NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 2 Prepare and play the board game ‘Tigers and Goats’ — Let us Do
Book page 23–24 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Prepare a board game to play ‘Tigers and Goats’.
The pattern of the ‘Tigers and Goats’ board, page 23. Draw these lines on your chart paper. The board has 23 points where the lines meet; the pebbles sit on the points.
1. Take a square piece of cardboard.
2. Paste a chart paper on it.
3. Draw the pattern as shown in the picture.
4. Collect two different types of pebbles — three big pebbles and thirteen smaller ones. Paint them red for tigers and green for goats. Keep three similar pebbles for tigers and thirteen similar pebbles for goats.
Answer
What you need: a square piece of cardboard, a sheet of chart paper, glue, a ruler, a black sketch pen, sixteen pebbles (three big and thirteen small), and red and green paint.
Make the board, step by step:
Step 1. Cut a square piece of cardboard, about the size of a large book — say 30 cm by 30 cm.
Step 2. Paste a chart paper neatly on top of it. Press out the air bubbles and let it dry.
Step 3. With a ruler and a sketch pen, draw the pattern exactly as shown in the book. Draw the lines first, then put a clear dot at every place where two lines cross. Those dots are the points. Count them — there must be 23.
Step 4. Wash and dry your pebbles. Paint the three big pebbles red — these are the tigers. Paint the thirteen small pebbles green — these are the goats. Let them dry fully before you play.
The pattern you must draw:
The board as it is printed on page 23 — a big triangle with three lines across it and a small block on each side. There are 23 points in all. The picture shows a game already in progress: all 13 goats and all 3 tigers are on the board, and 7 points are still empty.
How to draw the pattern without mistakes:
Mark the top point (the apex) in the middle, near the top of your chart paper.
Draw the bottom line — the base. Mark four points on it: the two corners and two points that divide it into three equal parts.
Join the apex to each of those four base points. You now have the big triangle and the two lines inside it.
Draw three straight lines across, one below the other, going right through the triangle and a little way out on both sides.
Join up the left ends of the three lines with one short vertical line, and do the same on the right. These make the two side blocks.
Put a dot wherever two lines meet. Count: 1 at the top, 6 on each of the three cross lines, and 4 on the base — 1 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 4 = 23.
Did you know? This is a very old Indian game. In Tamil Nadu it is called Aadu Puli Aattam, in Karnataka Huli Gatta, and in Nepal a bigger board is used for Bagh Chal. Children have played it with pebbles for hundreds of years — no batteries needed.
Q2.
How to play the game?
• At least two players are needed to play the game. One player represents the ‘Goat’ and the other represents the ‘Tiger’.
• If you are playing as the ‘Tiger’, your objective would be to ‘defeat’ five goats. If you are playing as the ‘Goat’, your objective would be to surround all three tigers such that the tigers cannot make a move.
• Both the pebbles can be placed on the intersecting points. The goat player places a pebble first on any intersection. Next, the tiger places a tiger stone on any intersection, as indicated.
• The tiger may jump over the goat to the next intersection. If so, the goat is considered ‘captured’ and will be out of the board.
• In order to prevent the tiger from jumping over the goat, the next intersection has to be covered. So the goat player places another pebble at that intersection.
• The goat player places one goat on the board at a time. The tiger player can either place the tiger stone or move.
• But, the goats cannot move until all thirteen of them are on the board. The tigers must attempt to ‘capture’ the goats by jumping over them into a free space, the goat is then taken off the board.
Answer
The game in short: Two players. One plays the three tigers, the other plays the thirteen goats. All pieces sit on the dots, never inside the spaces.
How each side wins:
The tiger player wins by capturing five goats.
The goat player wins by surrounding all three tigers so that not one of them can move anywhere.
The rules, step by step:
Step 1 — the goat starts. The goat player places one goat on any empty point.
Step 2 — the tiger answers. The tiger player places a tiger on any empty point, or (once all three tigers are on the board) moves one tiger along a line to the next empty point.
Step 3 — one at a time. The two players keep taking turns. The goat player may only place one goat per turn — goats may not move at all until every one of the thirteen is on the board.
Step 4 — how a tiger captures. A tiger may jump straight over a goat along a line and land on the empty point just beyond. That goat is captured and is taken off the board for good.
Step 5 — how a goat is saved. A jump only works if the point beyond the goat is empty. So the goat player fills that point with another goat. Now the tiger has nowhere to land, and the jump is blocked.
Step 6 — the end. The game ends when the tigers have taken five goats, or when all three tigers are stuck with no move left.
Tiger player
Goat player
Number of pieces
3 (red)
13 (green)
Aim
Capture 5 goats
Trap all 3 tigers so none can move
Can it jump?
Yes — over one goat into an empty point
No — goats never jump
When can it move?
As soon as the tiger is on the board
Only after all 13 goats are placed
Why the two sides feel so different: The tigers are few but strong — they can jump and capture. The goats are many but weak — they can only stand in the way. So the tiger player must look for gaps, and the goat player must close them. It is a game of strength against numbers.
Three tips for playing well: As a goat: never leave an empty point directly behind a goat that stands beside a tiger. Always look one step further along the line. As a tiger: stay near the corners at the start, because a tiger pushed into a corner is easy to trap. For both: play the same game twice, once as each side. You learn far more that way.