Grade 6 NST Term 2 Week 6: Water Pollution and Mixtures — Lesson Plan for South African Teachers

Your Week Ahead

This week your Grade 6 NST class digs into one of the most relevant and real-world topics in the Intermediate Phase curriculum: water pollution. Learners have already spent time exploring mixtures and the concept of dissolving, so this week builds directly on that foundation. Now they get to apply what they know about soluble and insoluble substances to understand how our water sources become polluted, and what that means for communities across South Africa.

The CAPS content for this week covers two broad categories of water pollutants. The first is insoluble substances like oil, plastics, tyres, and glass. These do not dissolve but they still end up in rivers, dams, and the ocean, causing serious environmental harm. The second category is soluble substances, including soaps, fertilisers, insecticides, acids, and poisons. These dissolve into water and can be much harder to detect, which makes them particularly dangerous. Learners also look at how germs from toilet waste (sewage) enter water sources and lead to water-borne illnesses like cholera and typhoid. For many South African learners, this is not an abstract topic. It connects directly to what they see and experience in their own communities.

Coming into this week, learners should already understand the difference between soluble and insoluble materials, and they should have some familiarity with the idea that water is a solvent. If a few learners are still fuzzy on those concepts, a quick five-minute recap at the start of Day 1 will go a long way before you move into pollution specifically.

What Teachers Are Searching For

• Water pollution lesson plan for Grade 6 NST: Many teachers are looking for a structured, CAPS-aligned plan that covers both insoluble and soluble pollutants in a way that is accessible and engaging for 11 to 13 year olds. This week’s plan does exactly that, with activities that link the science to everyday South African contexts.
• How to explain water-borne illnesses to Grade 6 learners: This is a concept many learners find abstract. Grounding it in local examples like contaminated borehole water or flooded pit toilets after heavy rain helps make the science feel meaningful and urgent rather than textbook-distant.
• ATP IsiZulu Grade 6 and other language resources: If you are teaching NST through IsiZulu or another home language, or if your learners need terminology support, it helps to have key vocabulary like “pollution”, “soluble”, “insoluble”, “germs”, and “water-borne” clearly displayed and discussed in accessible language. Bilingual word walls or vocabulary cards can support all learners this week, regardless of the language of instruction in your classroom.

This Week’s Lesson Plan

The three lessons this week move learners from understanding what water pollution is, to identifying the types of pollutants, to exploring the health consequences of polluted water.

Day 1: Introduce water pollution using local images and examples. Learners sort a range of materials (oil, plastic bags, soap, fertiliser, glass) into insoluble and soluble pollutants, discussing how each enters water sources.

Day 2: Investigate soluble pollutants in more depth. Learners examine how substances like soaps, insecticides, and acids dissolve into water and why this makes them difficult to remove. Class discussion on agricultural and household sources of soluble pollution in South Africa.

Day 3: Focus on germs and water-borne illness. Learners explore how sewage and toilet waste contaminate water, which illnesses result (cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea), and what communities and individuals can do to protect themselves. Learners create an informational poster or short written response as an informal assessment task.

Download Your Lesson Plan

Download the full 3-day lesson plan as a Word document. Includes detailed activities, differentiation notes, and assessment guidance.

Download Lesson Plan (Word)