Part 1 of The Sharing Circle from APTN. A look into native Canadian history.

Part 2 of the series is available on this site.

Canadian art is a door to learning about a wide range of subjects.

The Art Canada Institute teacher resource guides presented here offer students the opportunity to study a multitude of subjects—from environmental awareness to activism, social justice to gender studies, politics to computer science (to name a few)—through the art and artists who have defined this country’s visual culture.

Following our provinces’ education curricula, the teacher resource guides provide multidisciplinary learning activities that reveal how Canadian art powerfully reflects our world so we can better understand it.

Activities for K-12!

Socially-based Curriculum Unit
The main focus of the unit, developed for CHC2P, Grade 10 Applied History, is to look at the curriculum from a First Nation’s perspective. The unit was developed to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of how First Nations contributed to the development of Canadian society. The unit also looks at both how events in history both impacted on First Nations communities, and how history was shaped by First Nations contributions.

The unit begins by looking at the effects of Residential Schools on individuals and communities in the past and today. Next students will look at First Nations contributions to the war effort in World War One and World War Two, by looking at some extraordinary individuals such as Tom Longboat, Francis Pegamagabow, and Henry Norwest. Students will also explore how First Nations people had to fight for equal rights in Canada through creating their own political organizations. There will also be a focus on the current realities in First Nations communities, which will be highlighted by looking at the issues of land claims and self-government. Lastly the unit will end with a culminating task that highlights a wide range of First Nations leaders and their contributions in the past and present to Canadian society.

The Grade 6 and 8 Social Studies classes will collaboratively create a display
demonstrating Canadian treaties. This will provide the students with an
opportunity to be engaged in a high-level task, discussing, making shared
decisions, and designing a product that demonstrates deeper learning.

The Circle of Courage is a program based on the Medicine Wheel that integrates traditional Aboriginal ways of knowing, community values, and development. It teaches the importance of four needs for healthy growth and development: Spirit of belonging, Spirit of Mastery, Spirit of Independence and Spirit of Generosity. One example can be found at the government of Manitoba's site.

Set on the Tsilhqot’in plateau in the 1970s, Clouds of Autumn focuses on a young Indigenous boy named William and his older sister Shayl whose carefree childhoods are torn apart when Shayl is forced to attend a residential school. Singular visual interpretations infuse co-director Trevor Mack’s family history with a slowly shifting tone that evokes loss and love.

BEST CANADIAN SHORT DRAMA - 2015 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

This site provides lessons developed to help students understand the Inuit culture.
Lesson 1
- Lesson Question: How do Inuit on Baffin Island live, and how does Arctic life resemble and differ from ours?
Lesson 2
- Lesson Question: What can Inuit life on Baffin Island teach us?
Lesson 3-4
- Lesson Question: How does a short book about the Arctic (such as Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak's NORTHERN LIGHTS: THE SOCCER TRAILS or his BASEBALL BATS FOR CHRISTMAS, both from Annick Press, Buffalo, NY) illustrate Inuit life, social interaction, and environments?
Lesson 5
- Lesson Question: How does Inuit culture reflect beliefs, issues, and events relevant to societies past and present?
Lesson 6
- Lesson Question: How does Inuit culture compare to my own culture?

Provided by the Government of Saskatchewan to the University of Regina, this is a Cree Language Learning resource that one can download and use for free.
The comprehensive resource includes chapters on dialects, many grammatical topics, expressions, vocabulary and much more.

This is a matching activity. It gives a brief description of an Aboriginal historical contribution or invention and pictures that are to be matched to each.

Grade 2.

This site provides demographic information about young Aboriginal children in Canada. Statistics provided by information collected in the 2016 census.

EARTH SONGS

Socials within all Iroquois communities are meant to be enjoyed by all in attendance, especially when everyone dances.

Social songs vary in length, verses and tempo depending on the song selection of the singers. All dances are done in a counter clockwise direction.

A social is run by a "house keeper" or "pusher". The job of the "house keepers" is to find lead singers and to know which songs that each lead singer knows. Their job also includes finding lead dancers for the upcoming dance. He then goes to the announcer with the information. All dances are introduced in the Iroquois language of the speaker. In some instances, instructions are provided to ensure that dances are carried out properly.

WATERDRUM
The instruments used in the social dances in various combinations are the water drum, the horn rattle, hard sticks and the beating of the feet on the floor.

This site gives examples of a number of different social dances and Earth Songs

Moose stew? Char? Blueberries? Bannock? For the first time, a national food guide has been created which reflects the values, traditions and food choices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

This new tailored food guide includes both traditional foods and store-bought foods that are generally available, affordable and accessible across Canada and provides unique images and content.

Recommendations are based on the new 2007 version of Canada's Food Guide.

This publication is also available in Inuktitut, Ojibwe, Plains Cree and Woods Cree.

This report examines some of the key issues surrounding the education of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students and proposes a governance framework that school boards can use to improve student results.
Written for Alberta Education.

Through Problem based learning the students will take the perspective of a fictional character from the mid 1800’s to gain a perspective on the external forces that pushed Canada towards Confederation. The students will be given disclosures that guide them to further enquiry regarding topics like the U.S. manifest destiny, the British Corn Laws, the Treaty of Reciprocity, the U.S. Civil War, and the Fenian raids into Canada. Through this enquiry process, the students will be challenged to use the historical thinking concepts of: historical significance, continuity and change, cause and consequence, and historical perspective. Once the students have completed their research around all of the disclosures they will then need to write a speech that outlines what they believe to be the best course of action for the elected assembly of Canada to take, considering all of the external pressures that are on the British colonies of North America at this point in history. The students are required to be creative in their speech as they do not have any information in the disclosures that tells the students that these events would contribute to Canada’s Confederation in 1867.

Welcome to GoodMinds.com! We are your leading source for purchasing bias-free teaching and educational resources related to Native American, First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal studies. GoodMinds.com stocks over 3,000 Indigenous titles from Preschool to Adult.

An First Nations-owned family business, GoodMinds.com is based on the Six Nations of the Grand River (Brantford) in Southwestern Ontario.

This site can help you find good resources for FNME to purchase.

Canadian kids from isolated communities forced to move away from their families – just to go to school.

This video follows the stories of young students who have to leave their home community to attend school.

The “Planting the Seed” series is produced by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs and the Elders Advisory Committee.

The “Planting the Seed Series” is sharing and teaching about First Nation culture. The tree represents a symbol of life and began as a seed. As the seed gets nourished the more it will flourish. Like the tree of life, a person will also flourish when cultural nourishment is given. It helps to grow the individual, family, community and nation. The sharing of this information helps to plant the seed that leads to a life long journey of learning. Sharing - The First Nation Way.

Categories to learn about:
- Sacred medicines
- Medicine circle
- Medicine pouch
- Naming ceremony
- Fasting
- Sunset and sunrise ceremony
- Talking circle
- Moon time
- Regalia
- Medicine bundle
- Dream catcher
- Drum
- Sacred pipe
- Sacred fire
- Pow-wow
- Eagle
- Sweatlodge
- Songs
- Dance
- Elder

Grade Levels: 7/8
Subject Area: Social Studies, History, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit studies, Geography, Language Arts, Visual Arts

Lesson Overview
Students learn how Aboriginal peoples were impacted by settlement and colonization. Students choose a variety of Indigenous nations and learn aspects of their traditional way of life before settlement/colonization by Europeans.

The lessons in this resource guide are designed to be implemented in a range of courses, such as civics, history, social sciences, English, geography, business, careers, physical education and science. The resource has been produced as a PDF file on CD with an accompanying video on this website. Although the lessons are intended for use with high school curricula, the video and activity sheet may be of use to all Federation members who work with students.

The guide includes resources on:
- land
- residential schools
- health
- identity