Applicable for Grades 3–6 and Grades 7–12.

The lesson plans in Treaties and the Treaty Relationship: Educator’s Guide are framed on the Historical Thinking Concepts and offer teachers interactive instructional approaches that foster engaged student inquiry. They are fortified with maps, weblinks, and supporting Blackline Masters.

Lesson plan themes explore Treaties across Canada from time immemorial to the present, making a concerted link between the past and the future.

As well, each learning activity offers adaptions and/or activities based on the lesson theme for exploring Treaties in grades three to six.

It is with the greatest appreciation that we thank the many contributors and supporters of the Treaties and Treaty Relationship: Educator’s Guide.

Go to the website to download the pdf package.

This timeline presents key events and developments in Indigenous history in what is now Canada, from Time Immemorial to present. While no timeline can be exhaustive in its coverage, it provides a broad chronological overview to support educators and students.

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.

An inquiry-based project to map the land in your community. The key concepts in this unit are grounded in Indigenous beliefs of interconnectedness, connectedness, and respect for all things.

The driving inquiry questions for this unit are:
1. How can respect for the land be shown?
2. What do we look for when setting up a camp?
3. What stories or teachings are connected to key locations in and around our community?
4. How has the land around our community changed over time?
5. Who do we share our community’s lands with?

This video resource, created for teachers and students in Saskatchewan, offers insights from four cultural groups: Anishinabee, Cree, Métis, and Dene. It includes personal stories that emphasize the significance of the seasons and how they influence community life and traditional practices. You’ll discover reflections on the essential roles of elders and knowledge keepers, as well as the importance of kinship, family, and community connections. The resource also addresses Treaty education, storytelling, traditional foods, ceremonies, land-based learning, along with personal narratives about residential schools. By sharing these stories and perspectives, we enhance our understanding and knowledge as we progress on the journey of truth and reconciliation.

Indigenous art colouring page in honour of National Day of Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day
Child, Heart, Florals

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.

This Treaty focus will be implemented in the Grade Four Social Studies quite well, and has been a part of the current curricula. My objective is to focus on the Treaty information and the impact that the Indian Act of 1876 had upon the First Nations of Saskatchewan. To do this, I plan to use the government Treaty Kit more, and obtain information from our liaison teachers in the school for materials, ideas and suggestions. In particular, there are Smartboard activities , and interactive websites from FNIM. Much of the Social studies content is on Saskatchewan, the Land, The People, interactions and interdependence of individuals, societies, cultures, and nations. Fitting specific Treaty information and essential learnings can mesh with this subject, though many FNIM topics are also in the Language Arts and Science. My goal is to focus study on the treaties themselves, the Indian Act of 1876, and its implications and results, and through various forms of evaluation, have results that show the students have a better understanding of this goal.

Options are provided for I DO, WE DO and YOU DO for this very well-planned Grade 7/8 project.

The historical thinking concepts developed and promoted by the Historical Thinking Project have been incorporated into curricula, classroom resources, and professional development tools. They include:

Provincial Historical Thinking Projects - Application process and criteria.

Blog Archive - Read about the experiences and reflections of four young teachers on the challenges and rewards of working with the historical thinking concepts.

Books - Order books that explore more deeply the teaching with the six historical thinking concepts.

Historical Thinking Posters – A set of six 12 x 17" posters illustrating the Historical Thinking Concepts is available in English and in French.

Demonstrations and Discussions - PD resources to assist in incorporating historical thinking into the classroom.

Lessons - We are currently in the process of transferring lessons from the old site. These are not yet available.

Other Classroom Materials - Teacher’s resource guides, historical thinking lessons developed by other organizations (usually in collaboration with us), and links to websites that contain historical thinking lessons.

Research - A sampling of research related to historical thinking and the curriculum.

Workshops - Contact these experienced workshop providers directly for assistance in professional development.

Use of Materials/Copyright

We encourage the use of resources, lessons, and information from our site, but we ask that you credit the Historical Thinking Project for the ideas and materials, by listing our name and our website URL (www.historicalthinking.ca). Fair use of resources does NOT include posting of HTP power points, videos, or other resources on other sites. Use a link to www.historicalthinking.ca instead.

We want historical thinking incorporated into curriculum, classrooms, and educational resources as widely as possible. When you reference the Historical Thinking Project (www.historicalthinking.ca) you are helping us to achieve this goal.

This package is the online accompaniment for our feature travelling education kit: History Box. In this package you’ll find digitized copies of each object found in the box, historical context, additional resources and activity suggestions. You do not need to borrow the kit to use this online resource.

This package contains objects and resources that are represented in the Canadian Museum of History’s signature exhibition, the Canadian History Hall. Collected from across the country, and highlighting varied perspectives, these objects illuminate the richness and diversity of the Canadian experience. They can be used as entry points to discussions on different periods in Canada’s history, or as lessons in historical inquiry that can build students’ critical thinking and historical inquiry skills.

To book a History Box, or for more information, please visit historymuseum.ca/learn/history-box.

The topics covered in this History Box include Early Canada, Colonial Canada, and Modern Canada.

There are two types of activities: Package Activities and Object Activities.

Package Activities are project-based activities designed to accommodate one or more classes. These activities involve the use of historical thinking concepts while exploring the whole package, resulting in a more comprehensive experience.

Object Activities are short inquiry-based activities that typically take 5–25 minutes. These activities encourage students to think critically about the objects being presented, and to use historical thinking concepts.

Both types of activities were created with the guidance of educators from across Canada, and incorporate current educational theory and approaches.

Is everything accessible?
We know that everyone accesses information differently, and have tried to ensure that package content addresses the varied needs of students and educators. Some of the many ways in which these packages support accessibility:

- Three levels of historical context to accommodate different ways of learning.
- A variety of media, including audio and video content, for diverse learning abilities.
- Multiple activity suggestions for diverse learning abilities.
- Content can be read with Assistive Technology applications.
- Downloadable and printable content that can be accessed offline.
- Transcripts for video, audio and hard-to read archival documents.
- Video subtitles in both official languages.
- Content is available in both official languages.
- Website complies with Website Content Accessibility 2.0 AA Guidelines.

"Human rights stories are all around us. We explore contemporary and historic human rights stories, from Canada and around the world."

This resource from The Canadian Museum for Human Rights explores numerous stories about Indigenous Perspectives (treaty education, witness blanket, UN Rights of Indigenous, Mincome, reconciliation, veterans, etc. ), Social Justice (BLM, misogyny, racism, genocide, antisemitism, Holodomor, refugees, etc.)

Each story contains information, artifacts, images, and questions to guide your thinking. It also links to related stories for further exploration.

This comprehensive site from North East School Division provides resources for:

*Elementary Students - Arts, Social Studies, ELA, Health, Science

*High School Students - Arts, Social Studies, Math, Health, Science, French, ELA, Drama, PAA, Psychology

*Multi-Age

*Adults & Teachers

*Legends

Indigenous Saskatchewan Encyclopedia
Over 200 entries about Saskatchewan's Indigenous history for you to discover

Concentus Citizenship Education Foundation Inc. is the foundation that administers, supports, and fundraises for the development and advancement of the Concentus classroom-ready, kindergarten to grade 12 teaching resources for citizenship. A committed group of teacher-leaders developed these grade-specific resources to directly align with Saskatchewan curricula.
The declared purpose of the Concentus Citizenship Education Foundation is to:

Educate and empower individuals to understand their rights
Encourage responsible, respectful and participatory citizenship
Promote a commitment to justice in a pluralistic society.

Resources and lessons tied to curricular outcomes for SK are provided for K-12!

This resource was created by Sun West School Division teachers to support integrating allareas of wellness in the daily lives of our students to enhance their well-being.This resource includes activities for each domain of wellness: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, and Social. The activities are arranged by month, but feel free to adapt the order to your classroom's needs. Students can work on these projects independently, with their families, or as a class.The resource includes connections to learning outcomes for the Grade K-2 curriculum including the Treaty Education Outcomes.We have included a focus on goal setting and reflection in order to meet ELA Assess & Reflect outcomes, as well as the Health Decision-Making and Action Planning outcomes. 

Why were bison essential to people living on the plains, prior to the time of Treaty negotiations (1870s)? What does the bison represent today? This LIVE Arts broadcast features contemporary artwork and storytelling by Métis artist Leah Marie Dorion, based on her children's book, "Métis Camp Circle: A Bison Culture Way of Life." Leah reads from the book, discusses the importance of bison (past and present), explains the use of Métis symbolism and discuss the composition and design of the illustrations. Leah guides students through a live drawing activity where they learn to draw and paint a bison as inspired by Leah's particular style of creating and imagery.

This site houses great resources for teaching Government.

You can sort resources by grade (K-12), subject, or topic.

Topics include: relationships, mock trials, elections, government, treaties, families, law, youth criminal justice act, courts, drugs and alcohol, creating laws, democracy and more.

"The purpose of this support material is to assist educators in using collaborative inquiry to engage in conversations and develop actions to deepen their own, their students’ and communities’ understanding of residential school experiences and related issues that affect the process of reconciliation in Saskatchewan.
These materials may be used in a variety of contexts such as staff meetings, professional learning groups, workshops, school councils and community gatherings. The sample conversation questions and actions may also be useful for individual teacher reflection and planning."

Conversation 1 - What is Reconciliation

Conversation 2 - What do we know about SK residential schools?

Conversation 3 - How can we incorporate culturally-responsive practices in our classrooms to honour the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations and calls to action?

Conversation 4 - How can we move forward...?

Additional Supports

Other Projects in SK

Reconciliation is about exploring the past and choosing to build a better future. Sharing stories of understanding helps one another to build trust. We want to hear about your moments of reconciliation.

Head to the "Education" Tab to access resources.