Historica Canada Education Portal

The focus of the project is for students to create a postcard from the past. The aim for students will involve three steps.
• First to interview a grandparent or great grandparent about a memory. This memory may express what life was like for them as a child or perhaps a wartime memory.
• Second will be to obtain a photograph of the grandparent or great grandparent that will be used on the postcard. This may be achieved using a photograph, scanned photograph or drawing.
• Third will be...

Students often experience difficulty in mastering the precise vocabulary used in social studies and history courses. Faced with this difficulty, they are sometimes reluctant to ask for clarification of the terms used. The result is a loss of learning opportunity. Here is a way of clarifying those concepts and literally keeping them in the forefront of the students' minds. It is based on one of our oldest educational learning tools... remember how you learned your ABC's.

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This lesson is based on viewing the Ruby Keeler biography from The Canadians series. Keeler was an actor and performer who made her film debut in 42nd Street, which kicked off a string a musical hits in the 1930's starring Keeler.

In a variety of creative and role-playing exercises, students will examine Keeler's contributions to the art world, and reflect on the times in which she lived.

Ruby Keeler was born on August 25, 1910 in Halifax, NS and immigrated with her...

Students will research and examine the qualities of a past or present hero in Canada. They will develop a personal definition of a hero, while working on a project that represents a Canadian Hero. Students will be provided with a project framework to guide them through the research process. After completing the research framework each student will represent their hero in their choice of medium. Projects can range from electronic, video based, posters, to drama and song.

•Examine...

Trigger Event:

Show the Heritage Minute titled The Peacemaker to lead to a discussion of elders – their qualities and their personal stories. Pose the question: Who are our elders?

Students will be able to:

- research and represent their personal heritage
- understand symbolism and how it is used by different peoples to represent their identities, using models from First Nations culture
- develop and practise interview skills
- explore personal narratives in order to understand...

Students will explore different types of First Nations and Aboriginal architecture and submit a model to a simulated archictectural firm.

Students will:

- Understand the transition of housing from pre-contact to today and the role government has played
- Describe practices and beliefs that reflect First Peoples’ connections to the land and the natural environment
- Compare daily life in First Peoples communities
- Appreciate and value the cultures and traditions of First Nations...

This lesson is based on viewing the Jacques Plante biography from The Canadiansseries. Jacques Plante, a native of Mont Carmel, Québec, brought revolutionary changes to the game of hockey. He was the first goalie to leave the crease of the net and, most importantly, the first player to wear a protective face mask.

In a variety of activities, students will assess Plante's contributions to the game of hockey and research other historical changes to the game. Students will have the...

During this unit of study, students will explore the individuals who made significant contributions to our history and the Canadian identity. This project could also be completed using provincial histories and identities.

The students will research Indigenous peoples and past explorers using multi-media (online resources and informational texts). They are expected to use this research to make a wall of a related structure, create a voice of the structure and present that to the class....

Students will, after researching background information on early exploration of Canada (Cabot, Cartier, Champlain, Frobisher and Hudson), role play/create tableaux based on situations in which contact was made between the explorers and Indigenous people.

Main objectives of the project: Through role playing of historical situations (and creation of representative tableaux), students will demonstrate an understanding of how contact between people in Canada’s early history resulted...

This lesson is based on viewing the Joshua Slocum biography from The Canadians series. Slocum was an author and sea captain. During a three year voyage in the 1890s, he became the first person to circumnavigate the world alone.

Students will consider the life and experiences of Joshua Slocum and his family. These activities encourage students to do further research and examine Slocum's own writings.

Joshua Slocum started his career at sea as a cook. While he was never...

An emigrated Canadian will share his/her experiences in a class room setting.

- Enable students to develop strategies re: listening to an oral story
- Enable students to develop strategies re: posing questions to a visitor
- Enable students to continue to further develop oral communication skills
- Enhance students' skills in being a host to an invited guest

The student imagines that they are a youth living in Europe in the 1800s. They have just decided to emigrate to...

Have your students explore history and the Benchmarks of Historical Thinking concept Historical Significance. Students will discover noteworthy events that happened on their birth dates in history. Students will be asked to produce a project, with a format that fully complements and highlights the topic chosen. Research, interpretive, and presentation skills will be highlighted while working with history relevant to each student.

Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

• Plan and conduct...

The public has long been fascinated with cemeteries. This program will make use of this fascination to engage the students while they learn. Cemeteries can be primary sources of information for much more than just social studies. This program will make use of the information available in local cemeteries to meet aspects of the mathematics curriculum.

Students will collect primary data found on the headstones and organize the data. Students will make use of a variety of methods...

Based on the concept of Literature Circles, the lesson will introduce students to History Circles, where small groups investigate a historical topic by each completing an individual task, sharing their work with their group, and planning as a group how to present their topic to the class or wider audience.

To introduce students to different aspects of the study of history, and allow them to approach a topic from a wide variety of learning styles.

In the introductory lesson,...

Students will explore traditional West Coast Aboriginal peoples’ methods of utilizing the cedar tree.

1. Importance of the cedar tree
2. Origins of the cedar
3. Gathering and processing of cedar
4. Making a rose.

Procedures:

Introduction:

Trigger Activity: Display items made with cedar (hat, regalia, baskets, rope and roses). Ask the students if they know what the articles are made of. What do they know about the cedar tree? Why do they think Aboriginal people used cedar?...