Online Children Dharma Class – A Day of Gratitude and Creativity
The 24th of October 2021 marks our second Children Dharma Class for the fourth semester. Three teachers, Manisha, Thomas, and Lucy, taught the class. At the start of the session, the chanting of Ode to Triple Gem 三寶頌 was initiated by Thomas. It was also fascinating to see a few students trying to sing certain verses by themselves.
Teacher Manisha continued the class by showing her well-prepared and colourful PowerPoint that reminded students of our 3 Goodness and 4 Givings values. She deliberately left a few for the children to fill in, and amazingly they all got it right! She then explained that each student needs to pick out one value closely related to daily lives to elaborate later. This week’s value was “speak good words,” she gave a few examples of good words, followed by a variety of different answers by the students.
Teacher Lucy then continued with the class with a fun guess and draw game. Daily items, events, and food such as a basket of eggs, toothbrush & toothpaste, and zoom classes were drawn for students to guess. Students participated enthusiastically and in an engaging manner. Five students volunteered themselves to draw while others were guessing. Teacher Thomas said that the draw and guess games had worked very well, and it triggered the student to think showcased their drawings skill. Teacher Lucy expressed that it’s always joyful to see students be innovative, motivated, and creative.
Before Teacher Manisha took over the next part of the class, we had the students write down three things they were grateful for today, which shows and reminds us of the importance of having gratitude. Afterwards, a video of the dog named Pip trying to help blind people cross the road and complete their daily tasks was played. The students learned to stay determined when facing challenges and hardships before achieving the dream. The session was ended with Kahoot! to reinforce the learning of the children.
Collecting points through winning Kahoots, answering questions, and suggesting ideas made the students very excited and engaged throughout the session. Teacher Manisha expressed that it’s very nice to see them learning and using good words in their daily lives, such as “please” and “thank you.” At the end of the session, a warm and fun reward ceremony that involved prize-giving visuals was presented to the students to encourage their participation in the class.