NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 4 What We do Matters! — Activity 6

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.
• Make it a class rule, written on the board and agreed by everybody: “We wait for our turn.” A rule the class makes itself is followed far better than one imposed on it.

There are two people to think about here — the one scribbling and the one silently watching. This is the point of the situation.

What I would do

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.
2. Offer paper. If they feel like drawing, give them a rough sheet. Often that is all it takes.
3. Help clean it. Fresh marker often comes off with a damp cloth. Cleaning it together mends the matter without anyone being shamed.
4. If it goes on, tell the class teacher — and say what happened, without turning it into a complaint about the person.
5. Not stay silent. Watching and saying nothing tells the other person that it is all right.

Steps to prevent it

• Give each class a fixed “desk group” that is responsible for its own benches, and check them once a week.
• Put up a class drawing board or a chart-paper wall where anyone may draw as much as they like.
• Have a “clean bench day” once a month when everyone cleans their own place.
• Agree a class rule: “If I see it, I say it — politely, once.”

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.

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.

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.