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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 9 Bringing a whole year of observations onto one chart — Classroom Activity — Seasons' Chart

Book page 152–155 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Step 1: Making a Chart for Classroom. Let us begin by preparing a large wall-sized chart in your classroom to note the observations from our journals. The chart will have the following time periods: April – June, July – September, October – December, and January – March marked in columns. The themes: plant life, birds and animals, air, heat and light, water and water bodies, and human activities listed in rows.
ThemeTime Period
April–JuneJuly–SeptemberOctober–DecemberJanuary–March
Plant life    
Birds and animals    
Air, heat and light    
Water and water bodies    
Human activities    
Chart Template, page 153 — the blank chart for the classroom wall.
Answer

Make one big chart with 4 columns and 5 rows. The four columns are the four parts of the year. The five rows are the five things you have been watching all year. That gives you 20 boxes to fill.

How to make it:

  1. Join two or three chart papers with tape to make one large sheet. It should be big enough for the whole class to read from their seats.
  2. Leave a wide strip on the left for the row names, and a strip at the top for the column names.
  3. Use a ruler and a dark marker to draw the lines. Draw lightly in pencil first, then go over it.
  4. Write the four time periods across the top: April – June, July – September, October – December, January – March.
  5. Write the five themes down the left side: Plant life, Birds and animals, Air, heat and light, Water and water bodies, Human activities.
  6. Draw the small picture-sign for each theme next to its name, as the book does — a leaf, a bird, a sun, a water drop and a person walking.
  7. Give the chart a title at the top: Our Seasons' Chart, and write the year under it.
  8. Fix it on the classroom wall where everyone can reach it, so that anything new can be added later.
ThemeApril – JuneJuly – SeptemberOctober – DecemberJanuary – March
Plant life
Birds and animals
Air, heat and light
Water and water bodies
Human activities
Why a chart and not just the journals: Each of you saw only a little bit of the year. Your journal has your street and your tree. Put everybody's notes together in one place, and suddenly the whole class can see the shape of the entire year at one glance. A pattern that is invisible in one notebook becomes obvious on one wall.
Tip: Leave plenty of space inside each box. Twenty or thirty children will want to add something, and the boxes fill up faster than you expect.
Q2.
Step 2: Fill the Chart. For each of the boxes (for example, April to June for plant life) one of you can stand up and ask for observations from the class. Each of you may share your observations from your journal. Discuss and write the main observations on the chart.
ThemeTime Period
April–JuneJuly–SeptemberOctober–DecemberJanuary–March
Plant life    
Birds and animals    
Air, heat and light    
Water and water bodies    
Human activities    
Chart Template, page 153 — the blank chart for the classroom wall.
Answer

Take the boxes one at a time. One student stands up, reads out the box — “April to June, plant life” — and the rest of the class calls out what they wrote in their journals. The class agrees on the main points, and those go on the chart. Then the next student takes the next box.

How to keep it orderly:

  1. Fix the order first: go across one row at a time, not jumping about.
  2. The student who is standing writes on the chart. Everyone else reads from their journal.
  3. Write only short points — three to five words each, not full sentences.
  4. If two people saw different things, put down both. Different streets really do see different things.
  5. If somebody says something nobody else noticed, ask “When exactly did you see it?” before writing it in.

Sample filled chart. Your class chart will be different, because it depends on where you live. This one is written for a place in the plains of north India.

ThemeApril – JuneJuly – SeptemberOctober – DecemberJanuary – March
Plant lifeMango, jamun and litchi ripen. Gulmohar and amaltas covered in flowers. Grass turns brown and dry. Leaves look dusty and droop by afternoon.Everything turns green. New grass on bare ground. Mushrooms come up. Moss on damp walls. Paddy is planted in the fields.Marigold and chrysanthemum flower. Paddy turns golden and is cut. Guava, orange, custard apple and sugarcane are ready. Some trees begin dropping leaves.Mustard fields turn yellow. Wheat grows tall. Peas, carrots and spinach in the plots. Mango trees put out their flower in February. Palash and semal in bloom. New leaves in March.
Birds and animalsThe koel calls loudly all day. Crows and sparrows sit in the shade with their beaks open. Dogs lie under parked cars. Cattle are taken to water again and again.Frogs croak at night. Earthworms and snails come out on wet ground. Dragonflies everywhere. Many mosquitoes. Snakes come out of flooded burrows.Migratory birds arrive at the lake — ducks, cranes, geese. Fewer insects. Cattle graze in the cut fields. Squirrels store food.Migratory birds still at the lake, then leave by March. Birds start building nests. The koel begins calling again. Butterflies and bees return with the flowers.
Air, heat and lightVery hot and dry. Hot wind (loo) in the afternoon. Days long, nights short. Sunrise by about 5:30 a.m., sunset near 7 p.m. Sunlight is harsh and white.Sky often cloudy. Less sunshine. Air feels wet and sticky. Not as hot as May, but heavy. Thunder and lightning. Days start getting shorter.Sky clear and deep blue. Air turns cool and dry. Mist in the early morning, dew on the grass. Days getting shorter — dark by 5:30 p.m.Coldest in January. Thick fog on many mornings. Days are shortest at the start, then slowly get longer. The afternoon sun feels pleasant. Warm again by mid-March.
Water and water bodiesPuddles and small ponds dry up. Cracks in the pond bed. Handpump water comes slowly. We drink much more water. Water in the earthen pot stays cool.Puddles everywhere. Ponds and rivers fill up and sometimes overflow. Water looks muddy — it has to be boiled or filtered. Wells rise.Ponds still full but the level slowly falls. Water in the tap feels cold. Heavy dew on the grass in the morning.Water feels icy cold. Frost on the grass on the coldest mornings. Pond level low. We drink much less water and feel less thirsty.
Human activitiesSummer holidays. Thin cotton clothes and caps. Fans and coolers on. Lassi, aam panna, sattu, watermelon, ice. Work done early morning or after sunset. Fields ploughed and kept ready.School reopens. Umbrellas, raincoats and gumboots. Paddy and maize sown. Corn on the cob and pakoras. Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi, Nag Panchami.Sweaters come out of the boxes. Harvest brought home. Wheat, mustard and gram sown. Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali, Chhath, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Christmas. Quilts put out in the sun.Woollens, mufflers, socks. Bonfires in the evening. Gajak, til laddu, gur, sarson ka saag. Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Republic Day, Vasant Panchami, Holi. Kite flying. Wheat harvest begins in late March.
What the filled chart shows: Read any row from left to right and you will see the same story told five different ways — hot and dry, then wet and green, then cool and golden, then cold and yellow, and back to hot again. Plants, animals, air, water and people are not doing separate things. They are all answering the same change in the weather.
Add the dates: Next to each point, write the month you saw it in. Next year your juniors can check whether the mango flowered at the same time — and that is how real nature-watching is done.
Q3.
Step 3: Tracking Changes in a Year. Let us form five groups. Each group can choose one theme from the chart and study the patterns of change observed across different time periods during the year. Create a poster on your theme. Present how your theme changed throughout the year.
ThemeTime Period
April–JuneJuly–SeptemberOctober–DecemberJanuary–March
Plant life    
Birds and animals    
Air, heat and light    
Water and water bodies    
Human activities    
Chart Template, page 153 — the blank chart for the classroom wall.
Answer

Each group takes one row of the chart and turns it into a poster that shows the whole year at a glance. Group 1 takes plant life, Group 2 birds and animals, Group 3 air, heat and light, Group 4 water and water bodies, Group 5 human activities.

How to make a good poster:

  1. Divide the chart paper into four parts, one for each time period. Left to right, so the year reads like a story.
  2. Write the months clearly at the top of each part.
  3. Draw one big picture in each part instead of many small ones.
  4. Write only three or four short points under each picture.
  5. Use colour to carry the message — green for the rains, yellow and brown for summer, grey and white for winter fog.
  6. Put a title across the top and the group members' names at the bottom.
  7. Practise once before you present. Decide who speaks about which part.

What each group's poster should show:

GroupThemeIdea for the poster
Group 1Plant lifeThe same tree drawn four times — bare in summer heat, deep green in the rains, dropping leaves in autumn, and covered in new leaves and flowers in spring. Add a strip below showing which fruit is in the market each season.
Group 2Birds and animalsA pond drawn four times. Show the koel calling in summer, frogs and dragonflies in the rains, migratory ducks and cranes arriving in winter, and nest-building in spring.
Group 3Air, heat and lightA picture of the sky in each season — white and glaring in summer, dark with clouds in the rains, clear blue in autumn, foggy in winter. Add the sunrise and sunset times for each season and show how the day gets longer and shorter.
Group 4Water and water bodiesThe same pond or puddle drawn four times — cracked and dry, overflowing, slowly falling, and low with frost on the grass. Mark the water level with a line each time.
Group 5Human activitiesFour pictures of the same street — a hand-cart selling lemon water, people under umbrellas, the Diwali market, and a bonfire with people in shawls. Add the festival names and the clothes people wear.
Why one theme per group: If you follow only one thread through the whole year, you see it change clearly instead of getting lost in everything at once. Then, when the five posters go up side by side, the class discovers that all five threads change at the same moments — and that is exactly what a season is.
Do not fake it: Put on the poster only what your class really wrote in its journals. If nobody saw a migratory bird, do not draw one. A poster of what you actually saw is worth far more than a pretty poster of what you think should have happened.
Q4.
Step 4: Looking at the Year Together. Form new groups, each with one student from each theme, one group for each time period. Each group will analyse the observations on the chart across all five themes for their chosen time period. Use these observations to create a short story about your time period, linking what you saw in nature with what you have noticed in people's lives. Read it out in the class.
ThemeTime Period
April–JuneJuly–SeptemberOctober–DecemberJanuary–March
Plant life    
Birds and animals    
Air, heat and light    
Water and water bodies    
Human activities    
Chart Template, page 153 — the blank chart for the classroom wall.
Answer

Now mix the groups up. Each new group has one plant person, one bird person, one air person, one water person and one people person — and each new group takes one part of the year. Between them, the five of them know everything the chart says about those three months.

How to build the story:

  1. Sit together and read out your five sets of points for your time period, one after the other.
  2. Choose one character — a child, a farmer, a sparrow, a pond, even a mango tree.
  3. Take that character through the three months and let them meet all five themes on the way.
  4. Keep it short — ten or twelve sentences is plenty.
  5. Make sure at least one point from each theme is in the story, so no group member is left out.
  6. Read it aloud in the class, taking turns sentence by sentence.

Sample answer — a story for January – March

The Sparrow Who Waited for Spring

In January the mornings were so foggy that Chiku the sparrow could not see the neem tree from the roof. The grass was white with frost and the water in the pot outside the shop was icy cold. The children who came to the shop had wrapped mufflers round their ears and their grandmothers made them eat gajak and til laddu on Makar Sankranti. Chiku's tree was bare, and he was hungry, because the insects had gone away.

Then, one day in February, Chiku noticed something. The field behind the shop had turned bright yellow — the mustard was in flower. Bees came back. A few butterflies came back. The mango tree at the corner smelt sweet, and on its branches there were tiny brown flowers.

By March the fog had gone. The days had grown longer, and the afternoon sun was warm enough for the children to play without their sweaters. Colours were thrown on Holi and the whole street looked like the mustard field. The ducks that had spent the winter on the lake flew away northwards, and Chiku began carrying bits of straw to the neem tree, because it was time to build a nest. The wheat in the field had turned golden, and the farmer said the harvest would begin next week.

Chiku had not read any chart. But he knew, the way every living thing knows, that the cold part of the year was over and the warm part was beginning again.

Why the story is the best last step: A chart shows the facts side by side. A story shows how they are joined. The fog, the mustard, the bees, the mufflers, the kites and the nest are not five separate facts — they all happened because the coldest part of the year was ending. Telling it as a story is how you prove to yourself that you have understood the pattern and not just memorised the boxes.
For your own time period: April–June could be told by a pond that is drying up. July–September by a paddy seedling. October–December by a crane flying in from far away. Choose a character that has to live through the change, and the story writes itself.
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