Chapter 11 — The Smart Monkey

Chapter 11 of the Class 2 English NCERT textbook (Mridang), "The Smart Monkey", tells the story of two girls, Anju and Farida, who learn about keeping their surroundings clean after watching a monkey throw its banana peel into a dustbin.

• The Story: Anju, Farida, and the Monkey — Anju and Farida go to the market, buy groundnuts and juice, and sit under a tree to rest. A monkey on the branch above them eats a banana and neatly throws the peel into a nearby dustbin, setting an example of cleanliness.
• A Lesson in Cleanliness — After eating, the two girls had thrown their empty packet and juice bottle on the ground. When they see the monkey using the dustbin, they feel ashamed and pick up their litter and throw it into the dustbin too.
• New Words and Sight Words — The chapter introduces new words such as groundnuts, branch, peel, dustbin, threw, and empty. Sight words like then, down, on, and, with, in, them, under, and nearby are highlighted for early readers to recognise quickly.
• Blends Activity: fl and cl Words — Students practise consonant blends by reading and writing words that begin with fl (flag, flower, floor) and cl (cloud, clap, clock). They are asked to write their own sentences using these blend words.
• Speaking and Writing Activities — Children discuss real-life habits such as what they do with wrappers after eating biscuits and whether their school has a dustbin. A writing exercise asks them to mark sentences about the story as correct or incorrect and to complete sentences with missing words.

1. 01Anju and Farida went to the market and bought a bag, a water bottle, groundnuts, and juice.
2. 02They sat on a bench under a tree to rest, not noticing a monkey on the branch above.
3. 03The monkey peeled a banana, ate it, and threw the banana peel into a dustbin.
4. 04Anju and Farida had thrown their empty packet and juice bottle on the ground.
5. 05After seeing the monkey use the dustbin, the girls felt ashamed and picked up their litter.
6. 06The chapter teaches blends fl and cl with words like flag, flower, cloud, and clap.
7. 07Students learn to split words into syllables by clapping once for each syllable.