Chapter 3 — Mango Treat

Chapter 3 of the Class 1 Maths NCERT textbook (Joyful Mathematics), "Mango Treat", introduces counting numbers from 1 to 9 through a story about birds joining to eat a mango, and builds number sense through finger games, grouping activities, and exercises on more, less, and equal.

• Counting Up to 9 Through a Story — The chapter begins with birds and animals joining one by one to eat a mango, growing from 1 to 9. Children follow the story to understand that adding one more each time gives the next counting number.
• Comparing Numbers: More, Less, and Equal — Children practise deciding whether a group of objects has more, less, or the same number as another group. A 'My Drawing Day' activity on Ekta Diwas (31st October) uses everyday items to make children tick whether objects are more than, less than, or equal to the number of children.
• Finger Games and Body Activities — The 'Mime with Fingers' game asks a child to show a number of fingers and a friend to show the same count in a different way. The 'Finger Game' extends this by asking for more or less fingers than a given number.
• Ordering Numbers 1 to 9 — Children draw a path connecting numbers 1 to 9 in the correct order without crossing lines, write missing numbers in a sequence, and arrange shuffled number cards from smallest to largest. These tasks build understanding of number order.
• Counting Objects and Writing Numerals — Activities like 'Numbers 1, 2, 3… Go!' ask children to draw a shape around all objects of a given count in a picture and write the numeral below. Count-and-colour tasks (8 stars, 5 flowers, 6 balls) and a count-and-match exercise reinforce linking quantities to written numbers.

1. 01Birds and animals join one by one to eat a mango, showing counting from 1 up to 9.
2. 02Adding one more each time gives the next number (1 more than 1 is 2, 1 more than 2 is 3, and so on up to 9).
3. 03Children match the number of birds to the number of fingers shown on a hand.
4. 04The Mime with Fingers game shows that the same number can be displayed in different ways using fingers.
5. 05An outdoor group game has children form groups of a called number (up to 9) by holding hands.
6. 06Children compare sets of objects and decide which is more, which is less, or whether they are equal.
7. 07Number cards 1 to 9 are arranged in order from smallest to largest, and missing numbers in a sequence are filled in.