The NCERT Class 5 Santoor book is the official English textbook for Class 5, and this page gives you both things at once: the official chapter PDFs from ncert.nic.in, and a chapter-by-chapter look at what is actually inside the book.
Santoor runs 10 chapters across 140 printed pages, and every chapter follows the same activity-based plan built around NCERT’s “Let us” headings — Recite or Read, Think, Learn, Speak, Listen, Write and Do.
The chapter table below hands the files over first: one official PDF per chapter, all hosted on ncert.nic.in. After that, the chapter directory shows what each chapter teaches and where its exercises sit, so you can find the chapter for prepositions, adverbs, rainbow colours or the Tagore poem before you download anything.
All the PDFs in the table below are NCERT’s own files, hosted on the official NCERT textbook portal at ncert.nic.in — the same source your school’s copy comes from, and free for every student.
If you want to confirm the format before downloading, open the official PDF of Chapter 1, Papa’s Spectacles, straight from NCERT’s site; every other chapter file in the table follows the same official pattern.
| Ch. | Chapter | Pages | Official PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Papa's Spectacles | 10 | |
| 2 | Gone with the Scooter | 16 | |
| 3 | The Rainbow | 14 | |
| 4 | The Wise Parrot | 14 | |
| 5 | The Frog | 10 | |
| 6 | What a Tank! | 14 | |
| 7 | Gilli Danda | 12 | |
| 8 | The Decision of the Panchayat | 14 | |
| 9 | Vocation | 14 | |
| 10 | Glass Bangles | 22 |
The Class 5 English book PDF, measured
The tables on this page are built from the book itself, so every number below can be checked against the official PDFs. The short version:
- 10 chapters, 140 printed pages. Chapter lengths run from 10 pages (Papa’s Spectacles and The Frog) to 22 pages (Glass Bangles, the longest chapter).
- 9 hands-on activities across the volume; every chapter except Chapter 6 (“What a Tank!”) sets one.
- Only one chapter closes with a full exercise set — Chapter 8, with 7 end-of-chapter questions. The other nine chapters carry their questions inside the Let us Think sections.
- All chapters share the same “Let us” sequence — a chapter moves from Recite or Read, through New Words and Think, to Learn, Speak, Listen, Write or Do.
- Illustrations are printed without captions, so a figure index is not published for this book; the text carries the teaching.
- Each chapter’s own study page is listed further down, with its current status.
| Opening heading | Chapters | What comes after |
|---|---|---|
| Let us Recite | 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 | New Words, Let us Think, Let us Learn, then speaking and listening work |
| Let us Read | 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 | New Words, Let us Think, Let us Learn, then listen, speak, write or do tasks |
The split is exactly even — five chapters open each way — so the first heading tells you at a glance whether a chapter starts with recitation or with reading a story.
What is inside the NCERT Class 5 Santoor book
| Ch. | Chapter | Sections | Activities | Figures | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Papa's Spectacles | — | 1 | — | — |
| 2 | Gone with the Scooter | — | 1 | — | — |
| 3 | The Rainbow | — | 1 | — | — |
| 4 | The Wise Parrot | — | 1 | — | — |
| 5 | The Frog | — | 1 | — | — |
| 6 | What a Tank! | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | Gilli Danda | — | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | The Decision of the Panchayat | — | 1 | — | 7 |
| 9 | Vocation | — | 1 | — | — |
| 10 | Glass Bangles | — | 1 | — | — |
The directory above counts what the book itself prints. For Santoor, a “section” means a numbered heading, and the book has none: its chapters are organised by the named “Let us” activity headings instead. “Activities” counts the hands-on tasks NCERT sets (9 in the book), and “questions” counts the end-of-chapter exercises, which appear in one chapter only (7 in Chapter 8).
The figure column stays empty for every chapter: the illustrations are printed without captions, so there is no figure index to publish. The short profile under each chapter below names what the teaching actually centres on.
Chapter 1: Papa’s Spectacles (10 pages)
Papa’s Spectacles opens with a recitation piece and builds the chapter from there — new vocabulary, comprehension questions and a preposition completion task — which makes it the gentlest entry point when a Class 5 reader starts the book.
Chapter 2: Gone with the Scooter (16 pages)
Gone with the Scooter is a story chapter whose grammar work concentrates on adverbs — students match words, read model sentences and encircle the adverbs in new sentences — alongside comprehension questions and a listening task.
Chapter 3: The Rainbow (14 pages)
The Rainbow is a poem chapter that ends with the VIBGYOR colour-order task as a writing-and-discussion exercise, supported by new words, think-and-discuss questions and a listening task before students write about the rainbow.
Chapter 4: The Wise Parrot (14 pages)
The Wise Parrot is a story chapter that adds Let us Do and Let us Explore tasks to the usual reading, learn, speak and write sequence, and it is the first chapter to close with a self-assessment checkpoint (“Self-assessment 1”).
Chapter 5: The Frog (10 pages)
The Frog is one of the shortest chapters, a poem that runs the standard recite, think, learn, speak and listen sequence, and then hands the topic to the student in a closing section called My Frog’s World.
Chapter 6: What a Tank! (14 pages)
What a Tank! is the only chapter without a hands-on activity; its work sits in comprehension, a group discussion (“Sit in groups of three and discuss”) and a listening task, and it closes with the supplementary reading piece A Day without Water.
Chapter 7: Gilli Danda (12 pages)
Gilli Danda is a recitation-led chapter and the first verse chapter to include both a Let us Write task and a Let us Do activity after the standard think-and-learn work.
Chapter 8: The Decision of the Panchayat (14 pages)
The Decision of the Panchayat is the book’s only chapter with a full closing exercise set — 7 end-of-chapter questions — and it also prints two extra reading pieces, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and The Neem Tree.
Chapter 9: Vocation (14 pages)
Vocation is Rabindranath Tagore’s poem about a child watching a hawker, watchman and gardener, and its tasks build listening and speaking practice — listen-and-repeat and listen-and-speak — around the usual comprehension questions.
Chapter 10: Glass Bangles (22 pages)
Glass Bangles is the longest chapter at 22 pages, a story that spreads its work across the full sequence — reading, new words, think, learn, speak, listen, write and do — making it the most complete single lesson in the volume.
Santoor chapter study pages
Each chapter of the Class 5 English book gets its own study page as it becomes available; the list below shows the current status of all 10 chapters.
| Ch. | Chapter page |
|---|---|
| 1 | Papa's Spectacles |
| 2 | Gone with the Scooter (coming soon) |
| 3 | The Rainbow (coming soon) |
| 4 | The Wise Parrot (coming soon) |
| 5 | The Frog (coming soon) |
| 6 | What a Tank! (coming soon) |
| 7 | Gilli Danda (coming soon) |
| 8 | The Decision of the Panchayat (coming soon) |
| 9 | Vocation (coming soon) |
| 10 | Glass Bangles (coming soon) |
How to use the Class 5 English book (Santoor)
For a Class 5 reader, the book is designed to be worked in its own order. A simple routine that fits every chapter:
- Read the text aloud twice — once for the gist, once slowly. For chapters that open with Let us Recite (1, 3, 5, 7, 9), practise the poem aloud; for those that open with Let us Read, take the story in a calm sitting.
- Learn the New Words list before answering anything — the questions assume it.
- Answer the Let us Think questions, usually part A (“Answer the following questions”) followed by a think-and-discuss.
- Do the Let us Learn grammar task straight after — that is where the chapter’s language work lives.
- Use Let us Listen and Let us Speak as spoken practice, then finish with Let us Write or Let us Do where present.
Two grammar points sit in very different chapters, so they are worth planning around:
| Chapter | Language focus | Where it is handled |
|---|---|---|
| Papa’s Spectacles | Prepositions | Let us Learn — “Complete the story using the correct prepositions” |
| Gone with the Scooter | Adverbs | Let us Learn — matching task, sentence reading, “encircle the adverbs” |
| The Rainbow | Colour names and their order | Let us Write — VIBGYOR, the colours of the rainbow |
If you are helping a younger reader, stop after Let us Think on the first sitting; the Learn, Speak and Write sections work better fresh the next day.
Related NCERT book pages
This page is part of the NCERT English section on this site. You can browse the Class 5 NCERT books hub for the other Class 5 textbooks, or go back to the complete NCERT books directory to find any class and subject. The Class 5 English hub collects every page for this subject, including the chapter study pages listed above.
Sources and data verification
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
The chapter titles, page lengths, activity counts and question counts on this page describe the NCERT Class 5 English textbook Santoor as published on ncert.nic.in (chapter files eesa101–eesa110). The page covers only this book — it does not index other Class 5 textbooks or the full CBSE curriculum for Class 5.
This listing is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT is the authority for the textbook, its editions and the official PDFs; CBSE is the authority for the curriculum and examinations. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical, so check the current official syllabus for exam-level decisions.
Reference: NCERT Class 5 English textbook (Santoor), official edition on ncert.nic.in. Chapter titles are quoted from the textbook; all PDF links point to NCERT’s own official files.
Frequently asked questions about the Santoor book
How many chapters are there in the NCERT Class 5 Santoor book?
There are 10 chapters, from Papa’s Spectacles to Glass Bangles, running across 140 printed pages in the official PDFs. Every chapter follows the same “Let us” activity sequence.
What is the NCERT Class 5 English book called now, and is it still Marigold?
The current NCERT Class 5 English book is called Santoor, not Marigold. Its official chapter PDFs carry the file names eesa101.pdf to eesa110.pdf on ncert.nic.in. Santoor is the title in NCERT’s current textbook listing; this page covers that edition.
Which chapter of Santoor has the poem about a child who wants to be a hawker, watchman and gardener?
That is Chapter 9, Vocation, by Rabindranath Tagore. The chapter builds listening and speaking practice around the poem.
Where can I download the official Class 5 English book PDF for free?
NCERT publishes every chapter free on its official site, ncert.nic.in. Use the chapter table at the top of this page, which links to the official PDF of each of the 10 chapters.
Which chapter of the Class 5 Santoor book teaches adverbs and prepositions?
Adverbs are taught in Chapter 2, Gone with the Scooter, where students read sentences and encircle the adverbs. Prepositions come in Chapter 1, Papa’s Spectacles, through a story-completion task in Let us Learn.