These lessons are designed for teachers to help grade 5 students learn about immigration and Canadian Citizenship through a series of fun activities involving discussion, books, role playing and computers. Teachers may wish to consult with their school Itinerant Librarian to get help in doing some of the activities in this unit.
by Joan Pearce, Liska Mahrt and Kara Turner
IRPs COVERED:
Grade 5 Social Studies:
-gather and record a body
of information from a variety of primary and secondary sources
-develop alternative interpretations from varied sources
-demonstrate appreciation of contributions of Aboriginal people, the French,
and the British to the development of Canada
-demonstrate understanding of why immigrants come to Canada, the challenges
they face, and their contributions to Canada
-explain citizenship in terms of participation in the community, province, country,
and world
-demonstrate understanding of equality and fairness in Canada with respect to
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
-demonstrate understanding of Canada as a bilingual nation within a multilingual
society
Grade 5 Language Arts:
-read, listen, and view for specific purposes
-apply dictionary skills, manually or electronically, to determine the meaning,
correct pronunciation, and accurate spelling of unknown words
-demonstrate understanding of the main ideas or events in print (including stories
and poetry) and in non-print media
-extend their understanding of a given selection by developing related questions
and activities
-locate and interpret details to answer specific questions or to complete tasks
-identify and use sources of information, including people, print, audio-visual
media, and electronic media
-select and shape information appropriately for specific audiences and purposes
-create a variety of personal and informational communications, including written
and oral stories, poems, or lyrics; explanations and descriptions; informal
oral reports and dramatics; and brief factual reports
Computer Scope and Sequence Covered:
-Launch browser to access
the World Wide Web, FTP sites, Gopher.
-Access information files and search sites.
-Evaluate search results for accuracy/relevance.
-Observe appropriate etiquette at all times.
-Select relevant information.
-Navigate a variety of multimedia documents (e.g. Hypercard, Kidpix, HTML).
-Save, name and retrieve
files.
-Insert the cursor to add or delete text.
-Introduce elementary graphic elements
-Change the margin settings.
-Create a document using columns (brochure, newspaper).
-Position and resize (text and images) to achieve an affective presentation.
-Relate writing process
to computer.
-Transcribe text from a prewritten document.
-Change font, size, style and colour of text appropriate to presentation.
All worksheet names that are in bold, gray writing can be clicked on to be viewed and printed in Adobe Acrobat. If a message screen comes up when you click on the link, click on the circle beside Open It then ok.
1. As an introduction to this unit, read your class a story about immigration. Some suggestions are:
-The Long Road by Luis Garay (picture book)
-one of the children's stories from Quilted Landscape by Yale Strom
2. Discuss these vocabulary words:
Students will write these definitions in their Social Studies notebooks. For definitions check the sheet of Vocabulary Words. The rest of the definitions on this page will written in their Social Studies notebooks throughout the unit. At this point students can create a title page for this unit in their Social Studies duotangs.
3. Students will fill out the Citizenship Test. They need to understand that they are not expected to know all this information at this point but these questions are modified from the test that people have to pass in order to become Canadian Citizens. They will fill this out again at the end of the unit to see how much knowledge they have gained and you can discuss the answers with them then. You may wish to review the geography section (# 10-20) as this should be review from grades 4 and 5.
4. For this activity teachers are advised to use the library. Students can now go through these 5 centers:
1. Mosaic Activity: For this center you will need the introductory sheet: Canada - A Cultural Mosaic, some magazines to cut from and/ or drawing paper and pencil crayons or felts. Students should first read the introductory sheet. Then they can complete the following activities:
(A) Flip through the magazines and cut out pictures of people from different cultures and glue them on the Canadian Mosaic sheet.
(B) Look through magazines again and cut out pictures of cultural influences and glue them on the Cultural Contributions sheet (food, clothing, music, sports, traditions). Students could also look through books and draw pictures themselves if there is a shortage of magazines.2. Canada as a Bilingual Nation: Students will read a paragraph in a book about languages in Canada and will fill out the Canada's Official Languages sheet. For this center you will need to grab 5 different packages of food from home that have French on one side and English on the other, and you will need French/English dictionaries.
3. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom: Students brainstorm the rights and freedom that they think they have on the first sheet: My Rights and Freedoms. Students then read a revised version of the Canadian Rights and Freedoms and fill in the rights and freedoms that they have on the Blank Charter Sheet in their own words. At the end they return to the brainstorm page and check off if they were correct or incorrect.
4. The Challenges of Being an Immigrant: Students will read the picture book: (If you have a parent or an available library clerk, it would be great to have them read this group the story or you could tape it and have students listen to it on headphones.) A Piece From Home by Sonya Levitin or The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland. Then they will fill out the sheet about the Feelings of Immigration.
5. Creating Canadian Passports: Student can fill out the passport sheet and create their own passports. Top set on the page is the front and the bottom is the middle (they cut them out and staple them in the middle). They can either glue a real picture of themselves on the first page or they can draw a self portrait. Students who finish early can draw stamps on the last two pages of countries that they have visited. First they need to write out what their responsibilities as a Canadian Citizen are on the 3rd page:
-understand and obey Canadian laws
-participate in Canada's democratic political system
-vote in elections
-allow other Canadians to enjoy their rights and freedoms
-appreciate and help to preserve Canada's multicultural heritage
5. In the computer lab students can go into the Internet and type in Pier21.ns.ca beside location. Then they should follow the instructions on the sheet: Immigrant's Stories and answer the questions on this sheet: Click here to view and print the Immigrant's Stories in Adobe Acrobat.
6. Find a person who is an immigrant to Canada and invite them to come in as a guest speaker to your class. Before the speaker comes, have your class brainstorm a list of questions to ask the speaker or use the Question Sheet provided.
7. In order for students to get a wider understanding of multiculturalism and immigration in British Columbia they can now visit the BC Archives Time Machine on the Internet and answer questions on the Worksheet: Multiculturalism and Immigration in British Columbia. Students can either type in the address on the sheet or visit the SD#71 web site (sd71.bc.ca), go to Teaching Resources, then click on Social Studies, then Immigration and then links to go with lessons and find the link for this lesson.
8. Students can now research their own family origins. Click here to view a Family Tree sheet to be printed out. You may wish to enlarge this when you copy it for your class. Students should take this sheet home and complete it with the help of a family member. On the back of the sheet students should add the following questions:
1. Where is my family from?
2. When did they first come to Canada?
3. Why did they first come to Canada?
4. Where did they first settle?
5. Are there any other interesting facts about my family?
6. Did we get any traditions from the country of our origin?
You could now have students pin their name onto a world map on the country of their origin.
You could also do a spreadsheet and graph of family ancestry for class.
9. Newspaper-This is a suggestion for a culminating activity for this unit. The newspaper could be written to be sent to Europe from the New World from a historic point of view. You can decide how you would like to group the class (will each student create their own newspaper? Groups of 5? Pairs? One paper for the whole class?). Students can create their newspapers in Microsoft Publisher, Works or Student Writing Centre (this one is probably the easiest). Here are some suggestions for articles in their newspapers.
1. English words you should know (vocab with 3 possible definitions and they put the answer on the back).
2. French words that you should know. Could do draw a line to the correct answer.
3. First person article about challenges faced by immigrants when they arrive.
4. Advertisements why come to Canada
5. Article about the journey-the ships and the trip over.
10. Rewrite the citizenship test and discuss the answers this time. Student's scores should have improved from the first time they wrote the test.
Click here to return to the Immigration Page.
Click here to return to the School District #71 Teaching Resources Page.