• January 2, 2021

On 25th Dec, KiddyPi organized a unique online event of Creative Writing for kids and teens. On the day, Gita Jayanthi and Vaikunta Ekadashi were celebrated across India. So we decided to introduce participants to carefully curated topics, inspired by the wisdom of the book of centuries, Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

The budding writers also got writing cues from the festival of Vaikunta Ekadashi. The event was a combination of creativity, fun and wisdom.

The Prelude to the Event

We talked a little about the months (masa or masam in Sanskrit) of Indian lunar calendar. The reason being to highlight the significance of Dhanurmasam.

The middle of December to the middle of January falls under Dhanurmasam (This year, Dhanurmasam began on 16th Dec, 2020 and will continue up to 14th Jan, 2021).

We Gita Jayanthicelebrate and Vaikunta Ekadashi in Dhanurmasam.

Traditionally, all the masams are dedicated to the worship of a particular God or Goddess. Dhanurmasam is considered to be a very auspicious month for the devotees of Lord Vishnu.

This month is dedicated to devotion.

Online Events Held by KiddyPi

We had organized two events for kids and teens on this occasion. On the next day (i.e. on 26th Dec.) there was a Coding Event.

We will briefly describe the Creative Writing Event in this blog. In a sequel to this, we will talk about the Coding Event.

Gita Jayanthi: Creative Writing Event

The Creative Writing event began at 11:00 am and ended at 12:30 pm. There were 2 separate batches based on two different age groups of participants.

The junior group was attended by 6 to 10 years old participants. Whereas, the senior group was attended by 11 to 16 years old participants.

What we aimed for were as follows:

• a) To highlight the importance of Vaikunta Ekadashi, Gita Jayanthi and Dhanurmasam.
• b) To engage participants in creative writing assignments inspired by our heritage.
• c) To balance the fun element with wisdom.

Every participant enjoyed all the 3 assignments. The assignments were as follows:

1) The 1st assignment was a reading comprehension and enquiry-based fun activity. There are many interesting facts associated with Vaikunta Ekadashi. We have gathered a few of them and created a presentation.

Participants read them aloud from the presentation. They had answered a few queries that we picked up from our conversation. They particularly loved the legend behind Vaikunta Ekadashi.

The question and answer session was an impromptu activity that became an instant hit with the participants.

2) The 2nd assignment was Vaikunta Ekadashi special- food review. Though devotees keep a fast on Vaikunta Ekadashi, children and teens shouldn’t strictly follow the practice. The metabolic rate of children and adolescents is high. This is the development stage of their body when they need the right proportions of balanced diet, at regular intervals.

So instead of focusing upon fasting, we gave the 2nd assignment of the event, a yummilicious twist! In the first section of the assignment, we prepared a list of some lip-smacking food dishes for Ekadashi. We told the participants to prepare their meal plans. They were free to pick from the list, any number of food dishes of their choice.

In the next section of the assignment, the participants had to write their food reviews. They could also give stars out of five, as per their reviews.

3) In the third section of the assignment, participants compared their reviews with each other.

If you were Shri Krishna in his childhood and you had to pen down your emotions to your friend, whom you were missing a lot, how would it be? Sounding interesting? Our participants too found it so. Some of them wore the shoes of li’l Shri Krishna. It was a letter and essay writing activity.

The assignment was differentiated according to 2 age groups.

The junior age group participants had to write a letter as li’l Shri Krishna. Here’s the imaginary scenario:

Baala Krishna is staying in the Gurukulam of Guru Sandipani. He is missing His friend who is staying in Gokula. He writes a letter to His friend, penning down His emotions. How He is missing their playtime on the banks of the Yamuna river, and many of such instances!

Our li’l participants were bundles of talents. We narrated some of the popular stories of Shri Krishna. How He was a natural leader right from His childhood days! How He used to lead His group of friends to help out the people of Vrindavan during the moments of crisis, etc!

Children got cues from these stories that helped them to write a letter. We told them to refer the letter to their best friend.

Both the letter and essay writing activities kept the senior group of participants enthusiastically engaged. The seniors could pick from a few choices as are followed:

• a) To write an essay about how Vaikunta Ekadashi/ Janamashthami was celebrated then and now.
• b) To write a letter to a friend who is staying abroad and is very curious to know about Vaikunta Ekadashi/ Diwali.

Every participant completed this assignment within stipulated time of 30 minutes.

Weekend online events and workshops at KiddyPi spark young minds with creativity, innovation and life skills in a fun way. Take a look at our upcoming events.

We also offer a wide range of online courses on STEM/ STEAM and STREAM education for the 6 to 16 years old learners. Drop us a mail at kiddypi@subhanu.com or WhatsApp/ call us at +91- 98453 49742 to know more.

Stay tuned to read all the fun and learning activities of the Gita Jayanthi- Coding Event in the sequel.

To know more,

Call/WhatsApp:

+91-98453-49742

+91-98457-22549

Or Email Us:

kiddypi@subhanu.com

Have a great life!