Teaching Resources
The Year Programme
43 themed weeks across the four school terms. Today falls in Week 25 — Small Creatures - Insects and Bugs. Every week gives you the ring time, the words, one activity per learning area, a story, a song, an outdoor game, what to watch for, and a message to send parents.
SELECTED WEEK
Our Home
16 Feb – 20 Feb 2026
Week 6
Home is each child's first place in the world - this week builds sense of place, shape language and positional words.
Well-being
Home fire safety: hot pots, candles and paraffin stoves - practise the call 'Hot! Don't touch!' and 'we never play with matches'.
Identity & Belonging
Draw or build your own home from memory and tell the class who sleeps where - every home described with pride.
Communication
Big-box house role-play: knock-knock visiting, cooking, sweeping - children narrate what they are doing as they play.
Exploring Mathematics
Shape hunt: door = rectangle, window = square, roof = triangle; sort cut-out shape cards onto a big house picture.
Creativity
Build houses outside from mud, clay, sticks and stones - join them into a whole class village with paths.
Physical & the World
Household-work circuit: sweep leaves into a circle, carry cups of water on a tray without spilling, hang cloths on a line.
⏰ Morning ring
- What does your home look like? Rooms and what happens in each
- Homes come in many shapes - rondavel, RDP house, flat, farm house - all homes
- Who cooks, who sweeps, who fixes at your house?
- Doors keep us safe - we do not open for strangers
📖 Story
'The Three Little Pigs' (folk tale) - build real piles of grass, sticks and stones as props; the children huff and puff with the wolf.
🎵 Song
Original to the tune of 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush': 'This is the way we build our house...' - first line: 'This is the way we build our house'.
🏃 Outdoor
House-shape hopscotch - hop through chalk squares with a triangle roof drawn at the top of the grid.
💬 Words this week
house door window roof bed kitchen cook sleep
indlu (isiZulu/siSwati - house)
yindlu (Xitsonga - house)
umnyango (isiZulu - door)
lala (isiZulu - sleep)
👁 Watch and record
Shape recognition (circle, square, triangle, rectangle) and positional words (in, on, under, next to) - record each child's mastery.
🎓 Grade R stretch
Draw your home and label parts with initial sounds; tally the doors and windows at school and compare the counts.
📱 Message home to parents
Theme: Our Home. Ask your child to point out the door, window and roof of your home, then count the windows together.
The whole year
14 January - 27 March 2026 (11 weeks, 53 school days; unified national calendar - no separate inland/coastal clusters in 2026)
Myself and My World: settling in, separation security, my body, senses, family and home. Colours red/blue/yellow/green, shapes circle/square/triangle, numbers 1-5.
8 April - 26 June 2026 (12 weeks, 54 school days; public holidays: Freedom Day Mon 27 Apr, Workers' Day Fri 1 May, special holiday Mon 15 Jun, Youth Day Tue 16 Jun)
My Community and the Working World: the people, places, helpers and transport around us, farm life, and winter. Numbers to 10, shape consolidation, positional language.
21 July - 23 September 2026 (10 weeks, 46 school days; National Women's Day observed Mon 10 Aug; Heritage Day 24 Sep falls in the holiday)
The Natural World and Our Heritage: wild animals, small creatures, water, plants, spring, birds, and Heritage Month. Numbers to 10 and beyond, patterns, measurement.
6 October - 9 December 2026 (10 weeks, 47 school days; learners close 9 Dec, educators 11 Dec)
The Wider World, Big Dreams and Celebration: life cycles, storms, sky, sea, money, aspirations, summer safety and the year-end concert. School readiness consolidation for Grade R.
