Introductory Lesson 15: My Grandmother

My Grandmother

Nani is sitting on the floor. She has her back against the wall and her eyes are shut.

Her grandchildren, Shilpa and Ravi, and their two friends, Preeti and Vikas, open the door and rush
into the room.

Nani opens one eye. She smiles at the children.

“Nani, we are bored,” says Shilpa. “What can we do? Please tell us.”

The school holidays are long and sometimes the children get bored.

Nani smiles. “You can do anything you like,” she says.

“You can tell me a story.”

“You can draw or paint.”

“You can read.”

“You can run outside.”

“You can climb the guava tree.”

“You can sing.”

“You can play games.”

‘You can learn how to cook.”

Nani looks out of the window and sees a small bird perched on the mango tree in the garden.

She points out the bird to the children. It has a black head and a brownish body.

As they watch, the bird flies away. They see a flash of red underneath the bird’s wings.

Nani says, “Look where the bird is flying to. Run outside and try to follow it.”

The children run outside. They are laughing. They are no longer bored. Now they have something to do.

Nani smiles. She goes back to sleep.

Questions:

1.   Where is Nani and what is she doing?
2.   What do you call your grandmother?
3.   What do you call your grandfather?
4.   Why do the children say they are bored?
5.   What do you do when you are bored?
6.   What can you do when you are bored?
7.   Why do the children run outside?
8.   Do you know the name of the bird they saw?
9.   Can you describe the bird fully?
10  Use two adjectives to describe a crow:
A crow is ____ and ____.

A) Fill in the blanks with a correct verb. More than one verb may be correct.

  1. Aman and Rohit ____ with marbles.
  2. I love to ____ pictures.
  3. My uncle ____ fish in the village pond.
  4. I ____ loudly.
  5. The bird ____ on the tree.
  6. The bird ____ to another tree.
  7. Rahil ____ tea for us.
  8. I ____ a letter.
  9. My friends and I ____ to the top of the hill.
  10. Samir ____ at home and ____ a book.

B) Vocabulary

Make sentences with the words from the passage:

  • Shut – closed
  • Rush – to go quickly, to hurry
  • Bored – to not have anything to do
  • Perch – to sit, to rest lightly on top of something
  • Brownish – not totally brown, a little brown
  • Follow – to come behind

C) Prepositions

Fill in the blanks with ‘in’ or ‘on’.

1. Our school starts ____ September.
2. My brother was born ____ 2015.
3. I will go to Chandigarh ____ Tuesday morning.
4. ____ Sunday afternoons I watch a movie.
5. Early ____ the morning my grandmother likes to drink tea.
6. The school Annual Day is ____ 9th November.
7. We go to our village ____ winter.
8. ____ the summer holidays we go to Kasauli.
9. My best friend was born ____ the 25th of December, ____ Christmas Day.
10. Let’s all meet ____ Tuesday.

D) Simple Future Tense
Examples: She will go to the market tomorrow.
Anuj will not go to work tomorrow.

a) Complete each sentence by changing the verb given in brackets to the simple future tense.
Use ‘will’.
1. I (visit) ____ the library today.
2. We (watch) ____ a documentary about the freedom movement next week.
3. In two days, I (get) ____ my results.
4. My aunt and uncle (come) ____ at eight o’clock.
5. I am not feeling well. I (NOT go) ____ to play cricket this afternoon.
6. It (be) ____ very cold this winter.
7. I (plant) ____ some vegetable seeds in the pots.
8. I (NOT add) ____ salt to the food. My mother has high blood pressure.
9. It (NOT rain) ____ for the rest of the week. That is what I heard on the radio.
10. My siblings and I (decorate) ____ the house for Diwali.

E) Discussion
Talk about your school holidays. What are your hobbies? Describe them. What would you like
to learn? What are some things that you would you like to get better at?

Audio courtesy Tanu Priya Puri