Heritage Fairs

Promoting Student Inquiry

Heritage Fairs

The Heritage Fair program encourages students to explore Canada's heritage and history in a fun and engaging learning environment. Students select a topic, decide on a key inquiry question, complete research, and summarize their findings through a format of their choice. Students present their research findings to their classmates, families, and members of their community in a school- or community-based event. For many young students, the Heritage Fair program is their first introduction to history and an opportunity to investigate family or personal histories, drawing on the resources of their local community.

Since the first pilot Heritage Fair in 1993, almost 2 million students have participated in a school-based, regional, or provincial Heritage Fair. Since 2010, Canada’s History has been the national charitable organization to support Heritage Fairs and the thousands of teachers, volunteers, and sponsors that come together annually to create a meaningful and transformational educational program for students throughout Canada.

Heritage Fairs support inquiry and cross-curricular learning and can be adapted to meet the needs and interests of your students. Best of all, students get to share their learning with their peers, family, and community, resulting in a meaningful experience for all involved.

“From a broad curriculum perspective, the Fairs really bring out the core competencies with students: communication, thinking, and personal/social. Students really think about how their learning relates to their identity in the world.” – Heritage Fair teacher

Teacher and Coordinator Resources

Historical Inquiry:

• What’s the Story? — With project examples from students from across Canada, this publication will guide students through the process of undertaking a historical inquiry project — from sparking curiosity, designing a good inquiry question, and deciding how, where, and why to share their story. We recommend having students use this magazine step-by-step as they work on their Heritage Fair projects.
• Student Prompts— What’s the Story? includes several prompts (called Your Turn) that encourage students to put what they’ve learned into practice. Your students can even follow the links to share their responses online and see what answers other students from across Canada have come up with.
  • Picking a topic
  • Crafting a good inquiry question
  • Conducting research
• Educator's Guide — This educator’s guide provides teachers with suggested activities to accompany each prompt in What's the Story?, so you and your students can get the most out of this publication.

For Your Classroom Fair:

• Teacher’s Guide — An overview of Heritage Fairs designed for teachers that corresponds with the student planner.
• Student Heritage Fair Planner — A printable planner that your students can fill out as they are working on their projects. Note: you may need to make additional copies of the research pages for your students.
• Heritage Fair Poster — Get your students excited about Heritage Fairs — and thinking about what makes a good historical inquiry — with this poster.
• Past issues of Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids — Discover back issues of Kayak to help your students explore and select potential Heritage Fair topics.
• Heritage Fair Countdown — Follow this checklist to keep you and your students on track.
• Certificate of Participation — for students
• Certificate of Recognition — for volunteers

Regional Heritage Fairs:

• List of Fairs — Find a regional, provincial or territorial fair in your community.
• Heritage Fair Promotional Poster (blank version) — Display the date, location, and any other relevant information about your upcoming Heritage Fair.

National Program

From 2012-2024, Young Citizens was the national program for Heritage Fairs, where participants produced a short video on the topic they explored as part of their Heritage Fair project. More than 1,100 student videos are posted online at CanadasHistory.ca/YoungCitizens. 

Young Citizens was administered by Canada’s National History Society, with the support of the Government of Canada, Bruce MacLellan & Karen Girling, and Canada Life.
 
Beginning in the spring of 2025, Canada's History will introduce a new National Showcase as the national program for Heritage Fairs. Check back soon for more information.