About this Resource
General Outcome Lesson Plans
4.1 Alberta: A Sense of the Land
- Natural Resources in Alberta: A Prairie Alphabet – Students gain a better understanding of natural resources, their locations, and the positive and negative effects of those resources on Albertans.
4.2 The Stories, Histories and Peoples of Alberta
- Relationship to the Land: Hidden Buffalo – Through analysing the picture book Hidden Buffalo, students explore the relationship of the First Nations people to the land and create and illustration of that relationship.
- Museum In a Box: Building a Community – Using Object-Based Inquiry, students explore the stories of people’s lives that objects tell. Students then analyse quality of life.
- Establishing Francophone Communities – Students explore the contribution of Francophone settlers in Alberta, and create diary entries to illustrate those lives and contributions.
4.3 Alberta: Celebrations and Challenges
5.2 Histories and Stories of Ways of Life in Canada
- Secret of the Dance – Students use the book Secret of the Dance to explore the importance of the potlatch while developing the skill of critical thinking.
- Passage to Canada – Using researched information, students create a powerful visual of the three greatest opportunities and the three most significant challenges of immigrating to Canada.
- Follow the Drinking Gourd – Students represent important aspects of immigrant cultures that populated Canada and their contributions.
- The Underground Railroad
- Immigration: For Better or Worse? – Students develop criteria for quality of life, deciding if quality of life for immigrants to Canada was better or worse after immigration.
6.1 Citizens Participating in Decision Making
- A Human Rights Timeline
- MLAs vs. Cabinet Ministers – In this inquiry activity, students ask questions of MLAs and cabinet ministers discover the differences between their responsibilities.
6.2 Historical Models of Democracy: Ancient Athens and the Iroquois Confederacy
- Athenian Social Structure and Decision Making – In this instructional activity, students explore social roles in ancient Athens to develop a meaningful understanding of the effect that social roles had on decision making.
- Athenian Social Structure and Decision Making – Students decide if Canadian or Athenian democracy is more democratic.
- Time Traveler Interview – Students write powerful questions and answers to create a fictional interview with an Athenian Citizen and an Iroquois Chief
- Collective Identity: Wampum Belt Challenge – Students explore the collective identity of their own culture.
- Want Ad Challenge – Students work within a group to make a decision about the most important attributes of the roles people played in history.
- Deciding on the Decision Model – Students examine the differences and similarities between democracies in history to understand the different ways of making decisions in contemporary Canada
- Political Cartoon Challenge – Students examine the values of equity and fairness are an important part of democracy
- Trading Card Challenge – Students think symbolically and communicate information about the roles of men and women in Haudenosaunee society in a visual format.
Skill Outcome Lesson Plans
Grade 4
- Analysing Political Cartoons – Originally designed for grade six, this skill-based activity is adaptable to grade four.
- Detecting Bias in News Articles – Though this lesson was designed for Grade 6, it is easily adaptable for different grade levels.
- Supporting Positions Through Research and Debate – This challenge is adaptable for grade four.
Grade 5
- Analysing Political Cartoons – Originally designed for grade six, this skill-based activity is adaptable to grade five.
- Monthly Current Events Voice Thread – Learners share substantiated opinions about current affairs as relates to Canadian physical geography and natural environment.
- Detecting Bias in News Articles – Though this lesson was designed for Grade 6, it is easily adaptable for different grade levels.
- Supporting Positions Through Research and Debate – This challenge is adaptable for grade five.
Grade 6
- Analysing Political Cartoons – Students analyse techniques used to create an effective political cartoon and create of their own.
- Detecting Bias in News Articles – In this scaffolded activity, students explore information on detecting bias then analyse articles for bias to ultimately determine the trustworthiness of the article.
- Supporting an Opinion through Research and Debate – Students debate the topic of smoking in public areas.
Unit Assessment Plan 6.1
Performance Assessments
5.3 Canada: Shaping an Identity
- The Great Depression – Students select images and create captions that describe how the Great Depression affected ways of life.
6.2 Historical Models of Democracy: Ancient Athens and the Iroquois Confederacy
- Democracy or Not… You Be the Judge – Students take on the role of a Spartan spy and gather information to answer the question, “To what extent was the form of democracy practiced in ancient Athens fair and equitable?”
Technology Infusion
4.1 Alberta: A Sense of the Land
- Alberta’s Natural Resources
- Alberta’s Geography – The students will create digital scrapbook displaying the major geographic, vegetative regions, bodies of water and landforms of Alberta.
- Discovering an Alberta Treasure – Students create an explorer’s notebook depicting the central role of paleontology in Alberta’s natural landscape.
- Tyrrell Web Quest – In this Web Quest students research the Royal Tyrrell Museum to convince a member of the community to sponsor the museum.
4.2 The Stories, Histories and Peoples of Alberta
- Your Story, My Story, Their Story – Personal and collective histories/”her-stories” are explored and uncovered in this cross-curricular project in which migrations are highlighted over time.
- Stories From Alberta’s Past – Students create and share a multimedia presentation on a moment or person in Alberta’s History.
- How the West Was Settled – Through an investigation of the daily lives of settlers in Alberta, students examine the challenges and contributions different cultural groups made to Alberta
- How the West Was Settled Webquest
4.3 Alberta: Celebrations and Challenges
- The Times They Are A-Changin! – Learners engage in research using guiding questions that lead to the creation of a Persuasion Map, “hotlist” of reputable websites, a wiki and more.
5.2 Histories and Stories of Ways of Life in Canada
- Stories of Early Canada through PowerPoint – Students explore various peoples who settled, developed and helped to create Canada’s identity.
- Geography and First Nations’ Ways of Life – In this WebQuest students work in groups to discover different aspects of the First Nations cultural groups to determine the effect of geography on their ways of life
5.3 Canada: Shaping an Identity
- 5.3.4 It Happened on a Cool October Day – Students focus on collectively finding and using pictures to make a audio and picture photo album to relate a message.
6.2 Historical Models of Democracy: Ancient Athens and the Iroquois Confederacy