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Life Skills
Facilitator’s guide
Grade 3
CAPS aligned
H Erasmus
Introduction for the facilitator
Impaq’s approach to Life Skills in Grade 3
Life Skills play an important role in learners’ development. They learn how to interact socially, and they discover what they like and do not like. This helps to shape their personality. Physically and emotionally they are growing and exploring the world around them. The activities in the book have been developed to help them in these areas.
Teaching Life Skills in Grade 3 requires learning opportunities, interaction, creativity and applying acquired knowledge. All of which help learners to better understand people and their surroundings.
The subject is divided into four focus areas:
• Beginning knowledge
• Personal and social well-being
• Creative arts
• Physical education Beginning knowledge
The content and concepts of beginning knowledge comprise social sciences, natural sciences and technology. In this focus area, learners learn more about their environment, their individuality and diversity. They investigate different aspects of the world around them and discover wonderful things. They learn how relationships work, how to be interactive and communicate effectively.
Personal and social well-being
This focus area is very important for young learners. Here, they learn how to take care of their body and keep it healthy. It also includes healthy relationships with others and good values. Learners learn how to make responsible decisions by taking themselves, others and nature into consideration. More sensitive topics such as abuse and violence, are also touched on. Tolerance for other cultures, religious diversity and personal differences are discussed.
Creative arts
SAMPLE
In this focus area, four different types of art are covered: dance, drama, music and visual arts. The aim is for learners to discover the world around them by using their imagination.
In these sessions, learners must be given the freedom to express their creativity. Provide materials to create something, without giving them an example. Allow them to experiment – the process can be more valuable than the result. If, for example, they mix different coloured paints to create new colours, but end up with a muddy brown, accept this as part of the process. The important thing is that they learned which colours to mix to create a new colour, not the fact that they ended up with brown paint. Art is all about experimenting.
Let the learners use all their senses to explore and develop their creativity. Keep criticism to the minimum and always give constructive criticism.
Physical education
In the Foundation Phase, learners’ fine and gross motor skills and their skills of observation is very important. This is done through play, movement, games and sport. Learners must maintain a good posture, which helps with rhythm, balance and laterality. The holistic development of the learner is very important.
Materials and resources
Grade 3 learners should write with a grey pencil so it is easy to erase mistakes. They can draw and colour pictures with any medium.
The lists below are not exhaustive, but cover what is required for most activities.
Material for creative arts
• A4 paper (white and different colours)
• A4 cardboard (white)
• A3 cardboard (white)
• Coloured pencils/retractable crayons
• Wood glue, glue (such as Pritt) and Bostik
• Clear glue
• Playdough
• Paint (such as fabric paint)
• Watercolours
• Paintbrushes
• Old magazines
• Newspapers
• Chalk
• Cardboard boxes (such as cereal boxes)
• Oil pastels
• Plastic cups/polystyrene cups
Material for physical education
• Tennis balls
• Big balls (such as netball balls, big plastic balls)
• Soccer ball
• Hula hoops
• Skipping ropes
• Long ropes
• Cones
• Balancing beam
• Food colouring (different colours)
• Straws
• Cotton wool
• Old toothbrushes
• Wax crayons
• Split pins
• String or wool
• Koki pens
• Thick black marker
• Paper plates
• Empty toilet rolls
• Toothpicks
• Crêpe paper
• Prestik
• Empty bottles, cans, caps, polystyrene containers, etc.
• Bean bags
• Large containers
• Racket and ball (or tennis ball)
• Cricket bat
• Balloons
• Jungle gym
• Tyres
• Long elastic
• Whistle
How to use the material and resources
The Grade 3 package includes:
1. The facilitator’s guide
2. Workbook 1: Terms 1 and 2, weeks 1–20
3. Workbook 2: Terms 3 and 4, weeks 21–40
4. Learner aid (cut-out sheets)
5. Facilitator aid (posters)
6. Assessment (portfolio book)
7. Assessment guidelines and memorandum
Facilitators are encouraged to do assessment throughout the year, not only in the indicated formal assessment sessions at the end of each term. Continued assessment will ensure that learners obtain a fair mark for their skills.
Facilitator’s guide
This guide contains 20 units. Each unit is spread over two weeks and covers 10 days. Each day is divided into two or three sessions, which covers the different focus areas. Refer to the suggested timetable for the time allocation of the sessions.
Each session is concluded with two information boxes – ‘Conceptualisation’ and ‘Resources’. The conceptualisation box summarises the concepts that are embedded, while the resources box provides a list of items provided and/or required for the session.
і Indicates a provided resource. This includes the two workbooks, the learner aid and the posters (facilitator aid).
Æ Indicates a resource the facilitator must provide.
Two symbols are used in each session:
The owl indicates what the facilitator must do.
The pencil indicates what the learner must do.
Workbook 1: Terms 1 and 2
This workbook contains 54 activities covering:
• Term 1: About me, feelings, health protection, keeping my body safe, and rights and responsibilities
• Term 2: Healthy eating, insects, life cycles, and recycling
Workbook 2: Terms 3 and 4
This workbook contains 56 activities covering:
• Term 3: Public safety, pollution, how people lived long ago, and space
SAMPLE
• Term 4: Products and processes, natural disasters and what we should do, and animals that help us
The facilitator aid refers to posters to be used during the lessons:
• Poster 1: Basic first aid
• Poster 2: Rights and responsibilities
• Poster 3: Insects
• Poster 4: Life cycles
• Poster 5: Recycling
• Poster 6: Water and air pollution
• Poster 7: Our solar system
• Poster 8: Products and processes
• Poster 9: Natural disasters
• Poster 10: Products from animals
• Poster 11: Noise and land pollution
The learner aid
The learner aid contains cut-out sheets required to complete the activities in the workbook or some of the creative arts activities. The pages are in the order it will be used.
Per week: 25 hours
Suggested timetable for Grade 3
Home Language (HL): 7/8 hours
First Additional Language (FAL): 3/4 hours
Mathematics: 7 hours
Life Skills (LS): 7 hours
07:50 –
– 09:30
09:30 – 10:00
10:20 – 10:50
– 11:15
Skills: Personal and Social Well-being and Beginning knowledge 30 min
SAMPLE
11:15 – 11:40 Home Language: Group guided reading 25 min Home Language: Group guided reading 25 min Home Language: Shared reading
Language: Group guided reading
Home Language: Writing
min 11:40 – 12:00 FAL: Listening and speaking 20 min FAL: Reading, phonics and language structure 20 min FAL: Listening and speaking 20 min FAL: Reading, phonics and language structure 20 min FAL: Listening and speaking 20 min
12:00 – 12:15 B R E A K 12:15 – 13:25
Learning unit 1
Day 1 Week 1
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
Introduce each topic with an informal discussion. Guide the discussion with questions and encourage the learners to talk about their own experiences. It is important to build on their existing knowledge so they can get a more complete view of each topic. The topic table will also be used in this session. Learners participate by collecting items for the topic table.
Have an informal discussion with the learners about what we need to live. Start by reading the rhyme to them. You can also teach it to them and do accompanying movements.
Who am I?
Hilda Erasmus
Do you know who I am? I am me, myself and I! If I said I could describe myself, it would probably be a lie.
I dream about being a grown-up and I ponder about that day. What will I become, who will I be? Who will be able to say?
Ask the learners these questions. You can also include your own questions. This session is mainly about the learners themselves.
• Who are you?
• You have a date of birth. Do you know what time you were born?
• What is one of your first memories? You cannot recall the moment you were born, but most people can recall memories from when they were about 4 or 5 years old.
Study the topic table with the learners.
Topic table (The topic table is used throughout the unit.)
• The learners can put any personal items on the topic table, for instance, a baby photo of themselves, a favourite toy, a birthday card, etc.
• Later in the week, the learners will need five photos of themselves. The photos should represent different ages in their life. (See activity 3.)
Session 2: Physical exercise
Before each day’s physical education session, the learners must first play creative games to practise their skills. Make sure the learners’ muscles are warmed up before they do any activity.
Creative games and skills: Inhale and exhale deeply with your arms above your head and then next to your sides. Lie on your back, take a deep breath in and hold it, then exhale slowly through your mouth.
The learners play Poisonball.
Rules
1. Mark off a large square ‘court’ on the grass in which all the learners are allowed to move around.
2. One learner stands outside the square with a soft ball. This learner must throw the ball and try to hit the players (the other learners) with the ball.
3. If someone is hit by the ball, they are out. They must then leave the court and join the learner to try and hit the remaining players with a ball.
4. The game continues until there is only one player left.
If there are many learners, the game can be adapted so that two learners are allowed to throw balls at players. As soon as a learner hits a player with the ball, the learner must sit out and the player that was hit must replace the learner.
If there are only one or two learners, family members can act as stand-ins for players. The game can also be adapted so just one player tries to stay on court as long as possible before being hit by the ball.
Day 2
SAMPLE
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
The learners must discuss things they like and do not like, as well as their differences.
• Things you like and do not like.
• How does your appearance differ from your friend’s? (Learner’s own answer.)
• Every person is unique. What makes you unique?
Complete activity 1 in workbook 1. The learners write down everything about themselves. Then they draw a picture of themselves. Encourage learners to draw their unique features.
Session 2: Creative arts
Learners must wash their hands before doing the activity, so they do not dirty the paper.
• Give each learner a sheet of A4 cardboard.
• Learners trace the shape of their hand.
• They draw horizontal lines across the paper. Once the learners reach the hand shape, they draw an arch across that section (see the example).
• Cover the whole paper with lines.
• Once the learners have finished, they can colour each line a different colour. 1 2 3 4 5
Day 3
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
What is a timeline? A timeline indicates the beginning and end of something. We put a date on the timeline to indicate when something began. It could have an end or there may still be ongoing developments with no end in sight.
Let us study the timeline of a person:
Born – infant – toddler – teenager – married – first child – second child – third child – fiftieth birthday – elderly – grandpa/granny – die.
If possible, the facilitator can show the learners photos of such a timeline as an example.
Every person’s timeline will look different. We usually remember the most important dates in our lives. We often remember sad events, such as a death or a divorce. This becomes part of one’s timeline.
Let us study the timeline of a product, such as Simba potato crisps:
1939 – Ouma Nannie Greyvenstein baked rusks in a small town in the Eastern Cape. She sold many rusks and they became very popular. Ouma Nannie’s son Leon expanded the business. 1952 – Leon met and befriended Herman Lay, the founder of Lay’s Potato Chips. In the United States of America, Leon learned how potato crisps are produced and he decided to produce them in South Africa.
1957 – He started Simba and distributed Simba potato crisps across the entire South Africa. Simba the lion became a well-known logo on the packaging. Today – Simba manufactures a variety of products. Research their products on the Internet.
Have a discussion with the learners. They must identify a product that has a timeline. Research the product on the Internet and study how the packaging changed over time.
SAMPLE
Session 2: Physical exercise
Creative games and skills: The learners lie down on the floor or sit on a chair, and rotate their ankles to ‘write’ their name in the air. Then they rotate their wrists. The learners rotate and point their feet like a ballerina.
The learners practise relay races.
Rules
1. Divide the learners into teams of four.
2. Give each team a beanbag.
3. Team members must stand 50 metres apart.
4. When you blow the whistle, the first learner in each team takes off with the beanbag. They run at full speed. As they approach the second leaner, they hold out the beanbag and then pass it to the second learner. The second learner passes the beanbag to the third learner and the third learner passes it to the fourth learner in the same way. The fourth learner must cross the finish line.
5. The team whose fourth runner crosses the finish line first, is the winner. If the learner does not have the beanbag, the next team to cross the finish line with their beanbag, wins.
Day 4
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
Yesterday we discussed timelines. Study activity 2 in workbook 1. There are 2 timelines. One is a timeline of cars and the other is a timeline of ships. Discuss the differences. Find photos on the Internet of the very first cars and ships. The designers must have had ideas of how it would work.
Ask the learners:
• Do you think it was easy to build a car or a ship?
• Do you think cars or ships were built first?
• Can you find out who built the first car?
• How did people travel before cars or ships existed?
Complete activity 2 in workbook 1. The learners read the information and complete the sentences by writing the correct word on the line.
Memorandum
• timeline
• end
• born
• fly
Session 2: Creative arts
In this session, the learners must try to draw their face in proportion.
• Learners study the image in the learner aid that illustrates how to draw a face.
• They use a grey pencil to draw their face on a sheet of A4 paper.
• The learners must try to draw the proportions correctly.
• They use light pencil guidelines.
SAMPLE
Day 5
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
In this session, the learners will focus on their own timelines. They need five photos of themselves. Your timeline starts on the day you were conceived, up until today. We usually draw our timeline from the day we were born and we celebrate that day every year, but on the day you were born you were in fact already a few months old!
Complete activity 3 in workbook 1. The learners paste their own photos on their timelines and write a sentence next to each photo.
Session 2: Improvise and interpret
Listen to South African music. Choose music from the learners’ cultures. Music can be found on the Internet, for instance on YouTube. Learners clap their hands to keep the beat. They must listen to the rhythm of the music and only start clapping once they can identify the beat.
Day 6 Week 2
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
We have discussed our own timeline and that of products. Today we will focus on our favourite things. We all have a favourite toy, animal, outfit, hobby, etc. Sometimes we wish we could have all our favourite things in the world with us, unfortunately that is not always possible.
I wish... Hilda Erasmus
SAMPLE
I wish I could have anything and every wish came true. I’d own a great big teddy bear or fly a plane in skies of blue.
I wish I could have everything that my two eyes can see. I want a little puppy dog, or a wish or maybe three!
I wish I had lots of money, more than I could hold.
I want a great big castle or a treasure chest full of gold.
I wish money grew on trees so I could buy lots of toys. I want a box of Lego blocks or a doll that makes some noise.
Practise reciting the rhyme with the learners. They must think of questions that applies to the rhyme.
Topic table: Learners can put their favourite items on the topic table.
Session 2: Physical exercise
Creative games and skills: Sing traditional songs and keep the beat by stamping your feet and clapping your hands. The facilitator claps a specific rhythm that the learners must repeat.
The learners play classic children’s games.
Rules
1. Use fabric shopping bags to run a sack race. Learners race one another by standing in a bag and jumping forwards.
2. Place a potato on a spoon, and race one another or complete an obstacle course, first holding the spoon with your dominant hand and then your non-dominant hand.
3. Run three-legged races: Two learners stand side by side, and using a long strip of fabric or something similar, tie their touching ankles (one’s left leg and the other’s right leg) together. The pairs of learners then race one another. Each pair must work together in order to run –using first their ‘free’ legs and then their combined ‘third’ leg to run. The pair that crosses the finish line first, wins.
4. The learners play tug of war.
Day 7
Session 1: Topic – About me
Complete activity 4 in workbook 1. The learners draw a picture in every block and write down their favourite things on the lines.
Session 2: Creative arts
Today is a day of favourites.
• Learners must make a picture of their favourite thing/person.
• They may use their favourite medium (grey pencil, paint, watercolours, colouring pencils, etc.)
• They may use their favourite colour paper.
Day 8
Session 1: Topic discussion – About me
At the beginning of the week, we discussed “me” and “my timeline”. Things that have already happened, are in the past. Some of us can recall memories from a very long time ago and other only have more recent memories. Perhaps your parents or guardians have told you about events that you cannot remember. It all happened in the past.
Talk about something from your past:
SAMPLE
• Something you enjoyed, such as a birthday party, a holiday, a family event, etc.
• Something you did not enjoy, such as an accident that happened, a time you got injured or were hospitalised, etc.
Session 2: Physical exercise
Creative games and skills: The learners play Marco Polo outside. Mark off an area in which the learners can move around. One learner is blindfolded and must try to catch the other learners. The blindfolded learner shouts “Marco!” and the other learners reply with “Polo!”. The other learners must reply and may not keep quiet, even if the blindfolded learner is right next to them.
