NCERT Solutions Class 5 English Chapter 5 the Frog

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 · ENGLISH

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 5: The Frog

NCERT Textbook — Santoor

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

55 – 64 15 44 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 41 pages

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 5 · ENGLISH · SANTOOR

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 5: The Frog
Chapter 5 of Santoor opens Unit 3, Water. The Frog is a short poem in five stanzas. The book does not name
a poet. The frog itself is the speaker — it says “I” all through — and it tells us where it lives, how it eats, how it
moves, how it hides and how it sings. The chapter carries these banners: Let us Recite, New Words, Let us
Think (A and B), Let us Learn (A and B), Let us Speak (A and B), Let us Listen, Let us Write, Let us Do (A, B
and C) and Let us Explore, with two Did You Know? boxes along the way.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Santoor (Class 5) 55 – 64

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

15 44

MEDIUM

English

Let us Recite — Page 55
The Frog (poem)

LET US RECITE

Poem Let us Recite — The Frog. Read the poem aloud and enjoy it.

Here is the whole poem. Read it aloud twice. The second time, read it as if you are the frog
telling your own story.

Page 1 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

I sit in ponds and in the rain,

Or hop about in a muddy drain.

As a tadpole, I swim with cheer,

A tiny fish-like thing, so clear!

I flick my tongue to catch my food,

It works so fast—now that’s quite good!

I live on land and water too,

In places damp with drops of dew.

My colours match the plants and trees,
I hide so well in grass and leaves!

But snakes are near, I must beware,

Or else they’ll catch me unaware!

I croak my songs, they sound so loud,

Yet in my pond, I feel so proud.

I hop around, I jump so high,

Up I go into the sky!

With webbed feet, I swim with ease,

And leap so high in joyful breeze!

What each stanza tells us:

1. Stanza 1 — where I live. In ponds, in the rain, in a muddy drain. Wet places.
2. Stanza 2 — when I was a baby, and how I eat. The frog was once a tadpole — a tiny thing
with a tail, like a small fish. Now it flicks out its tongue to catch food.
3. Stanza 3 — my two homes and my hiding coat. It lives both on land and in water. Its
colours match the plants, so it is hard to see.
4. Stanza 4 — my enemy and my song. Snakes hunt frogs, so the frog must beware. Even so,
it croaks loudly and feels proud of its pond.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5. Stanza 5 — how I move. It hops and jumps high on land. In water its webbed feet push the
water, so it swims easily.

Tips for reciting: Say stanza 1 slowly and comfortably — the frog is at home. Say
stanza 2 quickly at “It works so fast”, to match the tongue. Drop your voice at “But
snakes are near” so it sounds like a warning. Then lift it right up for the last stanza
and end on “joyful breeze” with a smile.

Why the poem sounds nice: The two lines of each pair rhyme — rain / drain, cheer /
clear, food / good, too / dew, trees / leaves, beware / unaware, loud / proud, high / sky,
ease / breeze. Rhyming pairs make a poem easy to remember, so you can learn it by
heart quickly.

Notice: The frog is talking about itself. It never says “the frog” — it says “I”. That is
why the poem feels friendly, as if a small green neighbour has come to tell you
about its life.

Let us Think — Page 56
A. Answer the following questions

LET US THINK

A.1 Where does the frog like to sit or spend time?

The frog likes to sit in ponds and in the rain, and it hops about in a muddy drain.
The poem says so in its very first two lines:

“I sit in ponds and in the rain,

Or hop about in a muddy drain.”

Later the frog tells us more about its places. It says, “I live on land and water too, / In places
damp with drops of dew.” Damp means a little wet. Dew means the tiny water drops that sit on
grass early in the morning. It also hides in “grass and leaves”, and it calls the pond its own —
“Yet in my pond, I feel so proud.”
So the frog’s favourite places are:

the pond

Page 3 of 41

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

out in the rain
co m
a muddy drain
e m.
m l as
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damp ground with dew on it

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a
inside grass and leaves

a g l
Why it likes these places: A frog’s skin must stay wet. If its skin dries up, the frog

o m
c ag
cannot stay well. So it keeps to places where there is water or at least damp air. That
is why you hear frogs most on a rainy m .
a s e night and hardly at all in the hot, dry days

agl
before the rains.

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m as
How does the frog catch its food?

.co l
A.2

a g
se m
g l a
a The frog catches its food by flicking out its tongue very fast.

m a s
.co agl
The poem says:

se m
l a
“I flick my tongue to catch mygfood,
a
m
It works so fast—now that’s quite good!”

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se m
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ginsect sticks to it, and the
When.c
Flick means to shoot something out and pull it back in one quick snap. The frog sits very still.

m a
se comes back into the mouth. It is over in less than the time you take to blink.
an insect comes near, its long, sticky tongue shoots out, the

g l atongue
a
se m
com the frog waits and strikes. Its tongue is a
Why a sticky tongue works so well: The frog cannot chase a fly — a fly is far
. a g l
emnot at the back like ours, so it can be thrown out a
quicker in the air. So instead of chasing,

a s
agsol the insect cannot get away.
joined at the front of its mouth,
long way. And it is sticky,

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Did you know? Frogs eat mosquitoes, flies and other insects. A pond full of frogs
m l as
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means fewer mosquitoes in the houses nearby. In the letter on page 61, Hopper the

e a
m frog says exactly this: “I love eating mosquitoes and other insects.”
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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A.3 How does the frog move in water and on land?

In water the frog swims with its webbed feet. On land it hops and jumps very high.
The last stanza tells us both:

“I hop around, I jump so high,
Up I go into the sky!

With webbed feet, I swim with ease,

And leap so high in joyful breeze!”

WHERE HOW IT MOVES THE LINE THAT SAYS SO

In water It swims, easily, using its webbed feet “With webbed feet, I swim with ease,”

On land It hops about and leaps high “I hop around, I jump so high,” · “And leap so high…”

Webbed feet have a thin skin joining the toes, so the foot opens out like a small fan.

Why the same legs do both jobs: The frog’s back legs are long and folded up like a
spring. On land it straightens them all at once, and the push sends it flying forward.
In water it straightens them the same way, but now the webbed feet push against
the water instead of the ground. One pair of legs, two ways of using them.

Try this: Open your hand wide and push it through a bucket of water with the
fingers apart. Now close the fingers and push again. With the fingers closed your
hand pushes much more water. Webbed feet do the same thing for the frog.

A.4 What helps the frog hide in its surroundings?

The frog’s colours help it hide. Its green and brown colours look just like the plants around it.
The poem says:

Page 5 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

“My colours match the plants and trees,

I hide so well in grass and leaves!”

Surroundings means everything around a thing — here, the grass, the leaves, the plants and the
muddy bank of the pond. Because the frog is the same colour as all of that, an enemy looking
down at the pond sees only leaves.

Why hiding matters so much: The very next stanza tells us: “But snakes are near, I
must beware, / Or else they’ll catch me unaware!” A snake hunts by seeing
movement and shape. If the frog sits still and its colour matches the leaves, the
snake looks straight past it. The frog’s colour is not a decoration — it is its safety.

The word for this: When an animal’s colour matches its surroundings so that it
cannot be seen, we call it camouflage (say it: KA-moo-flaazh). A grasshopper in green
grass and a moth on brown bark do the same thing.

Let us Think — Page 56
B. Think and discuss

THINK AND DISCUSS

B.1 What would it feel like to live like a frog, both in water and on land?

This is a “put yourself in its place” question. There is no single right answer. Think about what
would be fun and what would be hard, and say both.

What a good answer needs: at least two good things and two hard things about a
frog’s life, each with a reason, all in full sentences.

Sample answer: Living like a frog would feel free and a little frightening at the same time. The
best part would be having two homes. When the day is hot I could slip into the cool pond, and
when I wanted to look around I could climb out on to a rock. I would never have to wait for a
bus, because my back legs would carry me a long way in one leap. Rain would be the happiest
weather of all, not a reason to run indoors.
But it would also be hard. My skin would always have to stay damp, so I could never go far from
water. I would have to keep very still and watch all the time, because a snake could be near. And
I would have to catch every meal myself with my tongue — there would be no one to cook for

Page 6 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

me. I think I would enjoy the swimming and the leaping most, and I would find the waiting and
the watching the hardest.

What to notice: An animal that lives in two places gets two sets of good things —
and two sets of dangers. That is the honest answer to this question.

B.2 If you could hop as high as a frog, what fun things would you do?

This one is about your own imagination. Answer with three or four things you would really do,
and say why each would be fun.

What a good answer needs: three or four ideas, each one a full sentence, each one
something a jump would actually help with.

Sample answer: If I could hop as high as a frog, I would first jump up and pluck the mangoes
from the very top of our neighbour’s tree, where nobody can reach. In our cricket match I would
leap up and catch every ball that was going over the boundary, so my team would never lose a
catch. I would hop straight over the puddles on the road in the rains instead of walking around
them, and I would reach school in about ten jumps. On Diwali I would hop up and hang the
lamps along the top of the wall without needing a ladder. Best of all, I would jump high enough
to see over everyone’s heads in a crowded fair.

Something worth knowing: A frog can jump many times the length of its own body.
If you could do that, one jump would carry you across a whole classroom. That is
because a frog’s back legs are folded like a spring and are almost as long as the rest
of its body.

B.3 How is a frog’s life different from a fish’s life?

The biggest difference is this: a fish lives in water all its life, but a frog lives its early life in
water and then moves out on to the land as well.
The poem itself gives the clue. The frog says, “As a tadpole, I swim with cheer, / A tiny fish-like
thing, so clear!” So a frog begins life looking and living like a small fish. But then it changes.
Later it says, “I live on land and water too.” A fish never gets to say that.
How a frog grows up:

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1. Eggs 2. Tadpole 3. Back legs 4. Froglet 5. Frog
in jelly gills, long tail grow first front legs come; four legs,
tail shrinks no tail

A frog changes shape as it grows. A fish does not — a baby fish is simply a small fish.

1. Eggs. The mother frog lays hundreds of tiny eggs in the pond. They float together in a soft
jelly.
2. Tadpole. Out of each egg comes a tadpole — a round head with a long tail, and no legs at
all. It breathes under water through gills, which are the feathery parts on the side of its
head. This is the “tiny fish-like thing” of the poem.
3. Back legs first. Two back legs grow. The tail is still there and still does the swimming.
4. Froglet. The two front legs come out. The tail slowly grows smaller and smaller. Lungs grow
inside, so the little frog starts coming up to gulp air.
5. Frog. The tail is gone. Four legs, webbed back feet, lungs for air — and now it can climb out
and sit on the bank.

FROG FISH

Where it lives In water and on land Only in water

How it breathes Gills when it is a tadpole; lungs and moist skin when it Gills, all its life
grows up

How it moves Hops and leaps on land; swims with webbed feet Swims with fins and tail

Does its shape Yes — egg, tadpole, froglet, frog No — a baby fish is a small
change? fish

Body covering Smooth, moist skin Scales

Out of water Quite happy, if the place is damp Cannot live

Sample answer: A frog’s life changes twice over, but a fish’s life does not. A frog begins as an
egg in the pond and then becomes a tadpole, which has a tail and gills and swims exactly like a
small fish. After some weeks its legs grow, its tail disappears, and it can hop out on to the land.
A fish is born a fish and stays a fish. It has fins and scales, it breathes through gills all its life, and
it can never leave the water. So the frog gets two worlds and the fish gets one — but the fish is a
far better swimmer, because it does nothing else.

Page 8 of 41

as e
Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
How are frogs’ webbed feet similar to the flippers used by scuba divers?
e
B.4

m l as
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a
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a glare wide and flat, and both work in the same way: they push a lot of water
Both
backwards, so the swimmer shoots forwards.

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Flippers are the long, flat rubber shoes a diver straps on to his feet. A scuba diver is a person who
ag
swims deep under water carrying a tank of m
s e air on his back.

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A FROG’S WEBBED FEET A DIVER’S FLIPPERS

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Shape Toes joined by thin skin, so the foot One wide, flat blade of rubber

a se
com Pushes a big load of water backwards
opens like a fan

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What it does
a
Pushes a big load of

aglResult The frog moves forward with one kick The diver moves forward with one kick

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Where it came The frog was born with them People made them, after watching animals like the

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from frog and the duck

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Why a wide foot is better in water: Water gets out of the way of a thin thing but

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not of a wide thing. A thin bare foot slices through and hardly pushes anything. A
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is what carries the swimmer forward. So a bigger, flatter

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Check it yourself: In a bucket of water, sweep your hand through with the fingers
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spread apart. Then press your fingers
is much harder to do — that sisethe
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flippers, and why the frog

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Sample answer: A frog’s webbed feet and a diver’s flippers are alike because both make the

m a s em a large amount of
foot wide and flat. When the frog kicks, the skin between its toes pushes

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water gl the rubber flipper does
co backwards and the frog glides forward. When the diverakicks,
a emexactly the same thing. In fact people made flippers after watching animals such as frogs and
s ducks swim. The only difference is that the frog is born with its webbed feet, while the diver has
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to buy his flippers and strap them on.

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Let us Learn — Pageag57

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A. Choose the correct words from the brackets and fill in the blanks

LET US LEARN

A.1 Choose the correct words from the brackets and fill in the blanks. 1. My colours
match the plants ............... trees. (or/and)

and — My colours match the plants and trees.
This is the line straight out of the poem: “My colours match the plants and trees.”

The little rule: Use and when you want to put two things together — both of them
are true. Use or when you want to give a choice — only one of them.

Here the frog’s colour matches the plants, and it also matches the trees. Both are true at the
same time, so we need and. If we wrote “the plants or trees”, it would mean the frog matches
only one of them, and we do not know which — and that is not what the poem says.
Two sentences of your own: I bought bananas and apples. · Will you have tea or coffee?

A.2 2. Would you like to learn about frogs ............... tadpoles? (because/and)

and — Would you like to learn about frogs and tadpoles?

Why: Frogs and tadpoles are two things put together in one list. And is the word that
joins two things in a list. Because is quite different — it gives a reason. “Would you
like to learn about frogs because tadpoles?” does not say anything at all, because no
reason follows it.

How to test yourself: Read the sentence aloud with each word. If the sentence still
makes sense, you have the right one. If it turns into nonsense, try the other.

Your own sentence with because: I like the rainy season because the frogs start croaking at
night.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A.3 3. I hop around happily, ............... I must watch out for snakes! (but/so)

but — I hop around happily, but I must watch out for snakes!

The little rule: Use but when the second half of the sentence turns the other way —
it is the opposite kind of idea. Use so when the second half is the result of the first
half.

Hopping around happily is a cheerful idea. Watching out for snakes is a worried idea. The two
pull in opposite directions, so we join them with but. If we used so, the sentence would mean “I
am happy, and that is why I must watch out for snakes” — which makes no sense.
Compare:

It rained heavily, but we still went to school. (opposite idea)
It rained heavily, so the ground became muddy. (result)

A.4 4. Frogs swim easily ............... they have webbed feet. (because/or)

because — Frogs swim easily because they have webbed feet.

The little rule: Use because when you are giving the reason for something. The
word because answers the question “Why?”

Ask: Why do frogs swim easily? Answer: They have webbed feet. That is a reason, so because is the
joining word. Or would be wrong, since we are not offering a choice between two things.

The four joining words in this exercise, all together:

Page 11 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WORD WHAT IT DOES EXAMPLE

and joins two things together Frogs eat flies and mosquitoes.

or gives a choice Is that a frog or a toad?

but turns to the opposite idea The frog is small, but it jumps very high.

so gives the result It rained, so the pond filled up.

because gives the reason The frog hides because a snake is near.

Let us Learn — Pages 57–58
B. The following words have been rearranged into sentences. Choose the correct option

LET US LEARN

B.1 The following words have been rearranged into sentences. Choose the correct
option. 1. hunts/night/the/silently/tiger/at a. The tiger hunts silently at night. b.
Tiger hunts the silently at night. c. Hunts the tiger at night silently.

Option a — The tiger hunts silently at night.

The rule for English word order: Most simple sentences follow this order —
who → does what → how → where or when.
Here: The tiger (who) → hunts (does what) → silently (how) → at night (when).

Why the other two are wrong:

b. “Tiger hunts the silently at night.” The word the has slipped away from tiger. The must sit
just before the naming word: the tiger, never the silently.
c. “Hunts the tiger at night silently.” The sentence begins with the doing word. A statement in
English begins with who, not with the action. Beginning with the verb turns it into a question
or an order.

Page 12 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

B.2 2. elephants/in/forests/live/large/groups/in a. Elephants live large in groups
forests. b. In groups large, elephants live in forests. c. Elephants live in large groups
in forests.

Option c — Elephants live in large groups in forests.

Why: Elephants (who) → live (does what) → in large groups (how) → in forests
(where). There are two little groups of words here that must stay whole: in large
groups and in forests. Never break up a group like that.

Why the other two are wrong:

a. “Elephants live large in groups forests.” The describing word large has been torn away
from groups. A describing word comes just before the word it describes — large groups. And
forests is left with no in before it.
b. “In groups large, elephants live in forests.” Large is again on the wrong side of groups. In
English the describing word goes before the naming word: large groups, not groups large.

Remember: big house, red ball, cold water, large groups. The describing word
always comes first.

B.3 3. web/a/spider/carefully/its/weaves a. A spider carefully weaves its web. b. Spider
carefully weaves its web a. c. Carefully a spider weaves web its.

Option a — A spider carefully weaves its web.

Why: A spider (who) → carefully (how) → weaves (does what) → its web (what it
weaves). The word carefully may sit just before the doing word — that is normal and
neat English.

Why the other two are wrong:

b. “Spider carefully weaves its web a.” The little word a has been left stranded at the end. A
and an and the always come before a naming word — “a spider”. They can never end a
sentence.
c. “Carefully a spider weaves web its.” Here its has ended up after web. Words like my, your,
its, our come before the naming word — its web, not web its.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Weave means to make cloth or a web by crossing threads over and under each other.
co m
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m l as
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a s ecrocodile/waits/the/silently/riverbank/the/near
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4. a. Crocodile waits the silently
g the near riverbank. b. The silently crocodile waits near the riverbank. c. The
B.4

a
crocodile waits silently near the riverbank.

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a se

l
ag near the riverbank.
Option c — The crocodile waits silently

. c
Why: The crocodile (who) → waits (does what) → silently (how) → near the
om
riverbank (where). Both thes are in their proper place, each one justem
s
before its
m the crocodile and the riverbank.
namingcoword:
. a gla
a s em
a l the other two are wrong:
gWhy
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a. “Crocodile waits the silently the near riverbank.” Both thes are loose in the wrong places,
a s
and the first naming word has no the at all.
em
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a s
agusl how it waits — it belongs with the doing word, not with the
b. “The silently crocodile waits near the riverbank.” Silently has been used as if it described
the crocodile. But silently tells
naming word. We say “a silent crocodile” or “waits silently”, never “the silently crocodile”.

co m
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o m l a se
B.5 .c
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5. a/swims/turtle/slowly/in/ocean/the a. A turtle swims slowly in the ocean. b.
e Swims turtle slowly an ocean in. c. The ocean swims a slowly turtle in.
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Option a — A turtle swims slowly in the ocean.

a s
gl (does what) → slowly (how) → in the ocean (where).
Why: A turtle (who) →aswims
This uses exactly the words given: a before turtle, and the before ocean.

co m
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m
Why the other two are wrong:
o l a se
ag word, it uses an which was not
.cb. “Swims turtle slowly an ocean in.” It begins with the doing
m in the list, and in has been pushed to the end. Small words like in, on, near, under come
l a se
ag before the place, not after it.
.c
s e m
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c. “The ocean swims a slowly turtle in.” This makes the ocean do the swimming, which cannot

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be. And slowly has been squeezed in front of turtle, where it does not belong.
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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A checking trick for all five: Read your chosen sentence aloud and ask yourself
four questions in order — Who? Does what? How? Where or when? If each answer
comes in that order and nothing is left over, the sentence is right.

Let us Speak — Page 58
A. Tongue twisters

LET US SPEAK

A.1 Three tongue twisters are given below. Try speaking each tongue twister slowly at
first. Gradually increase your speed with each repetition. Count how many times
you can say it correctly without making a mistake. 1. Four fierce frogs fight for
flies.

A tongue twister is a line in which nearly every word begins with the same sound. Said fast, the
tongue gets muddled — which is the fun of it.
What the line means: Four wild, angry frogs are fighting over some flies. Fierce means wild and
angry. Flies are the small insects a frog eats.
The sound being practised: the f sound — Four, fierce, frogs, fight, for, flies. Six words, six fs.
How to say f properly:

1. Rest your top teeth lightly on your lower lip.
2. Blow air out gently between them. No voice from the throat — only air.
3. You should feel a soft breeze on your hand if you hold it in front of your mouth.

How to practise:

1. Say it once very slowly, breaking it into pieces: Four … fierce … frogs … fight … for … flies.
2. Say it again a little faster, but keep every f clear.
3. Now say it three times without stopping. Count how many times you get through it without a
slip.
4. Try to beat your own count tomorrow.

The hard bit: frogs and for come one after the other. Slow down just there and the
rest of the line will look after itself.

Page 15 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A.2 2. Fast frogs flip-flop across fluffy fields.

What the line means: Quick frogs go flapping and hopping across soft, springy fields. Flip-flop
means to move with a floppy, flapping, up-and-down motion. Fluffy means soft and light, like
cotton wool.
The sound being practised: the fl blend — two sounds joined and said as one: flip, flop, fluffy. A
blend is two letters whose sounds run together, like fl, fr, gr, st.
How to say fl: Make the f with your teeth on your lip, then let the tongue jump straight up to
the roof of the mouth for l. Do not slip an extra sound in between — it is flip, never fuh-lip.
How to practise:

1. First say the pairs by themselves: fl-fl-fl, then flip, flop, fluffy.
2. Then say the whole line slowly, twice.
3. Speed up a little each time and count your clean runs.

The hard bit: flip-flop followed by across. Your mouth wants to say “flop-flip”. Take a
tiny pause after flip-flop until your tongue is used to it.

A.3 3. Funny frogs flap floppy feet.

What the line means: Comical frogs are waving their soft, loose feet up and down. Flap means
to move something up and down quickly, the way a bird moves its wings. Floppy means soft and
hanging loose, not stiff.
The sound being practised: both f and fl in one line — Funny, frogs, flap, floppy, feet. Five words,
and every one of them starts with f.
How to practise:

1. Say the five words on their own, one at a time, keeping every f breathy and clear.
2. Join them into the full line, slowly.
3. Now say it five times in a row and count how many were correct.
4. Say all three tongue twisters one after the other as a final test.

Why tongue twisters are worth doing: They make the muscles of your lips and
tongue work in a new way, and they force you to say each sound cleanly instead of
swallowing it. After a week of tongue twisters, ordinary reading aloud becomes
noticeably clearer.

Page 16 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Make your own: Choose a letter and hunt for words. For example — Ten tiny turtles
took ten tasty tomatoes. Or Six slow snails sat on a small stone.

Let us Speak — Page 59
B. Listen and repeat — word pairs

LET US SPEAK

B.1 Your teacher will say aloud the following pairs of words. Listen carefully and repeat
each pair. bet — bat

Say: bet … bat. Only the middle sound changes, and that one sound changes the whole word.

The two sounds:
e as in bet — the mouth is open only a little; the lips are relaxed and spread, as in
pen, red, ten.
a as in bat — the mouth opens wider and the jaw drops down, as in cat, hand, man.
Put a finger under your chin. Say bet, then bat. On bat your chin drops lower. That
drop is the whole difference.

WORD WHAT IT MEANS A SENTENCE

bet to say confidently what you think will happen I bet you cannot catch that
frog.

bat the wooden stick used to hit the ball in cricket (it is also the Rahul carried his new bat to
name of a night animal) the ground.

Practise: bet–bat, bet–bat, bet–bat. Then say the full sentence: “I bet he will hit a six
with that bat.”

B.2 set — sat

Say: set … sat. Again, the mouth opens wider for the second word.

Page 17 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WORD WHAT IT MEANS A SENTENCE

set to put something in its place; also a group of Please set the plates on the table. · I have a full
things that go together set of colour pencils.

sat the past of sit — it tells us the sitting has The frog sat on the lily leaf all afternoon.
already happened

Why it matters: These two words do completely different jobs. Set is something you
do to another thing. Sat is something that already happened. If the sound slips, the
meaning slips with it — “I set on the chair” is not English; “I sat on the chair” is.

Practise: “I sat down and set my bag beside me.”

B.3 men — man

Say: men … man. This pair is the most useful of all five, because it is the difference between
many and one.

WORD WHAT IT MEANS A SENTENCE

man one grown-up male person A man was selling guavas near the gate.

men more than one man Four men lifted the heavy cot together.

Notice something unusual: Most English words add -s to mean “more than one” —
frog → frogs, pond → ponds. But man does not. It changes its middle sound instead:
man → men. A few other words behave the same way: woman → women, tooth →
teeth, foot → feet, child → children, mouse → mice.

Practise: “One man, two men. One man, two men.” Say it until the two sounds feel
different in your mouth.

Page 18 of 41

as e
Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
leg — lag
e
B.4

m l as
.co a g
a
s em
aglleg … lag. Open a little for leg; open wide for lag.
Say:

m
.co ag
WORD WHAT IT MEANS A SENTENCE

s m on
ewalk
a
agl
leg the part of the body we stand and A frog’s back leg is long and folded like a spring.

lag to fall behind the others; to move too Do not lag behind — the whole line is waiting for
slowly you.
co m
e m.
m l as
.co a
Practise: “If you hurt your leg, you will lag behind in the race.” One short sentence g
a s emboth words is the best test of all.
gl
with
a
m a s
m .co agl
se
B.5 met — mat

g l a
a
Say: met … mat. This is the last pair, and it works exactly like the other four.
co m
m .
m WHAT IT MEANS as e
WORD
.co a g l
A SENTENCE

a s emetm
gl
the past of meet — you came face to face with
a
I met my old teacher at the bus stand.
someone

se m
com g l a
.
mat a small, flat piece of thick cloth or woven grass, laid Wipe your feet on the mat before you

m a
ase
on the floor come in.

a gl
All five pairs together: Every pair is the same lesson — the e sound (mouth a little
open) against the a sound (mouth wide open). Look at them in a column and the
com
m .
pattern jumps out.
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 19 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

E — MOUTH A LITTLE OPEN A — MOUTH WIDE OPEN

bet bat

set sat

men man

leg lag

met mat

More pairs to try on your own: pen–pan · pet–pat · bed–bad · send–sand · head–
had · beg–bag. Say each one with a finger under your chin and feel the jaw drop on
the second word.

Let us Listen — Pages 59–60
My Frog’s World

LET US LISTEN

1 Your teacher will read out instructions for you to follow and create your own ‘Frog’s
World’ in the space provided on the next page. 1. Draw the place: Imagine a place
where your frog might be happy, like a pond, a forest or a rainy area.

Listen first, then draw. Your teacher will read the instructions aloud and add details — trees,
shrubs, plants, water. Your job is to listen and put on paper what you hear.
How to do this step:

1. Turn to the empty box marked My Frog’s World on page 60.
2. Draw a line across the middle of the box. That is the surface of the water.
3. Below the line, draw the pond. Above the line, draw the bank and the sky.
4. Add what your teacher names — tall grass at one side, a shrub, a big stone, a lily leaf floating
on the water.
5. If your teacher says it is a rainy place, draw slanting rain lines and a few rings on the water
where the drops fall.

What a good answer needs: a place a frog would really be happy in — that means
water, damp ground, plants to hide in, and something to sit on. Not a desert, not a
dry rooftop.

Page 20 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer (in words): I have drawn a village pond in the rains. There is a big lily leaf
floating in the middle and a flat brown stone at the edge. Tall green grass grows on the left bank
and there is a small shrub on the right. Rain is falling in slanting lines and there are little rings
on the water where the drops have landed.

2 2. Draw your frog: Draw a frog in the above setting.

How to draw a simple frog, step by step:

1. Draw a wide oval lying down. That is the body.
2. Draw a smaller oval at the front, joined to it. That is the head.
3. On top of the head draw two little bumps and put a circle in each. Those are the eyes — a
frog’s eyes sit on top so it can see while its body is under water.
4. Draw a wide, curved line for the mouth.
5. Draw the two front legs — short, thin, pointing forward.
6. Draw the two back legs folded in a Z-shape, like a bent spring. Those are the jumping legs.
7. At the end of each back leg draw the toes, and join them with a curved skin. Those are the
webbed feet.
8. Add a few spots on the back, the way the frog in the picture on page 55 has them.

Where to place it: Put your frog sitting on the lily leaf or on the stone, with its back
legs folded. A frog sitting still is much easier to draw than a frog in mid-jump — and
it is also how you usually see one.

3 3. Decorate with words: Around your drawing, write some words from the poem
that describe the frog’s life. You can even write your own short sentence about the
frog’s world.

Which words to use. Take them straight from the poem, and write each one near the thing it
describes.

Page 21 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WORD OR PHRASE FROM THE POEM WHERE TO WRITE IT IN YOUR PICTURE

ponds across the water

rain at the top, beside the rain lines

muddy drain at the muddy edge of the pond

damp … drops of dew on the grass at the side

grass and leaves beside the plants where the frog hides

webbed feet with a small arrow pointing at the back feet

croak inside a speech bubble near the frog’s mouth

I jump so high in the sky above the frog

beware — snakes are near near the grass, as a warning

Sample sentences of your own to add:

This is my pond and I feel proud of it.
I flick my tongue and the fly is gone.
Rain is the best day of my whole year.
Look carefully — I am here, hiding in the leaves.

4 4. Colour it: Use colours to bring your frog’s world to life! Be creative and make it as
colourful as you would like.

How to colour it well:

1. Water — light blue. Press lightly, and leave a few white streaks so it looks like moving water.
2. The frog — green with darker green or black spots, like the frog on page 55. Or brown, if
your frog sits on mud.
3. Lily leaf — a deeper green than the frog, so the frog does not vanish into it.
4. Grass and shrubs — two shades of green. Two shades always look better than one.
5. Stone and bank — grey and light brown.
6. Sky — grey-blue if it is raining, pale blue if the rain has stopped.
7. Colour in one direction throughout, and stay inside the lines. Do the big spaces first and the
small details last.

Page 22 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

One thing to keep in mind: The poem says, “My colours match the plants and
trees.” So your frog should be close in colour to the leaves around it, not a bright red
or blue. Then anyone looking at your picture has to search for a moment before
finding the frog — which is exactly what the poem is about.

Sample My Frog’s World — a finished example to look at before you draw your own.

Here is one way the finished box on page 60 could look. Yours will be different, and that is as it
should be — this is only to show you how the parts fit together.

rain

Croak! lily leaf pad

damp grass webbed feet
my pond
“Yet in my pond, I feel so proud.”

A rainy pond, a lily leaf, one green frog with webbed feet — and words from the poem written around
it.

Check your own picture against these five things: (1) Is there water? (2) Is there
something damp and green to hide in? (3) Is the frog sitting on something? (4) Can
you see its webbed back feet? (5) Have you written at least four words from the
poem around it?

Page 23 of 41

as e
Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Let us Write — Page 61
m as e
.co
Write a reply to Hopper
a g l
se m
l a
LET US WRITE

a g
Here is a message for you from Hopper, the frog. Dear Reader, Hello! I am Hopper.

com
Write

. ag
I am writing this message to you from my big lily leaf pad. I like splashing water

a s em is sitting in water puddles and croaking. I love
when it rains. My favourite hobby

agl insects. What do you like to do? Your friend, Hopper
eating mosquitoes and other
Write a reply to Hopper in your notebook and share it with your class.

co m
e m.
as

m l
.co a g
How a short message is built. Look at Hopper’s message first — your reply should have the
m
a se
same four parts.
l
g
a PART WHAT GOES THERE HOPPER’S MESSAGE

m a s
m .co agl
se
1. Whom you are writing to Dear Reader,

l a
Greeting

a g
2. Say hello and say who you are Hello! I am Hopper.

om
Opening

. c
s e m My favourite hobby
com eat a
3. Body What you like doing, where you live, what you I like splashing water…

. agl
is…

e m
as 4. Closing
agl
A friendly ending and your name Your friend, Hopper

se m
com g l a
.
What a good reply needs: answer Hopper’s question (“What do you like to do?”); tell
m a
ase
him something about your own life; ask him a question back, so the friendship

agl
carries on; keep it short — six to ten sentences is plenty.

Sample answer:
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 24 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Dear Hopper,

Thank you for your letter. I was very happy to get a message from a frog!

My name is Meera and I am in Class 5. I live in a small house near the fields, so I hear your

family croaking all through the rainy nights. I did not know that croaking was your hobby.

Now, when I hear it, I will know that somebody is enjoying himself.

You asked what I like to do. I like reading story books, and I like playing kho-kho with my

friends after school. Like you, I love the rain. When it rains I make paper boats and race

them in the water beside our gate. I do not eat mosquitoes, though — I like idli and coconut

chutney best.

Thank you for eating the mosquitoes near our house. Because of you and your friends, we

get far fewer bites at night.

May I ask you something? How far can you jump in one leap? And is it cold sitting on a lily

leaf in the rain?

Please write to me again.

Your friend,

Meera

Why this reply works: It thanks Hopper, it answers his question, it tells him
something real about the writer, it finds one thing they share (both love the rain), it
says thank you for something useful he does, and it asks two questions back. A letter
that asks nothing is a letter that ends the friendship.

Page 25 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

When you read it out: Stand up, hold your notebook a little low so your voice is not
covered, and read slowly enough for the last bench to hear the words.

Did You Know? — Page 61
Frogs and toads

DID YOU KNOW?

DYK.1 How is a frog different from a toad?

The book’s answer: “Frogs usually have smooth, moist skin, and long legs for hopping, while
toads have dry, rough, bumpy skin, and shorter legs for walking or hopping.”

FROG TOAD

Skin Smooth and moist — a little wet to touch Dry, rough and bumpy

Legs Long, for hopping and leaping Shorter, for walking or short hops

How it moves Long jumps Often crawls or walks

Where you find it Usually close to water Can stay further from water, on damp ground

Moist means slightly wet. Bumpy means covered with small raised lumps.

Why the skin is different: A frog’s moist skin dries out quickly, so a frog must stay
near water. A toad’s thicker, drier skin holds water in better, so a toad can wander
further from the pond — into a garden or a field. Their skins decide where each of
them can live.

Next time you see one: Look at the skin first. Smooth and shiny — frog. Dry and
lumpy — toad. Then look at the back legs. Long and folded high — frog. Short and
low — toad. Do not pick either of them up; just look.

Let us Do — Page 62

Page 26 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

A. Five of us are hiding in the picture

LET US DO

A Five of us are hiding in the picture. Can you find us?

The picture printed on page 62. Five creatures are drawn into it in thin white lines.

The picture on page 62 shows a stretch of water with a sandy floor, rocks and weeds. Five
creatures are drawn into it in thin white lines, so they are very easy to miss.

Page 27 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The five hidden creatures are:

1. A turtle — near the top left of the water. It is swimming towards the left. You can pick out
the pattern of plates on its shell and its flat front flipper.
2. A crocodile — right across the middle. It is the biggest of the five. Its long snout with the
row of teeth is on the left, and its tail curves away up to the top right corner.
3. A fish — in the lower left part of the water, facing left. Look for the tall fin along its back and
the wide, forked tail.
4. A frog — just to the right of the fish, and a little lower. It is sitting with its back legs folded,
facing left. Its big round eye gives it away.
5. A crab — down on the sandy floor, near the middle. Look for the round shell, the two claws
in front and the legs spread out on both sides.

1 Turtle
1
top left, swimming left

2 2 Crocodile
across the middle, snout left

3 Fish
lower left, facing left
3
4 4 Frog
right of the fish, sitting

5 Crab
5
on the sand at the bottom

Where each of the five is hiding. Hold your book at the same angle and look for the white outlines.

How to hunt for hidden pictures: Tilt the page so the light falls across it, and look
for outlines, not colours. Then search for one shape at a time — first anything
round like a shell, then anything long like a tail, then any eye. Searching for one
thing at a time works far better than staring at the whole page.

Page 28 of 41

ase
Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why this activity belongs in this chapter: The poem said, “My colours match the

m l a se
plants and trees, / I hide so well in grass and leaves!” This picture makes you do the
o
.c has to do — find an animal that does not want to be
a gfound. Now you
m
work a snake

l a sehow good the frog’s hiding really is.
ag
know

co m
em . ag
as
Let us Do — Page 63
B. Look at the steps and draw a duck
a g l

m
LET US DO

co
e m.
com g l as
Look at the following steps carefully and draw a duck in the given space. First (1) ·
. a
B

s e m
Then (2) · Next (3) · After that (4) · Lastly (5)

la
agANSWER
om a s
agl
The five little pictures on page 63 build a duck one part at a time. Copy them in the same order,
using a light pencil, and you will get a duck.ctoo.
a s em
STEP THE WORD agl YOU DRAW
WHAT
USED

c o m
.
mdent at the front
1
m
First
a s e
Just the head — one small curved shape, with a little

. co agl
where the beak will go.

se2 m
l a
ag
Then Add the flat beak, the round eye, and the long neck curving down and to
the right.

se m
3 Next
the back. .co
m
Add the body — a long curve for the chest and belly, and a pointed tail at
g l a
em a
a s
l the wing on the side, and the small feather lines on the neck, the
4 After that
agAdd
wing and the tail.

co m
5 Lastly
m .
Add the two legs and the webbed feet, so the duck stands up.

m as e
.co a g l
sem
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 29 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1 First 2 Then 3 Next

4 After that 5 Lastly

Each step adds one new part and keeps everything drawn before it.

Now draw your own, in this order:

1. First — draw a small circle, a little wider than a two-rupee coin. That is the head.
2. Then — on the left side of the circle draw a flat beak, like a long spoon lying down. Put a
small filled dot above it for the eye. From the bottom of the head, draw two long curved lines
going down and to the right — that is the neck. Leave a gap between them; the neck is not a
single line.
3. Next — carry the front line of the neck round to make the chest and the belly, then take it
right across to a point at the far right. That point is the tail. Bring the line back along the top
to join the back of the neck. The body is now closed.
4. After that — draw an oval on the side of the body for the wing. Add a few short curved
strokes on the neck and chest, and two or three lines along the wing and the tail, for the
feathers.
5. Lastly — draw two short straight legs going down from the belly, and at the bottom of each
a flat triangle for the webbed foot. Your duck is standing.

Two tips that make a big difference: Press very lightly for the first three steps, so
you can rub out and try again. And draw the whole shape before you draw any detail
— feathers come last, never first.

Page 30 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Notice the words the book uses: First, Then, Next, After that, Lastly. These are
sequencing words — words that put things in order. You will need exactly these
words whenever you explain how to do something: how to make lemonade, how to
plant a seed, how to play a game.

Let us Do — Page 64
C. Move three crayons to turn the fish around

LET US DO

C Move three crayons to change the direction in which the fish is swimming.

First, look carefully at the fish you are given. It is made of eight crayons and it is swimming
to the right.

The nose is the sharp point on the right, where the green crayon and the pink crayon meet.
The body is the diamond in the middle — four crayons: magenta, green, pink and yellow.
The tail is the two crayons splayed out on the left — purple and sky-blue.
The two fins are the blue crayon going up-left from the top corner and the blue crayon
going down-left from the bottom corner.

The answer: move these three crayons.

1. Take the sky-blue crayon — it is the lower arm of the old tail. Lay it just above the purple
crayon, so that the two of them now meet at a single point at the far left. That point is the
fish’s new nose.
2. Take the lower blue crayon — the fin under the body. Carry it right across to the top and lay
it so that it carries straight on from the sky-blue crayon you have just moved, going up
to the right, past the top corner. It is now the top fin.
3. Take the pink crayon — the lower right edge of the body. Lay it just above the green crayon,
so that the pink one and the green one now spread apart from the same corner, making a V
that opens to the right. That V is the new tail.

The five crayons you never touch are the purple, the yellow, the magenta, the upper blue and
the green.

Page 31 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2

1 3

1 3

2

Before — swims to the right After — swims to the left

The three numbered crayons are the only ones that move. Everything else stays exactly where it was.

Why only three moves are needed: Look at the fish as four straight lines, each
made of two crayons — two lines slanting down-right and two slanting up-right,
crossing like a slanted hash. Five of those crayons already sit exactly where the
reversed fish needs them. Only three are in the wrong place. The trick is to find the
five you can leave alone before you start moving anything.

Check your answer with these three tests: (1) Is there still a sharp point where
two crayons meet, and is it now on the left? (2) Are there two crayons spreading out
like a V at the other end, for the tail? (3) Is the diamond-shaped body still closed,
with no gaps? If all three are yes, your fish has turned round.

Do it with real crayons. Lay eight crayons on the table exactly as in the book, then
move them one at a time and count your moves aloud. Puzzles like this are much
easier with your hands than with your eyes alone.

Did You Know? — Page 64

Page 32 of 41

Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Our national aquatic animal

DID YOU KNOW?

DYK.2 Which is our national aquatic animal?

The Ganges river dolphin. The book says: “It’s the Ganges river dolphin! It cannot see well, so it
uses sounds to find its way in the water!”
Aquatic means living in water. So our national aquatic animal is the water animal chosen to
stand for our country, just as the tiger is our national animal and the peacock our national bird.

It lives in the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and their branches — in fresh river water, not in the
sea.
Its eyes are tiny and it can hardly see. The river water is so muddy that eyes would be of little
use anyway.
It makes clicking sounds. The sounds travel out, hit a fish or a rock, and bounce back. From
the echo the dolphin knows what is ahead and how far away it is.
In many villages along the river it is called susu, after the puffing sound it makes when it
comes up to breathe.
Like all dolphins it breathes air, so it must come to the surface again and again.

How “seeing with sound” works: Stand in a big empty hall and clap once. You hear
the clap come back to you a moment later. The dolphin does this all day long, with
hundreds of tiny clicks, and its ears are so good that from the echoes it can tell a fish
from a stone. A blind animal in muddy water still knows exactly where everything is.

Why it is in danger: River dolphins are harmed by dirty water, by fishing nets they
get caught in, and by rivers that dry up. Keeping our rivers clean is the way to keep
them alive — which is the whole point of Unit 3 of this book, Water.

Let us Explore — Page 64

Page 33 of 41

as e
Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Choose any two and find out a few facts about them
co m
e m.
m as
LET US EXPLORE

.co a g l
a s em
gl
Choose any two of the below and find out a few facts about them. Puffer fish ·
a
Task
Jellyfish · Seahorse · Starfish · Octopus · Catfish

co m
e m . ag
g l as
Six sea creatures are pictured on page 64. Pick any two and find out about them.
How to do it: a
1. Pick the two whose pictures you like best. Curiosity makes the work easy.
c o m
.
m or ask your
s e
2. Look them up in your school library, in an encyclopaedia, in a science magazine,
teacher.om
. c a g la
a s emeach one, answer these five questions — the same five for both, so you can compare
3. For

a gl them.
s
Where does it live?
m a
.co agl
What does it look like?

se m
a
What does it eat?
How does it move?
a g l
What is the one surprising thing about it?

co m
4. Write five or six sentences on each. Draw a small picture beside each one.
m .
m as e
l
5. Write down where you found your facts. That is what makes it a real finding-out, not a guess.
.co a
m a good answer needs: facts, not opinions; the same five questions answered
g
a s eWhat
a gl for both creatures; your own sentences, not copied ones; and one line at the end

se m
com a
saying which of the two you found more interesting and why.

. a g l
m
ase
agl
Sample answer — Puffer fish and Seahorse:
The puffer fish. The puffer fish lives in warm seas, and a few kinds live in rivers in India. It is a
small, round fish with a big head and large eyes. It eats snails, shellfish and small sea creatures,

. c om
which it cracks open with its hard, beak-like teeth. It is a slow, clumsy swimmer, so it cannot

s e
escape by racing away. Here is the surprising part: when it is frightened,m it gulps in water and
comup into a spiky ball, several times its usual size. No hunter a to swallow a spiky ball,
glwants
.
swells
a
a semso the puffer fish is left alone.
agl The seahorse. The seahorse lives in shallow, warm sea water, among seagrass and coral. It is a
c
m .
e
small fish, but it does not look like one — it has a head like a tiny horse and it swims upright,
m a s
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standing on its tail. It eats very small shrimp and other tiny sea animals, and it eats almost all

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day long because it has no stomach to store food in. It swims very slowly, waving a small fin on

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its back, and it holds on to seagrass with its curly tail so that the current does not carry it away.
The surprising part is this: it is the father seahorse who carries the eggs. The mother lays them

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into a pouch on his front, and he keeps them there until the babies are born.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Of the two, I found the seahorse more interesting, because it is the only fish I know of in which
the father, and not the mother, carries the babies.

1 Puffer fish — find out a few facts.

QUESTION ANSWER

Where does it live? In warm seas around the world; a few kinds live in fresh water, including some Indian
rivers.

What does it look Small and round, with a big head, large eyes and a rough, spiny skin. No scales.
like?

What does it eat? Snails, shellfish and small sea creatures, cracked open with hard, beak-like front teeth.

How does it move? Slowly, paddling with its small fins. It is one of the clumsiest swimmers in the sea.

The surprising thing When it is frightened it gulps in water and swells into a spiky ball, far bigger than its
usual size.

Why it puffs up: A slow swimmer cannot run away, so it has to make itself
impossible to swallow instead. A round, prickly ball simply will not go down a bigger
fish’s throat. Most puffer fish are also poisonous, so the spines are a warning as well.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2 Jellyfish — find out a few facts.

QUESTION ANSWER

Where does it In seas all over the world, from warm shallow water to the cold deep sea.
live?

What does it look A soft, see-through umbrella with long trailing tentacles hanging beneath it. It has no bones,
like? no heart and no brain. Its body is about 95 parts water out of every 100.

What does it eat? Tiny floating animals and small fish, caught by the tentacles.

How does it It squeezes its umbrella shut and opens it again, which pushes it along. Mostly it just drifts
move? with the current.

The surprising Jellyfish were in the sea long before the dinosaurs walked on land — for more than 500
thing million years.

Careful: A jellyfish stings with its tentacles, and the sting hurts even after the
jellyfish is dead. Never touch one washed up on a beach.

3 Seahorse — find out a few facts.

QUESTION ANSWER

Where does it live? In shallow, warm sea water, among seagrass and coral. They are found along India’s coasts.

What does it look A small fish with a head like a horse, a curled tail and a body covered in bony rings instead
like? of scales. It swims upright.

What does it eat? Very small shrimp and other tiny sea animals, sucked in through its long snout.

How does it move? Very slowly, by fluttering a small fin on its back. It anchors itself by curling its tail around
a stem of seagrass.

The surprising thing The father carries the eggs in a pouch on his front and the babies are born from him.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it eats all day: A seahorse has no stomach, so food passes through it very
quickly and it can never store a meal. It has to keep eating almost the whole day just
to stay well.

4 Starfish — find out a few facts.

QUESTION ANSWER

Where does it live? On the sea floor, in rock pools and among coral, in every ocean.

What does it look A flat star, usually with five arms. Some kinds have many more. It has no brain and no
like? blood.

What does it eat? Shellfish such as mussels and clams, and other slow sea creatures.

How does it move? On hundreds of tiny tube feet under its arms, which grip and let go, one after another. It
moves very slowly indeed.

The surprising thing If it loses an arm, it can grow a new one. It also has a simple eye at the tip of every arm.

A better name: Scientists prefer to call it a sea star, because it is not a fish at all. It
has no gills, no fins and no backbone.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5 Octopus — find out a few facts.

QUESTION ANSWER

Where does it On the sea floor, hiding in rocky cracks and caves, in warm and cold seas alike.
live?

What does it look A soft, bag-like body with a big head and eight arms, each lined with suckers. It has no bones
like? at all. It has three hearts, and its blood is blue.

What does it eat? Crabs, shellfish and small fish, held by the arms and opened with a hard beak.

How does it It crawls over rocks on its arms, or shoots backwards by squirting a jet of water out of its
move? body.

The surprising It is very clever — it can open a screw-top jar to get at the food inside, and it can change the
thing colour and even the roughness of its skin to match a rock in a second.

Why having no bones is useful: The only hard part of an octopus is its beak.
Everything else is soft, so it can squeeze its whole body through a hole no bigger
than its beak. That is how a large octopus escapes into a tiny crack when a shark
comes.

Its escape trick: When it is frightened it squirts a cloud of black ink into the water.
While the hunter is peering through the dark cloud, the octopus is already gone.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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Catfish — find out a few facts.
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a se

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catfish. Some kinds live in them
Where does it live? In rivers, ponds, lakes and tanks. India has many kinds — magur, singhi and pangas are all

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sea.

What does it look A long fish with a a
wide, flat head, a large mouth, and long whiskers around it. Most catfish

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like? have no scales — their skin is smooth or bony-plated.

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What does it eat?
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Almost anything on the river bed — worms, insects, small fish, plants and rotting bits.

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g and fins.
How does.c It swims close to the bottom, often in muddy water, using itsatail
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it move?

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thing
The whiskers are not for show. They are called barbels, and the fish feels and tastes its food
with them, so it can find a meal in water too muddy to see through.

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Why the whiskers matter: A catfish lives at the bottom of a muddy river, where
eyes are almost useless. Itsag
barbels do the work eyes would do — exactly the same
problem the Ganges river dolphin solves with sound. Two animals, one muddy river,

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two clever answers.

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g in their fins.
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aseFishermen handle them carefully. Some kinds can also gulp air and stay alive for
Be Some catfish, such as the magur, have sharp spines

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hours out of water.

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Chapter at a glance
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Who is speaking. The frog speaks the whole poem itself. Every line
s e mbegins with I — “I sit”, “I
. om “I live”, “I croak”, “I hop”. A poem in which an animalaorglaathing speaks about itself is a
cflick”,
as em fun way to learn about it, because the facts arrive as the animal’s own story.
agl Stanza 1 — where it lives. “I sit in ponds and in the rain, / Or hop about in a muddy drain.”
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The frog is happy in wet places. Rain does not send it indoors; rain is its favourite weather.

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Stanza 2 — the baby frog and the tongue. “As a tadpole, I swim with cheer, / A tiny fish-

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like thing, so clear!” A tadpole is a baby frog. It has a tail and no legs, so it looks like a tiny

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fish. The same stanza tells us how a frog eats: “I flick my tongue to catch my food, / It works
a
so fast.” Flick means to shoot something out and pull it back in one quick movement.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Stanza 3 — two homes and a hiding coat. “I live on land and water too, / In places damp
with drops of dew.” Damp means a little wet. Then: “My colours match the plants and trees, /
I hide so well in grass and leaves!” The frog’s green and brown colours are its safety.
Stanza 4 — danger and song. “But snakes are near, I must beware.” Beware means to
watch out for danger. Yet the frog is not gloomy: “I croak my songs, they sound so loud, /
Yet in my pond, I feel so proud.” Croak is the deep sound a frog makes.
Stanza 5 — how it moves. “I hop around, I jump so high… / With webbed feet, I swim with
ease.” Webbed feet have skin joining the toes, like a small fan. On land the frog hops; in
water the webbed feet push water and it swims.
What the poem means. The frog is proud of itself. It is small, it has enemies, it lives in mud
and rain — and it still says, “in my pond, I feel so proud.” The poem asks us to look closely at
a very ordinary animal and see how well it is made for its life. New Words taught by the
chapter: hop, muddy, flick, damp, dew, beware, croak, webbed.
The language work. Let us Learn A teaches four joining words — and, but, so, because —
and when each one is used. Let us Learn B teaches word order: an English sentence
usually goes who → does what → how → where or when. Let us Speak A gives three tongue
twisters full of the f sound, and B trains the ear on the short e and short a sounds (bet–bat,
set–sat, men–man, leg–lag, met–mat).
The doing part. Let us Listen is an art task, “My Frog’s World”. Let us Write asks for a reply
to a letter from Hopper the frog. Let us Do has a hidden-picture hunt, a five-step duck
drawing and a crayon puzzle. Let us Explore sends us to find facts about sea creatures.

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Class 5 English Chapter 5 The Frog AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

WORD WHAT IT MEANS THE LINE IT A SENTENCE OF YOUR
APPEARS IN OWN

hop To jump a short way, on two feet at “Or hop about in a The sparrow began to hop
once, the way a frog or a sparrow muddy drain.” across the veranda.
moves.

muddy Full of mud — wet, soft, sticky earth. “Or hop about in a My shoes became muddy on
muddy drain.” the way home from school.

tadpole A baby frog. It has a tail and gills and no “As a tadpole, I swim We saw a tadpole wriggling in
legs, so it looks like a tiny fish. with cheer,” the village pond.

flick To move something out and back very “I flick my tongue to The cow will flick its tail to drive
quickly, in one snap. catch my food,” the flies away.

damp A little wet, not fully wet. “In places damp with The towel is still damp, so hang
drops of dew.” it in the sun.

dew Tiny drops of water that settle on grass “In places damp with There was dew on the grass
and leaves in the early morning. drops of dew.” when we went for our walk.

beware To watch out, because there is danger. “But snakes are near, I Beware of the wet floor near
must beware,” the tap.

unaware Not knowing that something is “Or else they’ll catch I was unaware that the bell had
happening. me unaware!” already rung.

croak The deep, rough sound a frog makes. “I croak my songs, they We could hear a frog croak all
sound so loud,” through the rainy night.

webbed Having skin joining the toes together, “With webbed feet, I A duck has webbed feet, so it
like a small fan. swim with ease,” swims very well.

leap To jump a long way or very high, in one “And leap so high in The goat gave a leap and
go. joyful breeze!” landed on the wall.

flippers Flat, wide rubber shoes that divers wear Let us Think, B.4 The diver put on his mask and
to push water and swim faster. flippers before going in.

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