Settling in Canada Educational Package

For thousands of years before French, English, Spanish and other European people started sailing to this land, there were people living here. There were no borders, no countries, no provinces or territories. Inuit, First Nations and Métis hunted, fished, trapped, farmed and built communities here.

Starting about 400 years ago, people from Europe began building their own homes, often over top of Indigenous settlements. (What’s the story of your home?

The Europeans had to change what they ate and the money they used. And as their numbers grew, they continued to take land from Indigenous people.

Some kids were even sent here on their own.

All over Canada, there are places where you can see for yourself how both Indigenous people and settlers lived in earlier times.

Our Thanks

We are grateful to the Department of Canadian Heritage for their support of this educational initiative.

Also available in French

LESSON PLANS

One Region, One House

Students will observe the movements of settlers and establish connections between the characteristics of settler houses and the regions they occupy in this lesson.

A Shared History Through Food

In this lesson, students will read about the foods and drink featured in the article “Nine Foods (and One Drink)” and then discuss how both settlers and Indigenous peoples used/transformed these foods.

Settler Women in Canada

In this lesson, students will investigate what daily life would have looked like for women from six different settlements.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Finding Del's Truck

Students will explore historical significance as the process used by historians to evaluate what was important about particular events, people, and developments in the past.