October is Women’s History Month in Canada, a time to celebrate the women and girls from our past, and our present, who are contributing to a better, more inclusive Canada.

In 1992, the Government of Canada designated October as Women’s History Month, marking the beginning of an annual celebration of the outstanding achievements of women and girls throughout Canada’s history. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Women’s History Month.

This year’s theme, She Did, So Now I Can, celebrates the actions of inspiring Canadian women that positively impact our lives today, right now, at this very minute. We are thankful for their courage and for inspiring us to do better.

The menu for this site includes links to explore:
- Women in Canadian History: A Timeline
- Women of Impact
- Women's History Month 2022
- International Day of the Girl Child - October 11
- Persons Day - October 18

The virtual field trips on this site include:
The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario
Iqaluit, Nunavut – The Canadian Arctic
Farm Tours
Canadian Museum of History
The Royal Tyrrell Museum

2021 marked the 25th anniversary since The Honourable Jean Augustine introduced the motion to make February Black History Month in Canada. Alongside Augustine, many Black Canadians have played an important role in shaping our country’s history, all while facing much discrimination and racism. Although such achievements should be recognized year-round, February is a time to honour the legacy of Black Canadians and reflect on the many contributions they have made to our country. Brightspark has compiled a list of teacher resources to help you do just this! Find videos, podcasts, activities and more designed to celebrate Canada’s Black heritage and introduce diverse learning in the classroom.

This playlist features films that confront racism. They are a small selection of films from the NFB collection that look at instances of racism in Canada, and support dialogue on equality and diversity.

Sign up for a 45 minute virtual field trip, and follow it up with a classroom unit about human rights and being an upstander. The classroom unit includes an inquiry project.

Virtual Field Trip:
Students will learn how to be human rights upstanders by discovering the stories of people who used their personal strengths to take a stand to protect their rights and the rights of others, creating change.

Students will:
1. Learn to identify traits all upstanders possess and understand that each of us also possess these traits in our own unique way.
2. Experience exhibits and the inspiring Museum architecture as if they were at the Museum in person.
Interact with a Museum guide and ask questions to better understand how they can take action for positive change.
3. Engage in discussion, critical thinking and reflection on their role in the protection of their own rights and the rights of others.

Classroom Unit:
The Be an Upstander resource is a project-based learning unit designed to complement the “Be an
Upstander” school program. This resource targets students in middle years and encourages inquiry and
action on human rights issues. Students will examine the traits of human rights upstanders and follow
their example. By the end of the project, students will have had the opportunity to explore an issue they
are personally passionate about, share their knowledge and lead others toward action.

The Be an Upstander website is a digital student experience designed to support student learning as part
of a larger human rights themed, project-based learning unit. Students developing upstander projects
will engage in personal inquiry and action on human rights issues that matter to them. Students will learn
about the traits of human rights upstanders, be introduced to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and examine their personal strengths. Following the example of the upstanders they learn about,
students will be challenged to take tangible steps to becoming human rights upstanders themselves.

If you need this resource in a different format for accessibility purposes, please contact
info@humanrights.ca.

Be an Upstander website: https://humanrights.ca/upstander/#/
Complementary teacher's guide https://humanrights.ca/upstander/#/teacher-guide

This edition of Kayak opens in new window, shares some amazing stories and examples of the ways Black Canadians built and shaped this country. You get great stories , as well as articles featuring people who have helped preserve and promote Black history, Black women’s organizations with long histories, and Canadians with Afro-Indigenous heritage.

The purpose of this Guide is to enhance your students' knowledge and appreciation of the Black Canadian experience, drawing from Lawrence Hill's award-winning historical fiction, The Book of Negroes, the remarkable journey of Aminata Diallo and the historic British document known as the "Book of Negroes." Structured around themes of journey, slavery, human rights, passage to Canada and contemporary culture, this Guide asks students to examine issues of identity, equality, community, and nation-building in both a historical and contemporary context.

In 2008, a group called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was made. Their job was to listen
to stories about residential schools and then write the stories down so we can learn from our mistakes.
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced their 94 Calls to Action. These are 94
activities all governments, courts, businesses, schools, and people living in Canada can do to help fix the
mistakes of the past and present so that all children – including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children –
can grow up happy, healthy, safe, and proud of who they are.

This booklet is written by Spirit Bear as a youth-guide to the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action. Each of the calls is outlined in student-friendly language that will give them a deeper understanding of Truth and Reconciliation process.

The seminal Canada at War documentary film series was first broadcast on the CBC on April 3, 1962. Its 13 half-hour episodes were culled from more than 14,000,000 feet of film, mostly shot by Canadian Army cameramen during the Second World War but also including footage shot by German and British film crews. It took a team of editors three years to put the series together under the supervision of documentary filmmaker extraordinaire Donald Britain (who also wrote the commentary). It remains, to this day, one of the most important works on the Second World War.

Canadian Geographic Education provides learning resources to help improve students’ understanding of the world they live in. Geographically literate students are better prepared to face global challenges and have the skills necessary to become effective change agents. Use these resources to inspire curiosity and exploration in your classroom!

Lesson plans
Videos
Maps
Infographics
Activities

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.

CrashCourse offers many YouTube videos that support various historical topics, such as sociology, world history, and much more!

You can learn pretty much anything with these videos!

Science, History, Language Arts, & Study Skills, Games & More!

Currents4Kids.com / Infos-Jeunes.com is an engaging, online interactive current events resource for students in grades 3 and up.

*Download free articles/activities from recent issues of Building Bridges (grades 5 and up), The Canadian Reader (grades 3 and up) & What in the World (grades 5-10)!

This 21st century teaching and learning tool explores local, national, and international news stories. It works across all platforms, from iPods to iPads to desktop computers, allowing teachers and students to make meaningful use of the Internet whenever – and wherever – they choose.

C4K is published once per week (except over Christmas and Spring Break) from mid-August until mid-June.

Key features of this exciting new resource include:
-Weekly articles
-On-the-Lines and Between-the-Lines quizzes
-Comment page
-Links to relevant articles, resources, maps, photos and videos
-Suggested activities including pdfs of the articles and quizzes

A subscription will help you to:
-Encourage non-fiction reading by providing age-appropriate, leveled, engaging and relevant text.
-Build students' vocabulary and background knowledge.
-Make better use of technology and time.
-Provide students with an opportunity to express their opinions in a safe, structured environment and allow them to read what other students their age say on the same topics.
-Save time by automatically grading quizzes and allowing teachers to manage writing assessment online.
-Most of all, excite your students about their world, and what's happening in it!

How it works: Access for a full school year (10 months) costs $230 per school; after receiving access to the site, the subscriber may invite all the other teachers within the same school to join their account. Teachers can then create classes listing their students.

This is a 45 minute virtual field trip.

Your class will explore human rights ideas through an artistic lens. You will use a piece of paper and your thoughts and reflections to explore various artistic ways of expressing human rights. Our program interpreters will lead you through artistic journaling and the exciting views of art and human rights at the Museum.

Students will:

Learn to identify ways that art is used to express ideas for human rights.
Experience exhibits and the inspiring Museum art as if they were at the Museum in person.
Interact with a Museum guide and art journal to better understand how they can take action with art.
Engage in discussion, critical thinking and reflection on their role in expressing human rights through art.

Find a ton of pre-recorded virtual events from Flipgrid to use with your class.
There is something here for every age group, and every subject!
Enjoy exploring.

Find future Flipgrid events here (copy and paste into a browser) https://blog.flipgrid.com/upcomingflipgridliveevents

In this unit of study, students will be asked to complete a performance task (create a brochure) in which they design a country that will provide a productive and positive place for people to live. They will develop a constitution for the country that they created.

Lessons and accompanying assessments included:.

This is a year plan created using GAP resources that any teacher can take and use. This is intended for teachers new to teaching Grade Six, but can be used by any Grade Six teacher to offer ideas of what can be used to teach the content of the Grade Six curriculum. 

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.

1 min. video
A eulogy is given for Tommy Prince, Canada’s most-decorated Indigenous war veteran.
For more information about Tommy Prince, visit: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca