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Aboriginal Studies are part of the grade four Social Studies curriculum. This website was created with the intention that it could be a useful resource and learning tool in the classroom with respect to the Aboriginal Studies curriculum. The language level and the activities are directed toward the grade four student with the intention that the teacher guide them through the information and supervise the activities.
There is a downloadable pdf of this content below.
Learning Outcomes :
A. The student describes how different cultures meet peoples' needs in different ways. What kinds of needs do people have? This website focuses on shelter, food, and social needs. How does each culture (Haida, Huron, Inuit) meet these needs?
B. The student is aware of and appreciates different aboriginal cultures in Canada. How are these different? Use a longhouse, an igloo, and a Haida house to demonstrate this. What are the differences in the houses that they lived in?
C. The student understands the relationship between Aboriginal people and the land and resources. How does each culture relate to the land and resources? How does their environment affect how they live, the houses they build, the food they eat, the activities they carry out?
Student Activities
Some of these activities can be done in the classroom, but some are better left for the outdoors or the gymnasium. All of these activities should be demonstrated and supervised by the teacher. It is important to make sure the students understand the need to respect other people and other cultures.
Social Topics
- Draw a picture of the people who live in your house. How many people are there? If you live with just your family, do you know someone who shares their house with their extended family (other people like grandparents or aunts and uncles)?\
- Describe what a whole day and night in a longhouse might be like for someone your age, if they couldn't go outside. What kinds of things might they do? Think about what you do at your house when you can't go outside. How does the amount of space influence the types of things that you do?
- Compare the kinds of games played in the Arctic with the ones that people played on the Northwest Coast and in the Eastern Woodlands. What impact did the environment have on the types of games that the people played?
- You could also try out some of the games with your classmates or your siblings.
Food topics
- Compare types of food with the Inuit, the Haida, and the Huron
- Where do you get your food? Do you have a garden, or do you buy everything from the store? What kinds of things do think you could eat if you had to survive outside? (CAUTION: DO NOT EVER EAT ANYTHING IN THE WILD, MEANING OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE OR A RESTAURANT, UNLESS YOU ARE WITH AN EXPERT.)
- Try to grow your own corn or beans. This is a good activity to do as a class or on your own. You could try to dry some corn by hanging it and then try to grind it into cornmeal. You could also find a recipe of an authentic First Nations dish and try it out.
- Where do you store food in your house? What kinds of things do we do to make food last a longtime?
Building Topics
- Would an igloo fit in your classroom? Move the desks into a circle. Take the meter stick and mark out how big an igloo might be. You could also do this on the field or in the gym. If you were really energetic, you could take a measuring tape and measure out how big a Huron longhouse and a Haida house might be. How many people can you fit in these spaces? How long can you stay inside these spaces?
- Draw a First Nations house or a totem pole.
Math Practice
Multiplication
Insert numbers in the spaces. Do several questions for each model given. Use numbers that will allow students to practice their multiplication tables up to twelve. As well, allow students some practice multiplying one digit numbers with two and three digit numbers.
A) If you have ______ fire(s), how many families live in the longhouse? (Hint- Two families share each fire.)
So, if there are two families for each fire, and there are _______ fire(s), 2 X ______ = ______ families that live in the longhouse.
B) If there are ______ families, and each family has ______ people in it, how many people live in the longhouse?
So, ______ families X ______ people in each family = people that live in the longhouse.
C) If there are ______ longhouses in the village, and each house has ______ fire(s), how many fires are there in the village?
So, ______ longhouses X ______ fire(s) = ______ fire(s) in the village.
D) If there are ______ longhouses in the village, and each house has ______ fire(s), how many families are in the village? (Hint- Two families for each fire.)
So, 2 families for every fire X _____ fire(s) = ______ families in each longhouse. Then, ______ families in each longhouse X ______ longhouses in the village =
______ families in the village.
E) If there are _____ families in the village and each family has _____ people in it, how many people live in the village?
So, _____ families X _____ people in each family = _____ people in the village.
Division
Insert numbers in the spaces. Do several questions for each model given. To do this students will need to know and practice their multiplication tables. Use numbers that will allow the students to practice dividing two digit numbers by one digit numbers.
A) If there are ______ people in the village and there are _____ longhouses in the village, how many people live in each longhouse?
So, ______ people in the village (divided by) ______ longhouses =______ people in each longhouse.
B) If there are ______ people in the longhouse and each family has ______ people, how many families live in the longhouse?
So, ______ people in the longhouse (divided by) ______ people in each family =______ families in the longhouse.
C) If there are ______ families in the longhouse, how many fires does the longhouse have?
So, ______ families in the longhouse (divided by) 2 families for each fire =______ fire(s) in the longhouse.
D)If there are ______ people in the longhouse and there are ______ families, how many people are there in each family?
So, ______ people in the longhouse (divided by) ______ families =______ people in each family.
