Overview
In Grade 4 social studies, students will develop their understanding of how we study the past, as they use various methods to examine social organization, daily life, and the relationship with the environment in different societies that existed to 1500 CE, including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society in what would eventually become Canada. Students will build on what they have learned in earlier grades, using visual evidence, primary and secondary sources, and thematic maps to investigate a number of early societies from different regions and eras and representing different cultures. Students will investigate the interrelationship between daily life and the environment in these societies and will compare aspects of life in these societies with that in present-day Canada. Continuing to build on what they learned in earlier grades, students will study the interrelationship between human activities and the environment on a national scale. They will build on their knowledge of municipal and landform regions, studying Canada’s political regions, including the provinces and territories, and physical regions such as the country’s landform, vegetation, and climatic regions. Students will investigate issues related to the challenge of balancing human needs and environmental stewardship in Canada. They will continue to develop their mapping skills, analysing print, digital, and interactive maps and using spatial technologies to investigate human interactions with the environment.
The Grade 4 social studies expectations provide opportunities for students to explore a number of concepts connected to the citizenship education framework, including beliefs and values, community, culture, power, relationships, and stewardship.
The following two-part chart presents an overview of the Grade 4 social studies curriculum, and is meant to provide a starting point for planning instruction. For each overall expectation (listed in the first column), it identifies a related concept (or concepts) of social studies thinking and a big idea (see an explanation of big ideas and the concepts of disciplinary thinking and definitions of the concepts of social studies thinking). General framing questions are provided for each strand to stimulate students’ curiosity and critical thinking and to heighten the relevance of what they are studying. These broad and often open-ended questions can be used to frame a set of expectations, a strand, or a cross-disciplinary unit. The final column suggests ways in which spatial skills can be introduced and/or developed at this grade level, and indicates specific expectations with which they can be used (see a description of spatial skills).
Strand A. Heritage and Identity: Early Societies to 1500 CE
Overall Expectations | Related Concepts of Social Studies Thinking | Big Ideas | Framing Questions | Sample Spatial Skills/Activities to Be Introduced/Developed |
A1. compare key aspects of life in a few early societies (to 1500), including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, each from a different region and era and representing a different culture, and describe some key similarities and differences between these early societies and present-day Canadian society | Continuity and Change; Perspective |
By studying the past, we can better understand the present. |
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Maps* and Globes
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A2. use the social studies inquiry process to investigate ways of life and relationships with the environment in a few early societies (to 1500), including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, with an emphasis on aspects of the interrelationship between the environment and life in those societies | Interrelationships | The environment had a major impact on daily life in early societies. | ||
A3. demonstrate an understanding of key aspects of a few early societies (to 1500), including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, each from a different region and era and representing a different culture, with reference to their political and social organization, daily life, and relationships with the environment and with each other | Significance | Not all early societies were the same. |
Strand B. People and Environments: Political and Physical Regions of Canada
Overall Expectations | Related Concepts of Social Studies Thinking | Big Ideas | Framing Questions | Sample Spatial Skills/Activities to Be Introduced/ Developed |
B1. assess some key ways in which industrial development and the natural environment affect each other in two or more political and/or physical regions of Canada | Cause and Consequence; Interrelationships |
Human activity and the environment have an impact on each other. |
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Graphs
Maps* and Globes
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B2. use the social studies inquiry process to investigate some issues and challenges associated with balancing human needs/wants and activities with environmental stewardship in one or more of the political and/or physical regions of Canada | Perspective | Human activities should balance environmental stewardship with human needs/ wants. | ||
B3. identify Canada’s political and physical regions, and describe their main characteristics and some significant activities that take place in them | Significance; Patterns and Trends | A region shares a similar set of characteristics. |
* The term map refers to print, digital, and interactive maps. Students may analyse and create maps on paper or using mapping programs.