Dedicated to our Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

Dedicated to our Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

Hari OM!

This blog is designed to serve as a library of art and craft ideas for our balavihar children. We hope that you will find this site useful. Please feel free to use any (or all) of the projects you see posted here. We ask, however, that you refrain from publishing (in any form) these templates, instructions, and photographs, unless you receive written permission. These projects are being provided for your own personal use or use in the Balavihar classroom.


All art projects are categorized by 1) material, 2) use, and 3) type. For example a Diya greeting card would be under the labels "Paper" and "Cards," while a Lord Hanumaan puppet would be found under "Paper," "Toys and Puppets" and "Gods and Goddesses." Most materials for these projects can easily be purchased from any local craft store — and some projects involve materials you already have laying around the house.


We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas about any of the information you find on this site. And, if you have any projects that you would like to share with other seviks/sevikas, please send a picture of the finished piece, as well as instructions on how to make the project – so we can post it.


Happy Creating!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

"C is for Cleanliness"

This is a fun project that young children love to do. We use this in our Kindergarten Alphabet Safari Class as the activity project for "C is for Cleanliness." It's really exciting to watch the children's expressions as they discover what dwells within us once we do all the necessary work to clean our minds and hearts.

Materials:
• Image of God/Goddess (we used old outdated postcards that were discarded.)
• Self-adhesive lamination sheets
• Dry Erase Crayon/Marker
• Pair of Scissors

Directions:
1. Cut the image down to size and then place it in the lamination sheet.

2. Once you have smoothed down the lamination sheet and gotten rid of any air bubbles, take a pair of scissors and trim away the excess until you have a nice border around your card. It's important to leave at least 1/4" lamination border around the image so that the edges don't separate.

3. Take a black Dry Erase Crayon/Marker and coat the entire card. Everything should come off easily with a paper towel. And if you want it sparkling clean, then the child can finish the job with a hand wipe. 



Origami Spinning Top

This is the toy that we use in our Kindergarten class to emphasize the Alphabet Safari lesson "E is for Enthusiasm."  Many 5 years olds are not able to make these, but they certainly get excited when they see the teacher do it! We like to bring one in for each of the children to take home... after we have our spin-off contest, of course.

Below is a wonderful YouTube video that takes you through every step in making this easy spinning top. Have fun!