Requirements for teaching and learning Natural Sciences and Technology


At the end of Section 2, the CAPS for Natural Sciences and Technology specifies that each learner should be equipped with a textbook, sufficient workspace and essential equipment (including tools, apparatus materials and consumables) required for carrying out investigations and for the designing and making of things. Every teacher must have a textbook and a Teacher’s Guide.


This course provides the Learner’s Book as the textbook for learners and teachers.


This guide is the accompanying Teacher’s Guide for teachers. In the term plans for teaching Natural Sciences and Technology (Section 4 of this guide) we suggest additional resources that teachers will find useful in the classroom to teach the subject.


Section 2 Planning and assessment Overview of Natural Sciences and Technology topics


There are 57 topics in total in the Natural Sciences and Technology curriculum across Grades 4, 5 and 6. These topics are organised into seven main topic areas: for Natural Sciences: Life and living, Matter and materials, Energy and change, Planet Earth and beyond; for Technology: Structures, Processing, and Systems and control. The following table shows how the topics are spread across Grades 4, 5 and 6:


Grade 4 Term Topic


Living and non-living things


Term 1


Natural Sciences Life and living


Technology Structures/ Processing


Structure of plants and animals


What plants need to grow


Habitats of animals


Structures for animal shelters


Time in weeks


2 2,5


1 2 2,5


(10 weeks)


10 Grade 5 Topic


Plants and animals on Earth


Animal skeletons


Skeletons as structures


Food chains Life Cycles


Time in weeks


2,5


1,5 2,5


1,5 2


(10 weeks)


(10 weeks)


Grade 6 Topic


Photosynthesis Nutrients in food Nutrition Food processing


Ecosystems and food webs


Time in weeks


2,5 1,5 1,5 2,5 2


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