Canadian Geographic
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Welcome to The Canadian Atlas Online (CAOL) Learning Centre. With the terrific learning resources available here, you can make geography and history come alive in your classroom like never before! Our lesson plans and classroom activities are available to download in several formats to help both teachers and students engage more fully with this site’s content. Teacher-members of the Canadian Council for Geographic Education have prepared these free resources that meet curriculum learning objectives based on the topics featured throughout the CAOL.

You may select the resources by province, grade level, and topic. Alternatively, you can simply view all available lesson plans.

To view all available lesson plans click here.

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Fur Trade in Canada: Its Historical and Economic Impact

This lesson plan investigates the impact of the fur trade on Canada’s development as a nation. Students will explore how the fur trade led to the development of the west. It allows students to see how our cultural identity and economic system were rooted in the fur trade.

Importance of the Beaver

Students will describe the influence of the fur trade on the historical development of Canada by creating a brochure explaining its importance.

Fur Here or To Go?

In this lesson, students will assume the roles of Inuit in the early 1900s. They will debate whether or not to set up a permanent village near a Hudson Bay fur-trading post.

Mapping the Fur Trade

In this lesson, students will use The Canadian Atlas Online to research places of significance to the fur trade. Next, they will create a map that shows the growth of the fur trade across Canada.