Resources: Social Studies Grades K-4: Grade Four

Alberta: Celebrations and Challenges

Alberta: Celebrations & Challenges
Lessons and projects for teaching students about the culture of Alberta.If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
Alberta Facts for Kids
Learn lots of facts about Alberta in this children's encyclopedia article.
Britannica Kids: Alberta
Learn the facts about Alberta from this encyclopedia article.
Emblems of Alberta
Emblems are objects that symbolize another object or an idea. There are many official emblems of Alberta. Discover them on this site from the Alberta Government.
Naming the West
Place names carry stories, history, culture and values. Learn about the history of some of central Alberta's place. You can see the work of students as they explore how places and people got their names.
Stories from the Land: Indigenous Place Names in Canada
In Canada close to 30,000 official place names are, or may be, of Indigenous origin. Learn about a small sample of those names here!

Alberta: Sense of the Land

Alberta: A Sense of the Land: Lessons and Projects
A collection of maps, articles, brochures and other resources needed to teach students about Alberta. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
The official site for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump has information about Blackfoot History, how the site got its name, and school tours.
Heritage Minute: Inukshuk
In this short video, an RCMP officer watches an Inuit family build the Northern landmark (an inukshuk), a sign of human activity on the vast arctic landscape (1931).
LearnAlberta: Alberta Images Collection
This digital image collection includes photographs picturing elements of physical geography, climate, geology and paleontology that are integral to the landscapes and environment of Alberta.
Study Jams: Fossil Fuels
You can use the orange arrows to move the slide show or let the images change on their own. After the slide show, test your understanding of fossil fuels.
Study Jams: Fossils
You can use the orange arrows to move the slide show of fossils and paleontology digs or let the images change on their own. Try out the test about fossils as well.
Study Jams: Landforms
First, you can check out this slide show of landforms. Once you've got all the best info, try out the test and the karaoke.
Study Jams: Natural Resources
The orange arrows will move the slide show or you can let the images change on their own. After the slide show, test your understanding of natural resources.
Zooming In...Alberta's Regions
From Learn Alberta, click on various regions of the map and hotspots to learn all about the flora and fauna of the physical regions of Alberta.

The Stories, Histories and People of Alberta

Alberta's Inventors and Inventions Edukit: Teacher Zone
Here teachers will find lesson plans. The Informatics, Activities, and Multimedia sections contain textual information, puzzles, worksheets, images, video and audio clips that you and your students can use.
Alberta: Land of Opportunity
Created by the Alberta Heritage Community Foundation, this site will give students an overview of early settler history of our province.
Alberta First Nations and Metis
This site explores the history of Indigenous peoples on the land that became Alberta. This site was created by the Alberta Heritage Community Foundation
Alberta Inventors and Inventions
This site offers students and learners of all ages a broad portrait of Alberta's inventive spirit, a drive that has helped to shape the province's development and fuels current and ongoing research and development. Journey with us and discover that ingenuity has always been and will continue to be a vital part of every sector of industry in Alberta.
Alberta Settlement: The Chinese Settlers
Learn about the early migration of Chinese settlers into Alberta and what life was like for them here.
Amazing Race
In The Amazing Race, students explore agriculture and its strong connection to, and dependence on, the land, natural resources and population centres of geographic regions across Canada and Alberta.
Bella’s Story about Treaty 6 and Life on the Reserve
Bella Morrisseau Whiskeyjack, a nine-year-old from the Saddle Lake Cree First Nation in Alberta, shares her story about Treaty 6 and life on the reserve.
Black Settlers of Alberta and Saskatchewan Historical Society
On this site, you'll find a small collection of personal photos that document the lives of Black Canadians in Alberta
Canadian Encyclopedia: Timeline of Alberta
Scroll through the timeline; explore key developments in Alberta's history, from 1754 - 2017.
Fun Facts about Alberta
Learn more about the province you live in.
Heritage Minutes: Edmonton Grads
Watch this brief vignette about Edmonton's very successful women's basketball team, The Edmonton Grads. This is the classic black and white Heritage Minute video.
Heritage Minutes: The Edmonton Grads
This famous group of female basketball players were the most successful team in Canadian sports history. This is an updated version of a classic Heritage Minute.
The Mavericks
Examine hundreds of artifacts, historic photographs, documents and maps from the Glenbow Museum that help tell Alberta's story.
The Métis in Alberta
This site documents the history of Métis people in Western Canada generally and specifically in Alberta.
People of the Boreal Forest
An article from the archived Alberta Online Encyclopedia
Rupertsland Institute: B is for Bannock
A lesson plan for K-4 students from the Rupertsland Institute that uses Bannock as the medium for exploring Métis ideas of identity and community
Rupertsland Institute: Scrip Lesson
A lesson plan for grades 4-9 students from the Rupertsland Institute that explores the role of scrip Métis-Settler relationships.
Secret Alberta: Grande Prairie Dinosaurs
In 1974, a science teacher exploring near Grande Prairie stumbled upon a discovery that would lead to years of research, a multi-million-dollar world-class museum, and even a new species of dinosaur.
Secret Alberta: Kipling Saves Medicine Hat
Rudyard Kipling visited Medicine Hat, Alberta on three separate occasions during his lifetime. The then-booming gas town owes much to those visits, including the name “Medicine Hat.”
Secret Alberta: Red Deer Chronicles
Red Deer’s history is weird and wonderful. Just look at these three stories: the transplant of the original settlement site; the tale of Mickey the Beaver; and the success of a women’s hockey team still inspiring players today.
Secret Alberta: The Landlocked Shipyard
Fort McMurray had one of the most important shipyards in Canada. Dating back to the fur trade, the history reveals a vital partnership between indigenous populations and Europeans, from days of canoes to sternwheelers and barges.
Secret Calgary: The Weird and Wild Days of The Stampede
Discover the wild and thought-provoking stories of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth the Calgary Stampede. This “Secret Calgary” episode celebrates the city’s "gettin' er done" spirit, no matter what the obstacle.
Secret Edmonton: Canada's First Mosque
The Al Rashid Mosque is the first Mosque in Canada, and it exists only because of the perseverance of some very strong women. Their efforts brought together may faiths to build and preserve not just a building, but a community.
Secret Edmonton: The Legacy of Winnifred Stewart
It began as a fight for her son’s right to an education, but what Winnifred Stewart accomplished for persons with down syndrome and developmental disabilities is a worldwide legacy that Edmonton can be proud of.
The Stories, Histories & Peoples of Alberta
Lessons and projects developed to teach students about the history of Alberta. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
Tracking the Buffalo
This interactive explores "the role of the buffalo in the lives of the American Indians". How do the stories from a buffalo hide painting and activity about First Nations use of the buffalo relate to our Alberta history?
Turtle Island Game (non-flash version)
A game that teachers can print out and use to teach students about Indigenous people of Canada.
Turtle Island Game: Lesson Plans
Lesson plans that teachers can use with the Turtle Island game to teach students about the Indigenous people of Canada.
Virtual Farm Tours
This is a great Canadian site that has virtual interactive tours of eleven different types of farm (some of them are in Alberta). "Take a look inside the barns and through the fields to learn about the lives of the animals who live there and the farmers who work with them." (site)
Walking Together: Interactive Map of Alberta
This map allows you to choose several options for map background: natural regions, river systems, Treaty areas or Métis Nation of Alberta Regions. Then, you can choose the overlay of cities, highways, First Nations, Métis settlements or other places of FNMI significance.
Wikipedia: Canadian Pacific Railway
This article describes the history of railways in Canada generally and why they were so important to our country. It then examines the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway in detail.
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This 2007 Wikipedia Selection is a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and useful for much of the English speaking world. It is about the size of a fifteen volume encyclopaedia and includes essentially all topics in Wikipedia rated "Good" or higher by Wikipedia itself at date of production.
CBC Kids: The Word Indigenous Explained
A 2.5 minute animated video from CBC Kids News that explains what the word Indigenous means and how we use it.