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Social Studies 5 to 6

 

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Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 5

Canadian Issues and Governance

 

Construct arguments defending the significance of individuals/groups, places, events, or developments (significance):

Sample activities:

  • Identify and assess the significance of individuals who have contributed to the development of Canada’s identity in various areas (e.g., the arts, literature, science and medicine, government, military, exploration, law and order, public service).
Emily Carr in her studio, 1936. Harold Mortimer-Lamb/BC Archives D-06009
Joy Kogawa, writer.
The railway connected British Columbia to the rest of Canada. Here is the first train between Montreal and the BC coast, 1886. Denley, Norman, Library and Archives Canada PA-066579

Take stakeholders’ perspectives on issues, developments, or events related to East and South Asian Immigration (perspective):

Sample activities:
Above: From 1914 to 1941, the Asahi (a Japanese word meaning “morning sun”) was one of the best baseball teams in Vancouver. It was the pride of the Japanese community. All the best players wanted to belong. The team disbanded when most of the players were sent away from the coast during World War II. Sanmiya Family Collection. Japanese Canadian National Museum 94/41.018

Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place, and assess appropriate ways to respond (ethical judgment):

 Sample topics:

A street in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1904. It is early morning and vegetable farmers have brought their produce to town by wagon to sell. Most Chinese people preferred to live in Chinatown among friends and family. At the same time, in Vancouver the Chinese were not allowed to own property outside Chinatown so they were more or less forced to live there. Vancouver Public Library 6729

The changing nature of Canadian immigration over time:

Sample topics:

Chinese Labour Corps
The Chinese labour corps were technically a non-combatant force, but saw plenty of action in their work near the front. From The Graphic Magazine, Mar. 16, 1918
  • Push and pull factors
  • Settlement pattern
  • Growth of cities, provinces, and territories as a result of immigration 

Key questions:

Chinese labourers arriving at William Head quarantine station during WWI. BC Archives G-01591

Past discriminatory government policies and actions, such as the Chinese Head Tax, the Komagata Maru incident, residential schools, and internments:

Sample topics:

A group of Doukhobors in British Columbia around 1910. BC Archives A-02072

Key questions:

  • What types of discrimination have immigrants to Canada faced (e.g., cases of systemic discrimination by local, provincial, and federal levels of government)?
  • How might Canadian society be different today if exclusionary policies toward immigrants from East and South Asia had not been developed during certain periods of history?
  • What effects did residential schools have on First Peoples families and communities?

Human rights and responses to discrimination in Canadian society:

Sample topics:

  • Racism
  • Protest movements 

Resources and economic development in different regions of Canada:

 Sample activities:

  • What natural resources are most important to the economy of your community?

First Peoples land ownership and use:

 Sample topics:

Aboriginal fisher netting salmon at Lillooet, 1993. Roy Luckow photo

Key questions:

Masked Natives block Douglas Lake Road in a protest against fishing regulations on Douglas Lake Ranch, 1995. Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun

Take stakeholders’ perspectives on issues, developments, or events that are local or global (perspective):

Sample activities:

  • Compare and assess two or more perspectives on a local or global issue.

Global poverty and inequality issues, including class structure and gender:

 Sample topics:

Key questions:

  • How does discrimination and prejudice in modern Canadian society compare with that during other periods in Canada’s past or in other societies 
    (e.g., systemic discrimination, overt racism)?

Economic policies and resource management, including effects on indigenous peoples:

Sample topics:

 

Logging truck being unloaded at Stillwater, near Powell River, 1994. The stiff-leg crane to which the grapple is attached is the largest in the world. Keith Thirkell photo
Young workers at the entrance of the Nanaimo coal mine shaft around 1870. British Columbia Archives C-03710
Brailing fish from a salmon trap, 1907. BC Archives B-06318

Key questions:

  • How should decisions about economic policy and resource management be made?
  • How should societies balance economic development with the protection of the environment?
The Raging Grannies protesting logging in Clayoquot Sound, 1993. WCWC

 

Grade 6

Global Issues and Governance

 

Economic policies and resource management, including effects on indigenous peoples:

Sample topics:

Gillnetters at work near the mouth of the Fraser River around 1910. Sometimes fishers stayed out in these small boats for several days. BC Archives B-08416

Key questions:

  • How should decisions about economic policy and resource management be made?
  • How should societies balance economic development with the protection of the environment?

 

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