NCERT Solutions Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School a Happy Place

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 5 · THE WORLD AROUND US

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 4: Our School—A Happy
Place

NCERT Textbook — Our Wondrous World

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

55 – 72 24 62 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 74 pages

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 5 · THE WORLD AROUND US · OUR WONDROUS WORLD

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 4: Our School—A Happy
Place
Chapter 4 of Our Wondrous World closes Unit 2, Health and Well-being. Aasha and Mohit walk to school
talking about why school is their happy place, and Aasha says she wants to make hers a green school. Their
whole class then goes looking — at waste, water, electricity, trees, traffic and the way people behave with one
another. The chapter carries 6 Activities, four Discuss boxes, seven Write boxes, a Find out task, the School
Explorer Teams section, a fire-safety drill and the closing Let us reflect set of 9 items. There is no separate
exercise at the end — the questions are spread right through the chapter.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Our Wondrous World (Class 5) 55 – 72

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

24 62

MEDIUM

English

In-text Questions — Pages 55–56
Green School

Q1 “What is a green school?” Mohit asked.

A green school is a school that takes care of the earth while it teaches. Aasha's brother told
her that it does four things.

1. It manages its waste. Waste is separated into wet and dry. Nothing useful is thrown away.
2. It saves water. Taps are closed tight, leaks are repaired, and rainwater is collected instead of
being let into the drain.
3. It uses electricity carefully. Lights and fans are switched off in an empty room. Classrooms
use daylight from the windows.
4. It keeps the campus green. More trees and plants are planted — and, just as important,
they are looked after until they grow.

Why the last part matters: Planting a sapling takes ten minutes. Keeping it alive
takes two years of watering. A green school is not the school that plants the most
saplings. It is the school where the saplings that were planted are still growing.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Notice one thing: not one of these four needs money. They need students who
notice a dripping tap, a light left on, or a bin that nobody is using — and who then
do something about it.

Q2 What about our school? Can we make it a green school too?

Yes. Any school can become a green school, and the students can start it themselves. You
do not have to wait for new buildings or new machines.
Here is how a class can begin, step by step.

1. Look first. Walk around the school with your eyes open. Write down what you see — a
leaking tap, a fan running in an empty room, litter behind the classroom.
2. Pick one thing. Do not try to fix everything at once. Choose the problem your class can
actually solve.
3. Make a small team. Give it a name and a job — Water Watchers, Waste Warriors, Green
Guardians.
4. Take the smallest useful action. Two extra dustbins. A list of leaking taps given to the
office. One tree per class, with a watering roster.
5. Tell everyone. A chart on the notice board, or two minutes in the morning assembly.
6. Check again after a month. Is the tap still dripping? Is the bin being used? If not, ask why
and try a different way.

Why students can do this well: Children are in every corner of the school all day.
Teachers and the principal are in a few rooms. So the students are the ones who
actually see the leaking tap behind the toilet block and the litter under the staircase.

Q3 Their teacher Anupam, who is teaching them ʻThe World Around Usʼ asked, “I
enjoyed your discussion, I want to know how will you begin this?”

We would begin by looking carefully at our own school and writing down exactly what we
find. You cannot fix a problem until you know where it is.
Sample answer: “Sir, we will begin like this. First, we will walk around the whole school and
draw a map of it — the building, the playground, the garden, the water tanks, the gate and the
paths. Then we will make five School Explorer Teams. Each team will take one job: water,
electricity, waste, greenery and traffic. Each team will decide beforehand what it is going to
observe, so that we do not just wander about. We will take one week, and each team will write

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

down what it finds — how many taps leak, how many bins there are, which room is hottest, how
many trees we have. Then we will sit together in class and share our findings. After that we will
choose the two or three problems we can solve ourselves this term, and make a plan for each
one.”

Why 'look first' is the right first step: Guessing wastes effort. A class might spend
a whole month planting saplings when the school's biggest problem was three taps
running all night. Observing tells you where your effort will do the most good.
Scientists work this way too — observe, record, then act.

Tip for your team: Decide what you will observe before you go out, and carry a
notebook. Write numbers, not feelings — “4 taps dripping”, not “some taps
dripping”. Numbers convince people.

Activity 1 — Page 56
Make a map of your school

ACTIVITY

Q1 Walk around your school and create its map. Include the main building, playground,
garden, water tanks and other key features. Do not forget the school gate and the
pathways that connect the buildings.

A school map is a drawing of your school as a bird would see it from above. It is not a
picture of the building from the front. Everything is drawn as it sits on the ground.
How to make it — 7 steps

1. Walk the whole school first, without drawing. Go all the way round the boundary, then
through the middle. Notice what is where.
2. Start at the gate. Draw the gate at the bottom edge of your page. Everyone knows where
the gate is, so it makes a good starting point.
3. Draw the biggest thing next. That is usually the main building. Draw it as a rectangle,
roughly the right shape.
4. Add the other big things around it — playground, garden, assembly ground, toilet block,
water tanks, kitchen or mid-day-meal shed, bicycle stand.
5. Join them with the paths. Draw the actual walking routes between the buildings. Do not
forget the path from the gate to the assembly ground.
6. Label everything in clear letters. Add a north arrow — hold your hand out towards where
the Sun rises; north is then on your left.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

7. Make a key (legend) in one corner: a green circle for a tree, a blue square for a water tank, a
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red dot for a fire extinguisher, and so on.
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A sample school map. Thick grey lines are the pathways. Yours will look different — that is the point.
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gl a a map, and not a list: A list tells you what your school has. A map tells you
a where it is. That is what you need. Once the map is in front of you, you can see that
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the only dustbin is near the office and there is none near the playground — which is
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Use your map again later: Mark on it, in red, every leaking tap your Water Watchers
find. Mark in green every place where a new tree could go. In one look, the class can
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then see the whole problem and the whole plan.
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Write — Page 57
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

My school, in my own words

WRITE

Q1 What do I really like about my school?

This is about your own school, so your answer will be your own. A good answer names one real
thing and then says why it matters to you. One clear example is better than a long list.
Sample answer: “What I really like about my school is the big neem tree in the corner of the
playground. We sit under it during the lunch break and eat our tiffin together, and it is cool
there even in May. My friend Rukhsar and I saw a woodpecker on it last month. I also like my
class teacher, because when I could not do the division sums she did not scold me — she sat
with me and did two sums slowly with me, and after that I could do the rest myself. And I like
Wednesday, because that is our library period.”

How to write your own: Finish these three lines in your notebook and you have
your answer.
1. One place in my school I like is … because …
2. One person in my school I like is … because …
3. One thing we do in my school I like is … because …

Q2 How can I make my school greener?

Start with things you can do yourself, this month, without waiting for permission or
money.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT I CAN HOW WHAT IT CHANGES
DO

Adopt one Take charge of one sapling or pot. Water it on your Saplings survive instead of
plant fixed day. Write your name on a stick beside it. drying up

Start a compost Ask the teacher for a corner. Put in peels and leaves, Wet waste becomes free
pit cover with soil, turn it weekly. manure for the garden

Grow a Plant curry leaf, lemon, marigold and ixora together Butterflies and bees start
butterfly corner in one patch. visiting

Collect seeds Save seeds from the fruit you eat — jamun, custard New trees at zero cost
apple, tamarind. Sow them in the monsoon.

Keep the Ask that the space around each tree be left as soil, Rain soaks in and reaches
ground open not cemented. the roots

Save paper Write on both sides. Use the blank backs of old Fewer trees cut for paper
sheets for rough work.

Sample answer: “I will make my school greener by adopting the small guava sapling near the
gate. I will water it every Monday and Thursday and tell the gardener if it looks dry. With my
friends I will also ask our teacher for permission to dig a compost pit behind the kitchen, so that
the vegetable peels from the mid-day meal go there instead of into the dustbin. In the rainy
season we will sow jamun seeds in old tins and plant them out when they are big enough.”

Why start small: A plan that needs the principal, money and ten volunteers usually
never starts. A plan that needs one child and one bucket starts on Monday. Big
change in a school is made of many such small, kept promises.

Q3 In case there is any difficulty at school, whom do I talk to or inform?

Tell a trusted grown-up straight away. Never keep a difficulty to yourself, and never think
you have to solve it alone.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

THE DIFFICULTY WHOM TO TELL FIRST

I could not understand today's lesson The subject teacher, or a friend who understood it

Someone is teasing, hitting or troubling me or The class teacher at once — and my parents at home the
my friend same day

I feel unwell, dizzy or hurt Any teacher nearby, or the school health worker

I have lost something, or something is broken The class teacher or the school office

The toilet is dirty, or the water is not coming The class teacher, so it can be sent to the office

Something makes me feel scared or Any adult I trust — my class teacher, my parents, a
uncomfortable and I cannot explain why grandparent, an elder brother or sister

Sample answer: “If there is a difficulty at school I will first tell my class teacher, because she is
with us every day and knows all of us. If it is something big or something I am afraid to say
aloud, I will write it on a slip of paper and give it to her. I will also tell my mother the same
evening at home, so that two grown-ups know. If the problem is about something in the school
building — a broken bench or a dirty toilet — my teacher will tell the office, or our class monitor
will write it in the complaint book.”

Why telling someone is the right thing, not tale-telling: Tale-telling is when you
report someone only to get them into trouble. Telling is when you report something
so that a person is safe or a problem gets fixed. If someone is being hurt or left out,
staying silent does not keep the peace — it lets it continue. Speaking up is the kind
thing to do.

Good to know: Many schools have a complaint box or a suggestion box on a wall.
You can drop a note in it without writing your name. Find out where yours is.

Be a School Explorer! — Pages 57–58

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What each team should observe

ACTIVITY

Q1 Electricity Savers — Are lights and fans ʻonʼ when no one is using them? Do the
classrooms use natural light? Which areas of the school feel the hottest and the
coolest during the day?

What this team does: walk through the school twice — once at about 11 a.m. and once during
the lunch break, when many rooms are empty — and write down what is running with nobody
in the room.

QUESTION HOW TO CHECK IT WHAT YOU ARE LIKELY TO FIND

Are lights and fans Look into every empty room at Usually yes — most often in classrooms after the
on with no one lunch break. Count fans on class has gone for games or assembly, and in the
there? and lights on. corridor and toilet lights left on all day

Do classrooms use Stand in the room and switch Rooms with windows on two sides are bright
natural light? the lights off for a moment. enough till about 3 p.m. with no lights at all.
Can you still read your book? Corner rooms and rooms with a wall close outside
stay dark and need the lights.

Which area is Walk round at about 1 p.m. Hottest: the top-floor room, the room under a tin
hottest? and feel it. Note the roof, the sheet roof, the open cemented courtyard, and any
wall colour and whether there room facing west in the afternoon
is a tree.

Which area is Same walk, same time. Coolest: under the big tree, the ground-floor room
coolest? with cross-ventilation, the north-facing verandah,
and any room with a light-coloured roof

Why the hot and cool areas matter: A hot room needs more fans, so it uses more
electricity, and the children in it cannot concentrate. If you find that the room under
the tin roof is the hottest, you have also found the room where a white coat of paint
on the roof, or a tree planted on that side, will do the most good.

The one action worth taking: Make a rule that the last child out of a room switches
off the fan and the light, and put a small painted sign by every door — “Last one out,
switch it off”. It costs nothing and works.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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Green Guardians — Are there trees or plants in the school? Who takes care of them?
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Where can we plant more? Do birds or butterflies visit these areas? Is there a
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What this team does: count and name the plants, find out who waters them, and look for the
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empty patches where more could grow.

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A SAMPLE FINDING

Are there trees or
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Who takes The gardener waters the pots. Nobody waters the young saplings, which is why two of last

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them? year's five have dried up.

Where can we Along the boundary wall behind the playground; the bare strip beside the toilet block; the

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plant more? empty patch near the gate; and pots on the corridor edge where there is no soil

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Do birds or Yes — sparrows and mynas
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peepal, and butterflies
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Is there a compost Often no. If there is one, check whether it is being used or has become an ordinary

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The one action worth a taking: Make a watering roster — one class per week, two
children per day, one bucket per sapling. Pin it on the notice board with names.
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Ownership keeps trees alive.
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Water Watchers — Are there any leaking taps? Is water being wasted? Are water
tanks clean and covered? Are there any wet places that could be breeding
mosquitoes?

What this team does: visit every tap in the school with a notebook — the drinking-water taps,
the taps in the toilets, the tap near the kitchen, and the one in the garden that everybody
forgets.

QUESTION HOW TO CHECK WHAT TO WRITE DOWN

Any leaking taps? Close each tap fully. Wait The exact place of each dripping tap — “toilet block,
ten seconds and watch. second tap from the left”. A vague report gets
ignored; an exact one gets fixed.

Is water being Watch the drinking point Taps left running while a child fills a bottle; children
wasted? during the break. washing hands with the tap fully open; the overhead
tank overflowing at filling time

Are tanks clean and Ask the caretaker to show Whether the lid is missing or broken, and when the
covered? you. Never climb up tank was last cleaned
yourself.

Any wet places Look for standing water Old tyres, broken pots, the plate under a flower pot, a
breeding that has stayed for a week clogged drain, the puddle below the drinking-water
mosquitoes? or more. tap, an unused bucket

Why standing water is dangerous: A mosquito lays its eggs only in still water, and
the eggs need about a week of undisturbed water to become mosquitoes. So water
that stands for a week is what causes dengue and malaria — not one day's puddle.
Tipping out the water in a flower-pot plate every few days breaks that chain
completely.

The one action worth taking: Give the office one written list of every leaking tap,
with its exact location, and check the same list again after two weeks. Following up is
what makes a survey useful.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 Traffic Trackers — What happens outside the school gate during arrival and exit
times? Is there a pedestrian crossing across the road for children? Do vehicles speed
in front of the school?

What this team does: stand safely inside the gate — never on the road — with a teacher, for ten
minutes at arrival and ten at closing time, and watch.

QUESTION WHAT IS USUALLY FOUND

What happens at Everything happens at once. Autos, vans and two-wheelers stop right across the gate.
the gate? Children step out onto the road between parked vehicles. Parents wait in the middle of the
road. Vehicles reverse where children are walking. The busiest and most dangerous ten
minutes of the whole day.

Is there a Often there is none, or the white stripes have faded until they cannot be seen. Sometimes
pedestrian there is one, but it is 50 metres away and nobody uses it.
crossing?

Do vehicles Yes, especially when the road is straight and there is no speed breaker or “School Ahead”
speed? sign. Count how many vehicles pass in one minute and how many slow down — the second
number is usually small.

Why the gate is the risky spot: A child stepping out from between two parked
vehicles cannot see the road, and the driver cannot see the child. Both are hidden
from each other until the last second. That is why parking away from the gate
matters more than any other single change.

Safety first: Never do this survey standing on the road, and never alone. Watch from
behind the gate, with a teacher, and write from there.

Q5 Waste Warriors — Where do you find litter? What kinds of litter do you see? Are
there enough dustbins around the school? Are the students using these bins? Why
or why not? Are there separate bins for food waste and other waste?

What this team does: walk the whole school and mark on your school map every place where
litter collects. Then stand near a bin and simply watch what people do.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

QUESTION WHAT IS USUALLY FOUND

Where do you find Behind the classrooms, under the staircase, along the boundary wall, around the
litter? playground edge, near the school gate and the shop outside, and under the desks
after the lunch break

What kinds of litter? Mostly chips and biscuit wrappers, chocolate and toffee wrappers, plastic bottles,
paper scraps and pencil shavings, and food leftovers with banana and orange peels

Are there enough Usually there are bins near the office and the staff room, but none where the litter
dustbins? actually is — the playground and the corridor outside the classrooms

Are students using Only when a bin is within a few steps. If the nearest bin is far, or overflowing, or has
them? no lid and smells, most children drop the wrapper where they stand.

Separate bins for food Often the two bins exist but are not labelled, so everything gets mixed anyway —
and other waste? and then the whole point is lost

Why “why or why not” is the important half of the question: Children are not
being careless on purpose. Litter appears where the bins are not. Put a bin where
the wrappers actually fall — at the playground edge and the corridor — and most of
the litter disappears without anybody being scolded. Fix the place, not the person.

The one action worth taking: Put a clearly labelled pair of bins — green for wet,
blue for dry — at the two places your map shows the most litter. Painted labels and a
picture of what goes in work better than words alone.

Discuss your findings — Page 59
Sitting together after the exploration

DISCUSS

Q1 What did you find?

Each team reports what it wrote down. Give numbers and places, not general statements.
Sample answer — our class's findings:

Water Watchers: “We found 4 leaking taps — two in the boys' toilet, one near the kitchen
and one in the garden. The garden tap had been dripping for so long that a green patch of
algae had grown under it. The overhead tank has no lid.”

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Electricity Savers: “At lunch break, 6 fans and 5 tube lights were running in empty rooms.
The corridor lights stay on all day. Classes 5A and 5B are bright enough without lights until
three o'clock.”
Waste Warriors: “Most litter is behind the classrooms and along the playground wall. Nearly
all of it is wrappers. There are only 3 dustbins in the whole school, all near the office, and
none near the playground.”
Green Guardians: “14 trees and 11 pots. Two of the five saplings planted last year have died
because nobody watered them in the summer holidays. There is no compost pit.”
Traffic Trackers: “At 2:45 p.m. the road in front of the gate is completely blocked. There is no
zebra crossing and no ‘School Ahead’ sign. In ten minutes we counted 11 vehicles that did
not slow down.”

How to present it well: One team speaks at a time. Say the number, the place, and
one sentence about what should be done. Put the whole class's findings on one
chart so everyone can see them together.

Q2 Was there anything that made you feel concerned?

“Concerned” means it worried you — you felt that something was not right and ought to be put
right.
Sample answer: “Two things worried us. The first was the traffic at the gate. There is no zebra
crossing, and small children from Class 1 and 2 cross between the parked autos where no driver
can see them. We felt that an accident could happen any day. The second was the uncovered
water tank. Anything can fall into it — dust, leaves, a bird — and that is the water we all drink.
We also felt bad about the two saplings that had dried up, because our class had planted them
last year and then forgotten them during the holidays.”

Why it helps to say this out loud: A worry that stays in your head changes nothing.
A worry said in class becomes the class's problem, and then it becomes a plan. This
is exactly how the children in the chapter moved from noticing things to acting on
them.

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a gl answer: “The biggest surprise was how much water one small drip wastes. The tap in
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the garden was only dripping — not running. But when we put a glass under it, the glass was

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full in 6 minutes. We worked it out: that is 10 glasses in an hour and about 240 glasses in a day,

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from one tap that looked like it was doing nothing at all.

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The second surprise was the dustbins. We had always thought children in our school were
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was. So the children were not careless. The bins were simply in the wrong place.

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The third surprise was pleasant. Under the big neem tree it was noticeably cooler than in the

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open courtyard

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match what you expected. That is exactly the moment you learn something. Both

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What made you feel proud?
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em answer: “We felt proud of several things. Our school has 14 grown trees, and the big

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a neem near the playground is older than our school building — visitors always say how green
our campus looks. We felt proud of Ramesh bhaiya, who sweeps the corridors: he starts before
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we arrive so that our school is clean every single morning, and he had never been thanked, so
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our class thanked him in the assembly.

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We also felt proud of ourselves. We had walked past that dripping garden tap every day for a
year without seeing it. Once we started looking properly, we found it in five minutes — and it
was repaired the next week because we wrote it down and gave the list to the office.”
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Say the thank-you out loud: If your findings include somebody who quietly keeps

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Write — Page 59 a

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Waste Management

WRITE

Q1 Can you name the colour of the bin used for the following? Dry waste:
_________________ Wet waste: _________________

Dry waste — the BLUE bin. Wet waste — the GREEN bin.

BIN COLOUR WHAT GOES IN WHAT HAPPENS TO IT

Wet Green Fruit and vegetable peels, leftover food, It rots. It can be made into
waste tea leaves, egg shells, fallen leaves, compost — rich black soil for the
flowers garden.

Dry Blue Wrappers, plastic, paper, glass, foil, It does not rot. Whatever can be
waste cloth, broken things recycled is taken out and used
again.

Why the two must not be mixed: Wet waste is wet and it rots. If a dry newspaper
or a piece of cardboard sits in a bag of wet peels for a day, it becomes soggy and
smelly and cannot be recycled any more. So mixing does not make one bag of waste
— it spoils the good half. Keeping them apart takes one second at the bin and saves
everything that was still useful.

An easy way to remember: Green for what grew — it came from a plant or an
animal and it will rot back into the soil. Blue for the rest.

Q2 Different recyclers collect different items. What are the various recyclers in your
area called? Find out what each one collects.

These are the people who buy or collect old things so that they can be used again. In most
of India they are called the kabadiwala or raddiwala. The name changes from place to place,
and so does what each one takes.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT PEOPLE WHERE THE NAME IS WHAT THEY COLLECT
CALL THEM USED

Kabadiwala / kabadi North India, most cities Old newspapers, magazines, books, cardboard,
bottles, tins, iron, plastic, old fans and coolers

Raddiwala North and west India Mostly paper — newspapers, notebooks,
cardboard cartons

Bhangarwala / Maharashtra, Gujarat Scrap metal, iron, aluminium, old utensils
bhangar

Paatra / paathram- Kerala, Tamil Nadu (utensil Old clothes, taken in exchange for new steel
vaala exchange) vessels

Bartanwala (steel-for- Everywhere Old clothes, given in exchange for buckets, mugs
clothes cart) and vessels

Waste picker / safai Everywhere, and in city Plastic bottles, glass, metal and paper, sorted out
saathi waste-worker unions of mixed waste

E-waste collector Cities Old mobiles, chargers, wires, batteries, broken
computers

How to find out for your own area:

1. Ask at home who buys your old newspapers, and what they are called.
2. Listen for the call they make on the street, and write down the exact words in your own
language.
3. Ask your neighbours — some carts take only clothes, some only metal.
4. Write a small chart: name / what they take / what they pay per kilo.

Why they matter: They are the first and the strongest link in recycling. Long before
any factory sees it, a kabadiwala has already pulled the paper, glass, metal and
plastic out of our waste and sent it back to be used again. Their work saves trees,
saves the ore dug out of the earth, and keeps enormous amounts of rubbish out of
the landfill. It deserves respect and a polite greeting.

Write and Find out — Page 60

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Things we give to recyclers

WRITE

Q1 What things does your school give to recyclers?

A school produces a lot of the very things recyclers want — mostly paper.

WHAT THE SCHOOL WHERE IT COMES FROM WHAT IT BECOMES
GIVES

Old newspapers and The library and the staff room Recycled paper, paper bags,
magazines cardboard

Used answer sheets and old The office, after the record Recycled paper
registers period is over

Cardboard cartons Boxes that books, chalk and New cartons and packing board
uniforms came in

Plastic water bottles Functions and sports days Plastic granules, fibre for cloth

Old broken furniture, iron Repairs and old classrooms Melted and made into new metal
rods, tin sheets goods

Old fans, tube lights, wires, Replaced equipment (this is e- Goes to an e-waste collector — never
computers waste) into a normal bin

Sample answer: “Our school gives old newspapers from the library, used answer sheets after
the exams are over, and the cardboard cartons that the new books came in. Last year the office
also gave away two broken chairs and some iron rods to the kabadiwala. The money from the
raddi went into the school garden fund.”

Find out for your own school: ask in the office — who collects it, how often the cart
comes, and what is done with the money.

Q2 Ask your parents and find out if there are any items that they had set aside to give
to the recyclers. What are they?

Almost every Indian home keeps a corner or a sack for this — usually behind a door, on top of a
cupboard or in the store room. Go and look at yours, then ask.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KEPT ASIDE AT HOME WHY IT IS NOT THROWN IN THE BIN

Old newspapers, tied in a bundle Sold by weight to the raddiwala; also used to wrap books and line
shelves

Empty glass bottles and jars Reused in the kitchen for pickle, spices and dals; the rest sold

Steel and aluminium vessels that are Metal is valuable and is melted and made again
dented or leaking

Old clothes Given away, or exchanged with the cart for new steel vessels; old
cotton becomes floor cloth

Cardboard cartons, plastic cans, old Reused for storage, then sold
buckets

Broken mobile, charger, old batteries, E-waste — it is harmful and must go to a proper collector
tube lights

Sample answer: “I asked my mother. She keeps a big bundle of newspapers behind the almirah
and sells it to the raddiwala every two or three months. She also keeps empty jam bottles, which
she washes and fills with rajma and chana. My father has kept an old broken table fan and some
wires on the terrace for the kabadiwala. My grandmother keeps our old cotton clothes to cut
into floor cloths, and gives the rest to the bartanwala for steel vessels.”

Why this habit is worth keeping: It is the oldest recycling system in India, and it
works without any machine or any scheme. Nothing useful is thrown away, the
family earns a little, and the recycler earns a living. Notice that your grandmother
has been doing what the world now calls 'sustainable living' all her life.

Q3 Find out — With the help of your teacher, ask a recycler to visit your class and share
what they do at work. It will be interesting to find out where these items go and
how they can be reused or recycled.

How to arrange the visit

1. With your teacher, speak to the kabadiwala who comes to your school or your street. Invite
him or her for a fixed day and time, and say it will take about half an hour.
2. As a class, write your questions on the board before the visit and choose who will ask which
one, so that nobody talks over anyone.
3. On the day, greet the guest, offer a chair and a glass of water, and listen without
interrupting. Ask permission before taking a photograph.

Page 18 of 74

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4. Take notes. Thank the guest at the end, and put up what you learnt on the class notice
co m
board.
e m.
m l as
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Good questions to ask
m a g
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What do you collect, and which item is the most useful to you?
a Where do the newspapers go after they leave your cart?
m
What do you wish people would do before they hand things over to you?

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What is the hardest part of your work?

as e
l
Have you ever been hurt by something in the waste?
a g
Sample answer — what our class learnt from Salim bhai's visit: “He has been collecting raddi

m
for eighteen years. He collects newspapers, books, cardboard, iron, plastic bottles and old
co
m.
vessels. He sorts everything at his shop into separate piles — white paper fetches more than

o m l a se
newspaper, and metal fetches the most. From his shop it goes to a bigger dealer, and from there
g and new paper is
.c He told us that paper is soaked in water and made into apulp,
m
sefrom that pulp; and that plastic bottles are cut into flakes, melted, and turned into thread
to a factory.

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made

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The thing that stayed with us most was his answer to our last question. He said: ‘Please tie the
a s
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paper in a bundle and keep the glass separate. When people mix broken glass into a bag of wet
em agl
a s
agl Someone's hands are on the other side.”
kitchen waste, my hand gets cut. It has happened four times.’ After that our class made a poster
for the school gate: Separate first.

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Why this visit is part of the lesson: Recyclers and sanitation workers do work that
.
we all depend on and that most of us never think about. Meeting m
s e one, listening, and

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Segregation Game

ACTIVITY

Q1 Segregation Game — Make small paper chits (30 – 40) with the names or drawings
of the different items shown below. Take three empty boxes, and label them —
green for wet waste, blue for dry waste, and the third can be labelled as ‘Items for
recycler’. One by one, pick a chit and put it in the box that is correct. After all the
chits have been put in the boxes, take one box at a time and discuss whether it has
been put correctly.

Milk

BISC

The items printed in the book for the Segregation Game.

How to play, in 5 steps

1. Cut 30–40 small paper chits. On each one write the name of one item, or draw it.
2. Take three empty cartons. Label them: GREEN — wet waste, BLUE — dry waste, Items for
recycler.
3. Each child picks a chit in turn, reads it aloud, says which box it goes in and why, and drops it
in.
4. When all the chits are used up, open one box at a time and read out every chit in it. The class
says “correct” or “wrong box”.
5. Keep a fourth pile aside for the tricky ones — the class will find that some items really do not
fit any of the three boxes.

The answers for the items pictured on page 61

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ITEM IN THE CORRECT WHY
PICTURE BOX

Banana peel Green — wet It rots and makes good compost

Plate of leftover food Green — wet Food waste; rots quickly
(noodles)

Used tea bag Green — wet Tea leaves rot; take off the metal staple first

Potato peel and dry Green — wet Kitchen and garden waste; straight to the compost pit
leaves

Pencil shavings Green — wet They are wood, so they rot in a compost pit. If your school
has no pit, put them in the blue bin.

Biscuit wrapper Blue — dry Thin mixed plastic; it does not rot and cannot be sold

Chocolate / toffee Blue — dry Same reason
wrapper

Broken glass pieces Blue — dry Wrap in newspaper first and mark it, so no one is cut

Crumpled aluminium Blue — dry If you have a lot of clean foil, roll it into a ball for the
foil recycler instead

Used paper napkin / Blue — dry Once soiled it cannot be recycled
soiled tissue

Broken pen Blue — dry Plastic and metal joined together; it cannot be separated
easily

Milk packet (washed) Items for recycler Good quality plastic — rinse, dry and keep aside

Old newspaper Items for recycler The raddiwala's main item; becomes new paper

Old notebook Items for recycler Paper; sold by weight

Cardboard carton Items for recycler Flatten it first so it takes less space

Plastic water bottle Items for recycler Rinse and crush; it is turned into thread for cloth

Green plastic can Items for recycler Thick, good plastic — first see whether it can be reused at
home

Metal pipe / rod Items for recycler Metal is the most valuable item of all; it is melted and
used again

Steel spoon Items for recycler If it is not bent, wash it and keep using it — that is even
better

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Plastic toy dinosaur Items for recycler If it is not broken, give it away to a younger child instead
of throwing it

Cloth carry bag Not waste at all Wash it and use it again. This one is a trap in the game.

Battery (cell) None of the three It has harmful chemicals inside. Keep it in a separate
boxes marked box and hand it to an e-waste collector.

The two things the game is really teaching: First, that sorting is easy when you
ask one question — will it rot? If yes, green. If no, blue. And before either, ask is it still
useful? — if yes, it goes to the recycler or gets reused. Second, that a few things
belong nowhere: a battery is not dry waste, and a good cloth bag is not waste at all.
Those are the chits worth arguing about in class.

Make the game harder: add your own chits — a used mask, a broken cup, an ice-
cream stick, a chalk piece, an old shoe, a used oil tin, a birthday balloon, a broken
mobile charger. Argue about each one. The argument is the lesson.

How is wet waste managed? — Page 62
In your school and in your home

WRITE

Q1 How is wet waste managed? 1. In your school

The best answer for a school is a compost pit — the wet waste never leaves the campus
and comes back as manure for the garden.
How a school compost pit works, step by step

1. Dig a pit in a shady corner, about as deep as your knee and as wide as your arms spread out.
A big drum with holes in the bottom works just as well.
2. Put a layer of dry leaves at the bottom.
3. Every day, add the wet waste — vegetable peels from the mid-day meal, leftover food, fallen
leaves, tea leaves.
4. After each day's addition, cover it with a thin layer of soil or dry leaves. This is the step
people forget, and it is the one that stops the smell and the flies.
5. Sprinkle a little water if it looks dry. It should feel damp like a squeezed sponge, never wet
like mud.
6. Turn the heap with a spade once a week to let air in.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

7. After about two to three months, the bottom of the pit has become dark, crumbly, sweet-
smelling soil. That is compost.
8. Sieve it and spread it around the school's trees and vegetable beds.

Why it turns into soil: Tiny living things — microbes — and small creatures like
earthworms eat the soft waste and break it down. They need three things: air, a little
moisture, and a mix of wet (green peels) and dry (brown leaves). Give them those
and they do all the work for free.

GOES INTO THE COMPOST PIT MUST NEVER GO IN

Vegetable and fruit peels, leftover cooked food, Plastic and wrappers, glass, metal, batteries, chalk,
tea leaves, egg shells, fallen leaves, weeds, painted paper — none of these rot, and they spoil the
flowers compost

Sample answer: “In our school, the peels from the mid-day meal kitchen and the leaves swept
from the ground go into a compost pit behind the kitchen. Class 5 covers it with soil every Friday
and turns it with a spade. Last month we took out one full basket of compost and put it around
the guava trees. If a school has no pit, the wet waste goes into the green bin and is taken away
by the municipal van.”

Q2 How is wet waste managed? 2. In your home

At home, wet waste is managed in four ways — and most Indian homes use more than
one of them.

1. It is fed to animals. Vegetable peels, roti and leftover rice go to the cow, the buffalo, the
goat, the street dog or the birds. In villages this is the commonest way, and almost nothing
is wasted.
2. It is composted. A pot, a bucket with holes, or a pit in the courtyard. Peels go in, a handful
of dry soil goes on top. In two months it is manure for the tulsi and the money plant.
3. It is collected in the green bin. In towns, the municipal van comes each morning with a
bell. Wet waste goes into the green bin and dry into the blue, and the van takes it to a
composting or processing centre.
4. It is used up before it becomes waste. Vegetable water becomes gravy or is poured into
the plant pots. Stale rice becomes the next morning's dish. This is the best method of all,
because the waste is never created.

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co m
m.
Why wet waste must not be tied in a plastic bag: Inside a sealed plastic bag there

m l a se
is no air, so the waste cannot rot properly. It only turns sour and smelly, and the
o
.c the dump along with it. If you must use a bag, use
a ga paper one, or
m
plastic reaches
lineas e bin with newspaper.
ag l the

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Find out at home: ask what happens to your kitchen waste, and whether anything
.
m away. Write down what you find and
s e
is fed to an animal, put in a pot, or thrown

a g la in class — you will discover that homes in the
compare it with your friends' answers
same street manage it very differently.

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Discuss —
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Waste and the people who handle it
aDISCUSS
om a s
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em our waste? agl
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What happens if we do not separate

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If we do not separate it, everything becomes useless at once — and dangerous for the
m .
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people who have to handle it.
o l a se
1. m .c dry waste is spoilt. A newspaper that has sat in wet peelsagis soggy and smelly. It cannot
e
las be recycled. So paper that could have become new paper goes to the dump instead.
The

ag
m
2. The wet waste is spoilt. Compost cannot be made from a heap with plastic and glass in it.

m
So peels that could have become garden soil are wasted too.
o l a se
c mixed waste with their hands. Broken glass, a blade, ag
3. Sanitation workers get hurt. They.sort
m
e bag of wet waste can cut or poison them.
a needle or a battery hidden insa
l a
ag Mixed waste rots in the open, attracts flies, rats and stray
4. It smells and brings disease.
dogs, and breeds mosquitoes in the wet parts.

. c om
5. The landfill grows. Everything ends up in one huge heap outside the town. Those heaps
mthem into the ground
catch fire, and the smoke is harmful. Rain washes dirty water outeof
s
m a
o the streams.
.cand agl
em6. It costs more. Someone has to be paid to separate later what we could have separated in
a s
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Mixed in one bin Separated at the bin

Paper — spoilt Paper → new paper
Peels — cannot compost Peels → compost
Glass — a hidden cut Glass → wrapped, safe
Smell, flies, mosquitoes No smell, no flies

All of it → landfill Very little → landfill

The same waste, one second of difference at the bin, two completely different results.

The one idea to hold on to: Waste is not dirty by itself. A banana peel is not dirty,
and a newspaper is not dirty. They become useless rubbish only at the moment they
are mixed. Keeping them apart keeps them useful.

Q2 What can we do to make the work of sanitation workers easier and safer? Ask your
teacher to invite a member of the sanitation workers to your classroom. Ask them
to share what they do, the challenges they face, and how we can play a better role
in waste management.

The short answer: hand over waste the way we would want to receive it. Everything else
follows from that.
Ten things we can actually do

1. Separate wet and dry before the waste leaves our hands.
2. Wrap sharp things. Broken glass, a blade, a broken bulb — roll it in thick newspaper and
write “GLASS” on it.
3. Keep batteries, medicines and e-waste out of both bins. They are poisonous. Keep them in
a separate marked box.
4. Do not throw wet waste loose on the floor or from a window.
5. Keep the bin lid on so nothing spills and no animal drags it out.
6. Do not overfill the bin. A bin that will not close has to be emptied by hand.
7. Do not litter in the first place. Every wrapper on the ground is a bend of somebody's back.
8. Keep the toilets clean after using them. Flush, and do not throw wrappers into the pan.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

9. Greet them and learn their names. Say good morning. Say thank you. This is not a small
thing.
10. Ask whether they have gloves, boots and a mask — and tell a teacher if they do not.

Questions to ask the guest who visits your class

What time does your work start, and how much area do you cover?
Which part of the work is hardest?
What do you find in the waste that should never have been there?
Have you ever been hurt while working?
What is the one thing you would like every student in this school to do?

Sample answer — what our class learnt: “Sunita didi told us she starts at six in the morning
and sweeps the whole ground before we arrive, and that most of what she picks up is chocolate
wrappers from the playground. She said the hardest part is not the sweeping — it is the mixed
bins, because she has to pull the wet and dry apart with her hands. She once cut her finger on a
broken glass bangle that someone had thrown into the wet bin. When we asked her what she
wanted from us, she said: ‘Only two things. Put it in the bin, and put it in the right bin.’ Then our
class did two things — we asked the office for a bin at the playground edge, and we made a rule
that our class picks up its own wrappers after lunch. And we learnt her name, which none of us
had known before.”

Why respect is part of this chapter: A school is a happy place only when it is happy
for everybody in it — including the people who clean it. Their work is what allows
ours to happen. This is what the dignity of labour means: not pity, but respect, and
behaviour that shows it.

Activity 3 — Page 62
Let Us be Cool! — black tile and white tile

ACTIVITY

Q1 Take two tiles or stones, paint one black and the other white. Keep them under the
Sun. After a while, touch each of them and feel the difference in their temperature.
Which one felt cooler?

The white tile felt cooler. The black tile felt distinctly hot — hot enough that you take your
hand off quickly.
How to do it

1. Take two tiles, or two flat stones, of the same size and the same kind.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. Paint one fully black and the other fully white. Let the paint dry completely.
3. Put both in the open Sun, side by side, on the same surface. Both must get exactly the same
sunlight.
4. Wait about 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Touch the white one first, then the black one. Touch quickly, with the back of your fingers.

TILE HOW IT FEELS AFTER 30 MINUTES IN THE SAMPLE THERMOMETER
SUN READING

White tile Warm, but you can rest your hand on it about 42 °C

Black tile Clearly hot; you pull your hand away about 55 °C

Difference The black one is much hotter about 13 °C

Your readings will not be exactly these. They depend on the month, the time of day and how strong
the sunlight is. The black tile will always be the hotter one.

White tile Black tile

Reflects heat → cooler Absorbs heat → hotter

Same Sun, same time, same stone — only the colour is different, and that is enough.

Why it happens: Sunlight carries heat. A black surface absorbs it — it takes almost
all the heat in, so the tile gets hot. A white surface reflects it — it throws most of the
heat back, so less heat stays in the tile and it remains cooler. That is also why white
looks bright: it is sending the light back to your eyes.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

You already knew this: think of standing barefoot on a black tar road at noon, and
then on a white marble floor. Think also of why people wear white or light-coloured
clothes in the Indian summer and dark ones in winter.

Write — Page 63
A white roof

WRITE

Q1 If you have to paint the roof of your school or home white, what would happen?

The rooms below would become cooler. On a hot afternoon the difference can be 2 to 5
degrees — enough to feel clearly.
What would change, one thing at a time:

1. The white roof reflects most of the Sun's heat back into the sky instead of soaking it in.
2. So the roof itself stays much cooler than a grey or black roof.
3. Less heat passes down through the roof into the room below.
4. The room stays cooler, especially the top-floor rooms, which are always the hottest.
5. The fans and coolers work less, so less electricity is used and the bill goes down.
6. Children can sit and study in the afternoon without feeling drowsy from the heat.

ORDINARY GREY WHITE-PAINTED ROOF
ROOF

What it does with sunlight Absorbs most of it Reflects most of it

Roof surface at 2 p.m. in Very hot to touch Noticeably cooler
May

Room below Stuffy and hot 2–5 °C cooler

Electricity used More — fans on full Less

Cost — One tin of lime wash or white reflective paint,
once a year

Why it works: it is exactly Activity 3, made big. The black tile got hot; the white tile
stayed cool. A roof is only a very large tile with a room underneath it. Choose its
colour and you choose how hot that room will be.

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co m
m.
This is really done: Many houses in Indian cities are now given a coat of white lime

m l a se
or reflective paint before summer — it is called a “cool roof”. It is one of the cheapest
o gand Telangana
.c a building, and it needs no electricity at all. In Gujarat
a
m
ways to cool

l a seneighbourhoods have been painted this way.
ag
whole

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Discuss — Page 63
Keeping a warming area cool
a g l

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DISCUSS

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If your area is getting warmer, what actions can be taken to keep it cool?
a
Q1

a s em
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Two kinds of action work: add shade and greenery, and stop surfaces from soaking up
m a
.co agl
heat.

se m
a
1. Plant trees, and keep the old ones

a g l
Plant shade trees along the roads and around the school and houses — neem, peepal,
banyan, gulmohar, jamun.

. com
Under a big tree it is several degrees cooler than in the open. A tree also lets water out
through its leaves, and that cools the air, exactly as sweat cools you. em
c o mone old tree does more than planting ten saplings. Big trees
g l asgive big shade; a sapling
m .
Saving
a
a s e
agl 2. Change the surfaces
gives almost none for years.

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Paint roofs white or with reflective paint.
com g l a
m . a
e
s soak in.
Do not cement every open patch of ground. Bare soil and grass stay much cooler than
arain
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concrete and tar, and they let
Use light-coloured paintaon outside walls.

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3. Keep water in the area
.
m a s emthe air all around them.
Clean and refill the village pond or the town lake. Water bodies cool

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em
rainwater instead of letting it run into drains.

as 4. Make less heat
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Switch off lights, fans and vehicles that are not in use — every running machine gives out

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heat.
Walk, cycle or share a vehicle m . a
s e for short distances.
a Burning heats the air and fills it with harmful smoke. Compost
agl
Never burn leaves or rubbish.
the leaves instead.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5. Build to catch the breeze

Windows on opposite walls, so air can pass right through a room.
Shade the windows that get the afternoon Sun — a chhajja, a curtain, a creeper on a frame.

Why a city becomes hotter than the village around it: Concrete, tar and rooftops
absorb heat all day and give it out again at night, so the city never cools down
properly. Trees, open soil and water do the opposite. So the cure is not one big
machine — it is many small patches of green, shade and water, spread all over the
area.

What your class can do this month: plant three shade trees near the school gate
and take responsibility for watering them; ask that the roof of the hottest classroom
be white-washed before summer; and check that the trees already growing on your
street are not being cut for a widening or a signboard.

Activity 4 — Page 64
Dripping Water

ACTIVITY

Q1 Look out for a dripping tap or poke a small hole in a used water bottle filled with
water. Now, let the water drip. Collect the dripping water in a glass and carefully
measure the time it took for the glass to fill up. Time taken to fill one glass: __________

What you will find: an ordinary slow drip fills a 200 ml glass in about 5 to 10 minutes. It
looks like nothing is happening, and yet the glass fills.
How to do it

1. Find a tap that drips even when it is closed tight. If you cannot find one, take an empty
plastic bottle, fill it with water, and make one pin-hole near the bottom.
2. Hold the bottle upright over a glass, or put the glass under the dripping tap.
3. Note the time on a clock the moment the first drop falls. Write it down.
4. Do not stand and watch — go and do something else, and come back to check.
5. Note the time again the moment the glass is full. The difference is your answer.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OUR READING (SAMPLE) VALUE

Started at 11:05 a.m.

Glass full at 11:11 a.m.

Size of the glass 200 ml

Time taken to fill one glass 6 minutes

Your tap will not drip at exactly the same speed. Write down your own time — that is your reading. A
fast drip may take 3 minutes; a very slow one may take 15.

Do it properly: use the same glass throughout, and fill it right to the top mark each
time. Guessing the time spoils the whole calculation that comes next.

Q2 How many glasses would become full in one day?

With our reading of 6 minutes per glass, that comes to 240 glasses in one day — about 48
litres of water, from one tap that was only dripping.
The working, step by step

1 glass takes 6 minutes

Glasses in 1 hour = 60 ÷ 6 = 10 glasses

Glasses in 1 day = 10 × 24 = 240 glasses

If 1 glass holds 200 ml, then

Water in 1 day = 240 × 200 ml = 48000 ml = 48 litres a day

Water in 1 month = 48 × 30 = 1440 litres — almost one and a half thousand litres

IF ONE GLASS FILLS IN… GLASSES IN A DAY WATER LOST IN A DAY (200 ML GLASS)

3 minutes 480 96 litres

6 minutes 240 48 litres

10 minutes 144 about 29 litres

15 minutes 96 about 19 litres

Page 31 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Now use your own time. Divide 60 by your minutes to get glasses per hour, then multiply by 24.

Why the number is so big: The drip does not stop. It goes on through the lunch
break, through the night, on Sunday, in the holidays. One drop is tiny; but 24 hours
is 1440 minutes, and tiny multiplied by 1440 becomes large. This is the whole lesson:
small things repeated many times add up to something huge — which is true of
waste, and equally true of saving.

Put it in a way people feel: 48 litres is about three buckets. Ask your class — would
anyone deliberately pour three full buckets down the drain every single day? Nobody
would. But a dripping tap does it silently, and nobody notices. One washer, worth a
few rupees, stops it.

Discuss — Page 64
Saving water and catching rain

DISCUSS

Q1 What are some easy things we can do in our school to prevent the wastage of
water?

Most water in a school is not wasted by anyone on purpose. It is lost drop by drop, from
taps nobody closed and leaks nobody reported. So the easy actions are the ones that fix
exactly that.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT TO DO HOW ROUGHLY HOW
MUCH IT SAVES

Repair every leaking tap Water Watchers make a list with exact Up to 48 litres a day per tap
locations and give it to the office; check
again after two weeks

Close the tap while soaping Wet hands, close the tap, soap, then open About half the water at
hands it to rinse every wash

Use a mug, not a running Keep a mug at the washing point A lot — a running tap gives
tap far more than you need

Fit a water-level indicator So the pump is switched off before the tank Hundreds of litres each
or a float on the overhead overflows time it would have
tank overflowed

Put up small signs at every “Close me tight”, with a picture Reminders work; most
tap children simply forget

Make a Water Monitor in One child checks the class's taps at the end Nothing is left running
every class of the day overnight

Water plants in the early Not in the hot afternoon Sun Much less is lost to
morning or evening evaporation

Use the water left in Pour it into the plant pots at the end of the Several litres every day in a
bottles day instead of into the drain big school

Sweep the courtyard, do A broom cleans as well as running water Very large amounts
not hose it

Why 'report it' is the most powerful action of all: A child cannot repair a tap. But a
child can be the one person who notices it and writes it down. Almost every leaking
tap in every school has been walked past by hundreds of people. It gets fixed on the
day one person reports it clearly, in writing, with the place named.

Q2 How can you collect and use rainwater at home or in school?

Rain falls free on your roof. Rainwater harvesting simply means catching it instead of
letting it run into the drain. There are two things you can do with it: store it, or send it into the
ground.
A. Catch and store it

Page 33 of 74

as e
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1. Fix a gutter along the edge of the roof so the rain runs to one corner instead of falling all
co m
round the building.
e m.
m l as
.co g
2. Lead a downpipe from that corner to the ground.
m a
se
3. Let the first few minutes of rain run away — it washes the dust and bird droppings off the

g l a
a
roof. This is called the “first flush”.
4. Then let the water pass through a simple filter — a net, then gravel, then coarse sand — into
a covered storage tank or a big drum.
com
e m .
5. Keep the tank covered always, or mosquitoes will breed in it. ag
g l as
B. Send it into the ground (recharge)
a
1. Dig a pit near the downpipe, about as deep as you are tall.

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m.
2. Fill it with layers — big stones at the bottom, then small stones, then coarse sand at the top.

m
3. Lead the overflow of the storage tank into this pit.
o l a se
g own borewell and
.c sinks slowly down and refills the groundwater, so the school's
a
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4. The water

l a se neighbourhood's wells do better in summer.
the
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a What the stored water is used for
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cothe agl
Watering the school garden and the trees

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s nursery
Washing the courtyard, the corridors and
athe
toilets

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a it has been properly filtered and treated
Mixing with soil for the pots and
It is not used for drinking unless

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A rough idea of how much you get:
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. coonma roof of 100 square metres, in a rainfall of 10 cm a g l
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Rain

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= 100 × 0.10 = 10 cubic metres = 10,000 litres

— from one good spell of rain, on one small roof.
se m
com g l a
m . a
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asRainwater that runs into the drain is gone for ever, and
g l
a streets on the way. Rainwater caught in a tank saves the
Why it is worth the trouble:
in a city it also floods the
pump and the piped supply. Rainwater sent into the ground is stored where it
co m
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cannot evaporate, and it comes back to everybody in the area through their wells.
m l as
.co a g
m Do you know? The Jal Shakti Abhiyan is a national campaign to save and protect
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water. It asks people to plant trees, catch rainwater and use water wisely — and it
m .
asks schools especially to teach students to fix leaks, harvest rain and use water
m a s e
. co agl
carefully.
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g l as
a

co m
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.co


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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Write — Page 65
Greenery Around Us

WRITE

Q1 Name the trees on your campus or near your school.

Go out and look, do not guess. Count them, and ask the gardener, the caretaker or your
grandparents the name of any tree you do not know.
Trees you are most likely to find in an Indian school ground

TREE HOW TO RECOGNISE IT WHY IT IS PLANTED

Neem Small pointed leaves in two rows on a stalk; a Dense shade, keeps insects away,
slightly bitter smell when crushed medicinal

Peepal Heart-shaped leaf ending in a long thin tail; Very large shade, long life, gives
leaves rustle in the slightest breeze out plenty of oxygen

Banyan Thick roots hanging down from the branches Huge shade; birds nest in it
(bargad)

Gulmohar Feathery leaves; blazing red-orange flowers in Shade and beauty
summer

Mango (aam) Long dark green leaves; new leaves are copper- Shade and fruit
red

Ashoka Tall and narrow, like a green pillar Planted along boundary walls

Amla, guava, Fruit trees, usually near the garden Fruit; birds love the jamun
jamun

Coconut, palm Tall single trunk, big fan or feather leaves Common in the south and along
the coast

Sample answer: “In our school there are 14 big trees — 3 neem, 2 peepal, 4 gulmohar, 1
mango, 2 ashoka and 2 coconut. The oldest is the neem near the playground; the gardener says
it was there before the school building was built. Just outside the gate there is a big banyan
under which the fruit-seller sits.”

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Make a tree map: put every tree on the school map you drew in Activity 1, with its
name. Then measure how far your arms go round each trunk. The class can put a
name board on each tree — the whole school learns the names, and the tree is less
likely to be cut.

Q2 Which birds and insects have you seen near the plants or trees on your school
campus?

Sit quietly near a tree for ten minutes at about eight in the morning and simply watch. You will
see far more than you expect.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT YOU MAY WHERE TO LOOK WHAT IT IS DOING THERE
SEE

House sparrow Hedges, low bushes, roof corners Eating seeds and small insects; nesting in a
hole

Common myna On the ground, walking about Picking up insects and scraps

Crow Everywhere, especially near the Eating whatever is left over
kitchen

Red-vented bulbul Fruiting trees and hedges Eating small fruits and berries

Pigeon Ledges, water tank, verandah Nesting; eating grain
beams

Parakeet (tota) Peepal, neem and mango tops Eating fruit and seeds; nesting in tree holes

Sunbird Flowering plants — hibiscus, ixora Drinking nectar from flowers

Koel Heard more than seen, in the Calling loudly in summer
mango tree

Butterflies Flowering plants, curry leaf, lemon Drinking nectar; laying eggs on the leaves

Honeybees Any flower Collecting nectar and pollen; pollinating
the flowers

Ants Trunks, cracks, near dropped food Carrying food to the nest

Dragonflies Near the water tank or a wet patch Catching mosquitoes in the air

Ladybird beetle On plants with aphids Eating the small insects that harm the
plants

Spiders Corners, between branches Catching insects in the web

Sample answer: “On our neem tree I have seen sparrows, mynas and crows every day, and a
pair of parakeets in the morning. Two bulbuls come to the guava tree when the fruit is ripe.
Near the hibiscus by the office I have seen a small purple sunbird hanging upside down to drink
from the flowers. There are always butterflies near the curry leaf plant — yellow ones and one
big black-and-blue one. Ants march up and down the mango trunk, and there is a spider's web
in the corner of the verandah.”

Page 37 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why trees bring all of them: A tree is a whole home. Its flowers give nectar to
butterflies and bees. Its fruit feeds bulbuls and parakeets. Its leaves feed
caterpillars, and the caterpillars feed the sparrows. Its holes and branches hold
nests, and its shade keeps the ground cool and damp for ants and beetles. Cut one
tree and all of that goes, not just the tree.

Make a butterfly garden: butterflies need two different kinds of plant — nectar
plants for the grown-ups to drink from (marigold, ixora, lantana, zinnia, pentas) and
host plants for them to lay eggs on so the caterpillars can eat (lemon and curry leaf
for the lime butterfly, milkweed for the tiger butterfly). Plant both together in one
sunny patch, keep a shallow dish of water with a stone in it, and use no insect spray
at all.

Activity 5 — Page 66
Water in the shade and water in the Sun

ACTIVITY

Q1 Take two glasses of water. Measure the temperature using a thermometer under
the guidance of your teacher. Record your readings.

Both glasses must start at the same temperature. That is the whole point of this first step —
if they do not start equal, the comparison later means nothing.
How to do it

1. Take two glasses of the same size and the same colour.
2. Fill both from the same tap, at the same moment, to the same level.
3. Ask your teacher to help you use the thermometer. Hold it by the top, put the bulb into the
water without touching the bottom of the glass, and wait half a minute for the reading to
stop moving.
4. Read it at eye level and write it down. Then measure the second glass.

GLASS TEMPERATURE AT THE START (SAMPLE)

Glass 1 (to go under the tree) 28 °C

Glass 2 (to go in the Sun) 28 °C

Page 38 of 74

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why they must be the same: This is a fair test. Only one thing is allowed to be

m l a se
different between the two glasses — where they are kept. Everything else must be
o
identical: .same a g
c water, same glass, same amount, same starting temperature,
m
same
a e Then whatever difference appears at the end must have been caused by
shour.
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one
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m and it breaks easily. Never shake it, never ag
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Handle with care: A thermometer is glass

a g la it flat on a cloth when it is not in use. Do this
wash it in hot water, and always keep
step with your teacher.

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se m.
o m l a
g one hour, measure
m .c one glass under a tree and the other under the Sun.aAfter
Keep
se the temperature again. Record your readings.
Q2

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WATER/TEMPERATURE
m.co AT START ONE HOUR LATER
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Under the tree
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Under the Sun

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m a s emempty boxes.
The table printed in the book. Write your own readings in the

. co a gl
a s em
agl ANSWER
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After one hour the glass in the Sun is clearly warmer. The glass under the tree has hardly
g l a
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ase
changed.

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How to do it
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1. Put Glass 1 in the shade under a tree, on the ground, where no patch of sunlight will reach it
as the Sun moves.
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2. Put Glass 2 in the open, in full Sun.
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3. Note the clock time. Leave them alone for exactly one hour.

s e m4. Measure both again with the same thermometer, the shaded one first.
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The completed table (sample readings from a sunny March afternoon)

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mAT START a
. co agl
WATER / TEMPERATURE ONE HOUR LATER RISE

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Under the tree 28 °C 30 °C 2 °C

Under the Sun 28 °C 38 °C 10 °C

com
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Write your own readings in your book. The exact numbers depend on the month, the time of day and
how thick the shade is. What will always be true is that the glass in the Sun warms up much more.

Under the tree Under the Sun
28 °C → 30 °C 28 °C → 38 °C
Same water, same hour. The shade of one tree made a 10-degree difference.

Why the tree keeps it cool: Three things happen at once. The leaves block the Sun's
rays, so the heat never reaches the glass. The tree also gives out water vapour from
its leaves, and that cools the air around it — the same way sweat cools you. And the
shaded ground below stays cool instead of heating up and warming the air above it.

Q3 What do these readings tell us?

They tell us that shade keeps things cool — and that a tree is a natural cooler that needs
no electricity.
Reading the table carefully, four things follow.

1. The Sun heats things a lot. The water in the open rose by about 10 °C in a single hour.
2. Shade keeps things almost unchanged. The water under the tree rose by only about 2 °C
in the same hour.
3. So the difference is made by the tree, not by the water. The two glasses were identical at
the start. Only their place was different.
4. A tree is therefore a cooling machine. It runs on sunlight, costs nothing, makes no noise,
and gives out oxygen instead of hot air.

Page 40 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What this means for our school: If a glass of water in the shade stays 8 degrees
cooler, then so does a classroom, a corridor, a playground and a bicycle stand. It also
means the opposite: a bare cemented courtyard with no tree will be the hottest
place in the school, every day. Which is exactly what the Electricity Savers team
found when they walked round at one o'clock.

Where to plant, then: on the side of the building that gets the afternoon Sun; over
the walking path from the gate; and beside the drinking-water point and the bicycle
stand, where children stand and wait.

Q4 With the help of your teacher, try to find out the names of the trees and plants that
attract birds, and butterflies. Try to create a butterfly garden in your school.

Butterflies need two kinds of plant, not one — plants to drink from, and plants to lay eggs
on. Most people plant only the first kind and then wonder why the butterflies do not stay.

KIND OF WHAT IT IS FOR WHAT TO PLANT
PLANT

Nectar plants Grown-up butterflies drink Marigold (genda), ixora (rugmini), lantana, zinnia,
sweet nectar from the flowers pentas, periwinkle (sadabahar), tulsi, hibiscus

Host plants The butterfly lays eggs on Lemon and curry leaf (for the lime butterfly),
them; the caterpillars eat the milkweed / aak (for the tiger butterflies), fennel and
leaves dill, cassia

Plants for birds Fruit and seeds, and safe places Guava, jamun, mulberry (shahtoot), banyan,
to nest peepal, papaya, sunflower

Plants for Tube-shaped flowers full of Hibiscus, ixora, banana flower, drumstick (sahjan)
sunbirds and nectar
bees

How to make the butterfly garden — 8 steps

1. Choose a sunny corner. Butterflies need warmth; they will not come to a dark, damp patch.
2. Pick a spot away from the playing area, so the plants are not trampled.
3. Dig the soil, mix in compost from your own pit, and level it.
4. Plant the nectar plants in groups — three or four marigolds together are seen from far away;
one alone is not.
5. Plant the host plants at the back — a lemon plant and a curry leaf plant are enough to start.

Page 41 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

6. Put a shallow dish of water on the ground with a few stones in it. Butterflies land on the wet
stone to drink; they can drown in an open bowl.
7. Use no insect spray at all. Even a little kills the caterpillars, and no caterpillars means no
butterflies.
8. Put up a small board: “Butterfly Garden — please do not pluck”, and make a class roster for
watering.

Why the caterpillars must be allowed to eat the leaves: This is the part everyone
gets wrong. A chewed lemon leaf is not damage — it is the garden working. Every
butterfly you see was a caterpillar that ate leaves. If you protect the leaves, you lose
the butterflies.

Keep a record: hang a chart beside the garden and let anyone add a line — date,
which butterfly, on which plant. In three months your class will have a real record of
the living things in your own school. Look out for the lime butterfly, the common
crow, the plain tiger, the grass yellow and the common Mormon.

In-text Question — Page 67
What Mohit said about traffic rules

Q1 Mohit said, “I think people don’t follow traffic rules, we learned about them in our
earlier class”. What do you think about what Mohit said?

Mohit is right, and he has found the real problem: the trouble is not that people do not
know the rules — it is that they know them and still do not follow them.
Look at what any of us can see on the road outside school.

People cross wherever they are standing instead of walking twenty steps to the zebra
crossing.
Riders keep the helmet hanging on the handlebar instead of on the head.
Vehicles do not slow down in front of the school, even though the sign says to.
Cars and autos stop right across the gate, so children have to walk out into the middle of the
road.
People look at a phone while riding, or take three children on one two-wheeler.

Why do people break rules they know?

1. They are in a hurry. Following a rule costs a minute, and they think the minute matters
more.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. They think nothing will happen to them. “I have done it a hundred times.”
3. They copy others. When everyone is jumping the signal, one person waiting feels foolish.
4. Sometimes the road makes it hard. No zebra crossing, no footpath, no place to park — so
people do the wrong thing because there is no easy right thing to do.

Sample answer: “I agree with Mohit. We learnt the traffic rules in Class 4 and everyone in our
class can say them. But outside our gate I see the same rules being broken every afternoon. So
knowing is not enough — we have to actually follow the rules, every time, even when we are in a
hurry and even when nobody is watching. And we can help by reminding the grown-ups at
home politely: my father now wears his helmet because my sister and I asked him to, every
single day, until it became his habit.”

Why the reminder from a child works: A traffic policeman can stop a rider once. A
child in the house asks the same question every day — “Papa, helmet?” — and that is
what turns a rule into a habit. This is one of the few things a ten-year-old can do that
actually changes adult behaviour.

Write — Pages 67–68
Traffic Signs

WRITE

Q1 Find out and write at least three traffic rules.

Three rules every child should know and follow — and then six more.

1. Always walk on the footpath. If there is no footpath, walk on the right side of the road,
facing the traffic coming towards you — so you can see the vehicles and they can see you.
2. Cross the road only at the zebra crossing, and only after looking right, then left, then
right again. If there is a signal, cross only when the walking man is green. Never cross while
looking at a phone.
3. Anyone riding a two-wheeler must wear a helmet, and anyone in a car must wear a
seat belt — the rider and the person sitting behind, both.

Six more, worth knowing

Obey the traffic light: red means stop, yellow means get ready to stop, green means go.
Keep to the left on Indian roads.
Never lean out of, or put your arm out of, a moving bus, car or auto.
Get into and out of a school bus only when it has fully stopped, and always from the footpath
side.

Page 43 of 74

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Do not use a mobile phone while driving or riding.
co m
Do not carry more people on a vehicle than it is meant for, and never let anyone under 18
em.
m l as
.co g
drive.
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SIGN ITS SHAPE AND COLOUR WHAT IT TELLS YOU

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Stop Red, eight-sided Stop completely, then go when it is clear

. co ag
School Ahead
s em
Red triangle, children walking
a
Children may cross here — slow right down

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inside

Pedestrian Blue square, a person walking on This is where people cross

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crossing stripes

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Speed limit
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Red circle with a number
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Do not go faster than that number

m a
l a se
No entry Red circle with a white bar
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Vehicles may not go in

a No horn Red circle with a crossed-out Do not blow the horn here — often near schools

m a s
.co agl
horn and hospitals

a s em
An easy way to remembergthe
a l shapes: a triangle warns you about something
ahead. A red circle tells you not to do something. A blue square gives you helpful
information. You can read a sign you have never seen before just from its shape.
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
a s em Think and write about what you saw at the school gate.
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Q2

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com g l a
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you actually see, with numbers.las
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Watch from safely inside the gate, with a teacher, for ten minutes at closing time. Write what

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Sample answer: “At 2:45 in the afternoon, our school gate becomes the most crowded place in
the whole area. Autos, vans and scooters come and stop right in front of the gate, sometimes
co m
m .
two rows deep, so the road is almost blocked. Parents wait standing in the middle of the road.

as e
comautos, where a driver cannot see them at all. l
Small children from Class 1 and 2 come running out and step onto the road from between two
. a g
sem
parked

a
agl
There is no zebra crossing outside our gate. There is a ‘School Ahead’ board but it is bent and
half hidden by a tree branch. In ten minutes we counted 27 vehicles going past; only 8 of them
.c
s e m
m a
slowed down. There is a lot of horn blowing. A cycle-rickshaw and a car nearly touched in front

m . co
of us, and the ice-cream cart standing at the corner makes children gather right at the edge of
agl
the road.
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ag
What we felt was that everybody is in a hurry for those ten minutes, and the youngest children
— who are the shortest and the hardest to see — are the ones in the middle of it.”

co m
m .
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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How to write yours: answer four things — who is there, what they do, what is
missing (crossing, sign, footpath, parking place), and the one moment that worried
you most. Numbers make it convincing.

Q3 Now, work in small teams to design a signboard for the school gate. Your sign
should give a clear message to drivers, parents or students, and help make the area
safer. You can use simple words, drawings or symbols. — Make your traffic
signboard here.

A good signboard says ONE thing, in very few words, in letters big enough to read from a
moving vehicle. A board with five messages on it is read by nobody.
How to design it — 6 steps

1. Decide who you are talking to. Drivers, parents or students — the message is different for
each.
2. Choose one message only. The most useful problem you saw at your gate.
3. Use four or five words at most. “SLOW — SCHOOL AHEAD” is read. A whole sentence is not.
4. Add a picture or symbol. Children walking, a hand raised for stop, a zebra crossing. A
picture is understood even by someone who cannot read.
5. Use strong colours. Red or black letters on yellow or white. Big, thick, plain letters. No fancy
writing.
6. Put it where it will be seen — high enough to be above the crowd, and a little before the
gate, so a driver has time to slow down.

Sample messages for each audience

FOR MESSAGE ON THE BOARD PICTURE ON IT
WHOM

Drivers SLOW DOWN — SCHOOL AHEAD Two children walking, inside a red
triangle

Drivers NO HORN — CHILDREN LEARNING A horn with a red line across it

Parents PLEASE PARK 50 STEPS AWAY — KEEP THE An arrow pointing away from the
GATE CLEAR gate

Students STOP. LOOK RIGHT — LEFT — RIGHT. THEN An eye, and a zebra crossing
CROSS.

Students WAIT INSIDE THE GATE FOR YOUR VAN Children standing behind a line

Page 45 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

SLOW
SCHOOL AHEAD
Children crossing

Fix it 30 metres before the gate
One message, big letters, a picture, strong colours — that is the whole design.

Why fewer words work better: A driver going past has about two seconds to read
your board. In two seconds a person can read four or five words, not twenty. Every
extra word you add makes the board less likely to be read at all.

Make it real: paint it on a wooden or metal board, not paper — paper will not last
one monsoon. Ask your teacher to take permission before fixing it outside the
school boundary.

Discuss — Page 68
Beyond signboards

DISCUSS

Q1 Besides making signboards, what else can we do to improve traffic near the school?

A signboard tells people what to do. These next things make the right thing easy to do —
which works better.
1. Change the road itself (ask the school to write to the municipality or panchayat)

Page 46 of 74

Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Paint a zebra crossing outside the gate, and repaint it when it fades.
Ask for a speed breaker or rumble strips a little before the gate.
Ask for a footpath, or at least a painted line marking a walking strip.
Ask for a “School Zone” sign and a speed limit board on both sides.
Get the branches trimmed if they hide the signs, and get the street light near the gate
repaired.

2. Change how the gate works

Mark a parking and waiting area a little away from the gate, and ask parents to use it.
Let classes out in two batches, five minutes apart, so the crowd is halved.
Make a marked waiting line inside the gate; no child steps out until their vehicle or adult is
there.
Have two teachers and senior students on gate duty during the rush.
Keep the school gate itself clear of hawkers and carts.

3. Change what people know and do

Start a small student traffic patrol with sashes, on duty for ten minutes at closing time.
Take out a road-safety rally in the neighbourhood with posters.
Ask the traffic police to visit the school and speak in the assembly — they will usually come.
Send a short note home with every child on helmets, seat belts and parking away from the
gate.
Run a “Helmet Day” — children thank every rider who is wearing one.

4. Reduce the number of vehicles

Encourage walking and cycling for children who live close by, with a safe cycle stand.
Encourage families living on the same street to share one vehicle.

Why the changes to the road matter most: A sign asks a driver to slow down; a
speed breaker makes him slow down. A rule tells parents not to block the gate; a
marked parking bay gives them somewhere else to go. Wherever you can, change
the place rather than only telling people off — it works even when nobody is
watching.

What your class can actually do this month: write one polite letter, signed by the
whole class, to the municipal office or the panchayat, asking for a zebra crossing and
a speed breaker outside the gate. Attach your traffic survey — the count of vehicles
that did not slow down. A letter with real numbers gets answered.

Write — Fire Safety — Pages 68–69

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Fire Safety

WRITE

Q1 Where is the fire extinguisher kept in your school?

Do not guess this one. Go and look, today, and remember the place. A fire extinguisher is of
no use if nobody knows where it is.
Where they are usually kept

In the corridor, fixed to the wall at about the height of a grown-up's shoulder
Near the staircase and near every exit door
Outside the office and the staff room
In and near the kitchen or mid-day-meal room, where cooking gas is used
Near the computer room and the electrical panel or main switch board
In the science laboratory, in schools that have one

Sample answer: “In our school there are four fire extinguishers. One is in the corridor outside
the office, one at the bottom of the staircase, one outside the computer room, and one in the
mid-day-meal kitchen. They are red cylinders fixed on the wall, with a pin and a black hose. Our
teacher told us that only grown-ups may use them, but every one of us should know where they
are.”

WHAT TO CHECK WHEN YOU FIND IT WHY

Is anything stacked in front of it? It must be reachable in three seconds

Is the little pointer in the green part of the dial? Green means it is full and ready

Is the date on the label still valid? Extinguishers must be refilled every year

Can you see it from a distance? A sign above it helps in smoke

Mark it on your map: put a red dot for every fire extinguisher on the school map
you drew in Activity 1, and a green arrow for every exit. Pin the map up in your
classroom.

Page 48 of 74

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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In case of a fire, where is the assembly point in your school?
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Theglassembly point is the fixed open place where everyone gathers after leaving the
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What makes a good assembly point
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1. It is outdoors and open — usually
2. It is away from the building, so falling pieces or smoke cannot reach it.

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4. It has room for everybody to stand class by class.
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5. It does not block the gate — the fire engine must be able to get in.

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Sample answer: “In our school the assembly point is the far end of the playground, near the
a boundary wall by the two gulmohar trees. Each class has a marked place there, the same place
where we stand for morning assembly. When we did the fire drill, we walked there in a line,
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stood class-wise, and our class teacher counted us and reported to the principal that all 38
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students of Class 5 were present.”
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Why standing in your class group matters so much: In an emergency the only

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question that matters is “is anyone still inside?” If everyone stands in a crowd, that

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cannot be answered. If everyone stands in their own class line, each

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What should you do if there is a fire or if you smell smoke?
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emTell an adult at once and get out. Do not try to put the fire out yourself, and never go back

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in for anything.

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What to do, in order

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1. Shout for help. Tell the nearest teacher or grown-up immediately. Do not wait to be sure. agl
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2. Raise the alarm. If your school has a fire bell or alarm, tell a teacher to sound it so the
whole school knows.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

3. Leave at once. Walk quickly and calmly to the nearest exit. Do not run — running causes
falls and pushing in a crowd.
4. Leave your bag. Books, bags, tiffin and water bottles stay where they are. Nothing is worth
going back for.
5. Use the stairs, never the lift. A lift can stop with you inside it.
6. If there is smoke, get low. Smoke rises, and the cleaner air is near the floor. Crawl, keeping
your mouth and nose covered with a cloth — a wet cloth is even better.
7. Do not hide in a toilet, a cupboard or under a desk. Rescuers cannot find you there.
8. If a door feels hot, do not open it. The fire is on the other side. Use another way out.
9. If your clothes catch fire: STOP — DROP — ROLL. Stop where you are, drop to the ground,
cover your face with your hands, and roll over and over until the flames go out. Never run;
running makes the flames bigger.
10. Go straight to the assembly point and stand with your class. Tell your teacher at once if
anyone from your class is missing or hurt.
11. Never go back inside once you are out, for any reason at all.

Why crawl low under smoke: Hot smoke is lighter than air, so it collects near the
ceiling first and the air near the floor stays clearer for longer. In most fires it is the
smoke, not the flame, that harms people — so keeping your head low and your
mouth covered is the single most useful thing to know.

Numbers to remember: the fire brigade is 101, and 112 is the all-in-one emergency
number in India. Learn your school's address by heart, because the person who calls
has to say where the fire is.

Let us practice — Page 69

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A safe fire drill

ACTIVITY

Q1 With the teacher’s help, practise a safe fire drill. 1. Move quickly and calmly to the
nearest exit route. Do not panic. Do not run. 2. Crawl low under smoke with your
mouth covered to breathe cleaner air. 3. Do not hide in closets or bathrooms. 4. Help
others if it is safe to do so, but never return to the building once you are outside. 5.
Go to the assembly point and stay with your group. 6. Once you have reached the
assembly point, alert staff or teachers immediately if anyone is missing, or injured.

A fire drill is practice, done when there is no fire, so that your body already knows what to
do if there ever is one. Take it seriously — laughing and pushing during a drill is the reason
drills fail on the real day.
Before the drill

1. Your teacher shows you the nearest exit from your classroom, and a second exit in case the
first is blocked.
2. You learn what the alarm sounds like — a bell, a siren or a whistle.
3. Two children are given jobs: a line leader who walks in front, and a last person who checks
that the room is empty and shuts the door.
4. Everyone is told where the assembly point is and where their class stands there.

The drill, step by step

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

STEP WHAT YOU DO WHY IT IS DONE THAT WAY

1. The alarm Stop work at once. Stand up. Leave your Carrying things slows you down and
sounds bag, books and water bottle on the desk. blocks the door

2. Move to the Walk quickly and calmly in a single line to Running in a crowd makes people fall; a
exit the nearest exit. Do not run and do not fall at a doorway blocks everyone behind
push.

3. If there is Get down on your hands and knees and Smoke rises, so the cleaner air stays near
smoke crawl, with your mouth and nose covered by the floor
a cloth.

4. Stairs, Always take the staircase. A lift can stop and trap you
never the lift

5. Never hide Do not go into a toilet, a store room or a Rescuers cannot find someone who is
cupboard. hidden

6. Help, but Help a smaller child or a friend who is hurt, Two people in trouble is worse than one
safely if you can do it without danger to yourself.

7. Never go Once you are outside, you stay outside — Most people who are harmed in fires
back for a bag, a friend, anything. went back in

8. Assembly Go straight there and stand with your own So each teacher can count her class
point class, in your own place. quickly

9. Report Tell your teacher at once if anyone from This is the one piece of information the
your class is missing or hurt. fire brigade needs first

Classroom Nearest exit
Assembly
Leave the bag
point
Walk, do not run

Stand class-wise. Get
Never go back inside. counted.

The whole drill in one line: leave everything, walk out, gather, get counted.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why practise something that may never happen: In a real emergency people do
not think clearly — they freeze, or they follow the crowd. A drill puts the right actions
into your body beforehand, so that on the day you do not have to decide anything.
That is also why the drill must be done properly and in silence: you will do on the day
exactly what you practised.

Do it at home too. With your family, decide the way out of your house, a meeting
spot outside — the gate, or the neem tree — and check that the cooking gas
regulator is turned off every night. It takes ten minutes on one Sunday.

Activity 6 — Page 70
What We do Matters! — five everyday situations

ACTIVITY

Q1 Situation 1 — Two students are pushing and skipping the line at the water tap while
others are waiting. Each group would discuss: 1. If you see such a situation unfold
before you, what would you do? 2. What steps can we take to prevent such
incidents?

What I would do

1. Say something straight away, but calmly and without shouting: “Please go to the back — we
are all waiting.”
2. Speak to them, not about them. Do not push them back; that only starts a fight, and then
two problems exist instead of one.
3. If they still do not listen, ask the class monitor to come, or tell the teacher on duty. That is
not tale-telling — it is stopping something unfair.
4. Stand properly in the line myself. The person who complains about the line and then jumps it
is not believed.

Steps to prevent it happening again

Paint a line, or lay a row of tiles or bricks, on the floor in front of the tap, so people can see
where to stand.
Ask for two or three taps instead of one — most pushing happens because the queue is too
long for the time available.
Give the classes different break times or different taps, so a hundred children do not arrive
at once.
Have a water monitor from a senior class for the ten minutes of the break.

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Make it a class rule, written on the board and agreed by everybody: “We wait for our turn.” A
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rule the class makes itself is followed far better than one imposed on it.
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Why waiting your turn matters more than it looks: A queue is a small promise
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gl everyone makes to everyone else — that being first will be decided by when you
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came, not by who is bigger. When one person breaks it, the promise stops working

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for everybody, and the smallest child is the one who never gets water.

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Situation 2 — A student is scribbling on a classroom bench with a marker. Another

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child watches but says nothing. Each group would discuss: 1. If you see such a

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situation unfold before you, what would you do? 2. What steps can mwe take to
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There are two people to think about here — the one scribbling and the one silently
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watching. This is the point of the situation.

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What I would do

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1. Say it kindly, at once: “Please don't — somebody has to clean that, and the bench belongs to
all of us.” Most children stop when someone simply says so.

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2. Offer paper. If they feel like drawing, give them a rough sheet. Often that is all it takes.
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3. Help clean it. Fresh marker often comes off with a damp cloth. Cleaning it together mends
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5. Not stay silent. Watching and saying nothing tells the other person that it is all right.
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Steps to prevent it

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Give each class a fixed “desk group” that is responsible for its own benches, and check them
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Put up a class drawing board or a chart-paper wall where anyone may draw as much as they
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Have a “clean bench day” once a month when everyone cleans their own place.
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Why the silent watcher is part of the situation: The book put that second child in
the story deliberately. Doing nothing is also doing something — it lets the thing
continue. But speaking up does not mean shouting or reporting. One quiet
sentence, said kindly, is usually enough, and it is a thing a ten-year-old can genuinely
do.

Q3 Situation 3 — Someone throws a wrapper in the playground. A younger student
copies the same act. Each group would discuss: 1. If you see such a situation unfold
before you, what would you do? 2. What steps can we take to prevent such
incidents?

What I would do

1. Pick up the wrapper myself and put it in the bin. Doing it is quicker than arguing about it.
2. Say to the first person, without scolding: “The bin is just there — please use it. The little ones
copy whatever we do.”
3. Go to the younger child, kindly. Say, “Come, let us put it in the bin together,” and walk there
with them. A small child copies the last thing they saw, so let the last thing they see be the
right one.
4. If there is no bin nearby, keep the wrapper in my pocket until I find one — and tell my class
about the missing bin, because that is the real problem.

Steps to prevent it

Put dustbins where the litter actually is — at the playground edge and in the corridor, not
only near the office. The Waste Warriors' map shows exactly where.
Put a green and a blue bin together, both labelled, both with pictures.
Make it a class habit that everyone picks up their own wrappers after the lunch break — one
minute, everybody, every day.
Pair each Class 5 child with a Class 1 child as a “buddy”, and let the older one show the
younger one where the bin is.

Why the younger child copying is the important part: Small children learn far
more from what they see than from what they are told. Every senior in the school is
being watched by somebody smaller. That is a responsibility, and it is also a power —
one senior who always uses the bin quietly teaches twenty juniors to do the same.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 Situation 4 — One student keeps teasing and making fun of another student. Each
group would discuss: 1. If you see such a situation unfold before you, what would
you do? 2. What steps can we take to prevent such incidents?

Teasing that goes on and on is not a joke. It hurts, and it is the most important of these
five situations. The word “keeps” in the question matters — this has happened before, and it
will happen again tomorrow unless something changes.
What I would do — three things, in this order

1. Go and stand with the child who is being teased. This is the first and strongest thing. Walk
over, stand beside them, and say, “Come, let us go.” Teasing usually stops when the teaser
sees that the other person is not alone.
2. Say one clear sentence to the one who is teasing — calmly, without insulting back: “Stop.
That is not funny.” Then walk away with the other child. Do not argue, do not tease back, do
not fight. Answering rudeness with rudeness only makes it bigger.
3. Tell a teacher the same day. If it has happened more than once, an adult must know. This is
not tale-telling. Tale-telling is reporting someone to get them into trouble; this is reporting so
that someone stops being hurt. If I were afraid to say it aloud, I would write it on a slip and
give it to my class teacher.

And afterwards

Sit with the child at lunch. Ask them to join the game. Being included is what actually undoes
the hurt — much more than any punishment for the teaser.
Do not laugh, even a little, when someone is being made fun of. The laughing crowd is what
keeps teasing going. A silent group ends it very fast.
If it is happening to me, I will tell my class teacher and my parents on the same day. It is
never my fault, and I do not have to bear it quietly.

Steps to prevent it

Make one class rule together and write it on the wall: “We do not make fun of anyone —
not their name, their body, their clothes, their language, their family or their marks.”
Have a “No Name-calling Week”, and a class box where anyone can drop a note about
something that is troubling them, without writing their name.
Change the groups for games and projects often, so the same children are not always left
out.
Make sure nobody sits alone at lunch or stands alone at games — every group takes one
more person in.
Ask the teacher for a class circle time where children can say how something made them
feel, and everybody listens without interrupting.

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Why standing beside someone works so well: Teasing needs an audience. It stops
when the audience stops enjoying it and starts standing on the other side. You do
not have to be big or brave or good at arguing to do this. You only have to walk
across and stand there. In every study of this, one friend is what makes the
difference to the child being teased — not the punishment given to the other one.

The line to remember: a joke is funny for everybody, including the person it is
about. The moment one person is not laughing, it has stopped being a joke.

Q5 Situation 5 — A group of students are making noise in a public park and disturbing
a small group doing yoga nearby. Each group would discuss: 1. If you see such a
situation unfold before you, what would you do? 2. What steps can we take to
prevent such incidents?

Nobody here is doing anything wrong on purpose. The children are only playing, which is
exactly what a park is for. The problem is that a shared place is being used by two groups
at once.
What I would do

1. Tell my friends quietly: “Look, they are doing yoga — let us move to the other end.” Not scold
them; just point out what they have not noticed.
2. Move the game a little further away, behind the trees or to the far corner. That solves it
completely in one minute.
3. Lower our voices, and stop the ball going near them.
4. If someone from the yoga group asks us to be quieter, say sorry politely and move, instead
of arguing that the park belongs to everyone. It does — which is exactly why we have to
share it.

Steps to prevent it

Play in the part of the park meant for games, and leave the quiet corner quiet.
Notice who else is there before starting a loud game — old people resting, a baby sleeping,
somebody reading.
Keep different times for different things where a park is small — mornings are usually for
walkers and yoga, evenings for games.
Do not play loud music on a phone or speaker in a public place.
Behave in a park the way you would want someone to behave outside your own house at six
in the morning.

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Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 4 Our School—A Happy Place AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this one is different from the other four: In the other situations somebody
was doing something wrong. Here, both groups have every right to be in the park.
What is needed is not a scolding but an adjustment — noticing that other people
exist, and making a small change so that everyone can do what they came for. That
noticing is what good manners in a public place really are.

Let us reflect — Pages 71–72
Closing questions

LET US REFLECT

Q1 Out of all the classrooms in your school, which one do you think is the nicest and
why?

Walk into three or four classrooms and look properly before you answer. A good answer names
the room and gives reasons you can see, not just “it is nice”.

WHAT TO LOOK AT WHAT MAKES A CLASSROOM GOOD

Light Windows on more than one side; bright enough to read without the tube light

Air A breeze passes through; it does not feel stuffy at noon

Coolness A tree outside the window, or a light-coloured roof

Cleanliness Clean floor, clean benches, no scribbles, a dustbin in the corner

What is on the walls Children's own drawings and charts, a reading corner, a class notice board

How it feels People are friendly; nobody sits alone; you can ask a doubt without being laughed at

Sample answer: “I think the nicest classroom in our school is the Class 3 room on the ground
floor. It has big windows on two sides, so the breeze comes right through and the lights are not
needed till the afternoon. The gulmohar tree stands just outside the window and keeps the
room cool even in May, and in April the flowers come right up to the window bars. The walls are
covered with the children's own drawings and a big handmade calendar, and there is a reading
corner with a mat and a shelf of story books. It also has a green bin and a blue bin in the corner,
and the benches have no scribbles on them because that class cleans its own desks every
Friday.

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But the real reason I like it is our own room, Class 5B. It is not the brightest room, and the paint
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is old. It is the nicest to me because nobody in it sits alone at lunch, and when I get a sum
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wrong nobody laughs.”

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gl the last part is the best answer: Light, air and paint make a room
acomfortable.
Why
Only the people in it make it happy. A plain room where you are treated

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kindly is a nicer place than a beautiful one where you are afraid to speak.

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Q2 Create a happiness tree. On a wall or chart paper, draw a large tree with many

c o m
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branches. Each student should add a ‘leaf’ with one small action written on it that
makes the school a happier place (for example, greeting someone,mturning off

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lights, sharing space, etc.).
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How to make it — 6 steps
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1. Take a large chart paper, or use a bare wall with brown paper stuck on it.
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2. Draw a thick brown trunk and many branches spreading out — enough for one leaf per child,
with room for more later. a g
3. Cut leaf shapes from green paper. Make a few in yellow, orange and pink too, so the tree
looks alive.
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4. Each child writes one small action on a leaf, in their own handwriting,emwith their name small
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5. The rule: it must be something you can actually do this week, and something small. Not “I

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inside your classroom.
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Leaves for the tree — real examples

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