The South African government spends huge sums of funds on schools with an aim to redress past inequalities. Schools receive resource budget allocations to exclusively procure learning materials to ensure that the government’s aim is realised. This study examines availability and enactment of learning materials to enhance effective curriculum delivery. Four township public ordinary primary schools participated in this study. Focus was mainly on Grade 3 home language lessons. I used the case study methods to interview one teacher from each school and scrutinized their documents to establish what learning materials they have in their possession. Additionally I observed and analysed three lessons per educator. Analysis across the cases reveals different collections and variations in usage of learning materials. The former covers the standard, mix and match, and limited collections. Whereas the latter refers to the textbook bound, productive blend and the haphazard approaches. Significantly, the study also explored principles in line with the “ideal teacher”- under which desired results can be achieved.