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Every Grade 5 Social Studies topic built so far, in plain words — grouped by world. More arrive as the course grows; each one here is ready to learn now.
Nations of This Land
Who lived here first — and how did they live, trade, and make peace?
- Many nations, many waysReadyThe major Indigenous nations of the Great Lakes, the northern forest, the Atlantic coast and the Arctic before 1713, and how selected nations lived — language, homes (longhouse, wigwam, snow house), food (Three Sisters farming, seasonal rounds, hunting), family roles, beliefs and ceremonies, and government (councils, clan mothers, confederacies).A3.1
- Before the shipsReadyInteractions among First Nations and with Inuit before European contact — trade routes for corn, furs, copper and shells; alliances and treaties such as the Great Law of Peace and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy; competition for waterways — and the differences among Indigenous peoples and between them and Europeans in government, economy, land, beliefs and roles, with the reasons: climate, resources, the mother country, world view.A3.2A3.7
Why the Ships Came
What made people cross an ocean — and who was in charge when they got here?
- Fish, fur, and faithReadyWhy Europeans came before 1713: the Norse at L'Anse aux Meadows, Cabot and the cod fishery, Cartier's cross at Gaspé, Hudson's search for a passage, De Mons and Champlain at Port-Royal and Quebec — and the motives: resources (fish, fur, timber), claiming land and sovereignty, spreading Christianity, and escaping hard lives in Europe.A3.3
- Running New FranceReadyHow New France was governed — the king, governor, intendant and bishop, the Roman Catholic Church with its priests and nuns, missions, schools and hospitals, and the seigneurial system of long river lots, rent and the mill — and the effects of European wars on this land: First Nations allied to rival empires at war, the destruction of Wendake in 1649, Acadia changing hands until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and fur-trade rivalry with the Hudson's Bay Company.A3.4A3.8
When Worlds Met
What happened when Indigenous peoples and Europeans met — and what is still happening now?
- The fur tradeReadyThe fur trade before 1713: First Nations trappers, traders and rules of exchange; coureurs de bois and voyageurs; companies and the king; goods and knowledge that went both ways; disease, alcohol and over-trapping; and the ethnogenesis of the Métis Nation around the Great Lakes and Mattawa — intermarriage, guides and interpreters, Michif.A3.5A3.6
- Who gained, who lostReadyThe consequences of contact between Indigenous peoples and Europeans — positive, negative and both: European diseases, land claimed without agreement, alliances, new tools, alcohol and guns, the birth of the Métis, First Nations ideas of democratic government — how to judge their significance, and how each party benefited from the other.A1.1A1.2
- Still here todayReadyHow interactions before 1713 connect to present-day Canada: land claims, treaty rights and responsibilities, people excluded from treaty-making, environmental stewardship and relationships with the land, and resource ownership and use — including the Peace and Friendship treaties and the 1999 Marshall decision.A1.3
Detective of the Past
How do you find out what really happened when the people who were there disagree?
- Whose story?ReadyThe social studies inquiry process for history: formulating questions from different perspectives (settlers, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, coureurs de bois, missionaries), gathering primary and secondary sources — journals, maps, treaties, wampum, petroglyphs, oral histories — checking that a voice is authentic, and comparing perspectives with a comparison chart.A2.1A2.2A2.4
- Maps and evidenceReadyReading and making thematic and historical maps — legend, scale, trade routes, beaver habitat, territory before and after contact, annotated maps of perspectives; evaluating evidence that disagrees and drawing fair conclusions; and communicating results with the curriculum's vocabulary (Elder, wampum belt, petroglyph, colonization, settler, treaty, coureur de bois, seigneur) in formats such as a two-voice story.A2.3A2.5A2.6
Who Decides
Who picks up the garbage, who runs the hospital, and who gets to say?
- Three governments, one garbage dayReadyThe levels of government in Canada — federal, provincial and territorial, municipal — plus band councils and school boards: the jurisdiction and services of each (passports, health care, education, garbage, water, transit, policing), the elected people at each level (MP, MPP, councillor, chief, trustee), and the responsibilities they share for transportation, health, the environment and policing.B3.2B3.4
- Rights, responsibilities, and nationsReadyThe rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship — equal protection under the law, freedom of speech and religion, the right to vote; respecting others' rights, participating in elections and decisions, improving your community — and the First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments that exist today: band councils, the Chiefs of Ontario, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the Union of Ontario Indians, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Métis Nation of Ontario, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Nunavut.B3.1B3.3
Having Your Say
How does a government find out what people think — and what can you do when you disagree?
- How governments listenReadyHow governments in Canada find out what people think — elections, town hall meetings, public hearings, band council meetings, Métis assemblies, commissions of inquiry, Supreme Court challenges, referendums, nation-to-nation discussions — why public consultation matters, and the constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities when decisions such as pipelines, mines or resource deals could affect their rights.B3.5B3.6
- Different views, real actionReadyWhy different groups — oil industry, farmers, environmentalists, governments, band councils — have different perspectives on social and environmental issues, and the ways citizens can take action: learning candidates' positions and voting, the courts, petitions and boycotts, volunteering, writing to elected representatives or the media, and art projects that bring attention to an issue.B3.8B3.9
Making Change
When something is wrong, who fixes it — and how would you?
- Did it work?ReadyKey actions governments have taken on significant issues — federal Arctic climate and sovereignty policy, the Banff elk relocation, the promise to end boil-water advisories; Ontario's Far North Act and child mental-health funding; municipal recycling and waste diversion; Indigenous governments' language preservation and housing plans — and how to assess whether an action was effective: goal, before and after, the gap the average hides, and the perspectives of the people affected.B3.7B1.1
- A plan of actionReadyCreating a plan of action for a social issue (child poverty, homelessness, doctors in remote communities, housing and services in First Nations and Inuit communities, Indigenous languages) and for an environmental issue (waste, industrial pollution, safe drinking water, emissions, contamination on First Nations territory), specifying the actions of the appropriate governments — federal, provincial, municipal and Indigenous — and of citizens, with numbers.B1.2B1.3
- Investigating an issueReadyThe social studies inquiry process for a present-day issue — climate change in the Arctic: formulating a question that names the people affected including Indigenous peoples and the responsible governments; gathering and organizing sources by perspective (Elders and oral history, scientists' data, NGOs, corporations, Indigenous media, government); analysing and constructing thematic maps; extracting data from graphs and using idea webs; drawing conclusions with the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective; and communicating results as a report to an MP with the right vocabulary.B2.1B2.2B2.3B2.4B2.5B2.6