This is the Grade 3 English Home Language (HL) revised Annual Teaching Plan, with one file per term. It plans listening and speaking, phonics and reading week by week, from catch-up on Grade 2 work at the start of the year to complex spelling patterns, prefixes and suffixes, and reading a range of fiction and non-fiction by Term 4.
Each term is set out over 10 weeks (45 days in Term 1, 49 in Term 2, 48 in Terms 3 and 4), with week 10 used for revision. Times are given per skill, for example Listening and Speaking 3 to 4 x 15 minutes a week, Phonics 4 to 5 x 15 minutes a week, and Group Guided Reading 2 x 15 minutes a day.
Download the ATP
- Download Term 1 (PDF, 480 KB)
- Download Term 2 (PDF, 386 KB)
- Download Term 3 (PDF, 379 KB)
- Download Term 4 (PDF, 382 KB)
What the English HL Grade 3 ATP covers
Term 1
- Catch-up on Grade 2 work (first three weeks)
- Telling news with feelings and opinions
- Following a sequence of at least 4 instructions
- Consonant and vowel digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ee, oa)
- Different spellings of one sound, silent e
- Alphabetical order and ten spelling words a week
- Writing dictated sentences
- Reading instructions and the Five Finger Strategy
Formal assessment: Informal baseline assessment in weeks 2 and 3, mostly through observation and oral work.
Term 2
- Radio or intercom announcements
- Show and Tell oral presentation
- Predicting a story and cause and effect
- Riddles and jokes
- Spelling choices (ow, ou, aw, au, tie, high)
- Digraphs ph and gh, homographs
- Graphical and non-fiction texts, maps
- Contents page, index and page numbers
Term 3
- Oral presentation of news in sequence
- Interviewing people for a purpose
- Telling a story with beginning, middle and end
- Silent letters (know, half, comb, write)
- Homophones (pair, hair, hare)
- Plays and different types of poems
- Graphs, charts and advertisement pictures
- Giving opinions about a story
Term 4
- Grammar terms: subject, verb, object
- Jokes, riddles and descriptive storytelling
- Oral presentation with a visual aid
- Spelling patterns igh, ough, eigh, augh
- Hard and soft c and g
- Prefixes un-, re- and suffixes -ful, -ness
- Synonyms, antonyms and syllables
- Newspaper articles, dialogues and adverts
Source: Department of Basic Education, 2023/24 Annual Teaching Plans. DBE Circular S19 of 2025 keeps the 2023/24 ATPs in use, with some exclusions, so check with your school or district for any changes.