Design A Fur Trading Post Project Based Learning | Paper and Digital

Name: Design A Fur Trading Post Project Based Learning | Paper and Digital
Brand: brainninjas
Price: 6.5 CAD
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Keep your students engaged in learning about life in Early Canada through this Canadian Fur Trade project-based learning activity. Students are hired by archeologists to scout out a location of a fictional fort from the past. This activity fits nicely into the Systems Unit for Grade 4 Social Studies in Alberta.

COMING SOON! Save $$$ with the Alberta Grade 4 Social Studies Full Year!

This project-based learning activity includes:

detailed lesson plans with easy to read formatting.
instructions for how to use our activities with or without technology so you can be flexible for your students and classroom environment.
instructions for printing student pages while still offering differentiated options.
detailed outlines of each activity with a list of materials along with a centralized list and reminders in each section of the lesson plan.
optional Teacher Slides to support instruction and content delivery. You can choose to teach with or without them.
vocabulary list with phonetic pronunciations and definitions to help support your students.
modifications to help you differentiate without spending more of your time.
background information for teachers. This information is based on Early Canada, but if you have your own information, this project can still work with anywhere in North America.
instructions for how to do project-based learning in your classroom. We have included instructions for how to include teaching specific aspects of the fur trade while students continue to work on their project
student planning pages to guide their research and creativity. Students can use a paper or digital version for their planning.
assessment rubric clearly outlining expectations to make marking easier for teachers and student checklists.
student reflection page for thoughtful learning integration and to help students assess their own progress through the project.
suggested reference websites to aid student research or provide more background information for teachers.suggested answers and student examples.
digital versions of most of the student pages to help support your students or reduce printing. To access the digital version, download the PDF and use the link inside that file.
loose text in the digital version which can be read by your assistive technology. This is especially helpful since some of the text may be beyond the Grade 4 reading level (especially at the beginning of the school year).
list of Alberta outcomes.

Students will complete this fur trade post activity by:

creating a map showing the location of a fictional fur trading fort.
designing a visual representation of what the fort may have looked like. This can be a drawing, diagram, diorama or even a screenshot of something created digitally. Students have made models with cardboard, building bricks and even video games.
writing a detailed report about daily life in the fort, including weather conditions, defense strategies, trade routes and goods, natural resources in the area, a plan to transport furs back to Europe, Indigenous People who may have lived (or still live) in the area.

Students need to have a basic understanding of the fur trade and basic geographic knowledge of Canada in order to be successful, but this can be learned as students work on this project.

This is a very open-ended and flexible task, with a clear rubric outlining the content which is expected to be addressed. Students are kept engaged in their learning for 2-3 weeks of social studies classes. We've done this project for as long as a month.

This activity has been tested with dozens of different groups of students and is a HUGE hit. Students have designed fur trading forts that included diagrams, building blocks, video games, cardboard, and even one made of sticks and mud.

Ninja Note: This project can be done with paper and pencil. Students do not need to build dioramas or elaborate forts to be successful.

Ninja Note: If you teach in Alberta, this resource has been rewritten for the new social studies curriculum. Learn more about how we're writing and adjusting resources for the new curriculum. https://brainninjas.ca/social-studies-in-alberta/

This activity aligns with:

This activity supports:

learning about the origins of colonies in North America.
introduction to Early Canada.
French and English origins in Canada.
any lesson covering Canada's fur trade. While the materials are designed to be used for the Canadian fur trade, but they can easily be adapted to use in the United States as well. The background information is specific to Canada.

Looking for more social studies for Alberta teachers? Our unit plans include extra vocabulary supports and assessments.