Maharashtra Board Class 5 English Solutions Chapter 12 Count your Garden
Balbharti Maharashtra State Board Class 5 English Solutions Chapter 12 Count your Garden Notes, Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers.
Maharashtra State Board Class 5 English Solutions Chapter 12 Count your Garden
English Balbharati Std 5 Digest Chapter 12 Count your Garden Textbook Questions and Answers
Count Your Garden
Count your garden by the flowers;
Never by the leaves that fall;
Count your days by golden hours;
Don’t remember clouds at all;
Count the night by stars, not shadows;
Count your life, by smiles not tears;
And with joy on every birthday,
Count your age by friends, not years.
Theme/ Central Idea of the poem:
Through the poem ‘Count your garden’ the poet wants to convey to us to always look at all the good things in our life and not waste time regretting about the negative things.
Summary
In our life we have happy moments and sad moments. The poet advises us to look at the positive things rather than cry over negative things.
The poet tells us to look at our garden and enjoy its beauty by the number of flowers and not by the leaves that have fallen.
We should think about the golden hours i.e. the happy occasions and forget about the clouds i.e the sad moments.
We should enjoy the night sky full of stars rather than look at the shadows. We should remember times in our life when we had a smile on our face and not think about the times when we had tears.
Every year on our birthday, we should count all the beautiful friends in our life and not how many years have gone by i.e. how old we have become.
Things to do:
1. The following things are mentioned in the poem.
Classify the following as happy and sad things.
1) flowers – falling leaves
Answer: happy: flowers, sad: falling leaves
2) golden hours – clouds
Answer: happy: clouds, sad: golden hours
3) stars – shadows
Answer: happy: stars, sad: shadows
4) smiles – tears
Answer: happy: smiles, sad: tears
5) friend in your life – passing years
Answer: happy: friend in your life, sad: passing years
2. Name a few things that people often count
1) money
2) time
3) age
4) days
5) pages
3. Group Work
Discuss how you will measure the worth of –
- a book
- a sports event
- a friend
- a journey.
You may find the following pairs useful in your discussion.
difficult words – interesting things/knowledge
defeats – enjoyment
quarrels – sharing feelings and thoughts, problems
obstacles – learning new things, seeing new sights.
Answer:
A book:
The best companion in the world is a book, as it can accompany us where ever we go. It gives us immense knowledge about varied subjects. We can enjoy books about stories, math, science and even a dictionary. We can measure the worth of the book by the amount of happiness it provides.
A sports event:
Sports event teaches as the value of sportsmanship and team spirit. It helps not only to keep our body fit but also to overcome difficulties. Through sports event we learn to enjoy our success and defeats with equal enthusiasm.
A friend:
A true friend is someone who is by our side when we are happy and sad. A friend will always care for us. Even if we quarrel and fight a true friend will forgive and forget all the wrong things. A friend is someone we can share our feelings, our thoughts and problems. A true friend is a gift from God.
A journey:
A journey can be by foot, by road, by train or by air. A experience of a journey provides us with immense knowledge that no book can tell. When we travel, we see new sights and learn new things. A journey is always knowledgeable, interesting and fun. A journey sometimes could be difficult and tiring. At such times we learn to overcome our obstacles and feel proud of our achiements.
Answer the following questions:
1) How should one count the garden?
Answer: The garden should be counted by the flowers and not by the leaves that fall.
2) How should we enjoy our birthday?
Answer: We should enjoy your birthday with friends and not with the years that have gone.
3) What lesson do we learn from this poem?
Answer: From this poem we learn that we should always have an optimistic (positive) approach in our life and not a pessimistic approach (negative).
4) What are the things the poet tells us to count?
Answer: The poet tells us to count the flowers, days, nights, smiles and friends.
5) What are the things the poet tells to forget (not to count)?
Answer. The poet tells us not to count the leaves that fall, the clouds, the shadows, the tears and our years.
6) Write rhyming words from the poem.
Answer: flowers- hours, fall- all, tears- years.