Travel, and Things We Make and Do: Transport, Communication, Maps, Crafts and Work

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The two themes

Travel is about how people, goods and messages move from place to place, and it also carries maps, directions and the experience of new places. Things We Make and Do covers the crafts, buildings, tools and occupations through which people meet their needs. Both join science (fuels, materials) with social science (history, geography, livelihoods), as the integrated EVS syllabus intends.

Modes of transport

The class III chapter From Here to There looks at the vehicles children have travelled in, how their elders travelled earlier, and transport that needs fuel compared with transport moved by animals or people, such as the bullock cart, rickshaw, boat and bicycle. The class IV chapter Going to School shows how children in different parts of India reach school: across a bamboo bridge in Assam, on a trolley pulled over a river along a rope in Ladakh, in a vallam (a small wooden boat) in Kerala, by camel cart in Rajasthan or by bullock cart, on foot through forests, over snow and along rocky mountain paths, and on bicycles. Omana's Journey and From the Window follow a girl's train journey from Ahmedabad to Kerala, with the stations, tunnels, bridges and changing landscape on the way. In class V, What if it Finishes...? explains that petrol, diesel and kerosene come from deep under the ground and will one day run out, so they must be used with care, and Sunita in Space is about the astronaut Sunita Williams and how the Earth looks from space.

Communication

Messages also travel. The class III chapter Here comes a Letter follows the journey of a letter through the post and shows the postcard and the envelope; the 6-digit PIN code (Postal Index Number), introduced in 1972, helps in sorting mail. The class III chapter Saying without Speaking is about communicating without words, through gestures, facial expressions, the mudras of dance and sign language. Over time news has travelled through messengers, drum beats, pigeons, letters, the telegram, the telephone, mobile phones and the internet.

Maps and directions

Mapping skills grow step by step. The syllabus begins mapping in class III with a simple two-dimensional drawing of the classroom and the neighbourhood (Mapping my neighbourhood, under Shelter), and the class III chapter Left-Right practises left and right, traces Ruchira's route from home to school and introduces a map in which symbols stand for places. In class IV the syllabus adds directions with respect to a landmark, more symbols and a first idea of scale. By class V children read and draw simple top (bird's-eye or aerial) views; Walls Tell Stories gives a map of Golconda fort with the four directions and a scale of 1 cm to 110 metres. The teaching order is from the child's own space to the distant one: first the classroom, then the school and the route home, and only later the state and the country. Since a map is a drawing seen from above, children can begin by drawing the top view of a glass, a book or their desk.

Things We Make and Do

This theme looks at what people make with their hands and the knowledge behind it. The class III chapter Making Pots shows how pots are shaped from clay and baked in a kiln to make them strong; a clay pot (matka) keeps water cool because water seeping through its tiny pores evaporates. A Beautiful Cloth (class III) looks at the saree and the dupatta, the many ways they are worn, and how cloth is woven and decorated. The class IV chapter Pochampalli is about Vani and Prasad of Mukhtapur village in the Pochampalli mandal of Telangana, whose weaver family dyes the thread before weaving but is paid too little for its sarees; Pochampalli is famous for ikat, in which the threads are tied and dyed in a pattern before they are woven. The class V chapter Walls Tell Stories uses the Golconda fort in Hyderabad, a mud fort around 1200 that the Qutb Shahi Sultans ruled from 1518 to 1687, to show how buildings tell us about the past: thick walls, bastions and huge gates for defence, clay pipes that carried water, and a design in which words spoken at the Fateh Darwaza (the main gate) can be heard at the king's palace.

Work and workers

Work is part of the theme too. The class IV chapter Defence Officer: Wahida presents Lieutenant Commander Wahida Prism, a doctor in the Indian Navy from Rajouri district, Jammu and Kashmir. The stories of farmers, beekeepers, snake charmers, weavers, potters and migrant workers show that every occupation has its own skills and knowledge. Class V chapters such as No Place for Us? and On the Move Again show Jatrya's family, whose village Khedi is drowned by a dam, and Dhanu's family, who leave their village every year to cut sugarcane, and how this affects children's schooling, which links Travel with justice and equality.

In the classroom

Bring the work into the classroom and take the class to the work: invite a potter, weaver, postman or bus conductor, visit a post office or railway station, let children try a simple craft, survey how classmates come to school and map the route. CTET options that suggest reading out the chapter, copying a list of vehicles or memorising the parts of a post office are wrong. Stereotypes about work (only men drive, only women cook, cleaning is a lowly job) should be questioned through discussion.

Key facts

Class IV Going to School: bamboo bridge (Assam), trolley over a river (Ladakh), vallam (small boat) in Kerala, camel cart (Rajasthan) and bullock cart, walking through forests and snow, bicycles.
Class IV Omana's Journey and From the Window: a girl's train journey from Ahmedabad to Kerala, with tunnels, bridges and changing landscape.
Class V What if it Finishes...?: petrol, diesel and kerosene come from under the ground, are limited and must be used with care.
Class III Here comes a Letter: the journey of a letter through the post, postcard and envelope; the PIN code has 6 digits and was introduced in 1972.
Class III Saying without Speaking: gestures, facial expressions, dance mudras and sign language.
Mapping order: own classroom, school and route home first, then district, state and country; a map is a top (aerial) view drawn with symbols and a key.
Class IV Pochampalli (Telangana): Vani and Prasad's weaver family dyes thread before weaving; Pochampalli ikat - threads are tied and dyed in a pattern before weaving.
Class V Walls Tell Stories: Golconda fort, Hyderabad, Qutb Shahi Sultans (1518-1687); words spoken at the Fateh Darwaza are heard at the king's palace; a map with directions and scale.
Class III Making Pots and A Beautiful Cloth: clay pots baked in a kiln; the saree and dupatta and the ways they are worn; a matka cools water by evaporation.
Class IV Defence Officer: Wahida - Lieutenant Commander Wahida Prism, a doctor in the Indian Navy, breaking the stereotype that defence jobs are for men.

Quick revision

Travel: land, water, air; fuel vs animal or human power; Going to School (bamboo bridge, trolley, vallam in Kerala); Omana's train journey Ahmedabad to Kerala; petrol and diesel are limited; communication: letter, postcard, 6-digit PIN (1972), gestures and sign language; maps: own space first, top view, symbols, key; Things We Make and Do: pottery, weaving, ikat of Pochampalli, Golconda fort; Wahida; migration and displacement; dignity of every occupation.

Practise this topic

All 8 lessons on Environmental Studies (EVS) and its Pedagogy (Paper I)