Summary
Chapter 10 of the Class 4 Mathematics NCERT textbook (Maths Mela), "Elephants, Tigers, and Leopards", uses real wildlife population data from India — elephants, tigers, and leopards across states like Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh — to teach 4-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, estimation, and number patterns. Download the PDF and explore the summary and Q&A below to master every activity in this chapter.
- NIM Game and Number Strategy — The chapter opens with a two-player NIM game where players alternately add 1 or 2 to reach a target number (like 10). Students explore which positions guarantee a win, building early logical reasoning. The game can also be played with different target numbers such as 11 or 12 to discover patterns.
- Addition Chart and Number Patterns — A full addition table (0–12) is introduced and students are asked to find patterns — how many times a number like 9 appears, whether rows or columns contain only even or odd numbers, and what happens when a 'window frame' is moved to different positions. The Reverse and Add activity asks students to add a 2-digit number to its reversed digits and discover which sums are possible.
- 4-Digit Addition and Subtraction with Wildlife Data — Real census figures ground the arithmetic: Karnataka has 6049 elephants and Kerala 3054 (total 9103); Gujarat, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh have 1355, 1131, and 1817 leopards (total 4303). Maharashtra has 444 tigers and Madhya Pradesh has 341 more. Subtraction problems use regrouping with tokens and place-value columns (Th, H, T, O).
- Estimation, Money, and Mental Maths — Students estimate answers before calculating, then check using the column method with regrouping rules (10 O = 1 T, 10 T = 1 H, 10 H = 1 Th). A Baal Mela activity has students fill deposit slips for amounts like Rs 2045, Rs 3578, and Rs 1240 using currency notes and coins, connecting addition to real-life money handling. Mental-maths shortcuts such as subtracting 100 then adding 1 are practised explicitly.
Key points & formulas
- 01Uses real wildlife census data — elephants, tigers, leopards — from Indian states to set up word problems
- 02Teaches 4-digit addition with regrouping using place-value columns (Thousands, Hundreds, Tens, Ones)
- 03Teaches 4-digit subtraction with regrouping, including borrowing across multiple columns
- 04Introduces the NIM strategy game: players add 1 or 2 each turn to reach a target number
- 05Addition chart (0–12) activities build pattern recognition and observation skills
- 06Reverse and Add activity: students add a 2-digit number to its reversed digits and find all possible sums
- 07Estimation is practised before every calculation to build number sense
- 08Money activity (Baal Mela deposit slips) applies addition to real-life currency denominations (500, 100, 50, 10, 5, 2, 1)
Frequently asked questions
01What is Chapter 10 of Class 4 Maths Mela about?
It uses endangered wildlife population data (elephants, tigers, leopards) from Indian states as real-world context to teach 4-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, estimation, number patterns in an addition chart, and the NIM strategy game.
02What is the NIM game in this chapter?
Two players take turns adding either 1 or 2 to a running total, and the player who reaches the target number (like 10) first wins. The chapter asks students to figure out which total positions guarantee a win, encouraging logical thinking.
03How many elephants are there in Karnataka and Kerala combined?
Karnataka has 6049 elephants and Kerala has 3054. Their combined total is 9103 elephants, which the chapter works out step by step using the column addition method with regrouping.
04How many leopards are there in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh combined?
Gujarat has 1355, Karnataka has 1131, and Madhya Pradesh has 1817 leopards. The three-number addition gives a total of 4303 leopards.
05How does the chapter explain regrouping in addition?
It uses the rules 10 O = 1 T, 10 T = 1 H, and 10 H = 1 Th, shown visually with token blocks in columns (Th, H, T, O), so students can see how ones regroup into tens and tens into hundreds.
06What is the Reverse and Add activity in this chapter?
Students take a 2-digit number (like 27), reverse its digits (72), and add them (99). They then list all 2-digit numbers whose reverse-sum equals a given value (like 55 or 88) and find the smallest possible 3-digit reverse-sum.
07How is subtraction with regrouping taught in this chapter?
The chapter uses Assam's 5719 elephants minus 3965 (for Meghalaya) as a worked example, showing token-block regrouping (1 H = 10 T, 1 Th = 10 H) in a place-value table before writing the standard column algorithm.
08What is the Baal Mela money activity?
Three children — Raju (Rs 2045), Rani (Rs 3578), and Roja (Rs 1240) — want to deposit money into the School Panchayat Bank. Students fill deposit slips by choosing combinations of notes (500, 100, 50, 10) and coins (5, 2, 1) that add up to each amount.
09What are the mental maths shortcuts taught in this chapter?
Students learn tricks like 'subtract 100 then add 1' to compute problems such as 8787 − 99, and compare expressions using <, =, > without full calculation by noticing which side adds or subtracts more.
10What patterns does the addition chart activity ask students to find?
Students identify how many times each number appears, check whether any row or column contains only even or odd numbers, and examine a highlighted 'window frame' of four cells to discover that row sums, column sums, and diagonal sums follow a consistent pattern.
11What wildlife facts about India does the chapter mention?
The chapter states that India is home to 3/4 of the world's tiger population and 3/5 of the Asiatic elephant population, and describes elephants, tigers, and leopards as endangered wildlife.
12What types of problems appear in the 'Let Us Do' and 'Let Us Solve' sections?
'Let Us Do' includes word problems using visitor data from Kaziranga National Park and a juice factory, plus vehicle registration problems. 'Let Us Solve' has column addition and subtraction sums, a number-puzzle with squares where neighbouring differences must be odd, and mental-maths comparison problems.
More chapters in Maths Mela
Read Chapter 10 of Maths Mela, the Class 4 Mathematics NCERT textbook (2026-27 edition), online for free: the complete chapter as published by NCERT with every diagram, solved example and exercise, with step-by-step solutions, answers and revision notes. Open the NCERT PDF above, or browse all NCERT Class 4 textbooks.
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