Life Around Us
We need each other
Say what plants and animals give each other and give us, and tell the help that runs one way from the help that runs the other.
Shambhu and his father sat down in the shade of a huge mango tree in the forest. Above them the tree was home to birds, squirrels and monkeys. Shambhu watched a monkey eat a mango and drop the seed, and his father told him a new plant could grow from it. The monkey had been fed; the tree had been planted. Neither of them meant to help the other.
Seven uses of plants
The chapter draws them in a ring: shade, shelter for animals, wood, fibre, fresh air, fruit and medicine. Four of those we take for ourselves — wood for houses, fibre for cloth, fruit to eat, medicine when we are ill — and the other three are given to whoever is standing there, animal or person.
Worked example
A squirrel buries a nut in autumn and cannot find it again in spring. Who has gained?
Start with the squirrel. It buried the nut as a store of food, and it has lost that food.
From the squirrel's side this looks like a straightforward mistake.
Try it together
Now work out what we get from the animals we keep, together.
Shambhu's family keeps a cow, and the chapter is careful to name two things it gives them.
1.From cows, buffaloes and goats we get something to drink. What is it?
Have a go
Your turn. Children in Valparai, in Tamil Nadu, put up posters and hand out sweets when the first Grey Wagtails arrive. Where do those birds come from?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.