Finding the Furry Cat! – Class 1 Maths Chapter 1 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 1MathematicsChapter 1NCERT book: Joyful Mathematics - Class 1

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 1 of the NCERT Class 1 Mathematics book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 1: Finding the Furry Cat!

Introduction

The first chapter of Joyful Mathematics begins with a song, not with numbers. Children help a child look for a "furry cat" that keeps hiding in different places. While singing and acting, they learn the words we use to say where something is: inside, outside, on, under, above, below, top, bottom, before, after, near and far. These position words are the base for later maths ideas such as shapes, maps and the number line.

What's in this Chapter

Poem – "Looking, looking, looking… Looking for my furry cat!" The child asks: "Are you sleeping under my bed? Are you sitting on the window shed? Are you outside the red rack? Are you inside the backpack?" Later the cat is seen "scratching the bottom of my jar", "playing at the top of my car", "hiding below the mat" and "hopping above the hat".

Encircle the correct word: for example, "The red ball is above/under/on the bed" and "The cow is inside/top of/outside the house".

Think and Answer: Where do you put your shoes – inside or outside the room? Where do you throw garbage – inside or outside the dustbin?

Games: Find the Things (one team hides chalk or a red ball and gives clues like "near the board and under the table") and Throw the Ball! (children call out IN or OUT).

Our National Flag (tiranga): saffron is at the top, white is in the middle, green is at the bottom, and the Ashoka Chakra is in the middle.

Poem – "Chhuk Chhuk goes our Train!" "Bogies before my bogie, bogies after my bogie, make a chain." Children count bogies before and after the red bogie and then play a train game: "No one is before me and Meera is after me."

Sorting: Suwali puts all pebbles together, and leaves and chalk pieces in separate groups. She sorts buttons into three groups, and children find other ways to sort them.

Key Ideas

Position words tell us where a thing is compared to another thing.

Pairs of opposite words help: inside/outside, above/below, on/under, top/bottom, before/after, near/far.

In a line (like a train), every bogie has some bogies before it and some after it.

We can sort objects into groups by colour, size, shape or number of holes, and the same objects can be sorted in more than one way.

Activities from the Book

Sing and act out the furry cat poem.

Tick things that are inside, and things that are outside.

Draw a smile below the nose and eyebrows above the eyes.

Colour the bogies after the red bogie orange and the bogies before it blue.

Project: arrange the class cupboard using position words, such as "two objects in the bottom rack, one object in the top rack".

Words to Learn

inside – within something (अंदर)

outside – not within (बाहर)

above – higher than (ऊपर)

below – lower than (नीचे)

on – resting on the top surface (पर)

under – beneath something (के नीचे)

top / bottom – highest part / lowest part (सबसे ऊपर / सबसे नीचे)

before / after – in front of / behind in a line (पहले / बाद में)

near / far – close to / a long way from (पास / दूर)

sort – put similar things together (छाँटना)

Tips for Parents & Teachers

Play "Where is it?" at home: hide a toy and give clues only with position words.

While tidying up, ask the child to put shoes under the bed and books on the shelf.

Make a train with chairs or with children in a line and ask who is before and after each child.

Give a mixed handful of buttons, seeds or leaves and ask, "How else can you sort them?"

As the book suggests, include every child – for example, tie a ghungroo to the ball so a child who cannot see well can hear IN or OUT.

Common Mistakes

Mixing up on and above (a cat on the hat touches it; a cat hopping above the hat does not).

Thinking "before" and "after" depend on left and right; they depend on the direction the train or line is moving.

Believing there is only one right way to sort a group.

💡 Key Learning Points

✓Use position words such as inside, outside, on, under, above, below, top and bottom correctly.
✓Say which objects come before and after a given object in a line.
✓Describe where things are using pairs of opposite words like near/far.
✓Sort objects into groups and explain the rule used for sorting.
✓Name the order of colours on the National Flag using top, middle and bottom.

👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

→Begin with the furry cat poem; let children act it out by hiding a soft toy in the places named.
→Use the Find the Things game with verbal clues built from two position words.
→Play Throw the Ball! and let the class call IN or OUT together.
→Form a human train while singing 'Chhuk Chhuk' and ask each child who is before and after them.
→Bring a real or paper tiranga and ask position questions about its colours.
→Give sorting trays with buttons, seeds and leaves; accept different sorting rules if children explain them.
→Adapt games for children with different abilities, as the book suggests (e.g., sound cues on the ball).

📋 Assessment Questions

Can the child follow a two-step instruction like 'Put the pencil inside the box and the box on the table'?
Can the child tell which bogies are before and after a given bogie?
Can the child name the colour at the top, middle and bottom of the tiranga?
Can the child sort a mixed set of objects and explain the rule?
Can the child describe where things are in a picture using at least four position words?

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Next: Chapter 2 →What is Long? What is Round?