with questions of how do we feel when God is with us, are there times when we don’t feel confident or we feel scared like when we have to speak in front of a class or EOGs etc. We listened to a story of a child Gopal who considered Lord Krishna as his brother and called upon Him when he was scared to go to school. I Ultimately how Krishna helped him when he had to get a gift for his teacher as he couldn’t afford
Reference : https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/writings_prose_and_poems/the_story_of_boy_gopala.htm
We ended with a short quiz on “God is”
11/5
We practiced 4 bhajans for the Akhand bhajan(see the links below) and then had a fun quiz to wrap up this quarter. Children who missed it can play the quiz with parents. Here is the link to the quiz: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MRa2i2fZbbtTFfPYznWRHAoTpmIcLfKNzQdXNjNVsi4/edit
We started the class with 3 Oms and Sai Gayathri followed
This was followed by guided meditation where children imagined a flower blossoming petal by petal. Once the flower had blossomed, the children were to imagine the fragrance of the flower and how the memory of the fragrance goes with them wherever they go for the rest of the day.
We practiced Sai Madhuram Bhajans.
Following this there was a recap of the previous class about how Swami was a best friend in his younger years and the qualities of a best friend i.e. caring and sharing.
The class then discussed who they consider to be their best friend- parents, siblings, friends at school, friends in the neighborhood, or someone in a different state. We also discussed how we feel when we are with our best friend. Then the main question asked was ‘Is your best friend with you all the time- at every minute of the day?’ This was followed by a story about how Peter when he got into trouble- who did he think of and who came to save him from the prison. Link to story-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fcp0Q6FYcU . We learnt that God is the only friend who is always with us, guarding and protecting us, all other friends and family cannot be with us all the time , eg: when we go to school, our parents are not with us.
After the story the children engaged in a fun activity! Divided into groups of 5-6 students, 3 children became obstacles standing in a row, one child was blindfolded and another child helped navigate the blindfolded child through the ‘obstacles’. All the children changed roles and had their turn in being the blindfolded student, the guide and the obstacles. The lesson learned here is just like the guide helping the blindfolded child through obstacles, the same way God, like a best friend, hel[s navigate through all of life’s obstacles by constantly being by our side.
Parents are encouraged to talk to your children about this activity and gauge what they learned from it.
10/23/2023
Topic for today’s class: God is our best friend
We learnt about Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and saw pictures of Puttaparthi, Swami’s hospital , schools and colleges and water projects. After this, we played a quick game of Swami says and then, children watched a puppet show depicting “ God is our best friend” , explaining 3 stories from Swami’s childhood that showed what a wonderful friend he was . It also explained how we can make God, who is Omnipresent our best friend. Finally we made a friendship flower that says God is our best friend.
Note to Parents: If you have any personal experiences where you felt God as your friend, please share with your children.
Resources for the story:https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01JUN14/HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-04.htm
https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01AUG14/RADIOSAI-HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-08.htm
Life application:
The first activity is PRAYER- any prayer any time of the day. Use the innermost spiral to track the activity by coloring the sections that correspond to the date, with one color for YES have done it, and other color for NO haven’t done it.
The second activity isFinish what You Start – What this means is, you as parents please sit down with the child and decide any one responsibility that they have to complete from start to finish everyday. For example, complete your homework, put the toys away after playing, empty the dishwasher, make your beds, etc. Please write this one task at the bottom of the tracker. In the middle line of the circle please write the title- Finish What You Start. Now the children are set to track whether they complete the selected task everyday. This will be tracked in the middle circle. They can follow the same ‘yes’ and ‘no’ colors for it. Thank you for the partnership to develop good habits in the students! 🙏
We continued with the story of Ramayan— how Hanuman gets past Lankini, meets Vibhishana, meets Sita, converses with Sita, gets captured, his conversation with Ravana, sets Lanka on fire, conveys the whereabouts of Sita to Rama, building the bridge to cross the ocean, the battle between Rama and Ravana.
The purpose of narrating these stories is two fold, one is to create the experience of listening to the story by evoking the emotions and triggering the imagination and the second is to convey the message of the story across. Humility, respect, devotion, courage, intelligence of Hanuman, gentleness and strength of Sita, arrogance, wickedness and pride of Ravana, obedience, compassion, love and beauty of Rama are all some of the messages which the story itself reveals. Then we also discussed the message of Ramayan through Hanuman’s story. How he installed Rama in his heart, had faith in Rama’s strength and relied on it, made sincere and determined effort to accomplish Rama’s mission, faced the obstacles with intelligence, fought the enemies fearlessly.
We talked a little bit about how we can be like Hanuman and be confident, focused and fearless in our own tasks.
10/15/23
We approached today’s topic through the story of Ramayan, highlighting the role of Hanuman in crossing the ocean to find out the whereabouts of Sita. We talked about how Hanuman shows his deep devotion and unwavering faith in Rama and takes the leap to cross the ocean. How he carries out Rama’s task with absolute focus and dedication. We will continue with the story in the next class and talk about how Hanuman faces the obstacles fearlessly to accomplish Rama’s mission- all the while following the lord within.
We are also going to discuss how to apply the learnings from the story in our own lives.
Children also learnt a yoga pose called Hanuman pose.
Towards the end of the class we sang a Hanuman bhajan in praise of Hanuman’s devotion for Rama.
10/082023
Love is beyond the perception of the five senses. It is an emotion that one experiences in one’s heart. To bring home this message we engaged children in an interactive question answer style activity. By posing the question of which of the five senses — sound, touch, form, taste, smell — are associated with the five elements — Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space, we began to understand what are the senses that come into play with each of the elements. Earth is associated with all the five senses, for Water the sense of smell is dropped, for Fire the senses of smell and taste are dropped, for Air the senses of smell, taste and form are dropped, and for Space the senses of smell, taste, form and touch are dropped. In other words, we can perceive space only through sound.We then posed the question, how about Love. Since we can not understand love with any of the senses, can we say Love doesn’t exist? No, Love exists and we can feel Love in our hearts.
We then talked about Radha’s love for Krishna and narrated a story of how Krishna responds to her love.
Radha is someone who has Krishna in her thoughts and experiences Krishna’s love in heart all the time. Swami while narrating about Radha’s Love for Krishna said the following: Radha prayed to Krishna and said, “Oh Krishna! according to circumstances, maybe you have now taken the birth of a human being but it is not possible for anyone to say what form you will take or at what time. I only wish to become one with you and identify myself with you at all times.” We may ask how this is possible. Here is the reply. “If you become a flower, I will become a bee and go around you. If you become a tree, I will become a creeper and wind around you. If you become the endless sky, I will become a shining little star and be in you. If you become a mountain, I will become a small rivulet and flow close to you. If you become a big ocean, I will become a river and flow into you.” In this way, Radha prayed that she be given an opportunity to become one with the Lord.
In the story Radha happens to drink hot milk, first offering it to Krishna and Krishna protects her by taking up the burns on his feet.We reasoned out that when we think of god, god is also thinking of us, protecting us, guiding us. We can experience his love in our hearts.
Note to parents : In the Radha Krishna story we mentioned the name of one of the wives of Krishna, Rukmini. We asked the children to find out from you the name of Krishna’s second wife. (Sathyabhama)
09/24/2022
Topic for the class: God is everywhere
We started the class with three OMs followed by chanting of Sai Gayatri. Learned the bhajan- Om Shivaya Om Shivaya.
We asked the children, what comes to their mind when we say- God Is ……..
They have listed all the attributes of God with their spontaneous one word answers. We then engaged them with four different activities.
- Activity with sugar and water
- Pumping air into inflatable ball
- Flying paper planes
- Blowing soap bubbles
We sat down to learn more about what God is….. through these activities.
The sugar is in the form of sugar crystals. And we can see it. When mixed in water the sugar becomes formless and we cannot see it. But just because we cannot see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We can taste the sugar and experience its sweetness. In the same way God can exist both in form, whom we worship and without form whom we can experience.
Similarly the air which has no form takes the form of a balloon when we pump air into it. God can be both in form and formless states.
The paper plane flies through the air that is all around it- in front of it, behind it, below it and above it. (By the way, Children did talk about the aerodynamic principle behind flying a plane). In the same way God is all in front of us, behind us, below us above us, all around us.
The soap bubble has air in it and also air all around it, which is why it floats in air as long as it does. In the same way God is not only all around us but also within us. God is Everywhere!
We also watched a YouTube video of Uncle Lion’s Tales titled God is in Everybody, which had a similar message as learnt through activities.
Note to Parents:
We asked children to find out from you the other word for God is everywhere, which is God is Omnipresent. This can be your conversation starter and have fun learning what they learnt.
09/17/2023
Sairam dear parents, we had a wonderful SSSE session yesterday. It started with silent meditation and chanting the Sai Gayatri. This was followed by children learning Lord Shiva’s bhajan (link to bhajan). We then started with some fun icebreaker activities including ‘Pencil in the Jar’ where each child came up and picked up one pencil and introduce themselves to the class. This was followed by ‘A Great Wind Blows’ that took the children to 4 different corners of the room based on their daily habits, favorite hobbies, food etc. At the end, children worked collaboratively to come up with basic rules of conduct for themselves while classes are in session. They selected the right action when faced with disruptive scenarios, wrote them on paper, decorated it and put it all together on a poster board to form a colorful gamut of class rules! Three 3rd graders were randomly selected for class responsibilities including maintaining seating order, and ensuring children keep their belongings in the correct place when entering the classroom. We hope the children enjoyed the session while they settled down to the new year in Group 1. It is our endeavor to overtly and silently inculcate good values and habits throughout the year in a manner that children look forward to absorbing the teachings. We look forward to seeing them next Sunday.
3/19/2022
We started the class with 3 OMs, slokas and thumb meditation. We learnt Gayatri mantra
We learnt two new bhajans, which the children will sing during Sai Madhuram bhajans on April 16th
https://www.saimelodies.saigcregion3.org/Songs/Detail/1630
https://www.saimelodies.saigcregion3.org/Songs/Detail/1941
In this class we talked about how much swami gives importance to the feeling and the intention behind an action. We shared experiences of two students which beautifully shows how swami responds to the ‘bhava’ or the feeling with which one performs the action more than the action itself. These experiences also show how Swami showers his love, how he ever so gently corrects them to make improvements while accepting all imperfections and how he inspires them to take up challenges and perform to the best of their ability.
https://saisarathi.com/student-stories/art-from-the-heart/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdmiGEebGg
3/12/2023
In this class we did a recap of what we learnt in the previous class and learnt about the three R’s. Reduce Reuse and Recycle. We also talked about another R that could possibly precede the three R’s, which is Refuse. Refuse to use single-use-plastic. Since the way things are in the world at this point in time, where we can’t imagine life without plastic, our next course of action is to try and Reduce as much plastic as possible. And where possible to put the plastic to Reuse. Recycling should be the last resort and not by any means the first option. Because it takes a huge amount of energy and resources for recycling. And in spite of that it is estimated that only 9% of plastic gets recycled while the rest of the plastic ends up in landfills, incinerators or ocean and lakes. So there we go, all the reasons to be more aware and responsible about plastic use. And then there is upcycling, where we make something of value using recyclable materials
Activity: We did a DIY project of creating our own board game out of recyclable cardboard boxes. We will be spending some more time in the next class playing the board game. Hope children had fun doing it.
03/05/2023
In this class we shifted our focus from talking about responsibility towards oneself to responsibility towards the environment. We talked about one of the most pressing environmental issues that each of us can take control of— Plastic Pollution.
We talked about what are the various plastic items that we use in our everyday life, and where they would end up once they are disposed of. We talked about why plastic can pose great danger to the environment. We talked about how plastic pollution affects land ecosystems and marine life. We talked about the benefits of recycling and how it’s not nearly enough to reduce the effects of pollution. And in the end discussed some tips by which we can avoid the use of disposable plastic items.
Resources:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8
Activity:
As a fun activity we did a craft item using a plastic water bottle.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZrWYm4n9UI
Family corner:
Do talk to children more about plastic pollution and brainstorm the best eco friendly alternatives for plastic
02/26/2023
The theme of the class was integrity, doing things right even when no one is looking. Narrated a story about father and son who go for fishing during the fishing season and want to participate in a competition of who catches the biggest fish. The competition starts on a particular day and time and they can start catching the fish only after that. The father and son set out in the boat ahead of time to get prepared for it. The son while practising the fishing, catches a real big fish and is confident he will win the competition. When the father looks at his watch, it’s not yet time so asks him to leave it back into the water. The boy sees that no one is around and so wants to keep the catch so as to win the competition. Then the father explains why it’s important to listen to our inner voice and always do the right thing. The children were asked what they would do in the situation and finally all agreed that we should be true to ourselves and not cheat or lie.
Activity : We had a nice activity where we built the Tree of integrity, every student wrote in a “leaf what integrity meant to them.
Life application : Please talk to your children about the class – story and activity and share your own wisdom on what integrity means to you and examples from your own lives
Other reminders: Please work with children on their Sai Samarpan offering. Please sign up the children for Easwaramma day program
02/12/2023
At the beginning of the class we did our final practice for Sai Madhuram bhajans, accompanied by instruments tabla and harmonium played by group 4 students, Krishna and Vishu.
Last class when we were discussing whether or not everyone enjoys being responsible, some children expressed that they are very well aware of their responsibilities but sometimes don’t have the motivation to do them or find them to be boring. So we thought we could talk more about the attitude with which we approach our responsibilities.
We narrated a story titled “The Stone In The Road”. https://readwj.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/the-stone-in-the-road/
Disinterest, laziness, waiting for others to do the job, not putting our best effort are all obstacles that come in the way of being responsible. By enjoying what we do and making an effort believing that we can do it, we can overcome the obstacles.
We then did an activity ‘responsible or not’, where in out of 18 situations given, children got to decide if a particular action was responsible or not. For every yes or no answer they got to use a specific color to fill the pattern provided to them. In the end a specific shape will be revealed out of the pattern.
Other reminders: Please work with children on their Sai Samarpan offering. Next Sunday is bhajans by SSSE. Please plan accordingly
02/04/23
We started the class with prayers followed by silent sitting. We then learnt two new bhajans in preparation for Sai Madhuram bhajans— center bhajans which will be led exclusively by SSSE children on Feb 12th. Please note the date in your calendar.
Anand se bolo (Girls)
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/anand-se-bolo-jai-baba-jai
A temple in my heart (Boys)
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/temple-my-heart
In the class we focussed on how we should execute our responsibilities, what is the attitude we should have while doing our duties because not all the time the duties are interesting. We brought in the message through a story that we should think of how our acts can be helpful to others.Do the responsibility to the best of your ability and whenever possible think of how we could be of help to others. The story is about a king with four daughters. One day he calls all of them and gives a handful of wheat seeds and asks them to use it responsibly. The first daughter feds it to the birds, the second one preserves it in her jewellery box, the third mixes it with the rest of the wheat in the barn and the fourth one takes effort to reach out to the farmers and works with them to sow and the seeds and grow the plants. AFter a year, it’s ready for harvest. Then one day the king calls all of them back and asks them what they did. After hearing everyone, he is very happy with the fourth daughter whoused it to the welfare of others.
Moral and lesson: Think of the duty as “I get to do it” than “I have to do it”. This will help us to have the right attitude.
We did an activity where children traced their little hands and wrote 5 things they are responsiblefor
Family Corner: Take the discussion forward by talking to children on the theme and encourage them to make their own song on responsibility
Life application: Continue with smiley tracker.
1/29/23
We started the class with prayers followed by silent sitting. We then learnt two new bhajans in preparation for Sai Madhuram bhajans— center bhajans which will be led exclusively by SSSE children on Feb 12th. Please note the date in your calendar.
Anand se bolo (Girls)
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/anand-se-bolo-jai-baba-jai
A temple in my heart (Boys)
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/temple-my-heart
In continuation with the theme of responsibility, we looked at the responsibility from a different angle. “What if everybody did that?” , which is what if everyone did what they liked not being responsible. We went through a number of scenarios as in the book by the same title :: https://youtu.be/SD0apYFz5gg
We had a very good discussion and children responded with how it would be so chaotic and messy if everyone did not hold responsibility for what they are supposed t do. There were some funny examples like what if we don’t put the jacket in its place and everyone piled upon it, what if we threw straws in a restaurant etc. It was a fun learning for children to se the consequence of being irresponsible.
We had a fun activity to with it, boys and girls in separate groups were given hand full of coins and they had to pass it on to the next person in the circle and their responsibility was to not drop the coins. The message from this activity was that we have to carry out our responsibilities with lot of attention and care and think about others around us. Ended the class with closing prayers.
Family Corner: Take the discussion forward by talking to children on the theme-
Life application: Continue with smiley tracker.
1/22/23
We started the class with prayers followed by silent sitting. We then learnt two new bhajans in preparation for Sai Madhuram bhajans— center bhajans which will be led exclusively by SSSE children on Feb 12th. Please note the date in your calendar.
Anand se bolo
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/anand-se-bolo-jai-baba-jai
A temple in my heart
https://sairhythms.sathyasai.org/song/temple-my-heart
In this class we introduced a new sub topic, Responsibility, under the main topic Right Conduct. We discussed the aspect of helping the family through the stories of Krishna and swami. We talked about how no job is less important or more important, but what is important is the attitude to help and willingness to contribute.
Here is the link for swami’s story
https://archive.sssmediacentre.org/journals/vol_12/01AUG14/RADIOSAI-HIS_STORY_COMIC-part-08.htm
We then had a fun activity on organizing a cluttered space. The idea for the activity is that we will create a cluttered scene with books of different sizes, pens, pencils, pen holders, book bins, plastic boxes and lids, small towels, soft toys, labels, swami’s picture etc. Form two groups -boys group and girls group and ask them to organize the clutter in the best way possible.
Take away: A place for everything, everything in its place.
By putting things in place we are helping out our family and keeping our home organized.
Ended the class with closing prayers.
Family Corner: Take the discussion forward by talking to children on the theme- A place for everything and everything in its place.
Encourage children to come up with creative ways to keep their space organized.
Life application: Continue with smiley tracker.
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Class of 01/15/23 Last week we wrapped up our lessons on the topic of Truth. From next week onwards we will be learning on the topic of right conduct. This class was dedicated to learn about prayer and the power of prayer. We began the discussion by asking children a few questions in general about prayer, such as who is their favorite god and why, what comes to their mind when they think of god, what is their favorite prayer or bhajan, how do they feel after prayer….. We then shared an analogy of how prayer creates the power and potential in us to attract the magnet of God’s grace and God’s love. We also shared a story that talks about the importance of faith when praying to God. https://sathyasai.us/education/story/god-is-immanent-in-all-the-living-beings We then decorated prayer cards as an activity. Please encourage children to write their favorite prayer on the card and use it as a reminder for doing their morning and evening prayers. Family corner: Just a thought to ruminate on in the context of prayer. Swami says, just as we can achieve anything by constant practice, whether it is walking, eating, eating, reading, singing, in the same way even remembering God ( Bhagawath Chintana) should also be taken up as a practice. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NU4bnGt7ptc Life application: Continue the smiley tracker. Class of 01/08/23 Started the class with 3 Aums, Sai Gayatri, Saraswati sloka followed by silent sitting. In the story session we narrated the story titled ‘Lie Monster’. https://youtu.be/WMWJ5Of9RLE. Talked about the importance of speaking truth and being honest. Discussed on the concepts – Truth is God and Truth alone wins (satyameva Jayate). We then conducted a quiz based on all the stories narrated so far. We divided the entire class into four teams and none of the teams missed an answer, so all of them are winners. Quite impressive! We also discussed submissions for Sai Samarpan magazine. More details will follow soon, but for now please encourage children to start thinking about their creative contributions that they would like to offer through the magazine. December 4th and December 11th Updates for last two classes Started the class with prayers followed by silent sitting. In the first class after thanksgiving break we noticed that very few children in the class have been sincere with the life application activity. As mentioned before this is a journal style activity where we mark each day with a tick or a smiley when we perform the activity, which is prayer both in the morning after waking up and in the night before going to bed. If forgotten, we mark it as a X. But it’s important that we journal it in both situationsh. The intention is to get children into the routine of morning and evening prayer. Prayer could be in the form of silent sitting, chanting a sloka, or just thinking of god asking for guidance and saying thanks. So we discussed with the class what’s stopping them from doing their prayers. Some of the answers were that they are tired and hence can’t pray, they are in a rush and have no time for prayer, they are hungry in the morning and so can’t pray or just don’t remember to pray. Makes sense and all are valid reasons. We discussed briefly the solution to get over the hurdles. We also had a question as to how do we know God is everywhere. As continuation of the above discussion, we talked about the two aspects of god- form and the formless. To give an analogy- if we were to describe Sugar, we can say it is white in color and feels like sand. But if we were to describe what sugar tastes like, we can’t quite describe its sweetness. One has to eat it and experience the sweetness to really know how it tastes. In the same way God with a form can be described as such and such but the formless aspect of God, who is everywhere, we can only know and feel through experience. We then read a poem written by Swami titled ‘Think of Me’- which essentially says how we can experience God and think of him at every step of the way in day to day life. We also talked about how thinking of God at all times- good times and not so good times- is in itself a prayer. But we emphasized that thinking of God as the first thought after waking up and thinking of God as the last thought before going to bed sets the day for us on a good note. So please continue talking to children on similar lines. Also encourage and help them with the December journal/ smiley tracker. We have had a second session on our main topic truth and honesty. Narrated the classic story ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ and discussed the important takeaway that if we don’t mean what we say and are not true to our word, we would lose everyone’s trust. We then played fun games towards the end of both classes one on each day- ‘truth tag’ and ‘button button where is my button’. Both are games related to truth and honesty. Class of 11/06/2022
We started with invocatory prayers -Sai Gayatri and Saraswati sloka followed by silent sitting. Learned two bhajans which will be group1 offerings during Swami’s birthday celebrations on 19th November.
Aao Aao Prabhu Aao Aao Mujhey Aakar Darsha Dikhao [ Hey Govinda … ] Sathya Dharma Shanthi Prema Swaroopa Aao Prabhu Aao Aao [ Mujhey Aakar … ]
Srinivasa Sri Venkatesha Raghukula Tilaka Raghu Ramachandra Sita Pathey Sri Ramachandra [ Adi Shesha ] We then had a story session. We narrated the story that swami had written at the age of 12, for a school drama – Cheppinattu chestara, Do you do as you say. https://www.sssgc-usa.org/1008sadhana/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/sathyam-sivam-sundaram-volume-1-1.pdf– page 38-40. We then talked about how the little boy in the story finds it utterly confusing and confounding when his mother, father and guru preach and teach one thing and fail to put into action what they say. Just like the boy in the story, children in the class also felt that there is no point in just learning and saying things unless they are followed by putting into action, with honesty and sincerity. We will take this concept further and talk about unity of thought, word and deed in the upcoming classes. Family corner Since Swami’s birthday is coming up, it would be a good time to introduce Swami’s Childhood stories as bedtime stories. Here is a link for ‘His Story Comics’ audiobook. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtCj7TZwRZZthQvEJdqkRwcLMbmiVBhno Life application Thank you for all your efforts for consistently encouraging children with the life application- prayer in morning soon after waking up and before going to bed. Go smiley 😃! One other thing we started talking about on the importance of prayer is that our mood in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day, and prayer in the morning helps us by giving a good start. Q10/30/22 We started with Omkar and Sai Gayatri followed by two bhajans which were led by students themselves We discussed life application activity and smiley tracker and talked about how it is important to do the activity sincerely everyday and to make it into a habit. Children came up with ideas about how to set reminders in case we forget. All the teachers are very impressed with the sincerity with which children tracked their smiley tracker, rooting for more smileys and less sad faces. Keep it going Parents!! Best way is by being a role model. All the teachers have their smiley tracker too…. We then had a storytelling session by the children. Enjoyed every bit of their narration. Congratulations to all the parents and children who were part of it. We encourage all other children who could not join in this time to participate in the next class. We then shared a Chinese folk tale story titled ‘The Empty Pot’ written by Demi. This story again brings out the message loud and clear that it is always valuable and rewarding to speak truth and be honest. And finally in the spirit of Halloween we played some fun Halloween games. Family corner For our next class we have asked children to share their favorite short story on the topic relating to truth and honesty. This would be a great family discussion topic. Please indulge your children and have fun deciding the short story. Life application Smiley tracker 10/23/22 After last week’s break the group 1 troop is back, exploring the truth about ‘Truth and Honesty’. We started with Omkar and Sai Gayatri followed by two bhajans. We learnt a new sloka- sarasvati namastubhyaṃ varade kāmarūpiṇi . vidyārambhaṃ kariṣyāmi siddhirbhavatu me sadā .. Salutation to you, O Saraswathi, grantor of blessings and embodiment of all wishes, I am getting inducted to studies, may there be fulfillment for me forever. We then had a very interesting and insightful discussion on prayer. We pondered over questions like- why do we need to pray, is prayer important, how do we pray, when do we pray…. We then talked about one of the aspects of prayer which was taken from ‘Conversations with Sai’ by John Hislop- Hislop: But I had thought that God knows each problem, and that if it were appropriate to remedy the trouble, God would do so without being asked. Swami: No! It is your duty to ask God. Words must be said, and the words must correspond to the thought. The thought must be put into a true word. It is true that Divinity knows all. But He requires that the true word be said. The mother may know that to maintain life, the child needs food. But the milk is given only when the child cries for it. We’ve said that if God knows everything and he is in us and we are in him then why do we need to pray. Because prayer allows us to put out our thoughts into words and then allows us to make the right effort to put our words into action. Our efforts combined with God’s grace will bring us success. We also drew columns in our note book for our spiritual diary, which we titled as Smiley tracker. Needless to say our first spiritual activity/life application for next week is Prayer. We have asked children to do morning and evening prayers as their daily activity. And we are going to track our activity with a smiley or with a tick. If not done with a sad emoji or with a X. Story session Our attempt so far, with every session, has been to reinforce the concept of truth and honesty with different stories. So here we are with yet another story, this time from Ramayana, which teaches us the importance of being true to one’s word. The story is the part when Bharata along with the army goes to the forest to see Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. The 3 queens, sage Vasistha and also the citizens of Ayodhya accompany them. They all are so excited to see their kind hearted prince Rama. They are thrilled to see Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. No one cares about the discomfort of being in the forest as their only goal was to be in Rama’s presence. Bharata, approaches Rama and is full of remorse and pleads to return to Ayodhya. He says he will serve the exile time in the forest instead of Rama. The three queens also request Rama to come back. Now that the king of Ayodhya is no more, they have to enthrone the next king immediately and all of them want Rama to be the king. Rama is very compassionate and he understands their good intentions and the love they all have for him but he says he cannot go against the word he has given to his father. All the hardships of the forest life does not deter him even a small bit. He lovingly declined their request and explains that it is his duty to keep up the word he gave to his father. 10/09/22 We started the class with 3 Om’s followed by Sai Gayathri. Children practiced the bhajan on Lord Ganesha Ganesha Sharanam, Ganesha Sharanam (2) you Are Always Protecting Me You Are Always Guiding Me … Om Saiesha Sharanam, Saiesha Sharanam (2) You Are Always Protecting Me
You Are Always Guiding Me … OmWe had yet another wonderful and exciting session. As part of our ongoing discussion on honesty and truthfulness we narrated yet another iconic story from Indian mythology, a story very often narrated by Swami in his discourses, the story of Harischandra. This is a story that sets the standard for the rest of the world on what it means to be truthful at all times and what it takes to stick to one’s word at all costs.We then posed the question to children, if it is possible to be truthful and honest at all times. Taking it further we gave them role play scenarios with open ended questions wherein they had to choose one behavior over the other and give a reason for their choice. There was a great creative talent on display among all the children. Overall it was a fun-filled activity. Please indulge your child and find out more about the role play.Resources: For story:Chidren’s story book- ‘Amar chitra katha- Harischandra’
https://saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/snippet/harishchandras-strict-adherence-truth For Activity: Made up scenarios from everyday experiences Family corner: We encourage you to have a friendly conversation with your child about why it is important to be truthful at all times. Share some of your stories/experiences of how being truthful or not being truthful made a difference in your life. Life application: We haven’t yet spoken to children about the life application and the journal part of it. So we will defer it to the next class. But please keep the dinner table conversations going on these topics. 10/02/22 After two weeks of fun filled icebreaker and team building activities, we slowly eased into our regular class session. We started the session with prayers and bhajan. Discussed a little bit on the dos and don’ts of class etiquettes and what we should do to form a strong group 1 team. 2nd October is also celebrated as Gandhi Jayanthi and we couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate day to start the session on the topic of ‘Truth and Honesty’. We took this opportunity to present to children about Gandhiji, what he stood for and how he came to be known as Mahatma Gandhi. We then explained that he was but an ordinary boy but grew up to become an extraordinary man because of the life lessons he learnt right from his childhood. We narrated two beautiful stories from his life relating to truth and honesty. One story was about how his mother Putlibai instilled in Gandhiji the value of truth. The other story was about how Gandhiji realizes the power of honesty by confessing a theft he has done before his father. We summarized that there is great strength in speaking truth, truth makes us fearless and when we speak truth we earn the love and respect from people around us. We then played a fun activity ‘have I ever’, where they needed to answer a bunch of questions with all honesty. Resources: Swami’s story on Gandhiji from one the ladies day discourses Children’s book- I am Gandhi Book written by Gandhi- My Experiments with Truth, page 42. Family corner: What comes to your mind when you hear the name Gandhi. Please share with your child some of your memories, experiences or stories surrounding Gandhi. We would love to hear from them in next class Life application: We will start the life application activity from next week. 9/25/2022 Outdoor activity with Pre SSSE 9/18/2022 Then, we had a round of self introduction and got to know more about each other by playing a fun game ‘what’s your favorite?’ finally we played another interesting game called build your tower. Children were divided into small groups and each group had to build a tower using materials (water cups, yogurt containers, books, CD covers etc.) given to them , then we discussed about what they learnt from this activity, what worked and what they could have done better. It was a very interesting discussion and as always children came up with wonderful answers like team work, working together, listening to everyone’s ideas, perseverance, patience. we also distributed note books which they will have to bring every class along with a pencil. |
