Teachers' Resources

The following are some of the curriculum areas explored on this website.

Teachers Tips
If you are a teacher, please add any tips or successes you may have had in the classroon in the Comments section below. We know that your fellow teachers will appreciate your expertise.

Social Studies:

• Aboriginal Peoples and Cultures
• Traditions in Different Communities

• Physical Geography:

• Climate and Landscapes Above the Treeline
• Animal Migration

• Human Geography:

• Relationship of People and the Lands They Inhabit
• Relationship of People and Animals Sharing the Land

Science:

• States of Matter: Ice, Snow, and Permafrost
• Animals and Adaptations to Habitat
• Vegetation and Adaptation to Climate

Language Arts:

• Stories of Aboriginal People

Websites:

The following websites have additional information about people, animals, and life above the arctic treeline.

• Facts about the Arctic treeline
• A website for kids, giving facts about Cree past and present
• Audio recording by Louis Bird, talking about Cree hunting
• Website of Arctic Studies Centre
• An excellent source of information on Inuit Culture
• National Geographic Website with lesson plans for teaching about caribou migration
• A photo album of the Inuit Experience in the early 1900s
• A page for educators with facts about caribou
• A book of lesson plans for teaching about First Nations, available for purchase
• Fascinating facts about caribou antlers
• Kid friendly information about First Nations, accompanied by simple drawings
• Children’s research on the Inuit, accompanied by children’s drawings

Books

The following books are approved by Library and Archives Canada, selected by First Nations Advisory Committee, listed in Read Up on It, A Selection of Canadian Books for Young People. More information can be found at the children's approved reading list at the Collections Canada website.

Amazing Animal Adventures at the Poles by Brian Keating. Fifth House, Calgary 2005. Ages 9-12

Arctic Adventures: Tales from the Lives of Inuit Artists. by Raquel Rivera. Groundwood, Toronto 2007. Ages 8 & up.

Caribou Song / Atihko Nikamon by Tomson Highway. HarperCollins, Toronto: 2001. Ages 8 to 10.

Click. by Shutta Crum. Fitzhenry & Whiteside. Markham, 2003. Ages 4-8.

Five Stars for Emily by Kathleen Cook Waldron. Orca Young Readers, Victoria B.C. 2004. Ages 9-12.

Fred On the Ice Floes. by Marie-Danielle Croteau, Translation by Sarah Cummins Formac Publishers, Halifax N.S. 2001. Ages 7-9.

Classroom Activities

Here are some suggestions as to what kids could do on the site or back in the classroom after visiting the site.

(L - Language Arts; SS - Social Studies; V - Visual Arts; D - Dance; Dr - Drama; Sc - Science)

(L) read and answer questions about a paragraph on caribou;

(L) make a list of descriptive words about the caribou and the landscape where they live; these could be adjectives, verbs, adverbs.

(L) compose shape poems about the people, animals or landscape of the Arctic. (cinquain, diamante etc.) http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/shape/

(SS) map the range and migration route of one caribou herd;

(L and Dr) write a story about following a caribou herd, from the point of view of:

1. an Inuit or Cree hunter,
2. a child, or
3. a husky.

(V and L) make a storyboard, with an imaginary journey along the migration route, with captions for each

(V) draw pictures of the people, animals, or landscapes they have met on the site

(Dr) dramatize an adventure of children hunting or fishing in the North.

(D) create movement pieces imitating the movements of the animals introduced on the site

(Sc) build models of animal habitats, or Arctic landscapes

Study Guides

We have prepared Study Guides for teachers, complete with Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, and Curriculum Connections for the following:

• Raven Stole the Sun
• Caribou Song
• Sun Spirits

Download below.

[ To view the Study Guide, you will need a PDF reader such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. ]