My Prayer
- Gurus to explain the sloka with the complete meaning.
- Gurus to write down on the board – the key words from the meaning of the sloka – example Consort of Uma, Divine Guru, Adorned with Snakes, Lord whose three eyes are Sun, Moon and Fire etc.
- Then ask one boy to role play Lord Shiva (Gurus may choose to dress up one child as Lord Shiva) or place a picture of Lord Shiva in the class.
- Other Children individually or in groups of two depending on the strength of the class can write their own prayer incorporating most of or all the key words given on the board. Example of such a prayer could be – “I bow down to the Consort of Uma, Divine Guru, Lord of all the creatures, Adorned with Snakes. Please bestow bliss.”
- The children are then asked to learn their respective prayers and enact this prayer one by one or group by group by chanting it with devotion while offering a flower to Lord Shiva.
Debriefing
This is meant to be a fun exercise to build up devotion for Lord Shiva and also understand the values the Lord represents. Since this activity is for Group 1 third year children, it can be made little challenging by giving points to the different teams according to how well they chant their prayer and how many key words from the original prayer they have incorporated in their version.
After this exercise all the children should chant this prayer and the meaning together in class.