How do you teach elementary students about the effects of Canadian geography on Canada\u2019s history? Or about how the vast array of geographical terrains and climates of early Canada impacted the Indigenous peoples and the first European settlers?<\/p>\n
You build a 3D map of Canada so large it\u2019s difficult to find a table big enough! At least, that is what Irene Johanson did with her enthusiastic class of grade 4 students.<\/p>\n
Irene, an ACS alumni, has been a valuable part of the ACS community, playing many different roles over the years, with just as much enthusiasm as the last.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had multiple, part-time positions at ACS, and taught every grade from kindergarten to grade 4<\/em>,\u201dshe shares. \u201cI started teaching grade 4, four years ago.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n When tasked with creating a unit project on Canada\u2019s geography and how it affected the Indigenous peoples and first settlers of Canada, Irene came up with the three-dimensional map idea after seeing an interactive globe at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. As a geography major in university, Irene often looked up pictures of different geographical features discussed in her classes so she could better understand what they looked like.<\/p>\n She wanted to provide that same visual for her students.<\/p>\n Constructed out of sand dough, the students created a replica of Canada from a bird\u2019s eye view, making everything from the Rocky Mountains to all the minuscule islands of Nunavut, including all major bodies of water.<\/p>\n \u201cI really wanted something tangible and visual, something the students could see. I wanted to make it come alive,<\/em>\u201d she reflected, \u201cI wanted it to be more than pen and paper.<\/em>\u201d Irene wanted her students to use real mapping skills and become true \u201cjunior cartographers\u201d during this project.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So, she and her students looked at satellite pictures to properly depict the different climates of Canada by the colour of their terrain. They also utilized elevation maps to determine how thick the sand dough should be based on the high and low elevation points of Canada. She wanted the students to see the physical geography of the land and understand how much of an impact it made on where and how people lived.<\/p>\n Along with constructing the map, the students also created miniature clay figurines of the different historical people they were learning about. The clay creations were placed in specific places on the map to accurately reflect where they lived in early Canada.<\/p>\n Figurines of the different Indigenous groups were put on the map first, naturally, because they were here first. The various explorers, such as Jacques Cartier and John Cabot, were added and the routes of their explorations of Canada were laid out as well. The students then put on their critical thinking cap and made inferences about what aspects of Canada\u2019s diverse geography affected each group and person. They pondered questions like, \u201cwhy did some Indigenous peoples hunt bison while others\u2019 primary food source was salmon?<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and \u201cwhy did the Rocky Mountains make exploration of British Columbia so difficult for the explorers?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n To further expand her student\u2019s understanding, Irene took the students on a journey of their own. The students became their own John Cabot by exploring the elementary campus, from the staff room to a wing of the school they were not familiar with. Irene used these explorations to drum up conversations of respect. They discussed what the students did\u2014or did not do\u2014to respect the different spaces. \u201c<\/strong>We reflected on what our wants and needs are and how we can fill those desires while still being respectful of all God has created,<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0she explained. They conversed on whether the explorers were respectful while fulfilling their desires for exploration when they came to Canada. Irene and her students also reflected on how they could be good stewards of God\u2019s creation and respect all his children.<\/p>\n Irene recognized the importance of letting the students feel like they were a part of something. She says they loved being able to come up with their own ideas and execute them as a team under the thoughtful guidance of their teacher. \u201cThis was an opportunity to be able to imagine, to see it tangibly, to have a hands-on experience, and to be able to get involved in a class project that they all worked together to create.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you teach elementary students about the effects of Canadian geography on Canada\u2019s history? Or about how the vast array of geographical terrains and climates of early Canada impacted the Indigenous peoples and the first European settlers? You build a 3D map of Canada so large it\u2019s difficult to find a table big enough! […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":6896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,33],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-6893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project-based-learning","category-elementary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6893"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=6893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sand Dough Mountains and Clay Creations<\/h2>\n
Off To Explore, We Go!<\/h2>\n