Natural Materials Notes & Questions | Class 3 Environmental Studies (EVS) | Drishti OS

Natural Materials

What you'll learn

Natural materials come directly from nature — plants, animals, or the earth.
Wood comes from trees; cotton comes from the cotton plant.
Wool comes from sheep; leather comes from animal hide.
Stone and clay are natural materials found in the ground.

Key concepts

Level 1 — Core idea

Verbal: A wooden chair, a cotton shirt, and a woollen sweater are all made from materials that come straight from nature.

Symbolic: Natural material = comes from plant, animal, or earth (no factory needed to create it).

Visual: A sheep gives wool, a cotton plant gives cotton, a tree gives wood — nature provides these materials.

Level 2 — Going deeper

Natural materials existed before people made anything — we simply collect and shape them (cutting wood, shearing wool, digging clay).

NCERT anchor

NCERT Looking Around 3 — materials from plants and animals used at home.

Worked example

Where does wool come from?

Step 1 — Sheep grow a thick coat of wool.
Step 2 — This wool is sheared (cut) and used to make clothes.
Answer: **Wool comes from sheep** — a natural material.

Is clay a natural or man-made material?

Step 1 — Clay is dug directly from the earth.
Step 2 — No factory is needed to create clay itself.
Answer: **Natural material.**

Common mistakes

Mistake	Why	Fix
Wool comes from cotton plants	Mixing up plant and animal sources	Wool comes from sheep (animal); cotton comes from a plant
All materials are man-made	Not knowing about natural sources	Many materials like wood, cotton, wool come from nature
Wood is made in factories	Confusing raw material with furniture	Wood comes from trees; factories only shape it
Stone is a factory product	Assuming all hard materials are manufactured	Stone is dug from the earth — a natural material

Quick check

Name two natural materials.
Where does cotton come from?
Where does wool come from?
Stretch: Is leather natural or man-made? Why?

Revision tip: Ask: "Did this come straight from a plant, animal, or the earth?" If yes, it is natural.

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Natural Materials.

Natural Materials