On My Blackboard I Can Draw: NCERT Class 2 Poem (Marigold Unit 7)

etmantra23 Feb 20216 min read

This short poem mixes counting, colours and drawing in one happy picture. Children count from one to six while a little house appears line by line. It is perfect for practising numbers and colour words in English.

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From the NCERT English book Marigold for Class 2, unit 7. NCERT’s newer Class 2 book is Mridang, but many schools still teach Marigold.

Watch: On My Blackboard I can Draw

Play the video three or four times. The first time, just listen. Then point at the pictures, and from the third time, say the lines along with the video. Short, repeated listening is how CALP builds a child’s English.

What your child learns

Counting from one to six in English
Colour words: green, brown, red, white, yellow
Parts of a house: door, gate, steps, chimney, window
Rhyming words: wide and inside, white and bright, tall and wall

What the poem is about

In this poem a child draws a house on a blackboard. The drawing grows one number at a time: one green door, two brown gates, three red steps, four little white chimneys, five shining windows and six tall yellow marigolds growing by the wall.

The feeling of the poem is cheerful and creative. It shows how a child can build a whole picture from simple shapes, and it helps young learners link each number with a colour and an object.

New words, with Hindi meanings

blackboard: a dark board in a classroom that we write on with chalk (हिंदी: श्यामपट)
gate: a door in a fence or wall that opens and shuts (हिंदी: फाटक)
chimney: a tall pipe on a roof that lets smoke go out (हिंदी: चिमनी)
lead: show the way to a place (हिंदी: ले जाना)
shining: giving out bright light (हिंदी: चमकती)
marigold: an orange or yellow flower (हिंदी: गेंदा)
straight: not bent or curved (हिंदी: सीधा)

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.

What colour was the door of the little house?
How many red steps were there, and where did they lead?
What was growing up against the wall?
If you drew your own house, what would you put in it?

Answers for parents

The door was green.
There were three red steps, and they led inside the house.
Six tall yellow marigolds were growing up against the wall.
For example: I would draw a big blue door, two trees and a dog sitting near the gate.

Grammar corner: One and many (singular and plural)

For one thing we say door or gate. For more than one, we usually add -s: gates, steps, windows. The poem shows this as it counts from one to six.

I can draw one window.
Now I can draw two windows.
There are four flowers near my gate.

Practice at home

Spot the rhyme: which word rhymes with wall? (tall, door, step)
Fill in the blank: one gate, two ___.
Say aloud a number, a colour and a thing from your own drawing.

Answers: 1. tall · 2. gates · 3. Sample: Two blue windows.

Try this

Draw the house from the poem on paper, a slate or even in the air. Read the poem slowly and add one thing at each number: one door, two gates, three steps and so on. Then count everything in the finished picture together, saying the colour each time.

Tip for parents

Count in Hindi first, “एक हरा दरवाज़ा”, and then in English, “one green door”. Let your child draw while saying the words in either language. Praise them when they remember the English colour or number on their own.

Questions parents ask

What is the poem On My Blackboard I Can Draw about?

A child draws a little house on a blackboard, counting from one to six: a door, gates, steps, chimneys, windows and marigolds, each with its own colour.

Which words rhyme in On My Blackboard I Can Draw?

Wide rhymes with inside, white with bright, and tall with wall.

Which NCERT book has On My Blackboard I Can Draw?

It is Unit 7 of NCERT's older Marigold book for Class 2. The newer NCERT English books are Mridang for Class 1–2 and Santoor for Class 3–5.

Learn every Class 2 lesson with CALP

Every lesson of Mridang, NCERT’s new book, with read-along videos, new words with Hindi meanings, and listen-and-say practice with a score, made for young children with a parent nearby. ₹999 for the whole year.

See the free lessons and enrol →