Lesson Plan: Festivals and Customs
from a Variety of Religions in South
Africa
Subject: Life Skills (Personal and Social Well-being)
Grade: 5
Term: 3
Weeks: 1–3
Duration: 4½ hours
Topic: Social Responsibility
Sub-topic: Festivals and Customs from Different Religions (Christianity, Judaism, etc.)
Lesson Objectives
• Identify and describe major religions in South Africa.
• Explain customs and festivals of Christianity and Judaism (and others).
• Respect different beliefs and values in South African society.
• Share about their own religion and understand others’ practices.
• Develop awareness and effective communication skills.
Tiered Support (Differentiation)
Tier Level Support Description
Tier 1 All Learners (Core Whole class teaching with
Instruction) dictionary use, group
discussions, reading tasks,
simple poster making, short
writing activities.
Tier 2 Learners Needing Extra One-on-one or small group
Support support; visual aids;
sentence starters; extra
time; buddy system; oral
explanations; simplified
texts.
Tier 3 Advanced Learners / Poem writing, mind maps
Enrichment comparing religions,
graphic illustrations, extra
research on Hinduism,
Buddhism, etc.; extended
writing on personal beliefs.
Lesson Breakdown
Week 1 – Lesson 1
• Teacher explains various religions and customs (e.g. Christian baptisms, Jewish
Hanukkah).
• Learners find definitions of key terms using dictionaries or tablets: Christianity,
Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, African tradition.
• Learners share their religion and what is special about it.
• Group/class discussion on major festivals and customs.
• Learners write notes in books.
• Homework: Bring pictures of places of worship from
magazines/newspapers/Internet.
Week 2 – Lesson 2
• Discuss “What is a place of worship?” using simple examples (church, mosque,
synagogue, etc.).
• Learners describe their own place of worship.
• Learners use collected pictures to make a poster in their books with pictures and short
descriptions.
• Homework/Project Stage 2: Learners create cover pages and indexes for their project
books.
Week 3 – Lesson 3
• Teacher discusses how Easter, Diwali, Ramadan, Pesach, and traditional African rituals
are celebrated.
• Learners look up the word festival in dictionaries.
• Learners write an assignment with two subheadings per religion: When is the festival
celebrated? How is it celebrated?
• Religions: Christianity (Easter), Hinduism (Diwali and Holi), Islam (Ramadan), Judaism
(Pesach), African Traditional Religions.
Week 3 – Lesson 4
• Teacher presents a case study about a South African religious festival.
• Learners read the case study in groups or independently.
• Answer 6–10 questions based on the case study.
• Look up given keywords using dictionaries/tablets.
• Discuss answers as a class.
Assessment
Formative (Informal):
- Class participation, reading tasks, posters, dictionary use.
- Assignment on festivals.
Summative (Formal):
- Term project (started in Term 2, submitted in Term 3)
Tools: Rubric, checklist, memo
Enrichment Tasks (Tier 3)
• Write a poem about a religious festival.
• Create a mind map comparing two religions (e.g., Buddhism vs Baha’i Faith).
• Design symbolic artwork related to religious symbols.
Inclusive Practices
• Use multiple learning strategies: visual aids, discussion, dictionary/tablet use.
• Provide sentence starters for weaker learners.
• Group work to support peer learning.
• Flexible submission timelines where needed.
