Class 5 English Chapter 5: The Frog

Who is speaking?

Listen. A small voice is talking from the edge of a pond. It says I sit in ponds. It says I hop and I croak. Who is it? It is a frog, and this whole poem is the frog's own story. Nobody describes it. It describes itself.

Where the frog lives

The frog names its favourite places. A quiet pond. A rainy day. Even a muddy drain in the street. It likes damp spots where drops of dew sit on the grass. Anywhere wet and cool feels like home.

Two homes, one animal

The frog lives on land and in water. Animals that do this are called amphibians. In water it swims. On land it hops. Very few animals can do both well. That is why the frog feels proud in the poem.

From tadpole to frog

The frog was not always a frog. It began as a tadpole. A tadpole has no legs. It swims about like a tiny, clear fish. Slowly it grows legs. Its tail goes away. Then a frog hops out of the water.

The fastest tongue in the pond

How does a frog eat? It flicks out its long tongue. The tongue is sticky, and it moves in a flash. An insect is caught before it can escape. The frog does not chase its food. It waits and it aims.

Hidden in plain sight

The frog's skin is green and brown. Those are the colours of grass and leaves. So the frog can sit still and simply disappear. We call this camouflage. It is the frog's best coat, because it costs nothing and never comes off.

Danger in the grass

Being hidden matters, because snakes hunt frogs. The poem warns that a frog must beware. Beware means be careful. If the frog is careless for one moment, a snake may catch it unaware. Its colours and its long jump save its life.

The frog's loud song

At night the pond sings. That croaking is the frog calling. The sound is surprisingly loud for such a small animal. It says here I am. In the poem the frog is proud of its voice, not shy about it.

Feet that swim and legs that leap

Look at a frog's back feet. The toes are joined by skin. We call them webbed feet. They push water like small paddles. The same strong legs let it leap high in the air. Swimming and hopping use one pair of legs.

How the poem sounds

Read the poem aloud. The lines run in pairs, and each pair ends with the same sound. Rain goes with drain. Food goes with good. Loud goes with proud. High goes with sky. That neat beat makes the poem easy to remember.

A happy little boast

The poem is cheerful from start to finish. The frog is not complaining. It is telling us the good things about being a frog. In the last lines it says that with webbed feet it swims "with ease" (Santoor, The Frog).

Why we should care

A frog is small, but it is useful. It eats insects that trouble our crops and our homes. Frogs need clean ponds to live in. When a pond is filled with rubbish, the frogs go quiet and then disappear.

Scenario:

Sameer says the frog in the poem is boasting. It calls its own song loud and proud. Devi says the frog is only describing its life. Every line tells us something true about frogs. Their teacher turns the poem into a checklist. Wet homes, tadpole days, a fast tongue, hiding colours and the fear of snakes. The class then visits the school pond. They find frogs near the wet edge and none on the dry path. They also see that a green frog on a green leaf is hard to spot. Sameer changes his mind. He decides the frog was not boasting but reporting.

Analysis:

Every claim in the poem can be checked at a pond. Once the class checks them, the boasting turns out to be description.

Activity:

Visit a damp corner near your school. List the small animals you find there. Write one sentence saying why that place suits them.

A frog can breathe through its damp skin as well as through its mouth and lungs.

Frogs are useful to farmers because they eat insects that damage crops.

The frog's five talents — H-E-H-H-C: Home, Eat, Hide, Hop, Croak — Home in wet places, Eat with a quick tongue, Hide with colours, Hop high, Croak loudly.

How the poem rhymes — Two by two — The lines go in pairs. The first line rhymes with the second, and the third with the fourth.

Two short sentences, one small word

Meena writes two sentences. The frog hops high. The frog cannot fly. Both are true, but they sound choppy. Her teacher gives her one small word. The frog hops high, but it cannot fly. One word has joined the two ideas and made them sound smooth.

The joining words

Five little words do most of this work. And, but, so, because and or. They are called joining words. Each one has its own job. Choosing the right one tells your reader how the two ideas fit together.

And, but and or

And adds one more thing: I like ponds and rivers. But shows a surprise or a difference: the frog is small, but its voice is loud. Or offers a choice: shall we draw a frog or a fish?

Because and so

These two are a pair, back to front. Because comes before the reason. The frog swims well because it has webbed feet. So comes before the result. It rained hard, so the drain filled up. Same idea, opposite order.

Which one fits?

Ask what the second part is doing. Is it extra? Use and. Is it a surprise? Use but. Is it the reason? Use because. Is it what happened next? Use so. Is it another choice? Use or.

Words need an order too

A sentence is not just a bag of words. Hunts the owl after dark is a bag. The owl hunts after dark is a sentence. English likes a steady order: first who, then the action, then the details.

Who does what

Start with the doer. The frog. Then the action word. Catches. Then what is caught. Insects. The frog catches insects. That short line is already a complete sentence, and everything else is extra.

Where the extras go

After who and what, add the details. How: quickly. Where: near the pond. When: at night. The frog catches insects quickly near the pond. The order how, where, when sounds natural to English ears.

Keep the verb and its object together

Do not push a word between the action and the thing it acts on. A spider weaves carefully its web sounds wrong. Say a spider weaves its web carefully. The how word waits until the object is finished.

Read it aloud to test it

Your ear is a good judge. Read your sentence aloud. If you stumble, the order is probably wrong. Try moving the detail words to the end. Most muddled sentences get better with that one change.

Why order matters

Word order carries meaning in English. The snake watched the frog is not the same as the frog watched the snake. The words are identical. Only their places changed, and the whole story turned around.

Scenario:

Meena writes a note about the school pond. Her first try reads: the pond dried in May so we brought water but the frogs had gone. Her teacher says the facts are right and the order is wrong. Meena writes it again. In May the pond dried, so the frogs went away. We brought water, but they did not come back. Now each joining word does one job. So gives a result, and but marks a turn. The class then measures the pond every week. In March it was nine metres across. By May it was only four. Meena adds one more line, because the numbers explain the rest.

Analysis:

So and but are not the same tool. One carries a result forward and the other turns against what came before.

Activity:

Measure something that changes, such as a plant's height, once a week for a month. Write three sentences about it using so, but and because.

Title:

The sentence strip game

Safety:

Ask a grown-up before using the scissors, and cut away from your fingers.

What You Notice:

Some orders sound right at once and some sound funny. The doer almost always wants to go first.

Not every language keeps this order. In Hindi the action word usually comes at the end of the sentence.

The word because grew out of two older words, by and cause, pushed together.

Picking the joining word — Add, Odd, Reason, Result, Choice — Add is and. Odd or surprising is but. Reason is because. Result is so. Choice is or.

The order of the parts — Who - does what - how - where - when — Say the five words in order and your sentence will nearly build itself.

A letter from the pond

One morning a message arrives in class. It is signed by a frog. The frog says where it lives and what it likes to eat. Then it asks a question: what do you enjoy doing? Somebody has to reply. That somebody is you.

First, warm up your tongue

Before writing, we play with sounds. A tongue twister is a line full of one sound. Try this one: five fat frogs flop on flat rocks. Say it slowly first. Then a little faster. Then race a friend.

Why tongue twisters help

Your mouth learns by repeating. A twister makes your lips and tongue work hard on one sound. After a few rounds, ordinary words feel easy. Speakers and singers use twisters before they go on stage.

Two short sounds

Now train your ears. Say pen. Now say pan. The middle sound has changed, and so has the word. Short e is a small sound. Short a needs a wider mouth. Bet and bat are different words.

Listen and say

Here are the pairs to practise: bet and bat, set and sat, men and man, leg and lag, met and mat. Ask someone to say one word from a pair. Point to the one you heard. Then swap places.

Listening with a pencil

Your teacher will read a set of drawing steps aloud. This is careful listening. Do not begin drawing at the first word. Listen to the whole instruction. Then draw. You can always add colour later.

Draw the frog's world

The instructions build a scene. A pond or a rainy field. A frog somewhere in it. Words from the poem written around the picture. Colours at the end. Each step comes from something you heard, not from something you guessed.

What a short message has

Now for the reply. A message has five parts. A greeting, a hello back, an answer, a question of your own, and a closing with your name. Miss one and the message feels unfinished.

Answer the question you were asked

The frog asked what you enjoy doing. So your reply must say it. Many children write a long message and forget that one line. Underline the question in the message you received. Then tick it when you have answered.

Keep the voice friendly

A message to a friend is not an exam answer. Write as if you are speaking. Short sentences are perfect. You may use words such as thank you and please. End with something warm, like your friend.

Check and share

Read your reply once for meaning and once for capitals and full stops. Is the name of your friend spelt right? Is your own name at the end? Then read it aloud to the class in your best voice.

Scenario:

Behind Green Valley School in Kolhapur lies an old pond. For years its frogs croaked so loudly in July that the children laughed. Last year the noise stopped. Ms Patil took her class to look. They found plastic bags, wrappers and a film of oil on the water. The class made a plan. With gloves and a grown-up helper they cleared the rubbish over three Saturdays. They painted a sign asking people not to throw waste in the water. Farmers nearby told them that frogs eat the insects which harm crops. This July the croaking came back. The class wrote a short message about it for the school notice board.

Analysis:

Frogs need clean water to live. Clearing the pond helped the frogs, the farmers and the children, who practised planning, writing and speaking together.

Activity:

Look at a pond, tank or drain near your home. Draw what you see and list three things that would make it healthier for frogs and birds.

Actors and news readers use tongue twisters to warm up before they speak in public.

India has chosen the Ganges river dolphin as its national aquatic animal, and it finds its way by listening.

The parts of a message — G-H-A-Q-C — Greeting, Hello back, Answer, Question, Closing with your name.

Saying a tongue twister — Slow, then go — Say it slowly and correctly first. Speed is useless without clear words.