Course guides › Grade 5 › Life Skills
Life Skills in the Intermediate Phase helps learners understand themselves, stay healthy, get along with others and express themselves creatively. CAPS splits it into three study areas: Personal and Social Well-being, Physical Education, and Creative Arts (Visual Arts and Performing Arts).
Much of Life Skills is practical, so an online course can support it but not replace it: movement, art-making and performing happen offline. This guide explains what each study area covers.
Course status: coming soon. We are still building the Grade 5 Life Skills (CAPS) course, so it can’t be bought yet. This guide explains what the CAPS curriculum covers this year, so you can use it now. The planned price is R100 per subject per year.
What’s covered: the three CAPS study areas
The DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan sets the detailed topics and their order term by term, and your child’s school follows it. This guide gives the broad picture of each part of the subject.
Personal and Social Well-being
Learning about yourself, your health and safety, getting along with others, and your rights and responsibilities.
Physical Education
Regular movement, games and sport, played safely and fairly.
Creative Arts
Visual Arts (making 2D and 3D artworks) and Performing Arts (music, dance and drama).
Key ideas, with worked examples
Healthy choices
A balanced plate has starch, protein, vegetables and fruit, and water is the best drink.
Worked example. A lunchbox with a brown-bread sandwich with egg, an apple and water is balanced; chips and a fizzy drink are not.
Rights come with responsibilities
Every right we have comes with a responsibility towards others.
Worked example. The right to learn comes with the responsibility to let others learn too, by not disrupting the class.
Elements of art
Artists use line, shape, colour and texture on purpose.
Worked example. Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) can make a picture feel energetic; cool colours (blue, green) can make it feel calm.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
- Treating Life Skills as a reading subject only. Physical Education and the Creative Arts need doing, not just reading.
- Copying artwork instead of making your own choices.
- Forgetting safety rules during physical activity.
- Short answers to “explain” questions: give a reason, not just a word.
Tips for parents
- Little and often. Fifteen minutes on most school days works better than a long session once a week.
- Move together: a walk, skipping rope or a ball game counts.
- Keep basic art supplies (paper, crayons, glue, scrap materials) where your child can reach them.
- Talk about feelings and friendships at supper; Personal and Social Well-being is built on these conversations.
- Celebrate South Africa’s diversity: talk about the festivals and traditions of friends and neighbours.
Frequently asked questions
How can an online course teach Physical Education?
It can explain the skills, rules and safety, and suggest activities to do at home. The movement itself happens offline.
How much will the Grade 5 Life Skills course cost?
R100 per subject per year once it opens. Like our live courses, it will be one course for the whole year with Terms 1 to 4 inside it, so there’s nothing extra to pay per term.
When will the course be ready?
We’re building it now. The Grade 5 Life Skills card on our home page shows “Coming soon” until the course is ready, and then it changes to “Open course”.
Will it work on a phone, and will it use a lot of data?
Yes, it will work on a phone. Like our live Maths courses, it will open in a phone’s web browser or in the free Coursebox app for Android and iPhone. Lessons are pictures and short text with quizzes and no videos, so it uses little data.
Is the course in English or Afrikaans?
The Grade 5 course will be in English.
Get ready for Grade 5 Life Skills
The Grade 5 Life Skills (CAPS) course is coming soon at R100 per subject per year. Bookmark this guide and use the overview above to follow what your child is doing at school. While you wait, our Grade 5 Mathematics course is available through Coursebox.
Back to the Grade 5 course cards · All Grade 5 guides
Sources and review
This guide follows the broad structure of the DBE’s CAPS Life Skills curriculum for the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4–6). Detailed topics and their order are set by the DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan, which your child’s school follows. Last reviewed: 31 October 2026. AI Buddies is an independent project and is not endorsed by the Department of Basic Education.