This is part of the Heritage Saskatchewan Heritage Fairs initiative. “The Heritage Fairs program is an opportunity for students in grades 4-8 all over Saskatchewan to research, present, and explore Living Heritage topics of their choice.” https://heritagesask.ca/ We had local judges assess the projects. 3 Went on to the Regional fair and 1 is going on to the Provincial Fair.
Connection to critical thinking: Historical Thinking is a competency which is designed around 6 concepts that “help students explore the forest of historical data.” Ken Osborne. Better put, it is a way to critically think about and engage in history rather than have students simply address history at the knowledge and comprehension level of thinking. This is all based on the book The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts by Peter Sexias and Tom Morton.

In Social Studies 8, students worked over a 6-week period to create Heritage Fair projects on a topic of their choice connected to Canadian history. Throughout the process, I taught a series of mini-lessons that covered the Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts, as well as research methods and techniques. The flexibility of the project allowed students to cover a wide variety of topics within the Social Studies 8 curriculum.

This artifact encompasses creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking as it
presents the process of creating heritage fair projects with grades 4 and 5 students.
The heritage fair project was completed through a co-teaching and focused on
student-centered learning and project-based learning.

The new website for the Heritage Fairs (& High School Heritage Challenge) is now live and ready to accept project submissions for the Virtual Heritage Fair (grades 4-8) and the High School Heritage Challenge (grades 9-12)!

The Heritage Fair program provides the opportunity for students and their families, teachers and communities to learn about diverse Living Heritage projects.

There is still lots of time to prepare and submit a project to these contests, as the deadline is Monday, April 24. The online contests are open to all students in Saskatchewan.

Links to register and submit projects are on the homepage, as well as available in the dropdown menus for each respective contest.

Be sure to check out the Heritage Fairs toolkit that will give you topic inspiration, a list of popular research sources, and a detailed breakdown on how to create your presentation and share your findings. The toolkit is available in both English and French.

Le nouveau site web des Fêtes du patrimoine (et du Défi du patrimoine au secondaire) est maintenant en ligne et prêt à accepter les soumissions de projets pour la Fête du patrimoine virtuelle (niveaux 4 à 8) et le Défi du patrimoine au secondaire (niveaux 9 à 12) !

Le programme des Fêtes du patrimoine offre l'occasion aux élèves et à leurs familles, aux enseignants et aux communautés d'en apprendre davantage sur divers projets de patrimoine vivant.

Il reste encore beaucoup de temps pour préparer et soumettre un projet à ces concours, car la date limite est le lundi 24 avril. Les concours en ligne sont ouverts à tous les élèves en Saskatchewan.

Les liens pour s'inscrire et soumettre des projets se trouvent sur la page d'accueil, ainsi que dans les menus déroulants de chaque concours respectif.

Assurez-vous de consulter la trousse des Fêtes du patrimoine qui vous fournira de l'inspiration pour votre sujet, une liste de sources de recherche populaires et une description détaillée sur la création de votre présentation et le partage de vos résultats. La trousse est disponible en anglais et en français.