Colonial Canada
Grade 3 was about Alberta. Grade 4 steps back to how Canada came to exist at all: who was already here, who arrived and why, who held power and how that changed, and how four colonies became a country in 1867.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 4
The subject: Social studies
- How power and influence changed in the lands that became Canada, before Confederation.
- Jacques Cartier and the first settlements.
- Samuel de Champlain, the founding of Quebec City, and New France.
- The Treaty of Paris and the handover of New France to Britain.
- The United Empire Loyalists.
- The Rebellions of 1837, responsible government, and Confederation.
- The fur trade and Canada's natural resources.
- The rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
This is the new Grades 4–6 social studies curriculum, which became mandatory in September 2026, and it is a big change: the old Grade 4 course was about Alberta, and the new one is Canadian history from the first French voyages to 1867. A parent who went to school here will not recognize it. Alberta's overview adds that it covers the relationships among First Nations, Métis and Europeans.
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 |
|---|---|
| First Nations | The peoples who had lived here for thousands of years before Europeans arrived — among them the Mi'kmaq, the Wendat, the Innu, the Haudenosaunee and, in what is now Alberta, the Cree, Dene and Blackfoot Confederacy. |
| Colony | Land claimed and ruled by a distant country. New France was a colony of France. |
| New France | France's colony along the St. Lawrence River, centred on Quebec City from 1608. |
| Fur trade | Trading furs — beaver above all, for felt hats in Europe — for European goods. It depended on First Nations trappers, guides and routes. |
| Hudson's Bay Company | An English company given the right in 1670 to trade across Rupert's Land, the huge area draining into Hudson Bay, which included most of today's Alberta. |
| Métis | A distinct Indigenous people who grew out of the fur trade, with their own language, Michif, and culture. Not simply people of mixed ancestry. |
| Treaty of Paris (1763) | The agreement that ended a war between Britain and France. France gave New France to Britain. |
| Loyalists | People who stayed loyal to Britain during the American Revolution and moved north afterwards, including Black Loyalists and Haudenosaunee allies of the British. |
| Rebellions of 1837 | Armed uprisings in Upper and Lower Canada against governors who could ignore the elected assembly. They failed, and still changed things. |
| Responsible government | A government that must keep the support of the people's elected representatives to stay in power. Nova Scotia got it first, in 1848. |
| Confederation | The joining of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. |
| Citizenship | Belonging to a country, with rights it protects — such as freedom of religion and, at 18, the vote — and responsibilities, such as obeying the law. |
- 1534Jacques Cartier sails into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and claims land for France.
- 1608Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec City, the heart of New France.
- 1670The Hudson's Bay Company is given the right to trade across Rupert's Land.
- 1763The Treaty of Paris: France hands New France to Britain.
- 1783Loyalists begin arriving from the United States after the American Revolution.
- 1837Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada demand a government that answers to voters.
- 1848Responsible government, first in Nova Scotia and then in the Province of Canada.
- 1867Confederation: four provinces become the Dominion of Canada on July 1.
What to do at home
- Ask why July 1 is Canada Day — Because of 1867. Then ask which four provinces there were, and when Alberta joined — 1905, which surprises most children.
- Visit a fur-trade site — Fort Edmonton Park in Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site both show the fur trade on Alberta ground.
- Find the French again — Quebec City, Montréal, Lac La Biche, St. Albert. French names across the country are the map of New France and the voyageurs.
- Ask whose side a story is from — The fur trade looks different from a trading post, a canoe and a village. Alberta asks about the relationships, which means more than one point of view.
- Talk about the word Canada — It comes from kanata, an Iroquoian word for a village, heard by Cartier in 1535. The country is named in a First Nations language.
- Name one right and one responsibility — At dinner, with an example from that day. Rights are easier to list; responsibilities are the half worth practising.
Sheets you can print for this
- Put it in order — colonial canada, 1534 to 1867
- The fur trade — who brought what
- New France — who's who
- Who joined when — from four provinces to ten
- Rights and responsibilities — what citizens are owed, and owe
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.