Once I Saw a Little Bird: NCERT Class 1 English Poem (Marigold Unit 4)

etmantra26 Jun 20206 min read

This tiny poem has a bouncy rhythm that children pick up after one or two listens. It captures the joy of seeing a bird up close, and the little surprise when it flies off.

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From the NCERT English book Marigold for Class 1, unit 4. NCERT’s newer Class 1 book is Mridang, but many schools still teach Marigold.

Watch: Once I Saw a Little Bird

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

Bird words: hop, tail, flew
Rhyming words like hop and stop
A polite greeting: “How do you do?”
Saying a short poem aloud with actions

What the poem is about

A child sees a little bird hopping along and calls out, asking it to stop. The child goes to the window to greet the bird politely and say “How do you do?”

But before the child can say hello, the bird shakes its little tail and flies away. The poem is light and happy, and it shows a child's wish to make friends with a bird.

New words, with Hindi meanings

hop: jump on one or both feet (हिंदी: फुदकना)
cried: called out loudly (हिंदी: पुकारा)
stop: stay still, do not move on (हिंदी: रुको)
window: an opening in a wall to look out of (हिंदी: खिड़की)
shook: moved quickly from side to side (हिंदी: हिलाई)
tail: the part at the back end of a bird or animal (हिंदी: पूँछ)
flew: went through the air with wings (हिंदी: उड़ गया)

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 was the little bird doing?
What did the child want to say to the bird?
What did the bird do before flying away?
Which birds do you see near your home? What do they do?

Answers for parents

The little bird was hopping along.
The child wanted to say “How do you do?” to the bird.
The bird shook its little tail, and then it flew away.
For example: I see crows and sparrows near my home. They sit on the wall and eat grains.

Grammar corner: Rhyming words

Rhyming words end with the same sound, like hop and stop. Poems use rhyming words to make them fun to say and easy to remember. You can find a rhyme by changing only the first sound of a word.

The bird can hop, but it will not stop.
A sparrow sat on the window sill, quiet and still.
The bird flew up, and the sky was blue.

Practice at home

Find the word that rhymes with ‘hop’: tail, stop, bird.
Fill in the blank: The bird shook its little ___ and flew away.
Say two more words that rhyme with ‘flew’.

Answers: 1. stop · 2. tail · 3. For example: blue, new (also two, shoe).

Try this

Play the hopping bird game. Your child hops like a bird while you say the poem. When you say “stop”, the bird must freeze, and at the end the bird “flies” away with arms flapping. Later, look out of a window together and count the birds you can see.

Tip for parents

First tell the poem as a little story in Hindi: “एक छोटी चिड़िया फुदक रही थी, बच्चे ने कहा रुको, पर वो उड़ गई।” Then say the English lines together with actions for hop, stop and flew. If your child says “chidiya hop karti hai”, smile and praise the try, then say “Yes, the bird hops.”

Questions parents ask

What is the poem Once I Saw a Little Bird about?

It is about a child who sees a little bird hopping and wants to greet it. Before the child can say hello, the bird shakes its tail and flies away.

Which words rhyme in Once I Saw a Little Bird?

‘Hop’ rhymes with ‘stop’, and ‘do’ rhymes with ‘flew’. The repeated ‘hop, hop, hop’ and ‘stop, stop, stop’ give the poem its bouncy beat.

Which NCERT book has Once I Saw a Little Bird?

It is Unit 4 of NCERT's older Marigold book for Class 1. The newer NCERT English books are Mridang for Class 1–2 and Santoor for Class 3–5.

Learn every Class 1 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 →