Chapter 4 — The Cap-seller and the Monkeys

Chapter 4 of the Class 1 English NCERT textbook (Mridang), "The Cap-seller and the Monkeys", tells the story of a clever cap-seller who uses the monkeys' copying habit to get all his caps back, and pairs it with reading, speaking, writing, and listening activities that build early English vocabulary and phonics skills.

• The Cap-seller and the Monkeys Story — A cap-seller carrying caps in a basket falls asleep under a tree, and monkeys climb down and take all his caps. When he wakes and finds his basket empty, he shakes his fist and scratches his head — the monkeys copy every action — so he throws his own cap into the basket and the monkeys throw all the caps back.
• Initial Sound and Phonics Activities — Children practise identifying the first sound of words grouped in rows, such as cap, cat, coat (all starting with 'c'), monkey, mango, mouse (all starting with 'm'), and basket, bat, ball (all starting with 'b'). A writing activity asks children to circle words in each row that begin with the same sound.
• The Alphabet and Animal Names — The chapter includes a full A-to-Z picture list pairing each letter with a familiar animal or object word — Ant, Bee, Cat, Dog, Elephant, Fish, Goat, Hen, and so on up to Zebra. Children practise writing their own name at the end of this activity.
• Butterflies Song and Direction Words — A short action song called 'Butterflies' uses the direction words up, down, in, and out, and children are encouraged to replace 'butterflies' with another word they choose. A speaking activity linked to the song asks children to describe what they see on the tree, on the ground, and in the sky.
• Catch Me If You Can — a Short Rhyming Story — A second reading text features a fat cat sitting on a mat who tries to catch a little rat; the rat hides first in a hat and then in a box, and tells the cat 'You can't catch me.' This story introduces the '-at' word family (cat, rat, mat, hat, bat, fat, sat) and action words such as catch, throw, hide, open, and close.

1. 01The cap-seller carries caps in a basket on his head and falls asleep under a tree.
2. 02Monkeys come down from the tree and take all the caps while the cap-seller sleeps.
3. 03The cap-seller gets his caps back because monkeys copy him — when he throws his own cap into the basket, they throw all the caps back too.
4. 04Phonics activities group words by their first sound: c (cap, cat, coat), m (monkey, mango, mouse), b (basket, bat, ball).
5. 05The chapter includes the full A-to-Z alphabet with one picture word per letter, from Ant to Zebra.
6. 06The action song 'Butterflies' teaches direction words: up, down, in, out.
7. 07The '-at' word family is practised through the mini-story 'Catch me if you can' using words like cat, rat, mat, hat, bat, fat, sat.