Run!: NCERT Class 4 English Poem (Marigold Unit 3)

etmantra6 Jun 20209 min read

This short poem has the quick beat of running feet. Children enjoy its rhythm and repeated words, and it reminds them how good it feels to play outside in fresh air.

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From the NCERT English book Marigold for Class 4, unit 3. NCERT’s newer Class 4 book is Santoor, but many schools still teach Marigold.

Watch: Run!

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

Words for places: city, country, hillside, lane
Opposites: up and down, away and back
Rhyming words: trees and breeze, lane and again
Reading a poem with a quick, bouncy beat

What the poem is about

The poem asks children to run away from the city and out into the sunshine and the countryside. They run in the rain, near the trees, and race with the little breezes. They run down a hill, up a lane, through the middle and back again.

The feeling of the poem is joy and freedom. It tells children to be merry and keep running all day long in the open country. The repeated word “run” and the rhyming lines make the poem feel fast and full of energy.

New words, with Hindi meanings

city: a big town with many buildings and people (हिंदी: शहर)
country: the land outside towns, with fields and trees (हिंदी: गाँव-देहात)
raindrop: a single small drop of rain (हिंदी: बारिश की बूँद)
breeze: a soft, gentle wind (हिंदी: हल्की हवा)
hillside: the sloping side of a hill (हिंदी: पहाड़ी की ढलान)
lane: a narrow road or path (हिंदी: गली)
merry: happy and cheerful (हिंदी: मगन)

Sing and dance

Once your child knows the poem, sing it together with actions. Children who can’t sing yet can still do the moves.

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 the poem ask us to run away from, and where to?
Name two places in the poem where we can run.
Who do we run little races with in the poem?
Where do you like to run and play? How do you feel when you run?

Answers for parents

Away from the city, and out into the sun and the country.
Any two of these: in the rain, near the trees, down the hillside, up the lane.
With each little breeze.
For example: I like to run in the school ground. I feel free and happy when I run.

Grammar corner: Opposites

Opposites are pairs of words with very different meanings, like up and down. The poem uses them to show running in every direction: down the hillside and up the lane, away and back again.

Rohan ran up the stairs and then ran down again.
The kite went up high, and then it came down in the field.
We went away to Nani’s village and came back on Sunday.

Practice at home

Spot the rhyme: which word rhymes with “trees”? breeze, rain, run
Write the opposite: up → ___, away → ___
Fill in the blank with a word from the poem: On the picnic, the children were ___ and laughed all day.

Answers: 1. breeze · 2. up → down; away → back · 3. merry

Try this

Say the poem aloud and act out each line on the spot: run fast in place, pretend to run downhill and uphill, and turn around to “run back again”. If you have a safe open space, go outside and have little races, just like the poem says.

Tip for parents

Before reading, ask in Hindi, “तुम्हें बाहर दौड़ना कहाँ अच्छा लगता है?” Then read the poem in English and act out “up” and “down” while saying “ऊपर, up” and “नीचे, down”. Let your child answer in any mix of languages, and praise them when they try the English word.

Questions parents ask

What is the poem Run! about?

It invites children to run away from the city into the sun, the rain and the open country, and to be merry all day. Its message is the joy and freedom of playing outdoors.

Which words rhyme in Run!?

Some rhyming pairs are sun and run, trees and breeze, lane and again, and day and away.

Which book is the poem Run! from?

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

Learn every Class 4 chapter with CALP

Every chapter of Santoor, NCERT’s new book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, grammar, speaking and writing practice. ₹1,299 for the whole year.

See the free lessons and enrol →