Historica Canada Education Portal

The Canadian Encyclopedia is a free, bilingual resource of over 20,000 fact-checked articles and learning tools about Canada's history and culture. The Canadian Encyclopedia has hundreds of resources for teachers including timelines, quizzes and education guides covering provincial and territorial curriculum topics for social sciences & history, Indigenous studies, geography & sciences, civics and more. Visit thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.

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...

In this lesson, students will sort and categorize various Canadian coins, noting the type of information recorded on the fronts and backs and speculating on the significance of the portrayed events, people or developments. Using the Royal Canadian Mint’s timeline, they will examine a number of historical Canadian coins, determining with a partner the three most historically significant designs. They will use their selections to define the concept of historical significance.

Students...

In this lesson, students will begin by examining the concepts of cause and consequence of a well-known local or provincial issue. They will investigate the causes leading up to Governor James Douglas’ decision to finance the building of the Cariboo Road and explore the intended and unintended political and economic consequences resulting from the decision. Finally, imagining themselves in the role of Douglas, students will prepare a written or oral brief arguing the ramifications to...

In this lesson, students will correlate historical information of the evolution of the Canadian National Railway from its conception to today. Within their research, the students will identify factors that have had an impact on the CN’s development, both positively and negatively. Students will explore and determine whether these factors that have effected change over time can be classified as having contributed to progress or decline in the development of the Canadian National’s...