CBSE Class 4 EVS – Looking around – Takshila-DPS Pune- Patna-Coimbatore

AUTHOR

Dr. Gauri Kshirsagar

MBBS, DNB (DVL)

Dermatologist, Cosmetologist and Laser Surgeon

Nuleaf Skin Clinic and Hair Transplant Center, Undri, Pune

www.nuleafhair.com

The following notes are from the academic year 2022-23 of DPS Pune- Patna-Coimbatore, compiled by my twin daughters. These notes include all the important material of the chapter which can be asked in the exam, compiled from the EVS textbook, study course material books and the notes from class.

Readers, if you find these notes helpful please do write your views in the ‘comment section’ of this article and if you like me to upload any notes on any topic taught in class 4, please be free to post your replies. Subscribe to my blog for new updates, notes and posts. Have a great year and all the best.

CHAPTER 5: ANITA AND THE HONEYBEES

Important Points which can be asked as ‘Fill in the Blanks’ or ‘MCQs’:

• A project which tells extraordinary tales of ordinary girls who have changed their life by going to school. Girl star Project.
• A natural product which is obtained from insects and never gets spoilt. Honey
• The process of rearing honey bees to get honey beeswax. Apiculture.
• Food of the bees collected from the flowers. Nectar
• The best time to start bee keeping. October to December
• Honey bees are attracted to litchi flowers
• There are many litchi trees in Anita’s area.
• Bees are reared in an Apiary.
• Anita Kushwaha lives at Bochaha village in Muzzafurpur district in Bihar.
• Anita stays withher parents and two younger brothers.
• Anita studies in a college and teaches young children.
• At first Anita did not go to school because her parents did not like the idea of girls going to school.
• One of the teachers in my village explained to my parents why it is important to study.
• The teacher told them that they would not have to pay anything for my education up to Class VIII.
• The teacher said that it was the right of every child to go to school.
• Anita never got high marks but she always asked many questions.
• Anita started talking to other parents in the village about sending their daughters to school.
• Anita’s mother used to do all the house work so that I could get more time to study.
• Anita joined a course run by the government of Bee keeping. She was the only girl in her course.
• Anita wants to become a wholesaler so that she can help villagers to get the right price for honey.
• Anita cycles to her college every day. Her college is in the town, five kilometres away.
• When Anita goes to college, her mother prepares the syrup for the bees and her father looks after the bees and takes the honey out of the boxes.
• Anita and others in her village get Rs.35 for one kilogram of honey. Each box makes 12 kg honey. She has 20 boxes. She will ear Rs. 420/box and Rs. 8,400 for 20 boxes.
• Insects have six legs.
• Male bees do not have stinger.
• ANTS: Ants live and work together like honeybees. The Queen Ant lays the eggs, the soldier Ants look after and guard the ants’ nest, worker Ants are always busy looking for food and bringing it to the nest.
• Honeybees, ants, termites and wasps also live in colonies.
• A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals. Species

WORLD OF INSECTS

Insects:

1. Insects are tiny creatures that crawl as well as fly.
2. They have six legs.
3. They usually have two pairs of wings.
4. They have soft bodies with no bones.
5. Examples:  butterflies, honey bees, wasps, beetle, ant, mosquito, house fly, termites, ladybird, etc.

HONEY BEES

1. Honey bees are social insects that live in colonies in a beehive.
2. They are called social insects because they live in colonies with other individuals of the same species.
3. A beehive is made of hexagonal (six-sided) cells called combs. These combs are like small rooms, where the bees store nectar, lay eggs and raise their young ones.
4. Hives include one queen, hundreds of drones and thousands of worker bees.
5. The queen bee lays many eggs per day. A queen bee can live for about 4 to 7 years.
6. Male bees are called drones. They do not have stingers. They can live for about 90 days.
7. Worker bees make up about 99% of each colony. They are females, but they do not breed. They live for about 45 days. The worker bees maintain the hive, collect nectar from flowers, convert nectar into honey and take care of the young bees.
8. Honeybees lay their eggs from October to December. This is the best time to start bee-keeping.
9. Bees communicate with each other about food sources by performing special dances.

(When one bee finds flowers with nectar, it does a special kind of dance by which the other bees can know where the nectar is.)

	Queen Bee	Male bees (Drones)	Worker Bees (Female bees)
Number	One	Hundreds	Thousands (Make up for 99% of the colony)
Age	4  to 7 years	90 days	45 days
Important points	Lays many eggs per day.	They do not have stingers.   The male bees have no special role as workers.	They do not breed. The worker bees: Maintain the hive,Collect nectar from flowers, Convert nectar into honey and Take care of the young bees.

PRODUCTION OF HONEY:

1. Honeybees collect nectar from flowers. Worker bees need to visit over four thousand flowers to make just a table spoon of honey.
2. The worker bees store this nectar in the sacs in their stomachs known as honey stomach where the sugar is broken into simpler form.
3. When their honey stomachs are full of nectar, they go back to their hive.
4. After the bees return to their hives, they spit the nectar from their honey stomach into the honeycombs of the hive.
5. Then bees fan their wings to evaporate excess water from the nectar which is converted into a thick sweet liquid called honey.
6. Then the worker bees seal the combs with wax that they produce.

DEFINE:

1. APIARY– A place where beehives are kept is called an apiary.

• APICULTURE- The rearing of honeybees on a large scale to get honey and wax is called apiculture.

Question and Answers:

Q.1) What is a ‘Girl star’ project?

Ans) Girl Star is a project which tells extraordinary tales of ordinary girls who have changed their life by going to school.

Q.2) Why is Anita a ‘Girl star”?

Ans) ) ‘Girl Star’ is a project which tells extraordinary tales of ordinary girls who have changed their life by going to school.

Anita has been considered a Girl Star because:

1. Anita taught younger children so that she could pay her school fees.
2. After completing her schooling, she went on to study bee keeping and finally became a bee keeper.
3. She continued her higher education while earning her livelihood by bee keeping.
4. She goes around villages and talks about how important it is for everyone to study.

Q.3) Write the important features of honeybees.

Ans) The important features of honeybees are:

1. Honey bees are social insects that live in colonies in a beehive.
2. Hives include one queen, hundreds of drones and thousands of worker bees.
3. The queen bee lays many eggs per day. A queen bee can live for about 4 to 7 years.
4. Male bees are called drones. They do not have stingers. They can live for about 90 days.
5. Worker bees make up about 99% of each colony.
6. Honeybees lay their eggs from October to December. This is the best time to start bee-keeping.
7. Bees communicate with each other about food sources by performing special dances.

Q.4) Explain the role of worker bees in a hive.

Ans)

1. Worker bees make up about 99% of each colony.
2. They are females, but they do not breed.
3. They live for about 45 days.
4. The worker bees maintain the hive, collect nectar from flowers, convert nectar into honey and take care of the young bees.

Q.5) How did Anita help the villages?/ Why do sometimes people make fun of her?

Ans) Anita helped the villagers by going around villages, attending meetings and talking about how important it is to study.

Q,6) Why do honeybees store nectar in their stomach?

Ans) The worker bees store this nectar in the sacs in their stomachs known as honey stomach where the sugar is broken into simpler form.  When their honey stomachs are full of nectar, they go back to their hive.

Q.7) Write two products obtained from beehive.

Ans) Honey and Bee wax

Q.8) GIVE REASONS

A) From October to December is the best time to start beekeeping. Why?

Ans) Honeybees lay their eggs from October to December. In less time we can have more honeybees to collect nectar to make honey. So this is the best time to start bee-keeping.

B) Anita wants to be a wholesaler. Why?

Ans) Anita wants to become a wholesaler because:

1. She can help the villagers in beekeeping  and increase honey production.
2. She can help the villagers to get the right price for honey.

C) It is said that ‘there is no hive and no nectar without worker bees.’

Ans) Worker bees make up about 99% of each colony.

The worker bees maintain the hive, collect nectar from flowers, convert nectar into honey and take care of the young bees. So without worker bees there will be neither hives nor any nectar collection.

D) Honey is natures’ gift to mankind.

1. Ans) Honey is a precious gift of nature to mankind as it is full of vitamins, minerals and has many medicinal values.  It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicines to cure common cold, throat infections and other diseases.

Q.9) What are social insects? Give examples.

Ans)Insects which live in colonies with other individuals of the same species are called social insects. Example Honeybees, ants, termites and wasps

Q. 10) How are honeybees useful to us?

We get important products like the Honey and the Bee Wax from the beehives of honey bees:

A.) HONEY –

• Honey is a precious gift of nature to mankind as it is full of vitamins, minerals and has many medicinal values.
• It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicines to cure common cold, throat infections and other diseases.
• Honey is used to garnish ice-creams, puddings, cakes, beverages and other desserts.

B.) BEESWAX-

1. We also obtain beeswax from beehives.
2. Beeswax is used for making sealing wax, polish and varnish.
3. It is also used to make cosmetics and ointments.
4. Varnish provides a protective coating for wooden surfaces, paintings and various decorative objects.

ONLY READ:

Q) Why did Anita cry at night?

Ans) One day Anita peeped into the school in her village and silently went and sat down behind the children. She felt so happy. She went home and picked up courage to talk to her parents about going to school. But they told her clearly that she could not do so. Hence that day she cried and cried.

Q) How did Anita continue to study after class V?

Ans) Anita’s parents said that it was time for her to leave school as they would need to spend more in Class VI. Anita started to teach younger children and from the money that she got, she was able to continue her studies.

Q) Why did the children return to Anita, even though they were scared of the older boys?

Ans) Some older boys in Anita’s village used to teach young children and they did not like it when she started teaching. They started to scold and scare the children, so that they would not come to Anita. For some time, all the children except two, stopped coming to me. But soon they all came back because Anita used to teach them with love and care.

Q) What is RTE-Act 2009?

Ans) RTE-Act 2009 provides the right of free and compulsory education to each child aged 6 to 14 years.

Q) What was Anita’s secret?

Ans) Anita learnt how to ride a motorcycle. She did not tell anyone. She fell down and got hurt many times, but she was happy. This was her secret.

Q) How did Anita become a bee keeper?

Ans)

1. When Anita completed her bee-keeping course she did not have money to keep her own bees and start work hence, she continued to teach to earn money.
2. When she collected Rs.5000, she bought two boxes for keeping bees. Each box costs Rs.2000. With the remaining money, she bought sugar to make the syrup for honeybees, and medicines to clean the beehives.
3. By December, she had so many bees that she had to buy two more boxes.
4. Many times, the bees would sting her and her hands and face would get swollen. It would pain a lot.
5. When litchi trees came to flower in February, Anita put all her four boxes near the litchi orchards. She got 12 kilograms of honey from each box. She sold this honey in the market. This was her first earning from her bees. Now she has 20 boxes.

Q) The worker bees are very important for the hive.

Ans) The worker bees maintain the hive, collect nectar from flowers, convert nectar into honey and take care of the young bees. Without worker-bees there would be neither hive nor any nectar collection. All bees in the hive would go hungry. Hence, the worker bees are very important for the hive.

---

Thanks a lot for visiting my blog. Please do ‘★ LIKE’ the post if you found it to be useful. Your comments, suggestions, criticism and all opinions are very much appreciated. Please do write your queries in the Reply/comments section and I will try to get back to you asap.

All the content on this blog is copyrighted. It takes immense research, hard work, patience and time to come up with a comprehensive article/post. If you like and need to use any of my article(s) or any part of it, please do give the requisite reference, link or credit to my website/blog . DO NOT COPY WITHOUT PERMISSION.