Bihar Board Class 1 Books – Download BSEB Class 1 Textbooks for All Subjects

Every long journey has a first step. In the world of Bihar Board education — a world that stretches all the way from a child's first day of school to the Matric examination hall more than a decade later — that first step is Class 1.

Think about what Class 1 actually means. A child walks through a school gate, probably for the first time in their life, carrying a small bag and wearing a uniform that still smells new. Everything around them is unfamiliar — the sounds of other children, the smell of chalk, the feeling of sitting in a row and being expected to pay attention. And then someone puts a book in front of them. A small book, with pictures and letters and numbers. And the most important education of their entire life quietly begins.

This page exists to make sure that every Class 1 child in Bihar — whether they are in a well-resourced school in Patna or a small village school in Supaul or Banka — has access to the right books. Every Bihar Board Class 1 book is listed here, subject by subject, with direct download links, completely free.

Before going further, one note for families thinking ahead: if you are looking for Bihar Board Class 2 books, those are available on our dedicated Class 2 page on this website. Every download link on this page opens a BSEB Class 1 textbook — that is the sole focus here, and that is exactly what you will find.

The First Chapter of a Child's Academic Life

There is a phrase that education researchers use — the Matthew Effect — which comes from the biblical idea that those who have more will gain more. In the context of reading, it means this: children who learn to read well in the early years read more, and because they read more, they get better at reading faster than children who struggled early on. The gap between early strong readers and early struggling readers does not close naturally over time. It widens.

Class 1 is where that gap either begins to form or is prevented from forming.

A child who finishes Class 1 able to read simple Hindi sentences — who can look at the words in their Prathamic Kaksha ki pustaken and understand what they mean — carries a fundamental advantage into Class 2 and Class 3. A child who finishes Class 1 still struggling to connect letters into words carries a difficulty that will show up again and again through primary school and into the upper primary years.

The same principle applies to Mathematics. A child who genuinely understands what numbers mean in Class 1 — not just how to write them but what they represent, how they relate to each other, how you can add two groups of things together — has a mathematical foundation that supports everything from Class 2 addition all the way to Class 10 algebra. A child who memorises numerals without understanding them is standing on sand.

This is not meant to alarm parents of Class 1 children. It is meant to explain why the BSEB Class 1 textbooks on this page deserve to be taken seriously — genuinely used, genuinely studied, and genuinely supported at home — even though they look simple and small and unthreatening.

They are the most important books your child will ever open.

How Bihar SCERT Designs Books for the Very Youngest Learners

Designing a textbook for a six year old is genuinely difficult. The book must be engaging enough to hold the attention of a child who has never sat in a formal classroom before, simple enough that a child with no prior literacy can begin to access it, educationally sound enough to actually build the skills it is supposed to build, and culturally grounded enough that children across Bihar's enormous diversity of communities and backgrounds can see themselves in it.

The Bihar Board Class 1 books are developed by Bihar SCERT — the State Council of Educational Research and Training — which brings together curriculum specialists, primary education experts, and practising teachers from across Bihar to design textbooks that meet all of these requirements simultaneously. The process is careful and iterative, and the result is a set of books that — when used properly — genuinely work.

The Bal Bharati Class 1 Hindi book, the Rainbow English series, and the Ganit Mathematics textbook are all products of this process. They are not perfect — no textbook is — but they are thoughtfully made, curriculum-aligned resources that have been developed specifically for the learning needs and life contexts of Bihar's youngest school students.

This matters practically for families because it means the BSEB Class 1 textbooks available on this page are the only study material a Class 1 child needs. School examinations at Class 1 level are set entirely from within these prescribed books. Market guides and workbooks may provide extra practice if a family wishes, but they are supplementary — the official Bihar Board books are the foundation, and the foundation is enough.

The World Inside a Class 1 Bihar Board Curriculum

The Bihar Board Class 1 curriculum covers four subject areas — Hindi, English, Mathematics, and Environmental Studies — along with a third language for students offering Sanskrit, Urdu, or Maithili. Every child in every Bihar Board school across the state studies this same curriculum. The uniformity is one of Bihar Board's great equalisers — a child in a rural school in Araria and a child in an urban school in Bhagalpur open the exact same books on the first day of school.

Hindi at Class 1 is the subject that carries the heaviest foundational responsibility. The Bal Bharati Class 1 Hindi book — the primary Hindi textbook in the Bihar Board series — introduces children to the Hindi alphabet, the formation of simple words, the reading of basic sentences, and the earliest concepts of Hindi grammar. For most Bihar Board Class 1 students, Hindi is not a foreign language — it is the language of their home, their family, and their neighbourhood. The Class 1 Hindi textbook takes that existing spoken familiarity and gives it a written form, which is one of the most significant cognitive achievements of early childhood.

English at Class 1 is the second language, and the approach at this level is deliberately gentle. Children are not expected to achieve fluency or even basic conversational ability. They are expected to become familiar — to recognise the letters of the English alphabet, to understand and use a small vocabulary of common English words, to follow simple instructions in English, and to have a first, comfortable encounter with a language that will gradually become more demanding through Classes 2, 3, and beyond.

Mathematics at Class 1 covers numbers from one to one hundred, the concepts of more and less, basic addition and subtraction using small numbers, simple shapes, measurement concepts using non-standard units, patterns, and the very beginnings of data reading. What matters most at Class 1 Maths level is not the speed of calculation — it is the depth of number sense. A child who understands what seven means, who can visualise seven objects, who knows that seven is more than six and less than eight and can explain why, has a mathematical foundation that carries forward powerfully.

Environmental Studies at Class 1 — the Aas Paas or Parivesh book — introduces children to the world they already live in but have not yet been asked to think about formally. The themes are immediate and personal — family, food, home, plants, animals, water, and the neighbourhood. At Class 1, EVS is not a separate academic subject so much as it is an invitation to notice the world and begin to ask questions about it.

Opening Each Book — A Detailed Look at What Every BSEB Class 1 Textbook Contains

A parent who understands what is inside their child's textbook is a parent who can actually support their child's learning. Here is a genuine, chapter-level look at each major Bihar Board Class 1 book — what it covers, why it is structured the way it is, and what families should focus on most.

Hindi — Bal Bharati Class 1

The Bal Bharati Class 1 book is the starting point of every Bihar Board student's formal Hindi literacy journey, and it carries that responsibility with a warmth and care that is evident from the very first page. The book begins exactly where a Class 1 child is — with the sounds and shapes of the Hindi alphabet — and moves steadily and gently toward reading simple words, then short sentences, then brief passages.

The prose lessons in Bal Bharati Class 1 are built around themes that six year old children in Bihar immediately recognise. There are stories about animals — the cow in the yard, the birds on the roof, the dog that follows children to school. There are poems about rain and sunshine and the changing seasons. There are short narratives about family — a grandmother teaching a grandchild, a father coming home from the fields, a mother cooking in the early morning. These are not random themes. They are chosen because they are the themes of childhood in Bihar, and children learn most powerfully from what they already know and love.

The illustrated pages of the Bal Bharati Class 1 book deserve special mention. At Class 1 level, illustrations are not decoration — they are a core part of how young children access written content. A child who cannot yet read a word independently can still understand the meaning of a page through its pictures, and that picture-meaning connection is what bridges a child toward actual reading. Parents who read the Bal Bharati book with their child and talk about the pictures before tackling the words are using exactly the approach that research on early literacy consistently recommends.

The grammar and writing sections of Bal Bharati Class 1 are introductory and gentle. Children learn to write the letters of the Hindi alphabet in the correct form, to connect letters into simple words, to copy short sentences, and eventually to write their own name and a few simple words independently. These are the first steps toward the written expression that Bihar Board examinations will eventually require, and they deserve to be taken slowly and carefully.

English — Rainbow Part 1

Rainbow Part 1 is the beginning of the Rainbow English series that Bihar Board students will follow through to Class 8, and at Class 1 level it is designed with remarkable sensitivity to the fact that most of its readers are encountering English as a genuinely foreign language for the first time.

The book opens with the English alphabet — presented through pictures, simple words, and sounds — and moves through a carefully sequenced set of lessons that introduce basic vocabulary around colours, numbers, animals, body parts, classroom objects, family members, and daily actions. The reading passages are minimal at this stage — a sentence or two beneath a picture — and the comprehension activities are picture-based, matching activities, and simple fill-in-the-blank exercises.

What makes Rainbow Part 1 work well for Bihar Board Class 1 students is its patience. The book does not rush. Each concept is introduced, practised, and consolidated before the next one appears. A child who works through Rainbow Part 1 consistently and completely by the end of Class 1 will not be fluent in English — but they will be comfortable, unafraid, and genuinely ready for Rainbow Part 2 in Class 2. That comfort and readiness is exactly what the book is designed to produce, and it is the right goal for this stage.

Mathematics — Ganit Class 1

The Class 1 Ganit book is where a child's relationship with Mathematics begins, and that relationship — whether it becomes one of confidence and curiosity or one of anxiety and avoidance — is shaped significantly by what happens in this first year.

The Ganit book for Class 1 covers numbers from one to fifty in the first half of the year, extending to one hundred in the second half. It introduces the concepts of more and less, bigger and smaller, before and after, between and among — all of the comparative language that mathematical thinking depends on. It covers addition and subtraction of single-digit numbers, and introduces the concept of tens and ones as a preparation for the two-digit arithmetic of Class 2. It covers basic shapes — circles, squares, triangles, rectangles — and asks children to identify them in everyday objects. It introduces measurement concepts through comparison — longer and shorter, heavier and lighter, more and less — using familiar objects rather than standard units.

Throughout all of this, the BSEB Class 1 textbook for Maths uses pictures, stories, and activities rather than abstract number drills. A chapter on addition might begin with a picture of a child's lunch box — three chapatis and two pieces of fruit — and ask how many things are in the box altogether. A chapter on shapes might begin with a picture of a classroom and ask children to find all the rectangles they can see. This contextualised approach is not just more engaging for six year olds — it is more educationally effective, because it connects abstract mathematical concepts to the concrete world where children actually live.

For parents wanting to support Class 1 Maths at home, the single most powerful thing you can do is make numbers part of everyday conversation. Count the steps from the door to the kitchen. Ask how many people are eating dinner tonight. Wonder aloud whether there are more mangoes or more bananas in the bowl. These small, casual numerical conversations are the real-world counterpart to the Ganit book, and together they build a child's number sense more effectively than any amount of worksheet drilling.

Environmental Studies — Aas Paas Class 1

The EVS book for Class 1 — Aas Paas — is the subject that sits closest to a young child's heart, because it is literally about their world. The chapters cover family and who belongs to it, food and where it comes from, the home we live in and the different kinds of homes that exist, the plants and animals that share our environment, water and how we use it, our neighbourhood and the people in it, and the natural world of seasons, sky, and weather.

For a Class 1 child in Bihar — in a family that grows its own vegetables, that has a cow or goat in the yard, that fetches water from a hand pump, that participates in agricultural seasons and community festivals — the Aas Paas book is not introducing unfamiliar content. It is asking them to look carefully at what is already around them and begin to understand it. That is one of the most powerful educational experiences available to a young child, and the Bihar Board Class 1 EVS curriculum is designed to provide it.

The activities in Aas Paas Class 1 are genuinely designed to be done at home and in the community as much as in the classroom. Observe the plants in your courtyard. Ask your grandmother how food is cooked. Watch the rain falling and think about where it goes. Draw your house and the houses of your neighbours. These activities transform the EVS book from a subject to be memorised into an experience of genuine discovery, which is how six year olds learn best and remember longest.

Sanskrit — Class 1 Textbook

The Sanskrit textbook for Class 1 is the gentlest possible beginning to one of the world's oldest languages. At this stage, children learn to recognise and write Sanskrit in Devanagari script, to understand the meaning of very simple and commonly heard Sanskrit words and phrases, and to recite one or two short shlokas with their meanings explained in simple language. Nothing about the Class 1 Sanskrit experience is demanding or overwhelming. The goal is simply to make Sanskrit feel familiar — like something that has always been around, something that belongs — so that when it becomes more formally academic in Classes 5, 6, and 7, it does not feel like meeting a stranger.

Urdu and Maithili — Class 1 Textbooks

For students offering Urdu or Maithili, the Class 1 textbooks in these languages follow the same warm, picture-rich, gently progressive approach of the other primary language books. The focus is on script recognition, basic vocabulary, simple poems and songs from each language's rich oral tradition, and the very earliest writing exercises. Both books are designed for children who may have grown up hearing these languages at home, and they build on that oral familiarity to introduce the written form in a way that feels natural and achievable.

What Parents Can Do Every Single Day — Supporting Class 1 Learning at Home

The research on early childhood learning is consistent on one point above all others: parental involvement in the early years of schooling has a larger impact on a child's academic outcomes than almost any other factor. This is particularly true at Class 1 level, where children are still deeply connected to their home environment and where the boundaries between home learning and school learning are naturally blurred.

Supporting your Class 1 child's learning from their Prathamic Kaksha ki pustaken does not require you to be an educated person. It does not require you to have passed Class 10 or Class 12. It requires only that you show up — that you sit with your child for a short time each day and demonstrate, through your presence and attention, that what happens in their books matters to you.

Read the Bal Bharati Class 1 Hindi book aloud with your child. Take turns. Let them point to words as you read them. When they recognise a word independently — when they see a word they have seen before and call it out before you do — celebrate that moment. For a six year old learning to read, recognition is the entire battle, and every word recognised is a small victory worth marking.

For Mathematics, bring the Ganit book into daily life. When you are cooking, ask your child to count the vegetables. When you are buying things at the market, let your child handle the coins. When you are walking somewhere, ask them to count the steps or the houses or the trees. These everyday mathematical encounters are the most natural and effective supplement to the BSEB Class 1 textbook for Maths.

For EVS, take the book outside. The Aas Paas book at Class 1 level is full of invitations to observe the natural and social world. Accept those invitations. Point to a plant and connect it to the chapter on plants. Show your child where the water comes from and connect it to the chapter on water. Let the world be the classroom, and let the book be the guide.

And through all of it — in Hindi, in Maths, in English, in EVS — be patient. Class 1 is hard. Sitting still and concentrating is hard for a six year old. Learning to read is cognitively demanding in ways that adults, who learned to read so long ago they cannot remember the struggle, often underestimate. Every effort your child makes with their Bihar Board Class 1 books deserves acknowledgment. Every small success deserves genuine celebration.

Looking Forward — A Note for Families Preparing for Class 2

Class 1 is the opening chapter of what will eventually become a complete education. Children who finish Class 1 with genuine letter recognition, basic reading fluency in Hindi, a comfortable relationship with numbers up to fifty or one hundred, and an engaged curiosity about the world around them are children who are beautifully positioned for Class 2.

If your child is completing Class 1 and you are beginning to think about what Class 2 will bring, please note that this page is entirely dedicated to Bihar Board Class 1 books and BSEB Class 1 textbooks. Every link on this page opens a Class 1 subject book. The Bihar Board Class 2 books — including Kislay Bhag 2 for Hindi, Rainbow Part 2 for English, Ganit Class 2 for Mathematics, and Aas Paas Class 2 for EVS — are available on our dedicated Class 2 page on this website.

Frequently Asked Questions — Bihar Board Class 1 Books

Q1. Where can I download Bihar Board Class 1 books and Prathamic Kaksha ki pustaken for free?

Every Bihar Board Class 1 book — including Bal Bharati for Hindi, Rainbow Part 1 for English, Ganit for Mathematics, and Aas Paas for EVS — is available for free download directly on this page. The complete subject-wise download table above contains access links for all subjects. Click the link next to your subject and save the PDF to your phone, tablet, or computer. There is no fee, no registration, and no complicated process. These are official Prathamic Kaksha ki pustaken published by BSTPC under the Bihar SCERT curriculum, and they are freely available to every student and family in Bihar.

Q2. What is Bal Bharati Class 1 and is it the official Bihar Board Hindi textbook?

Yes. Bal Bharati Class 1 is the official Hindi textbook prescribed for Class 1 students in Bihar Board schools. It is developed by Bihar SCERT and published by BSTPC, and it forms the complete Hindi curriculum for Class 1 — covering the alphabet, word formation, reading, simple grammar, and introductory writing skills. It is the book from which all Class 1 Hindi school examination questions are set, and it is the only Hindi resource a Class 1 student needs for their school exams.

Q3. Are BSEB Class 1 textbooks available in English medium?

Yes, for the key subjects. The BSEB Class 1 textbook for Mathematics — Ganit Class 1 — and the Environmental Studies book — Aas Paas — are both available in Hindi and English medium. The English textbook, Rainbow Part 1, is naturally in English. Hindi, Bal Bharati, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Maithili textbooks are available in their respective languages. The download table on this page clearly indicates the medium available for each subject.

Q4. My Class 1 child is struggling to read Hindi from the Bal Bharati book. What should I do?

Struggling to read at the beginning of Class 1 is completely normal — it is not a sign that something is wrong with your child. Reading is a skill, and like all skills it develops with practice and support over time. The most effective thing you can do is read the Bal Bharati Class 1 book together with your child every day — pointing to each letter and word as you read it, asking your child to repeat after you, and celebrating every moment when they recognise something independently. Do not rush through the alphabet lessons to get to the stories. Spend time on each set of letters until your child is genuinely comfortable before moving forward. Regular, patient, daily reading together is the single most effective way to support a child who is finding early reading difficult.

Q5. Are the Bihar Board Class 1 books the same across all districts of Bihar?

Yes, completely. The Bihar Board Class 1 books prescribed by Bihar SCERT and published by BSTPC are identical across every district and every Bihar Board affiliated school in the state. A child in a school in Patna and a child in a school in Kishanganj, Sheohar, or Kaimur open the exact same Bal Bharati Class 1 Hindi book, the exact same Ganit Class 1 Mathematics book, and the exact same Rainbow Part 1 English book on the first day of school. This uniformity ensures that every child in Bihar, regardless of geography or economic background, has access to the same quality of foundational educational material and the same opportunity to build a strong academic foundation.

The First Page of a Long Story

Every Bihar Board student who has ever sat for a Matric examination, who has gone on to college, who has built a life and a future for themselves — every one of them once sat where your child is sitting right now, with a small book in front of them, at the very beginning of everything.

The Bihar Board Class 1 books on this page are where that beginning happens. They are small books. They have pictures and poems and simple numbers. They do not look like the books that will eventually determine a student's academic future. But they are the first chapter of that future, and first chapters matter more than any other part of the story.

Download the books from the table above. Sit with your child. Open the first page of Bal Bharati together. Read the first letter of the Hindi alphabet out loud. That moment — small, quiet, and easy to underestimate — is where Bihar Board education begins, and where everything that follows is rooted.

Access all Bihar Board Class 1 books using the subject-wise links in the table above — completely free, for every child and every family in Bihar who needs them.

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