Let's Teach About Canadian Early Settlers

Teaching about early settlers in Canada is an exciting opportunity to bring history to life for students. By using hands-on activities, engaging stories, and primary sources, we can help students understand the challenges and triumphs of the people who built new lives in a vast and unfamiliar land. Below are some creative ways to engage students, picture book suggestions, and a ready-to-use resource to make this topic meaningful in your classroom. 

Engaging Activities to Teach About Early Settlers

 

1.  Let Students Step Into a Settler’s Shoes 

Encourage students to imagine themselves as settlers by giving them a scenario: "You have just arrived in Canada in the late 1800s with only a few supplies. What do you need to survive? Where will you build your home? What challenges will you face?" 

Have students write a journal entry, create a settler survival plan, or design a small model of a pioneer home using craft materials.

2.  Interactive Sorting Activities 

Help students understand the push and pull factors that brought settlers to Canada by having them sort reasons into categories. Use cards labeled with reasons like wars and conflicts, free land, job loss, adventure, and religious freedom and have students decide whether they are push factors (reasons people left their home country) or pull factors (reasons people wanted to come to Canada). 

3.  Picture Analysis And Artifact Exploration 

Show students historical photographs of early settlers, their homes, and tools. 

Ask: What do you notice in this picture? How is this different from today? What do you think this tool was used for? 

If possible, bring in replicas of pioneer tools or everyday items like a washboard, lantern, or tin cup. Handling objects helps students make real-world connections to what they are learning.

4.  Read-Alouds And Picture Books 

Books bring history to life! Here are some great books about early settlers in Canada: 

 📖  A Pioneer Story: The Daily Life of a Canadian Family in 1840 by Barbara Greenwood
 A mix of storytelling and factual information that helps students understand a pioneer family’s life. 

 📖  Pioneer Kids by Freida Wishinsky
Emily and Matt use their time-travelling sled to arrive on the Canadian Prairies in 1910. 

 📖 Discovering Canadian Pioneers by Marlene Gutsole
This books gives an overview of what life was like for a typical pioneer family in Upper Canada. 

 📖 Birchtown And The Black Loyalists by Wanda Taylor
Readers are introduced to the journey of Black American soldiers taken from Africa as slaves, their quest for freedom, the settlement and struggle of Black Loyalists on Nova Scotian soil.

5.  Make Teaching About Early Settlers Easy With This Ready-to-Use Resource! 

Bringing Canada’s early settler history to life doesn’t have to be time-consuming! 

My Early Settlers in Canada resource includes: 

✅ 8 sets of teaching slides - That is eight complete lessons - just present and you are ready to teach. 

✅ Interactive activities to keep students engaged!

✅ Engaging reading passages with easy-to-understand information. 

✅ Over 20 print activities for students to showcase their learning.

✅ Comprehension questions to reinforce learning. 

✅ Flipbook research report for students to write about pioneer life. 

This resource is perfect for Grade 3-5 students, whether you’re teaching a social studies unit or incorporating cross-curricular literacy connections. Make history exciting and meaningful—grab your copy today! ⬇️ 

 [👉 Canadian Pioneers Canada Early Settlers Pioneer Life Farming Activities and Slides 👈]