Exercise Corner | A Butterfly Smile

Parts of speech – Quiz time:

Reading Comprehension

1. Why did Mary stop coming to the school for a few days?

Mary stopped coming to school for a few days because she fell down while riding her cycle and fractured her right leg. A plaster cast was applied to hold the fractured leg in place to heal. Mary had to rest until she recovered, and hence stopped coming to the school.

2. Choose the meaning of the word ‘dejected’ from the below options:

b) Sad

3. Mention Kavya’s two reasons for being excited about going to Mary’s house.

Kavya was very excited to go to her friend’s house because of two reasons. Firstly, she would get to see her friend Mary. Secondly, being new to the city, she had never travelled in the metro. To visit Mary’s place, she and her mother will have to use the metro for the very first time.

4. What did Kavya know about the metro trains in the city?

Kavya knew that the metros in Bengaluru ran smoothly without making much noise. She also got to know from her friends that metros have doors that open and close automatically and are fully air-conditioned.

5. Choose the meaning of the word ‘spellbound’ from the below options:

a) Fascinated by something

GK Challenge

Colour the pictures below and write down the names of the stages in a butterfly’s life cycle in the blanks provided:

What is the meaning of the term ‘Migration’?

Did Kavya’s family migrate to the city? Why?

For this question, check if students have understood the actual reason Kavya’s family moved to the city. The reason they moved to the city is that the sand near the rivers are taken away, which leads to the river getting dry and lesser rainfall. Due to the water shortage, Kavya’s family did not have enough water to farm. Since their livelihood was farming, they did not have any other choice but to migrate to the city.

Mud-puddling

Read through what mud-puddling means with the children. Explain the concept and the science behind it to the students. You can even play a relevant video by scanning the QR code given in the book. Additionally, you can engage students by asking them if they’ve seen mud-puddling, or even ask them to share any butterfly facts they know. You can introduce them to butterfly watching, which is the concept of watching and studying butterflies similar to that of bird watching, and nudge interested students to take it up as a hobby. They can even optionally maintain a register where they record their studies and findings!

Think & Write

1. Have you ever been in a new setting (for example, new school/class) or moved to a new neighbourhood? How did you feel on your first day, in a new setup, with a new group of people?

Children might go through a rollercoaster of emotions in different scenarios. It always helps them process it better if they are able to recognise why they feel a certain way. Being in a completely new environment around people they are not already familiar with, is an experience most children dread. So in this exercise, we aim to help children reflect on how this scenario makes them feel and why they feel so. If children do not remember how they felt in such a scenario, ask them to predict how they would feel and write it down. In their responses, check if they have actually predicted that they would feel uncomfortable or lonely and check for good language (spellings, punctuations, grammar, sentence structure, etc.). Reassure them that even if they are in such a position, it’s just their fear and they would feel better once they approach people and making friends or talk to them.

2. What will happen if all the sand near our rivers and lakes is taken away for construction activities?

Sand mining is currently one of the biggest ecological disasters in India. River sand is preferred for construction because it requires less processing and has better quality than other sources. But it comes at a huge cost to the river and those living around it. Excessive sand mining can alter the river bed, force the river to change course, erode banks and lead to flooding. It also destroys the habitat of aquatic animals and micro-organisms besides affecting groundwater recharge.

For this exercise, you can choose to give students time to do some research online before they write their answers. In their answers, check if the above details are covered, and also check for good language (spellings, punctuations, grammar, sentence structure, etc.). Check if students have understood the problem correctly and make sure you have a small discussion where you explain the problem in detail, to stress on its importance.

Activity Corner

A Butterfly Gift

There is always a special place among children for whoever became their first friend in a school or class. Ask children to make any gift around the theme of butterflies. If could something as simple as including a butterfly drawing in a greeting card to making an origami paper butterfly. Give them suggestions from the internet if they are not sure how to proceed. Give them a specific number of days to complete making the gift and ask them to display each present in the class. Then, ask the students to give the gift to their friend and thank them for the friendship that they share!

Here’s A Letter!

Firstly, set up a post box in your classroom. This can be a simple box or a box in the shape and colour of a usual post box where students can deposit letters for the rest of the class or even to you! Instruct students that nobody can take letters out of the post box other than the designated person. You can either deliver the letters by yourself or choose a representative from the class to deliver them. To ensure that children have not written in languages other than English, turned in blank pages or used any offensive language in their letters, you can choose to give it a glance before distributing to the recipients.

Ask students to pick any student whom they haven’t spoken to much in their very own class. Then, ask them to write a friendly letter in which they could talk about themselves to introduce them and also ask questions to gain knowledge about the other person. After a given period, students need to submit the letters to the class post box in a properly addressed envelope. Finally, deliver the letters to the respective people. This doesn’t have to be a one-time activity. You can even make this a weekly activity to increase the habit of writing and to impart knowledge about letter writing to the students!