FOOD FOR FUN_(TEXT)

FOOD FOR FUN

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

CBSE-IV

Trring…! The doorbell rang. When Manpreet opened the door she saw Divya and Swastik there. She called out excitedly, “Gurnoor! Look who has come.” Gurnoor came running.

 When she saw her friends she hugged them happily. “When did you come from the hostel (Boarding School)?”“Just Yesterday. Where are your parents? We want to meet them,” Swastik said.

“They are at the Gurudwara. We were about to go there too,” Gurnoor replied. “Oh good, we will also come with you,” said Divya.

“You come home only in the vacations. Do you like staying in your hostel? You must be missing your parents,” Gurnoor asked.

Divya said, “We do miss them, but hostel life is fun. Even if we don’t always like the food, we enjoy eating together with all the children.”

“You know, when someone in our hostel gets home-made food, we all rush to their rooms. That food finishes within minutes,” Swastik said laughingly.

At the Gurudwara The children chatted all the way to the Gurudwara. There, they covered their heads. They went into kitchen of the Gurudwara.

It was very huge. A lot of activity was going on there. Food was being cooked in huge vessels. On one side the channa and urad dal was boiling.

In another vessel, the cauliflower and potato vegetable was being made. “There is your Papa! Gurnoor, let us go and meet him,” Swastik said.

“What are you doing here?” Manjit Singh was happy to see the children. “Uncle, can we also help in the kitchen? What are you preparing ?” Swastik asked.

Manjit Singh said, “I am preparing kadhah prasad. It takes a lot of effort to roast the flour in ghee in this big kadhai.” “This is a kind of halwa. Isn’t it? When will you add sugar in it?” Divya asked.

They saw Manpreet’s mother and rushed to meet her. Divya asked, “What are you doing Aunty ?” “Beta, we are rolling chapaties to bake them in this tandoor.”

“So many chapaties at one go!” Divya was surprised. “Can I help?” “Sure! come and try, here everyone can help, but wash your hands first,” replied Aunty.

Divya washed her hands and joined the group near the tava. The tava was very hot. She started applying ghee on the chapaties as they were being taken out of the tava.

Swastik wondered aloud, “Who brings all the material to cook so much food?” One of the ladies answered, “Everyone here contributes in some way or the other. 

Some arrange for the material, some give money, and others help in the work”. “So Swastik, how do you like it? Have you ever cooked before?” teased Manpreet. “No, but I am enjoying working with everyone, ” said Swastik. 

We hardly realised how all this food – chapaties, rice, halwa, dal and vegetable – got prepared so fast.

After ardaas, kadhah prasad was distributed. Some of the boys quickly laid out durries in the verandah and all the people sat down in rows to have langar. 

Some people served food and others served water.

Everyone ate together. After finishing food everyone picked up one’s own plate, and put it in a big drum. People who were serving, ate in the end. They cleaned the place and washed the utensils.

THANKYOU,

NANDITHA

FAMILIES CAN BE DIFFERENT-TEXT

FAMILIES CAN BE DIFFERENT

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

CBSE CLASS III

Come, let us play a game together. You must be familiar with this game. All the children stand in a circle.

Let one child stand in the centre and play a tune. Everyone must run in a circle as long as the music plays. The child who is playing the music, will suddenly stop it and call out a small number like ‘five’, ‘four’ or ‘two’ loudly. Children have to form groups according to the number called out.

The children who cannot join any group will have to leavethe game. Continue to play this game till only two children are left in the circle.

All of us prefer to live with people than to live alone. We always live in groups. Let’s see one such group – Gurleen, Nagarajan and their children Tanya and Samar.

The people in the picture you saw belong to one family. We often see pictures or photographs of such families. Where do we see such a family? Are all families similar to this one ? Let us read about a few families.

Sitamma

Sitamma lives in her ancestral house in a small city Guntoor. Her dada, dadi, younger chacha and bua live on the ground floor. In one portion of the first floor, Sitamma lives with her father, mother and younger sister Gitamma. In the other portion live her tauji and his three children.

Her taiji died just a few months ago. Her elder chacha and the new chachi live in one of the rooms on the terrace. They are newly married.

Before dinner, Sitamma’s mother teaches all the children. Food for the whole family is cooked in the same kitchen on the ground floor. They all make special effort to be together at dinner time.

Nowadays, tauji ’s younger daughter sleeps with Sitamma’s mother at night. In the morning Sitamma helps her get ready for school.

Tara lives with her amma and nana in Chennai. Her amma Meenakshi is not married. She has adopted Tara. Meenakshi goes to the office in the morning and returns in the evening.

When Tara returns from school, her nana takes care of her. He is the one who feeds her, helps her to do homework and also plays with her.

During vacations, the three of them go to far off places and enjoy themselves. At times, Tara’s mausi, mausa and their children also come to their house. At such times they play together for long hours and also chit chat.

Sara and Habib live in a city. Both are employed. Habib is a clerk in a government office and Sara teaches in a school. Habib’s abbu is retired and lives with them.

In the evening, the three of them sit together and watch television or play cards. Abbu enjoys watching television with the others. He enjoys the discussion as well. On holidays, the neighbour’s children come to their house and create a lot of fun. Everybody enjoys together. They play games, go out and at times go for plays and movies.

Totaram

Totaram lives with his father, uncle and cousin brothers in a colony in Mumbai. Totaram and his brothers have come to Mumbai to study. His father and uncle work here.

Everybody does the household work together. Food cooked by Totaram’s chacha is liked by everyone.Totaram’s father does the shopping.

A part of the money earned is sent to Totaram’s dada in the village. Totaram’s mother, dada, dadi, chachi and younger brothers and sisters live in their parental house in the village. Once a year, Totaram goes to his village. He misses his mother very much. He writes long letters to her.

Krishna and kavari

Krishna and Kaveri live with their father. In the morning, all the three leave home together. krishna lives kavari at school and goes to college. Their father go to the shop for the day.

Kaveri returns from school in the afternoon. She unlocks the house

and waits for Krishna. On returning from college,Krishna and kavari eat food together.Kaveri goes out to play after doing her school work.

 On returning she either plays carom with her brother or watches television. When father returns home, they cook food and then eat together.

During vacations, Kaveri goes to stay with her mother. Krishna

also stays there for a few days, but he likes to stay in his own

house – all his things and his father are here.

There may be other differences: some couples may marry at a young age and some people find a partner when they are older; some families with children are led by one parent because of death, separation, or divorce; some couples have no children, yet they consider themselves to be a family; some people have one child, while others have many children born to them.

Many families adopt a child or several children.  When we talk about our family, we usually refer to the people who live with us.

All of our relatives, such as cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, are part of our family. Whether they live in a separate place down the block or across town, or even far away from us in another part of Canada or in a foreign land, they are still part of our family.

Not everyone knows all their grandparents  because they are no longer alive. These family members are remembered in stories told about the good times when you were a baby or before you were born.

 Nowadays, it is wonderful for families that even those who live far away can both hear and see each other through the use of computer web-cams and other modern communication systems.And all through it shines by God’s love.

THANK YOU,

N.NANDITHA

THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS-(TEXT)

THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

CBSE-IV

In the hills of Uttaranchal there is a place where there are flowers everywhere. This place is called the ‘Valley ofFlowers’.

 Valley of Flowers National Park is an Indian national park, located in West Himalaya, in the state of Uttarakhand and is known for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and the variety of flora.

Valley of Flowers is located 300 Kms North of Rishikesh, near Badrinath. You need to Travel by Road till Govindghat and from there the trek to Valley of Flowers starts. Govindghat is 20 Kms before Badrinath. Till Govidghat there is a motor-able Road. Rishiksh is 6 Hours Drive from New Delhi, India.

Location of Valley of Flowers

Valley of flowers is located in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand India. This is remotely located and it takes minimum 3 days to reach Valley of flowers from Haridwar. The last motor-able point is Govindghat.

You can check our trek itinerary page for more day wise information. It is around 500 km from New Delhi and 300 km from Haridwar. You can check our page on how to reach valley of flowers, we have given distances between important points and time required between them, different modes of transportation available to reach Valley of Flowers.

Opening and Closing dates of Valley of Flowers. Valley of flowers opens on 1st June every year and closes on 4th October, but the valley remained closed for public in 2013 after the floods in June 2013 till 4th October, 2014 as the trek between Ghangaria and Valley ofFlowers was damaged.

It was reconstructed by September, 2014 and valley was opened for public for 6 days from 4th October to 9th October, 2014. You can visit out best time to visit valley of flowers page to know what will be best time among these four months of accessibility of the valley.

In some places, one sees red flowers blooming on bushes, while in others one finds white flowers peeping out between the stones. There are wide areas carpeted with the brightest yellow flowers.

And suddenly, elsewhere, blue flowers shining like tiny stars between the grass. All this seems like a beautiful dream, doesn’t it? Yes, because like a dream these flowers bloom only for a few weeks in the year.

Now you were just left counting, weren’t you? Are there any things in your house which have designs of flowers made on them – like clothes, sheets, vases, etc.? Here is a floral design in the box below.

The design in the picture is called ‘Madhubani’. It is a very old form of folk art. Do you know why it is called Madhubani? There is a district in Bihar called Madhubani.

Here, during festivals and happy occasions, the walls of the houses and their courtyards are painted with such pictures. These paintings are made out of paste of powdered rice in which colour has been mixed. The colours used in Madhubani painting are very special too.

To make them, indigo (Neel), turmeric (Haldi), colours from flowers and trees, etc., are used.  paintings show human beings, animals, trees, flowers, birds, fish and many other animals.

Blooming buds!

You must have seen buds on the plants. If there are any flower bearing plants growing near your school or home, look carefully at their buds.

So many uses!

Flowers are even eaten!

What are the different ways we use flowers in our daily life? Do you know that flowers can be eaten as well? Manyflowers are cooked as vegetables.

In Uttar Pradesh, Firoza and Nilima enjoy eating a vegetable made of kachnar flowers.

In Kerala, Yamini wants her mother to cook her a vegetable made of banana flowers.Mamta and Omar who are from Maharashtra love pakoras made of sahjan flowers.

Colours from flowers:

Colours are made from many flowers like marigolds, zenia, etc.

These colours can also be used to dye cloth.

The Kannauj district in Uttar Pradesh is famous for Itr. Truckloads of flowers are brought from neighbouring areas for this purpose.Itr, rose water, Kewra water are prepared from flowers here. Thousands of people in Kannauj are engaged in this work.

Of course, if there are so many uses of flowers, then we need lots and lots of flowers. Flowers are grown in many places. Imagine fields full of flowers extending for miles together! How beautiful!

Let us all visit the….What will you find there?
Himalayan Blue Poppy, Daisies, White, Yellow, Calendula, Lily,
Purple, Dianthus, Asters, Strawberry Flowers, Brahma Kamal  Or Bethlehem,  Pansies.

Let us study at some common flowers  around us…..

Zinnia, Cactus flowers,lily,  Marigold, Hibiscus, Shoe Flower, Periwinkle,Vinca Rosa, Datura, Night Blooming Cereus, Night Jasmine Flowers, Water Lily, rose, Jasmine, Magnolia, Bottle Brush, Neel Kamal.

Let us study at shapes of different  flowers:

Bell shaped, Funnel, Trumpet-shaped, Tube-like= tubular,Urn-shaped or pot-shaped, , Saucer- shaped. Star-shaped, Bowl-shaped, Cross-shaped, Lipped flowers.

THANKYOU,

NANDITHA