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A free printable book

Science for classes 3 to 5

9 lessons, each with worked examples, a try-at-home activity and a practice sheet. The practice sheets are together after the lessons, and the answer keys are at the very back.

  • Science
  • Classes 3-5
  • 9 lessons
  • 90 practice questions
  • Free to print

Contents

Free learning for kids, Gurukul Technicals Institute. Printed from engineergurukul.com/resources/kids/books/science-3-5/

Contents

What is in this book

  1. 1Solids, liquids and gasesLearn the three states of matter, how their particles behave, and how heating and cooling change one state into another.4 min
  2. 2The water cycleSee how water goes round and round: evaporation, condensation, rain and back to rivers and the sea, all powered by the Sun.4 min
  3. 3Food chains and food websFollow food and energy from the Sun to plants, plant-eaters and meat-eaters, and see how food chains join into food webs.4 min
  4. 4Our solar systemTour the Sun and its eight planets in order, from Mercury to Neptune, and learn a few key facts about each one.4 min
  5. 5Air around usFind out what air is made of, why every living thing needs it, what makes air dirty and how we can keep it clean.4 min
  6. 6Soil and what grows in itLearn how soil forms from rock, what its layers are, the three main types of soil and which crops grow best in each.5 min
  7. 7Animals and their homesMatch animals to the homes they build and the habitats they live in, and see how their bodies suit forests, deserts, cold lands and water.5 min
  8. 8Reduce, reuse, recycleSort wet and dry waste into the right bins, learn the three Rs and discover how kitchen waste can turn into compost for plants.5 min
  9. 9Weather and the seasons of IndiaTell weather from climate, learn the four main seasons of India with their months, and see how the monsoon brings rain to the country.5 min

Every lesson here can also be read on its own page, with links to related lessons. All printable books.

Lesson 1 of 9

Solids, liquids and gases

Learn the three states of matter, how their particles behave, and how heating and cooling change one state into another.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Everything around us is made of matter. A brick, milk and the air in a balloon are all matter, but they behave in different ways. Let us find out why.

Matter is anything that has weight and takes up space. Matter comes in three main states: solid, liquid and gas.

A solid has a fixed shape and a fixed size. A pencil, a stone and an ice cube are solids. The tiny particles in a solid are packed close together and cannot move around.

A liquid has a fixed size but no fixed shape. It takes the shape of the vessel it is poured into. Water, milk and oil are liquids. Their particles are close, but they can slide past each other, so a liquid can flow.

A gas has no fixed shape and no fixed size. It spreads out to fill the whole space it is in. Air and the steam from boiling water are gases. Their particles are far apart and move about freely.

Heat can change the state of a substance. Ice melts into water when it is warmed. Water becomes steam when it is boiled. Steam turns back to water when it cools, and water freezes into ice when it is cooled enough.

Particles in a solid, a liquid and a gasThree boxes side by side. The solid box shows particles packed tightly in rows. The liquid box is partly filled with particles that are close but not in rows. The gas box has a few particles spread far apart across the whole box.Solid Liquid Gas Fixed shape Particles packed tight Flows, no fixed shape Particles slide past Spreads to fill space Particles far apart
Particles are packed in a solid, close but sliding in a liquid, and far apart in a gas.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Sorting by state

    A wooden ruler keeps its shape, so it is a solid. Juice takes the shape of the glass, so it is a liquid. Air fills a balloon completely, so it is a gas.

  2. Changes of state of water

    Ice melts at 0 °C to become water. Water boils at 100 °C (at sea level) and becomes steam. Steam touching a cold surface cools and turns back into drops of water. This is called condensation.

  3. Does a liquid change its volume when poured?

    Pour 200 mL of milk from a glass into a bowl. The shape of the milk changes because it takes the shape of the bowl, but the amount is still 200 mL. A liquid keeps its volume but not its shape.

Try it at home

Watch ice melt

You will need

  • Two ice cubes of the same size
  • Two small plates
  • A clock or watch
  • Paper and pencil

What to do

  1. Put one ice cube on each plate.
  2. Place one plate in a shady spot and the other in a sunny window.
  3. Look at the clock. Check the cubes every five minutes.
  4. Write down which ice cube melts first and how long it took.
  5. Explain what you saw. Which one got more heat? Which state did the ice change into?

Ask a grown-up: Use only ice and room-temperature surroundings. Do not use hot water or a kettle without an adult.

Lesson 2 of 9

The water cycle

See how water goes round and round: evaporation, condensation, rain and back to rivers and the sea, all powered by the Sun.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

The water in a puddle today may have been in a cloud last week, and in the sea before that. Water keeps moving around the Earth in a never-ending journey called the water cycle.

The Sun heats water in seas, rivers, lakes and puddles. Some of the water turns into an invisible gas called water vapour and rises into the air. This is called evaporation. Plants also give out water vapour through their leaves. This is called transpiration.

High up, the air is cold. The water vapour cools and turns into tiny drops of water. These tiny drops gather together to make clouds. This is called condensation.

When the drops in a cloud become big and heavy, they fall to the ground as rain. In very cold places they fall as snow or hail. Rain, snow and hail are together called precipitation.

The water collects in rivers, lakes and the sea, or soaks into the ground. Rivers carry water down to the sea. Then the Sun heats it again, and the cycle begins once more.

The water cycle gives us fresh water. It is why monsoon rains fill our rivers and fields.

The water cycleA picture with the Sun at top left, a cloud in the sky, a sea on the left and a hill on the right. An arrow goes up from the sea to the cloud, labelled evaporation. The cloud is labelled condensation. An arrow goes down from the cloud to the hill, labelled precipitation. A river arrow goes from the hill back to the sea, labelled runoff. Sun Condensation Evaporation Precipitation Runoff Sea
Water rises from the sea, forms clouds, falls as rain and flows back to the sea.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Wet clothes drying

    Wet clothes on a line dry because the water in them evaporates into the air. The Sun and the wind make it faster.

  2. Water drops on a cold glass

    Water vapour in the air touches the cold glass, cools and turns back into tiny drops. This is condensation, the same thing that makes clouds.

  3. Order of the cycle

    Sun heats sea water, evaporation, water vapour rises, condensation forms clouds, precipitation brings rain, rivers carry water back to the sea.

Try it at home

Vanishing puddle and cold-glass drops

You will need

  • A spoon or small cup of water
  • A dry flat stone or tile in the sun
  • A glass
  • Cold water and a few ice cubes
  • Chalk or a pencil

What to do

  1. Pour a small puddle of water on a dry stone or tile in a sunny place. Draw a line around the puddle with chalk.
  2. Come back every 10 minutes and look at the puddle. Draw a new line each time.
  3. Where has the water gone? It has evaporated into the air.
  4. Fill a glass with cold water and ice cubes. Leave it on a table for 15 minutes.
  5. Look at the outside of the glass. Water drops have appeared because water vapour from the air condensed on the cold glass.

Ask a grown-up: Use only cold tap water and ice. Do not use hot water.

Fun fact

The water you drink today has been going round the water cycle for a very, very long time.

Lesson 3 of 9

Food chains and food webs

Follow food and energy from the Sun to plants, plant-eaters and meat-eaters, and see how food chains join into food webs.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Every living thing needs food. A deer eats grass and a tiger eats the deer. Who gives the grass its food? Let us follow the trail of food from one living thing to the next.

Green plants make their own food using sunlight, so they are called producers. Their energy comes from the Sun.

Animals cannot make food, so they are called consumers. Animals that eat only plants are herbivores, like cows and deer. Animals that eat other animals are carnivores, like tigers and snakes. Animals that eat both are omnivores, like humans and crows.

A food chain shows who eats whom. It begins with a plant. For example: grass → grasshopper → frog → snake → eagle. The arrows show the way food and energy travel.

Decomposers, such as many kinds of fungi and bacteria, break down dead plants and animals. They return nutrients to the soil, which helps new plants grow.

In nature, most animals eat more than one thing. So food chains cross over and join. Many connected food chains make a food web.

A simple food chainThe Sun at the top with an arrow down to a box labelled Grass. Arrows point from Grass to Deer and from Deer to Tiger. Under the boxes the labels read producer, primary consumer and secondary consumer. Sun Grass Deer Tiger Producer Makes its own food Herbivore Eats plants Carnivore Eats animals Arrows point to the one that eats
The arrows show how food and energy pass from one living thing to the next.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. A grassland food chain

    Grass → deer → tiger. The grass is the producer. The deer is a herbivore that eats grass. The tiger is a carnivore that eats the deer.

  2. A pond food chain

    Water plants → small fish → bigger fish → heron. A heron is a bird that catches fish.

  3. A food web

    A snake may eat a frog and also a rat. An eagle may eat the snake and also the rat. So the chains grass → grasshopper → frog → snake and grain → rat → snake join together to make a web.

Try it at home

Build a food web

You will need

  • Paper
  • Scissors (child-safe) or just a pencil
  • Pencil or crayons

What to do

  1. On small pieces of paper, write or draw: grass, grasshopper, rat, frog, snake and eagle.
  2. Place them on a table. Put the producer first.
  3. Join them into one chain with arrows. The arrow points to the one who eats.
  4. Now make a second chain: grass → rat → snake. Where do the two chains meet?
  5. Tell a family member what would happen to the frogs if all the grasshoppers disappeared.

Ask a grown-up: A grown-up should help with the scissors, if used.

Fun fact

Without decomposers, dead leaves and animals would pile up. They break them down and put nutrients back into the soil.

Lesson 4 of 9

Our solar system

Tour the Sun and its eight planets in order, from Mercury to Neptune, and learn a few key facts about each one.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Our Earth is one of many worlds that travel around a star we call the Sun. The Sun and everything that moves around it make up the solar system. Let us take a tour.

The Sun is a star. It is a huge ball of hot, glowing gas. It gives us light and heat. Everything in the solar system goes around the Sun.

There are eight planets. In order from the Sun they are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Mercury is closest to the Sun and Neptune is farthest.

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are huge planets made mostly of gas. Uranus and Neptune are also giant planets and very cold. Jupiter is the biggest planet. Saturn has bright rings around it.

Earth is the third planet. It is the only planet we know that has living things. Earth turns once on its axis in about 24 hours, which gives us day and night. It takes about 365 days to go once round the Sun, which is one year.

A moon is a natural satellite that goes around a planet. Earth has one Moon. Pluto is no longer called a planet. It is a dwarf planet.

The planets in order from the SunA line of planets going away from the Sun on the left, in order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn with rings, Uranus and Neptune. Jupiter is the biggest. Underneath, the first four are marked as rocky planets and the last four as giant planets. Sun Mercury Earth Jupiter Uranus Venus Mars Saturn Neptune Rocky planets Giant planets Not drawn to scale
The eight planets in order from the Sun. The picture is not drawn to scale.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Counting the order

    From the Sun: 1 Mercury, 2 Venus, 3 Earth, 4 Mars, 5 Jupiter, 6 Saturn, 7 Uranus, 8 Neptune. So Mars is the fourth planet and Saturn is the sixth.

  2. Which planets are neighbours of Earth?

    Earth is third. The planet before it is Venus (second) and the planet after it is Mars (fourth). So Venus and Mars are Earth's neighbours.

  3. Day and night

    Earth spins around once in about 24 hours. The side facing the Sun has day. The side turned away has night.

Try it at home

Planet parade and a rhyme

You will need

  • Paper
  • Pencil or crayons
  • Eight small household things of different sizes (like a rice grain, a pea, a marble, a small ball)

What to do

  1. Write the eight planet names on eight small slips of paper.
  2. Make your own short rhyme or sentence to remember the order. Use the first letter of each planet.
  3. Place a big round object (like a plate) on the floor as the Sun.
  4. Place the planet slips in order in a line going away from the Sun. Put small things on Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars and bigger things on Jupiter and Saturn.
  5. Close your eyes and ask a family member to mix two slips. Can you put them back in the right order?

Ask a grown-up: IMPORTANT: Never look straight at the Sun, not even for a moment and not through glasses or binoculars. Draw the Sun from memory only.

Fun fact

Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach the Earth.

Lesson 5 of 9

Air around us

Find out what air is made of, why every living thing needs it, what makes air dirty and how we can keep it clean.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

You cannot see air, but it is all around you. It fills every empty bottle, every room and every balloon. In this lesson you will learn what air is made of, why we need it and how to keep it clean.

Air is a mixture of gases. About 78 parts in 100 are nitrogen, about 21 parts are oxygen, and the last 1 part is a mix of other gases such as carbon dioxide and argon. Air also carries water vapour and tiny bits of dust.

Air takes up space and has weight. Press an empty bottle under water and you will see bubbles escaping: that is the air that was inside. Moving air is called wind. Wind turns windmills, dries clothes and carries seeds and clouds.

All living things need oxygen from the air to stay alive. We breathe in air through our nose, our lungs take the oxygen, and we breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their food and give out oxygen, so plants help to keep the air fresh.

Smoke from vehicles, factories, burning garbage and crackers puts harmful gases and dust into the air. This is called air pollution. Polluted air makes people cough, hurts the lungs and makes it hard to see far away.

We can keep air clean by planting trees, walking or cycling for short trips, sharing vehicles, not burning garbage or leaves, and keeping our kitchens well ventilated.

What air is made of and what dirties itA long bar divided into three parts: a big part labelled nitrogen 78, a smaller part labelled oxygen 21, and a thin part labelled other gases 1. Below it, a tree labelled makes oxygen and a factory with smoke labelled pollution.100 parts of air Nitrogen: 78 parts Oxygen: 21 Other gases: 1 part Tree Makes oxygen Clean air Factory Smoke: pollution Dirty air Plants clean what smoke dirties
Most of the air is nitrogen. The oxygen we breathe is about one fifth of it.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Air is inside an empty glass

    Push an upside-down glass straight down into a bucket of water. The water does not fill the glass. The air inside has taken up the space and pushes the water away. Tilt the glass and bubbles of air rush out.

  2. Why a candle needs air

    A burning candle covered with a glass goes out after a few seconds. Burning uses up the oxygen inside the glass. When the oxygen is gone, the flame cannot keep burning.

  3. A dusty window sill

    Wipe a window sill with a wet white cloth. The cloth turns grey. The grey dirt is dust that the air carried in. Near busy roads the cloth gets dirtier faster, because vehicle smoke adds more dust to the air.

Try it at home

Catch the dust in the air

You will need

  • Two small pieces of white paper
  • A little cooking oil or petroleum jelly
  • A pencil
  • A spot indoors and a spot near a window or balcony

What to do

  1. Rub a thin layer of oil or jelly on one side of each paper.
  2. Place one paper on a shelf inside a room and the other near an open window or on a balcony, oily side up.
  3. Leave them for a whole day. Do not touch the oily side.
  4. Compare the two papers. Which one caught more dust? Write down what you see.
  5. Think about where that dust came from: roads, construction, cooking smoke or dry soil.

Ask a grown-up: Ask an adult before placing anything on a balcony or window ledge so that it cannot fall.

Lesson 6 of 9

Soil and what grows in it

Learn how soil forms from rock, what its layers are, the three main types of soil and which crops grow best in each.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Soil is the loose brown layer on the ground that plants grow in. It took thousands of years to form from rocks. In this lesson you will dig into what soil is made of and why farmers care so much about it.

Soil forms when big rocks break into smaller and smaller pieces because of sun, rain, wind, ice and the roots of plants. This slow breaking is called weathering. Dead leaves, plants and animals rot and mix in, making a dark material called humus. Humus makes soil rich and holds water.

If you dig a deep pit you see layers. The top layer is topsoil: dark, soft and full of humus, roots, worms and insects. Below it is subsoil, which is lighter in colour with more sand, clay and small stones. Under that are broken rocks, and at the bottom is solid bedrock.

Soil is sorted into three main types by the size of its particles. Sandy soil has large particles, feels gritty, and water drains through it quickly. Clayey soil has very tiny particles, feels sticky when wet, and holds water for a long time. Loamy soil is a mix of sand, clay and humus; it holds just enough water and is the best for most crops.

Different crops like different soils. Rice needs standing water, so it grows well in clayey soil. Wheat, pulses and most vegetables grow best in loamy soil. Earthworms and insects dig tunnels in soil, letting air and water reach plant roots, so they are a farmer's friends.

Soil can be washed away by heavy rain or blown away by wind when there are no plants to hold it. This is called soil erosion. Trees and grass hold the soil with their roots, so planting them protects the soil.

Layers of soilA tall cross-section of the ground. A plant with roots grows on the surface. Below it four stacked layers are labelled: topsoil with humus and roots, subsoil with sand and clay, broken rock, and bedrock at the bottom. Topsoil dark, humus, roots, worms Subsoil lighter, sand, clay, stones Broken rock Bedrock solid rock, no plants roots Soil takes thousands of years to form from rock.
Dig down and you find these layers: topsoil, subsoil, broken rock and bedrock.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. The jar test

    Put a handful of garden soil in a glass jar, fill it with water, close the lid and shake. Let it stand for an hour. The heavy sand settles at the bottom, the finer silt settles above it, the tiny clay stays near the top, and bits of humus float. The layers show what your soil is made of.

  2. Which pot dries first?

    Fill one pot with sand and another with clayey soil and water both equally. The sandy pot dries first because water drains straight through the big gaps between sand grains. The clayey pot stays wet because its tiny particles hold the water.

  3. Choosing a soil for rice

    A farmer wants to grow rice. Rice plants need their roots in standing water for weeks. Sandy soil would let the water run away, so the farmer chooses clayey soil, which keeps the field flooded.

Try it at home

Soil in a bottle

You will need

  • A clear plastic bottle or glass jar with a lid
  • Water
  • Two handfuls of soil from a garden or pot
  • Paper and a pencil

What to do

  1. Put the soil in the bottle until it is about one third full.
  2. Add water until the bottle is almost full, close the lid and shake well for a minute.
  3. Stand the bottle still and watch. Note what settles first and what floats.
  4. After an hour, draw the layers you see and label them: sand, silt, clay, humus.
  5. Wash your hands well when you finish.

Ask a grown-up: Ask an adult before collecting soil from outside, and wash your hands with soap afterwards.

Lesson 7 of 9

Animals and their homes

Match animals to the homes they build and the habitats they live in, and see how their bodies suit forests, deserts, cold lands and water.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Just like you, every animal needs a safe place to rest, hide and raise its young. Some build their homes and some live in homes we make for them. In this lesson you will learn about animal homes and the habitats that suit different animals.

Many animals build their own homes. A bird weaves a nest from twigs and grass. A rabbit digs a burrow under the ground. A spider spins a web. Honeybees build a hive of wax. A lion rests in a den, often among rocks or bushes.

Some animals live in homes made by people. A hen lives in a coop, a horse in a stable, a dog in a kennel and cows and buffaloes in a shed. Pet fish live in an aquarium.

The natural place where an animal lives and finds food, water and shelter is called its habitat. Forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains, ponds, rivers and seas are all habitats. An animal's body is suited to its habitat. This suitability is called adaptation.

A camel lives in the hot desert. Its hump stores fat for food, its long eyelashes keep out sand, and its wide padded feet do not sink into sand. A polar bear lives in cold snowy lands and has thick white fur and a layer of fat to keep warm. Fish breathe with gills and have fins to swim. A frog can live both in water and on land, so it is called an amphibian.

When forests are cut down or ponds are filled up, animals lose their homes. Protecting habitats protects the animals that live in them.

Four habitats and an animal suited to eachFour boxes in a row. Forest shows a tree and the word deer. Desert shows a sun and the word camel with the note hump stores fat. Cold land shows snow mounds and the word polar bear with the note thick fur. Water shows waves and the word fish with the note gills and fins.Habitats Forest Deer, monkey Desert Camel Cold land Polar bear Water Fish, frog trees for food, shade hump stores fat thick fur and fat gills and fins Bodies suited to a habitat: adaptation
Each habitat has its own weather, food and water, and the animals living there are suited to it.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Who lives where?

    Match them: bird and nest, rabbit and burrow, bee and hive, spider and web, lion and den, hen and coop, horse and stable, dog and kennel. Four of these homes are built by animals themselves, and four are made by people.

  2. A camel is built for the desert

    The desert has little water, hot sand and sandstorms. The camel can go many days without drinking, its hump stores fat to use as food, and it can close its nostrils to keep out blowing sand. Every feature matches a problem of the desert.

  3. A fish out of water

    A fish takes oxygen from water through its gills. On land its gills dry out and cannot work, so the fish cannot breathe. Its body is suited to water, not to land. That is why its habitat is water.

Try it at home

Animal home hunt

You will need

  • Paper and a pencil
  • A window, balcony or a short walk near home

What to do

  1. For ten minutes, look out of a window or walk nearby with an adult and list every animal, bird or insect you see.
  2. Next to each one, write where you think it lives: nest, burrow, web, hive, under a stone, in a tree, in a drain.
  3. Draw one of these homes and label its parts.
  4. Write one way the animal's body suits its home, such as wings, claws or a long beak.

Ask a grown-up: Go outside only with an adult, and do not touch nests, hives or any animal.

Lesson 8 of 9

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Sort wet and dry waste into the right bins, learn the three Rs and discover how kitchen waste can turn into compost for plants.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Every home makes waste every day: peels, wrappers, paper, bottles. Where does it all go? In this lesson you will learn to sort waste, to make less of it and to turn some of it into something useful.

Waste that rots and mixes back into the soil is called biodegradable waste: fruit and vegetable peels, leftover food, leaves, paper and cotton cloth. Waste that does not rot for a very long time is non-biodegradable: plastic bags, bottles, glass, metal cans and batteries.

Sorting waste at home makes it easy to deal with. Wet waste such as peels and food goes in the green bin. Dry waste such as paper, plastic, glass and metal goes in the blue bin. Harmful waste such as batteries, medicines and broken tubes should be kept separate and handed to the right collection point.

The three Rs tell us what to do. Reduce: make less waste by carrying a cloth bag and a steel bottle instead of buying plastic. Reuse: use things again, like turning a jam jar into a pencil holder or writing on the back of used paper. Recycle: send paper, plastic, glass and metal to be made into new things.

Wet waste can be turned into compost. In a pot or pit, layers of peels and dry leaves slowly rot with the help of tiny living things and earthworms. After some weeks it becomes dark, crumbly manure that makes plants grow well.

Throwing waste on roads, in drains or in rivers makes places dirty, blocks drains, spreads disease and harms animals that eat plastic by mistake. A clean neighbourhood starts with sorted waste at home.

Waste sorting binsThree dustbins side by side. The green bin is labelled wet waste with peels, food and leaves listed under it. The blue bin is labelled dry waste with paper, plastic, glass and metal listed. A smaller red bin is labelled harmful waste with batteries and medicines. Above the bins the three Rs are written: reduce, reuse, recycle.Reduce, reuse, recycle, and sort what is left GREEN Wet waste peels, leftover food leaves, egg shells rots into compost BLUE Dry waste paper, plastic glass, metal cans can be recycled RED Harmful batteries, medicines broken tubes special collection
Green for wet waste, blue for dry waste, and a separate bin for harmful things.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Sorting a day of waste

    A family throws away banana peels, a milk packet, a newspaper, an egg shell and a glass bottle. Peels and egg shell are wet waste: green bin. Milk packet, newspaper and bottle are dry waste: blue bin. The newspaper, packet and bottle can all be recycled.

  2. Choosing to reduce

    Rahul buys a packet of chips every day at school. That is five wrappers a week and about 200 in a year. If he carries roasted chana in a steel box instead, he makes zero wrappers. Reducing stops waste before it is made.

  3. Reuse before you throw

    An old T-shirt can become a cleaning cloth or a shopping bag. A plastic ice-cream box can store buttons. A cardboard box can become a toy house. Each reuse keeps one thing out of the dustbin.

Try it at home

Compost in a pot

You will need

  • An old bucket, pot or large plastic container with a few holes in the bottom
  • Fruit and vegetable peels
  • Dry leaves or torn newspaper
  • A little soil
  • A stick for mixing

What to do

  1. Put a layer of soil at the bottom of the container.
  2. Add a layer of peels, then a layer of dry leaves or torn paper. Repeat each day with new peels.
  3. Keep it slightly damp, not wet, and cover it with a cloth or lid.
  4. Mix it with the stick once a week. It should smell like wet earth, not rotten.
  5. After about six to eight weeks, the dark crumbly compost at the bottom is ready to feed a plant.

Ask a grown-up: Ask an adult to make the holes in the container, and keep the compost pot outside the kitchen.

Lesson 9 of 9

Weather and the seasons of India

Tell weather from climate, learn the four main seasons of India with their months, and see how the monsoon brings rain to the country.

Open this lesson on its own page · Practice sheet · Answer key · Contents

Let us begin

The big idea

Is it hot or cold today? Sunny or rainy? That is the weather. Over the year the weather changes in a pattern, giving us seasons. In this lesson you will learn about the seasons of India and the famous monsoon.

Weather is what the air is doing at one place right now: hot, cold, windy, cloudy, rainy or dry. It can change within a day. Climate is the usual weather of a place over many years. Rajasthan has a hot, dry climate; Kerala has a warm, wet climate; the high Himalaya is cold.

India has four main seasons. Summer runs from March to May and is hot and dry, with the hottest days in May and June. The monsoon or rainy season runs from June to September, when winds from the sea bring heavy rain. Autumn in October and November is mild as the rains go away. Winter runs from December to February and is cool in the south and cold in the north.

The word monsoon comes from the seasonal winds. In summer the land gets hotter than the sea, so moist winds blow in from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. They rise over hills and cool, and the water vapour in them falls as rain. Kerala usually gets the first monsoon rain at the start of June, and the rain then spreads north across the country.

The monsoon matters a lot. Farmers plant rice and other crops with the first rains, rivers and wells fill up, and the land turns green. Too little rain brings drought, and too much brings floods.

In the old Indian calendar there are six seasons called ritus: Vasant (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (rains), Sharad (autumn), Hemant (early winter) and Shishir (late winter). Many festivals follow these seasons.

The seasons wheel of IndiaA circle divided into four coloured parts like a wheel. Starting at the top and going clockwise: summer with March to May, monsoon with June to September, autumn with October to November, and winter with December to February. An arrow shows the year going round. Summer Mar to May hot, dry Monsoon Jun to Sep heavy rain Autumn Oct to Nov mild, clear Winter Dec to Feb cool, cold the year goes round Four seasons, one after another, every year
The year goes round the wheel: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter, and back to summer.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Weather or climate?

    It rained in Jaipur this afternoon: that is weather, because it is about one day. Jaipur is usually hot and dry: that is climate, because it is about what happens year after year.

  2. Which season is it?

    It is the middle of July. Clouds cover the sky, it rains most days and farmers are busy planting rice. This is the monsoon season, which runs from June to September.

  3. Why hills get more rain

    Moist monsoon wind blowing from the sea meets the Western Ghats. The wind is pushed up, cools, and its water vapour turns into rain on the seaward side. That is why the coast of Kerala and Karnataka gets heavy rain while the land beyond the hills gets much less.

Try it at home

Keep a weather diary

You will need

  • A notebook and a pencil
  • A bottle cap or small cup to catch rain in the monsoon
  • A window to look out of

What to do

  1. Every morning for two weeks, write the date and tick one word: sunny, cloudy, rainy or windy.
  2. Note whether it feels hot, warm, cool or cold.
  3. In the rainy season, keep the cup outside and mark how high the water is each evening, then empty it.
  4. At the end of two weeks, count how many days were sunny, cloudy and rainy.
  5. Decide which season you are in and check it against the months in this lesson.

Ask a grown-up: Ask an adult before placing the cup outside or on a balcony.

Part two

Practice sheets

One sheet for each of the 9 lessons. Write your name and the date at the top, answer in the spaces, then check with the answer keys at the back.

Practice sheet

Solids, liquids and gases

Practice sheet: Solids, liquids and gases (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What are the three states of matter?
  2. Which state of matter has a fixed shape and a fixed size?
  3. Which of these is a liquid: stone, milk, air?
  4. Which of these is a gas: steam, oil, brick?
  5. What happens to ice when it is heated?
  6. At what temperature does ice melt?
  7. At what temperature does water boil at sea level?
  8. What do we call the change of steam into water when it cools?
  9. You pour 150 mL of juice from a bottle into a cup. How much juice is in the cup? Does its shape change?
  10. Why can we smell food cooking in another room, even if we cannot see it?

Practice sheet

The water cycle

Practice sheet: The water cycle (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What gives the heat that starts the water cycle?
  2. What is the change of liquid water into water vapour called?
  3. What is the change of water vapour into tiny drops of water called?
  4. Name the process by which clouds give rain, snow or hail.
  5. What are clouds made of?
  6. Where does most of the rain water finally go?
  7. Why do wet clothes dry faster on a sunny, windy day?
  8. Why do drops form on the outside of a glass of cold water?
  9. Put these in order: rain falls, water evaporates, clouds form, rivers flow to the sea.
  10. Plants also add water to the air. What is this called?

Practice sheet

Food chains and food webs

Practice sheet: Food chains and food webs (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is the first living thing in nearly every food chain?
  2. What do we call plants in a food chain, and why?
  3. Is a cow a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore?
  4. Is a tiger a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore?
  5. Is a crow, which eats grains and insects, a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore?
  6. Write a food chain with grass, deer and tiger.
  7. In grass → grasshopper → frog → snake, who is the producer?
  8. In the same chain, what does the arrow from frog to snake mean?
  9. What do we call many food chains joined together?
  10. If all the frogs in a pond disappeared, name one thing that might happen to the insects they eat.

Practice sheet

Our solar system

Practice sheet: Our solar system (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is the Sun: a planet, a star or a moon?
  2. How many planets are there in our solar system?
  3. Which planet is closest to the Sun?
  4. Which is the third planet from the Sun?
  5. Which planet is the biggest?
  6. Which planet is famous for its bright rings?
  7. Which planet comes between Earth and Jupiter?
  8. Which planet is the farthest from the Sun?
  9. What is Pluto called now?
  10. How long does Earth take to go once around the Sun? How long does it take to spin once on its axis?

Practice sheet

Air around us

Practice sheet: Air around us (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. Which gas makes up the biggest part of the air?
  2. About how many parts in 100 of the air is oxygen?
  3. Which gas do we breathe out?
  4. What is moving air called?
  5. Name two things that cause air pollution.
  6. What happens to a candle flame when you cover it with a glass? Why?
  7. How do plants help keep the air clean?
  8. Why does a bottle look empty but is not really empty?
  9. Give two ways to reduce air pollution.
  10. Why do cloths on a window sill near a busy road get dirty faster?

Practice sheet

Soil and what grows in it

Practice sheet: Soil and what grows in it (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is the slow breaking of rocks into soil called?
  2. What is humus?
  3. Which soil layer is dark and full of roots and worms?
  4. What is found at the very bottom, under all the soil layers?
  5. Which type of soil has the largest particles?
  6. Which soil feels sticky when wet and holds water a long time?
  7. Which soil is a mix of sand, clay and humus and is best for most crops?
  8. Why is rice grown in clayey soil?
  9. How do earthworms help plants?
  10. What is soil erosion, and how do trees stop it?

Practice sheet

Animals and their homes

Practice sheet: Animals and their homes (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is the home of a bird called?
  2. Which animal digs a burrow?
  3. Name two animal homes that people build.
  4. What is a habitat?
  5. What does a camel store in its hump?
  6. How does a polar bear stay warm?
  7. How does a fish breathe?
  8. Why is a frog called an amphibian?
  9. Where does a honeybee live?
  10. What happens to animals when a forest is cut down?

Practice sheet

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Practice sheet: Reduce, reuse, recycle (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is biodegradable waste? Give two examples.
  2. Name two kinds of non-biodegradable waste.
  3. Which bin does wet waste go into?
  4. Which bin do paper and plastic go into?
  5. What are the three Rs?
  6. Give one example of reducing waste.
  7. Give one example of reusing something.
  8. What is compost?
  9. Where should old batteries go?
  10. Why is throwing plastic into a river harmful?

Practice sheet

Weather and the seasons of India

Practice sheet: Weather and the seasons of India (Classes 3-5, Science)

  1. What is the difference between weather and climate?
  2. Which months are the summer season in India?
  3. Which months are the monsoon season?
  4. From which direction do the monsoon winds come: from the land or from the sea?
  5. Which state usually gets the first monsoon rain?
  6. Which season comes after the monsoon?
  7. Which months are the winter season?
  8. Why do the Western Ghats get heavy rain?
  9. Name the six ritus of the old Indian calendar.
  10. What happens to farmers if the monsoon brings very little rain?

Part three

Answer keys

The answers to every practice sheet, in the same order as the lessons. Parents and teachers may like to keep these pages separately.

Answer key

Answers: Solids, liquids and gases

  1. Solid, liquid and gas.
  2. A solid.
  3. Milk.
  4. Steam.
  5. It melts and becomes water.
  6. 0 °C.
  7. 100 °C.
  8. Condensation.
  9. 150 mL. The shape changes to the shape of the cup, but the amount stays the same.
  10. Gases spread out and fill the space, so the smell travels through the air to our nose.

Answer key

Answers: The water cycle

  1. The Sun.
  2. Evaporation.
  3. Condensation.
  4. Precipitation.
  5. Tiny drops of water (and in cold clouds, tiny ice crystals).
  6. Into rivers, lakes and the sea, or it soaks into the ground.
  7. The Sun and the wind make the water evaporate faster.
  8. Water vapour in the air touches the cold glass and condenses into drops.
  9. Water evaporates, clouds form, rain falls, rivers flow to the sea.
  10. Transpiration.

Answer key

Answers: Food chains and food webs

  1. A green plant.
  2. Producers, because they make their own food using sunlight.
  3. Herbivore.
  4. Carnivore.
  5. Omnivore.
  6. Grass → deer → tiger.
  7. Grass.
  8. The snake eats the frog.
  9. A food web.
  10. There could be more insects, because fewer animals eat them.

Answer key

Answers: Our solar system

  1. A star.
  2. Eight.
  3. Mercury.
  4. Earth.
  5. Jupiter.
  6. Saturn.
  7. Mars.
  8. Neptune.
  9. A dwarf planet.
  10. About 365 days to go round the Sun (one year); about 24 hours to spin once (one day).

Answer key

Answers: Air around us

  1. Nitrogen (about 78 parts in 100).
  2. About 21 parts in 100.
  3. Carbon dioxide.
  4. Wind.
  5. Any two: smoke from vehicles, factories, burning garbage or leaves, crackers.
  6. It goes out, because burning uses up the oxygen inside the glass.
  7. Plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.
  8. It is full of air; air takes up space even though we cannot see it.
  9. Any two: plant trees, walk or cycle for short trips, share vehicles, do not burn garbage.
  10. Vehicle smoke adds more dust and dirt to the air near the road.

Answer key

Answers: Soil and what grows in it

  1. Weathering.
  2. Rotted remains of dead plants and animals mixed into the soil; it makes soil rich.
  3. Topsoil.
  4. Bedrock (solid rock).
  5. Sandy soil.
  6. Clayey soil.
  7. Loamy soil.
  8. Clayey soil holds standing water, which rice plants need.
  9. They dig tunnels so that air and water can reach the roots.
  10. Soil being washed away by rain or blown away by wind; tree roots hold the soil in place.

Answer key

Answers: Animals and their homes

  1. A nest.
  2. A rabbit (rats and some other animals also dig burrows).
  3. Any two: coop, stable, kennel, shed, aquarium.
  4. The natural place where an animal lives and finds food, water and shelter.
  5. Fat, which its body uses as food.
  6. With thick fur and a layer of fat under its skin.
  7. Through its gills, taking oxygen from water.
  8. Because it can live both in water and on land.
  9. In a hive.
  10. They lose their homes and food, and many cannot survive.

Answer key

Answers: Reduce, reuse, recycle

  1. Waste that rots and mixes back into the soil, such as peels, leftover food, leaves or paper.
  2. Any two: plastic bags, plastic bottles, glass, metal cans, batteries.
  3. The green bin.
  4. The blue bin (dry waste).
  5. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
  6. For example, carrying a cloth bag or a steel bottle instead of buying plastic ones.
  7. For example, using a jam jar as a pencil holder or writing on the back of used paper.
  8. Dark, crumbly manure made when wet waste rots; it helps plants grow.
  9. In a separate bin for harmful waste, to be handed to a special collection point.
  10. It makes the water dirty, blocks the flow and harms animals that may eat it.

Answer key

Answers: Weather and the seasons of India

  1. Weather is the condition of the air at one place right now; climate is the usual weather over many years.
  2. March to May.
  3. June to September.
  4. From the sea (the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal).
  5. Kerala, at the start of June.
  6. Autumn (October and November).
  7. December to February.
  8. Moist sea winds are pushed up by the hills, cool down, and their water vapour falls as rain.
  9. Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemant, Shishir.
  10. Drought: crops fail because there is not enough water.

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