Want to teach your child about Canada? Do you want them to learn about Alberta? Check out all of our fun and educational Alberta unit study activities!

photo credit: © depositphotos.com / martinm303

ALBERTA UNIT STUDY

For social studies this year, we’re studying Canada! I previously shared our month-long studies of various provinces including:

• Newfoundland & Labrador
• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island
• New Brunswick
• Quebec
• Ontario
• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan

We’ve learned so much about Canada this year! I’m even amazed at how much I’ve learned in this process! Since this series has been so well received I thought I would share our recent homeschool unit study about the province of Alberta! It was a wonderful month full of terrific books and fabulous educational experiences!

OUR CURRICULUM

The bulk of our planning came from The Canadian Adventure Online Edition. I added some other elements to the curriculum, such as various read-aloud books and a related artist study.

photo credit: © depositphotos.com / gvictoria

ALBERTA READ-ALOUD BOOKS

As I’ve mentioned many times before, we start our day with Morning Time. This peaceful way of easing into our day is something I cherish. At this time, I read aloud to my children from a variety of books. Since we were studying Alberta, I selected interesting books that were related to this province.

Our read aloud book was from the Dear Canada series. We read All Fall Down: The Landslide Diary of Abby Roberts.

This book was a historical fiction about a family’s sudden move from Montreal, Quebec to Frank, Alberta and their experience of Canada’s largest landslide disaster, the Frank Slide on April 29,1903.

The Frank Slide (Canada’s largest landslide disaster)

C is for Chinook: An Alberta Alphabet was another great book. This series has been a fabulous addition to our homeschool social studies curriculum! There’s a poem that runs through every page of the book and relates to some aspect of the province. The rhyming text is fabulous for young children with low attention spans. But there’s also detailed information about the province on each page to engage and enhance the learning of older children. By reading this book, we learned so much about the province of Alberta! We read about 1-2 letters of the alphabet per day throughout the month.

Canada Close Up: Alberta was another great non-fiction book. We’ve actually enjoyed all the books in this series. The book is full of photos and it gives us additional information about the province. We read 1-2 chapters per week throughout the month.

VIDEOS

We watched many videos during the month. Most of the videos were provided by links through The Canadian Adventure Online Edition. The videos were beautiful and many times it felt like we were seeing and experiencing the various sights of Alberta.

ARTIST STUDY

Every month we study an artist who pairs well with the province we’re exploring.

This month we studied Roland Gissing. 

The Roland Gissing paintings that we studied were:

• The Legend of the Ghost of Ghost River
• Deepening Shadows
• Blossom Time

We discussed Roland Gissing’s artwork in detail and my girls memorized the names of each piece of art.

ACTIVITIES

We did various activities throughout the month. The girls did map work about the province. They also worked on memorizing and recognizing:

• Edmonton – the capital of Alberta (this didn’t take much effort since we live in Edmonton *wink*)
• The provincial flag
• Provincial flower: The Wild Rose
• The provincial bird: The Great Horned Owl

As usual, we wrapped up our study of the province with collages. I had gathered tourist guides and my girls cut out pictures that they felt depicted what they had learned about Alberta. I love seeing what my children choose as photos that best represent the province. It’s always an enjoyable and educational activity.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (Fort Macleod, Alberta)

FIELD TRIPS

Since we live in Alberta, it was easy to schedule some special field trips so my children could learn more about this fabulous province in which they live. This month we visited:

• The Provincial Legislature Building
• The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre
• The Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Our month-long Alberta unit study was fabulous. We learned so much from the experience! I can’t wait to study our next province, British Columbia!

Psst – If you’re curious about doing an in-depth study on Canada, I can’t say enough good things about The Canadian Adventure Online Edition. Make sure to check it out!

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.