Salut ! Are you ready to learn all about Canada, it’s culture, people, food, landmarks, and more? Keep on reading as we we welcome you to our Expedition Earth week on Canada! We had a great time learning about this unique country and the kids loved that they are our neighbor!
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Of course we started off stamping our passports and finding Canada on the map (yes, that’s the Teeny Tot, she insists on doing everything the big kids do):
Here are some of the activities we did this week along with things I managed to capture on film!
- Say “Hello” in French: salut (silent t) , “Thank You” : merci
- Locate Canada and capital Ottawa on the wall map
- Sang a Canadian song
- Completed mapping and flag worksheets
- Read Children Just Like Me Book on Canada and found where they live on the map
- Learn about the Inuit Community
- Watched some cool videos from Nunavut Canada! (Warning, some of the video is a tad graphic, they harpoon a seal and eat it.)
- Learn more about Canada from National Geographic Kids
- Learn about Niagra Falls
- Learned about and classified 6 animals of Canada
- Animals from Canada mini-book
- Make snowshoes
- Read: Living World Encyclopedia pg 64-65 Forests
- Lapbook Activity
- Make Ice Cream with Maple Topping
- Maple Leaf Prints activity
- Canadian Forest scene craft activity
Here se are working on our lapbooking activity. I give the Teeny Tot a scrap piece of paper to work on. I need to get her a clipboard as she keeps stealing them from the other kids!
Here is our Canada white board. We review all the facts daily and sing the song for fun.
Here’s our mapping worksheet, this is my 2nd graders handwriting.
We learned about 6 different animals found in Canada then put them up on our classification wall. I don’t know about yours, but man, it’s getting full!
We made these fun little snowshoes to wear around the house. We practiced walking like you would if you had on real snowshoes and tried not to fall through the soft snow.
Thanks for joining our week on Canada, next we’re on to the United States of America!
Want to join in the fun? Click here to see our Expedition Earth World Geography Curriculum
Erica, Would you recommend doing your States Geography class or World Geography class first? My littles are 8 and 6 this year.
This makes me smile and remember years ago when my family was reading through applications from exchange students trying to decide which student to invite to stay with our family for a year, and some had comments like “If I need to snowshoe or ski to school I’ll need time to practice.” I’m Canadian, and have lived in three different provinces, and we don’t snowshoe anywhere. I’ll be watching your next week on the United States, curious as to how you cover such as vast and diverse area.
I know Christy, this made me laugh too. I have lived in 5 different Canadian provinces (currently residing in Alberta) and have never even seen a snow shoe except in a museum. I’m not saying people don’t use them, I just think it’s funny that whenever I see something on Canada snowshoes always seem to be involved haha. Great unit Erica! I look forward to seeing what you do next week.
Your unit on Canada also made me smile. Being Canadian and all.
In Canada more often than not people say ‘hello’ and ‘thankyou’ since only one province is French speaking and that is Quebec. You will find some French in the maritime provinces but Quebec is the only province that puts French first and has all their signs, etc. in French. “bonjour’ is also how to say hello. Salute is used for friends.
Stompin’ Tom sings some GREAT Canadian music about Canada
Farley Mowat writes some great stories about life in Canada…I would totally recommend Owls in the Family and/or The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. They are great for read alouds for all your kids. They will get caught up in the fun of the boy’s life growing up on the prairies.
For your older girls…L.M. Montgomery wrote the Anne of Green Gables series.
I’m from Canada too, and I don’t remember ever being greeted with “Salut” 🙂 We own snowshoes, but never had to use them when we lived in Canada. (I think it’s just a typo, but it’s Niagara Falls – three a’s)
Christy – when I was in high school in Calgary, there was an exchange trip with students from TX and they came up in late April with winter clothes expecting it to be 30 below and 3 feet of snow. Those poor kids – I wish they’d done a little more research! Some of them were a little surprised to find out we all had electricity, I think!
I’m from Calgary, Alberta, and our family has now lived in the eastern US for about 20 years. It always cracks me up when people learn I’m from Canada and then follow up with something about having been to Niagara Falls once, as if that totally covers Canada. LOL Or they think the entire country is basically like the northern Yukon and we all live in igloos. I bet I do that sort of thing to people from China or Russia though. LOL