North, South, East, West: NCERT Class 7 English Lesson (Poorvi)

etmantra3 Nov 20266 min read

Glaciers in Kashmir, a treehouse in Arunachal, mangroves in the Sundarbans and a desert in Gujarat: this chapter takes children around India through a girl's lively postcards. Children enjoy her funny, honest notes about her parents, and they learn the names of landscapes, the four directions and how to make the verb agree with its subject.

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From NCERT’s new English book Poorvi for Class 7, unit “Dreams and Discoveries”. Unit 3.

What your child learns

Words for landscapes: glacier, wetland, plateau, desert, forest
The four directions and where Indian states lie: north, south, east, west
Subject-verb agreement: 'Amma and Appa are', 'A pair of scissors is', 'Neither ... nor ...'
Writing a leave application to the Principal in the correct format

What the lesson is about

Shaana lives on Rameswaram island. With her Amma and Appa she travels across the country and sends postcards to her friends at school. She starts way up north at the Thajiwas glacier in Kashmir, where her parents throw snowballs at each other. In Himachal Pradesh birds wake her in the morning, and in Arunachal Pradesh, far away in the east, she walks through a thick forest to a treehouse. In the Sundarbans in West Bengal she sees mangroves growing in seawater, crocodiles and a snake. Then she crosses the country to the hot, sandy desert of Gujarat, goes rafting on the Narmada river, watches the plateaus and tunnels of Goa from the train, and learns to surf on the way to Puducherry.

At last she crosses the Pamban bridge, with the sea on both sides, and stops at Olaikaadu beach to float and look at fish and collect pebbles for her friends. Her final postcard is to her parents: she will miss the forests, glaciers, deserts, wetlands, plateaus and mountains, and the many languages and people, and hopes to travel again with her friends. Along the way she notices small worrying changes, like less snow in Kashmir and more flooding in the Sundarbans. The chapter shows how varied India's land and people are.

New words, with Hindi meanings

glacier: a huge mass of ice that moves very slowly down a mountain (हिंदी: हिमनद, ग्लेशियर)
layer: one of several sheets or pieces of clothing worn one over another (हिंदी: परत)
chirping: the short, sharp sounds made by birds (हिंदी: चहचहाना)
snoring: making a loud noise while breathing in sleep (हिंदी: खर्राटे लेना)
wetland: low land that is wet and often covered with water (हिंदी: दलदली भूमि)
mangroves: trees that grow in salty seawater near the coast (हिंदी: मैंग्रोव, तटीय वन)
plateau: a high area of land that is flat on top (हिंदी: पठार)
rafting: going down a river in an air-filled rubber boat (हिंदी: नदी में नौका-सवारी)
tunnel: a long passage under a hill or the ground (हिंदी: सुरंग)
pebbles: small, smooth stones (हिंदी: कंकड़)

Talk about it

Ask these aloud after reading or watching. Let your child answer in English if they can, or mix in their home language. Both help.

Where does Shaana live, and how does she share her travels with her friends?
Why do you think Shaana's hands were shaking at the glacier in Kashmir?
What surprised Shaana about the Sundarbans, and why was Amma sad there?
How did Shaana's feeling about tunnels change during the journey?
Which place in India would you most like to visit, and why?

Answers for parents

She lives on Rameswaram island. She writes postcards to her friends and classmates at school from each place she visits.
It was very cold there, and she was not wearing gloves, so her hands were shaking and she could not write much.
She did not know that wetlands existed or that trees called mangroves could grow in seawater. Amma was sad because the place floods so much these days.
She used to be afraid of tunnels, but after the train went through many tunnels in Goa, she was not afraid any more.
For example: I would like to visit Kerala, because I want to see the backwaters and ride in a houseboat.

Grammar corner: Subject-verb agreement

The verb must match its subject. A singular subject takes a singular verb (is, was, has, makes) and a plural subject takes a plural verb (are, were, have, make). Two subjects joined by 'and' take a plural verb, words like 'each', 'every' and 'a pair of' take a singular verb, and with 'either ... or' or 'neither ... nor' the verb matches the subject closer to it.

My cousin and I are sending postcards from the hills.
This pair of gloves is too small for my hands.
Neither my parents nor my brother likes the cold wind.

Practice at home

Choose the correct verb: Each of the postcards ___ (has/have) a picture of a mountain.
Match each place to its landscape: Kashmir, Gujarat, Sundarbans, Goa. Landscapes: desert, glacier, plateau, wetland.
Make a sentence with 'north' or 'south' about where your state lies in India.

Answers: 1. has · 2. Kashmir: glacier; Gujarat: desert; Sundarbans: wetland; Goa: plateau · 3. For example: Uttar Pradesh is in the north of India.

Try this

Play a directions game at home. In the morning, find the side of the house where the sun rises and stick a paper saying 'East' on that wall; then mark West opposite it, and North and South on the other walls. Call out a place from the chapter, like 'Kashmir' or 'Rameswaram', and your child runs to the right wall and says one sentence about it. Later, your child can write a short postcard to a cousin about a place the family has visited.

Tip for parents

Start in Hindi: 'Shaana kahan-kahan gayi? Kashmir uttar mein hai ya dakshin mein?' Let your child answer in Hindi or a mix, then say the English together: uttar is north, dakshin is south, purab is east, pashchim is west. Ask them to tell you one place from the chapter each day in a full English sentence, such as 'Kashmir is in the north.' Praise every try, even if the sentence is not perfect.

Questions parents ask

What is North, South, East, West about?

It is a set of postcards written by Shaana, a girl from Rameswaram island, while she travels across India with her parents. She describes glaciers, forests, wetlands, a desert, rivers, plateaus and beaches, and the people and languages she meets.

Who wrote North, South, East, West?

The chapter is made of excerpts from North, South, East, West by C.G. Salamander.

Is North, South, East, West in the new NCERT book?

Yes. It is chapter 9 in NCERT's new Poorvi book for Class 7, in Unit 3 (Dreams and Discoveries).

Learn every Class 7 chapter with CALP

Every chapter of Poorvi, NCERT’s new Class 7 book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, listening, grammar, speaking and writing with feedback. ₹1,599 for the whole year.

See the free lessons and enrol →