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Social Studies 4

 

Content:

 

Grade 4

 

Construct arguments defending the significance of individuals/groups, places, events, or developments (significance):

Key questions:

This painting shows Captain James Cook in his vessel Resolution entering Nootka Sound in 1778. Gordon Miller painting
James Douglas, first governor of the colony of BC, 1858–64. BC Archives HP-2652
The Canadian Pacific Railway, completed in 1885, connected British Columbia to the rest of Canada beyond the mountains. City of Vancouver Archives. CAN-P.218, N.224

Sequence objects, images, or events, and determine continuities and changes between different time periods or places (continuity and change):

 Sample activity:

Key questions:

Above: One of the many steam engines that transported logs out of the woods, along special railways and right to the sawmills. The picture was taken in 1909, near Courtenay on Vancouver Island. Vancouver Public Library 6044
Miners at the Mucho Oro gold mine near Barkerville, 1868. Frederick Dally/UBC BC389
The inventors of the Pisces submersible (l to r): Don Sorte, Mack Thompson, Al Trice, 1965.

Differentiate between intended and unintended consequences of events, decisions, or developments, and speculate about alternative outcomes (cause and consequence):

Sample activities:

Key questions:

The Beaver, by then a coastal workboat, at Gastown in 1885. In a year’s time the sleepy sawmill village would become the City of Vancouver and be transformed by the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Gordon Miller painting

Construct narratives that capture the attitudes, values, and worldviews commonly held by people at different times or places (perspective):

 Sample activity:

  • Compare the “discovery” and “exploration” of North America from European and First Peoples perspectives.

 

Key question:

Old fur trade factor's house, Fort St James.

Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place (ethical judgment):

 Sample activities:

 

This painting by Emily Carr, completed in about 1912, is called House Front—Gold Harbour. It shows one of the cedar plank houses built by the First Nations people. Vancouver Art Gallery

Early contact, trade, co-operation, and conflict between First Peoples and European peoples:

Sample topics:

Lady Washington was one of the ships belonging to the American sea-otter traders. It is shown trading at Ninstints, a village in the Queen Charlotte Islands, in 1791. Gordon Miller painting
Captain Cook's Arrival in Nootka Sound, 1778, an illustration by Robert John Banks, 1970. BC Archives PDP-00494
  • Provision of muskets to First Peoples by Europeans
  • Spread of horses to the Prairies
  • Marriages between First Peoples and Europeans
  • Colonial wars and alliances between Europeans and First Peoples (e.g., between Maquinna [Nuu chah-nulth] and the Cook expedition or between French colonists and the First Peoples living around the Great Lakes)
Chief Maquinna of Yuquot. The hat he is wearing shows scenes from a whale hunt. It was made from cedar bark and spruce roots. Only chiefs were allowed to wear the whaling hat. BC Archives A-02678

Key questions:

The fur trade in pre-Confederation Canada and British Columbia:

 Sample topics:

The first Hudson's Bay Co store at Vernon, built in 1887. BC Archives H-00250
Aboriginal guides lead Simon Fraser and his crew along the precipitous cliffs of the Fraser Canyon, as shown in a painting by John Innes. VPL 13315
Most of the men who worked for the North West Company were French- Canadian voyageurs. Or they were Métis (MAY- tee), a mix of French and Aboriginal. For this reason the working language of the fur trade in British Columbia at this time was French.

Demographic changes in pre-Confederation British Columbia in both First Peoples and non–First Peoples communities:

Sample topics:

Coast Salish potlatch in the Fraser Valley.

Economic and political factors that influenced the colonization of British Columbia and its entry into Confederation:

 Sample topics:

A Chinese work gang takes a rest from the backbreaking labour of building the railway, 1880s. Glenbow Archives NA3740-29
Engraving from the 1860s depicting the typical gold prospector, before and after. UBC BC439

The impact of colonization on First Peoples societies in British Columbia and Canada:

Sample topics:

  • More complex political systems
  • Loss of territory
Fish weir, c 1860. Weirs were used on the Cowichan R by aboriginal fishers until the 1930s. BC Archives H-06525

The history of the local community and of local First Peoples communities:

Aerial view of Trail, 1999. Larry Doell photo

 

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