Communities and cultures
Kindergarten looked at what a community is. Grade 1 goes outward and looks at this one: what is actually in it, who lives here, how things get exchanged, and what belongs to the whole country.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 1
The subject: Social studies
- Key physical features and landmarks of communities.
- Cultures of diverse communities, including First Nations, Métis, Inuit and francophone communities.
- The exchange of goods and services.
- Roles and responsibilities in groups.
- Supporting belonging.
- Canada's official symbols.
The K–3 social studies curriculum came into classrooms in September 2025, so this is the newest material on the site and the one most likely to be unfamiliar to a parent who went to school in Alberta.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Physical feature | Something the land itself has: a river, a hill, a lake, a coulee. |
| Landmark | Something people built or use to find their way: a water tower, a bridge, a grain elevator, a particular tree. |
| Culture | The way a group of people live — what they eat, wear, speak, celebrate and believe. |
| First Nations, Métis and Inuit | Three distinct peoples, not one group, with different histories, languages and relationships to the land. The Constitution names all three. |
| Francophone | French-speaking. Alberta has francophone communities with their own schools, history and institutions — this is not only a Quebec subject. |
| Goods | Things you can hold. Once you have it, it is yours. |
| Services | Things somebody does for you: cutting hair, driving a bus, teaching a class. |
| Exchange | Giving something to get something. Usually money for goods or services, but not always. |
| Role | The part a person plays in a group. |
| Responsibility | What that role is expected to do. A role without a responsibility is just a label. |
| Official symbol | Something chosen to stand for the whole country. Canada's include the flag, the maple leaf, the beaver, the anthem and the colours red and white. |
Goods
Things you can hold. Once you have it, it is yours.
Services
Things someone does for you: cutting hair, driving a bus, teaching a class, putting out a fire. You cannot put one in a bag.
What to do at home
- Walk and name — That is a river, that is a bridge, that is the fire hall. Physical features and landmarks are a walking outcome, and ten minutes covers it.
- Draw the way to school — A child's own map, however wrong, teaches more about landmarks than a correct one you draw for them.
- Who did something for us today? — The bus driver, the cashier, the teacher. Noticing services is harder than noticing goods, because services leave nothing behind.
- Tell them where your family is from — And ask what they think makes a family's way of doing things its own. Culture starts with theirs.
- Give them a real job — One that the group actually needs done. Roles and responsibilities is an outcome that cannot be taught on paper.
- Spot the flag — On buildings, on jerseys, on packaging. Then ask what else stands for Canada.
Sheets you can print for this
- Good or service? — sort them
- Canada's symbols — colour, trace and find
- The way to school — draw your own map
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.