Chapter 4 — One Thing at a Time

Chapter 4 of the Class 4 English NCERT textbook (Santoor), "One Thing at a Time", presents a motivational poem that teaches children the value of focus, effort, and not wasting time — with follow-up activities covering comprehension, vocabulary, grammar (is/are + action words), a silent-letter listening exercise, daily-routine writing, and fun riddles. Download the PDF and read a summary and Q&A below.

• The Poem: One Thing at a Time — The chapter centres on a short four-stanza poem that urges children to work wholeheartedly when working and play wholeheartedly when playing. Its core message is that doing things by halves means they are never done right, and that moments should never be wasted. Rhyming pairs such as play/day, might/right, and well/tell make the poem easy to memorise and recite.
• Grammar — Present Continuous (is/are + action word) — The 'Let us Speak' section introduces the present-continuous sentence structure using a picture description activity. Students practise sentences like 'Two girls are going to school' and 'A woman is typing on a computer', then write at least seven sentences of their own following the Who + is/are + Doing What pattern.
• Silent Letter 'l' — Listening Activity — The 'Let us Listen' section focuses on the silent 'l' sound. Students read lines from the poem aloud and then circle words from a given list — such as calm, palm, chalk, talk, and calf — where the 'l' is not pronounced, building phonics awareness through careful listening.
• Writing My Routine — The 'Let us Write' activity asks students to record their daily routine in a table, marking each activity as work or play, and then expand it into a structured paragraph covering morning, school, and after-school time. Teachers are guided to explain a.m. and p.m. as part of this exercise.

1. 01The chapter is built around the poem 'One Thing at a Time' which has four stanzas and appears in Unit 2: My Beautiful World of the Santoor Grade 4 book.
2. 02The poem's central rule is: do one thing at a time, and do it well — things done by halves are never done right.
3. 03Rhyming words in the poem include work/work, play/day, might/right, and well/tell.
4. 04Vocabulary words taught: might (strength or power), useful (helpful or beneficial), moments (short periods of time).
5. 05Grammar focus: present-continuous tense using the structure Who + is/are + action word + -ing, practised through a picture-description activity.
6. 06Phonics activity: identifying words where the letter 'l' is silent, such as calm, palm, chalk, talk, calf, and balm.
7. 07Writing activity: students write their daily routine as a structured paragraph with morning, school, and home sections, learning to use a.m. and p.m.
8. 08The chapter ends with three riddles for students to solve and a drawing/collage activity about holiday activities.