Homestead Life Drama Circle | Paper

The homesteaders settled the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This activity examines the journeys the colonists made to get to their "free" land, the challenges they dealt with becoming farmers on land not ready for farming and what happened to the Indigenous People who were already living on the land.

This resource is included in our Drama Circle Bundle! 

Drama circles are similar to readers' theatre activities where students read small sections of text. They encourage listening and reading fluency. Best of all, they require only moments to prepare, but students are engaged and learning for an hour or more.

This engaging activity includes:

• directions on how to run a drama circle.
• a teacher quick guide.
• a set of 40 cards (in colour and ink-saving versions).
• a set of discussion questions to do after the drama activity.
• a variety of reading difficulties and amounts of text on the cards so you can differentiate easily for your students.
• a few blank cards if you need to change the language on a card.

If you teach in Alberta, be aware this resource was written for the old Social Studies Program of Studies. It has not been reviewed or adjusted for the new Alberta social studies curriculum which is being piloted in the 2024-25 school year. To learn about how we plan to address the changes, visit our site https://brainninjas.ca/social-studies-in-alberta/

This activity aligns with:

• Alberta Program of Studies for Grade 4 Social Studies

This activity supports:

• any lesson about settlers settling the west, westward expansion or the colonization of the prairies in Canada

Ninja Note: This resource requires downloading the PDF, printing the cards, and cutting them apart before beginning the activity.

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