Social Studies Grade FourConcepts:
Students will know that:
Students will:
.Students will:
Students may:
.
.
Place names Develop a large chart or scrap book with Saskatchewan place names and their origins. This could become an ongoing project.
Many names have their origins in the history of the province. These may include the following: Indigenous languages, homeland place names, CPR officials, Saskatchewan heroes and others. Many islands in northern Saskatchewan are named after citizens who died in the first and second world wars. Find islands that have been named after people from your area.
The following is a list of some words from Indian languages and their meanings. Locate them on the road map of Saskatchewan.
Word Meaning Moosomin mooseberries Wakaw the crooked part of the lake Nipawin place where one stands Waskesiu red deer Wascana pile of bones Makwa loon Manitou Creator or God Kinistino the Cree people Wawota plenty of snow Sintaluta end of the fox's tailAdd to the list.
People behind the names of places
Use the Student Information Page: The story behind the name. By way of follow-up, the teacher may choose to do the following:
The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce 1920 Broad St.Write letters to relatives or friends asking for information. Ask for pictures or postcards showing special features of the city.
Regina, SK S4P 3V2
Tel: 352-2671
Reading local newspapers from Saskatchewan cities is a good way to learn about them. Obtain copies of newspapers from the public library or write directly to the publisher to request back issues. These may be free.
Use the Encyclopedia Canadiana and The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada for information about Saskatchewan cities. Use a Saskatchewan travel guide to find out about events and attractions.
Prepare a bulletin board display, brochure or a poster about each city. Include a city map and pictures or information about the city's name, major industries, sports teams, and recreational areas in the city. Include newspaper clippings with interesting stories about the city.
Use large scale city maps to compare cities.
Population trends Use the Student Information Page: Saskatchewan cities to see trends in the population of cities.
The table below shows where people lived in 1981. Have students graph the information. Use graph paper and let 1 square represent 2%. Obtain more recent statistics (available from the school library or a public library). Graph these statistics. Make comparisons and identify trends. Speculate on reasons for the trends.
Bureau of StatisticsWhere people lived in 1981.
2350 Albert Street
Regina, SK
Tel: 787-6327
Discuss:Cities 47.0%
Towns 16.9%
Villages 8.1%
Rural Municipalities 23.0%
Reserves 5.0%
The table below illustrates ages of people living in Saskatchewan in 1981. Use this information to prepare a bar graph. Use a large piece of paper to draw the graph. Let one centimetre represent 2%. Obtain recent statistics from the Bureau of Statistics and graph them. Make comparisons and identify trends.
| Age | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0-9 | 16.4% |
| 10-19 | 18.0% |
| 20-29 | 17.6% |
| 30-39 | 12.3% |
| 40-49 | 9.4% |
| 50-59 | 9.7% |
| 60-69 | 8.7% |
| 70-79 | 5.4% |
| 80 + | 2.5% |
Predict what you think the percentage might be like in 10 or 20 years. Make bar graphs.
Use the Student Information Page: Population 1921 and 1991. Have students identify trends and predict future trends.
Where should we move?
Refer to Student Information Page: Where should we move? Have students working in groups to read the scenarios and suggest places where the families should move. Students should be prepared to give reasons for their answers.
Recreation in Saskatchewan Identify parks in the local community. Discuss the value of parks to people, wildlife, and the environment.
Use the Great Saskatchewan Vacation Guide and list (or attend) some
major events and attractions in the local community or others the students would
like to visit
.
Find provincial and national parks on a highway map. Collect pictures of activities that people enjoy while visiting a provincial park.
Many people watch television for fun. How many television programs you watch are produced in Saskatchewan? in Canada? Record the titles of all the TV programs that you watch for a week. Note those produced in Saskatchewan. The credits at the end of the program usually tell you where the program is produced. At the end of the week compile a class list of Saskatchewan TV programs.
Reading is a favourite pastime in Saskatchewan. Read stories and legends with a Saskatchewan perspective. Include stories with Indian and Mètis content and perspectives.
Over a given period of time (two weeks), scan local newspapers for articles or announcements about local arts and recreational activities. Look for items about sports, entertainment, music, theatre, dance, art galleries, museums, and crafts. Compile a list or display of Things to See and Do in Our Community.
Attend a local social or recreational event. Write a review of the event. Give a description of the event, its purpose, the attendance, and your impressions.
Review activities
Play Twenty Questions. One student selects a place in the province. The rest of the class tries to guess the place by asking not more than 20 questions. The questions may be answered only with either yes or no. Sample questions include:
Plan a holiday at a Saskatchewan park or other tourist destination. Use resources
such as road maps and vacation guides from Tourism Saskatchewan. Include
information about
:
Suggested Resources
(listed in other bibliographies and catalogues)
Echoes (Arts Ed) (MHP, V2932)
Gray Ghosts of Saskatchewan (MHP, V6328)
Images in Northern Saskatchewan (Arts Ed) (MHP, V2618)
Mosaic Jubilee: Part I (MHP, V272)
Mosaic Jubilee: Part II (MHP, V295)
One In A Million (MHP, series, p.11)
Positively Native (MHP, V8405)
Saskatoon Saskatchewan (MHP, V3876)
Saskatoon: Profile Of A Prairie City (MHP, V6993)
The Great Saskatchewan Vacation Book
Saskatchewan Travel Guide
Saskatchewan Parks: Your Place Under the Sun (pamphlet)
Saskatchewan Official Highway Map
Saskatchewan Notes
Available from:Also, request information produced by Destination Tourism Regions.
Tourism Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Trade & Convention Centre
1919 Saskatchewan Drive
Regina, SK S4P 3V7
Tel: 787-2300
Fax: 787-5744
Contact provincial and regional parks and the Chamber of Commerce in communities for tourist information.
Use Saskatchewan Past and Present kit. This kit was placed in all schools with grade four in 1984.
Student Information Page: The story behind
the name
When Joanne was a child, her family lived next to the Gyro Community Golf Course located near the airport. She watched the golfers from her house. Since the golf course ran along the Wascana Creek. For Joanne and her friends, that creek was a gold mine in golf balls. But Joanne thought she would like to try golfing too. A neighbour found a club in his attic and gave it to Joanne. And that's how she go started with the game, using just one club.
In Joanne's family, the children received presents at Christmas and for their birthdays. For Christmas their presents were usually clothes like mitts, toques or socks. But for their birthdays, the children could choose whatever they wanted for a value of $5.00. For her 14th birthday, Joanne wanted golf clubs. Her dad found some at an auction sale - 4 clubs and a bag. "How much am I bid for these fine clubs?" shouted the auctioneer. Someone bid one dollar. "$1.50," called her dad. "Going once, going twice, sold!" shouted the auctioneer. With the $3.50 she had left, she paid $3.00 for a membership in the Gyro Club. That birthday present was the start of many rounds of golf, many championships, many awards, and a lot of fun.
At the Gyro Club, Joanne was the first girl to be really interested in the game. Few of her friends played. There was no junior program. But there were always people who would play with her. A number of people recognized her talent and encouraged her to continue.
In 1951 she joined the Regina Golf Club. For her, as a junior, the fee was $5.00. Some of the club members sponsored her and she entered her first ladies' competition.
She could have moved to a place where the golf season is a little longer, but she didn't want to. "I like Regina," she says, "I have lived here all my life, and plan to stay."
She probably could have turned pro, but she didn't want to. She wanted to golf for fun, not for a living. But as an amateur, she entered many tournaments. She has competed all across Canada, in many of the states, and in many different countries.
Until 1991, Joanne won every Regina City tournament that she entered. She was city champion 30 times! She was provincial champion 9 times. She was senior women's champion 3 times. Twice she was a member of the provincial team which won the national championship.
What was a highlight in her life? "Well", she thought a moment. "It was the time the Saskatchewan team won the Canadian National. It was the first time our province had ever won. We won it another year after that. But that first time was great!"
What do you think was named in Joanne's honour? A golf course, of course - the Joanne Goulet Golf Course! It is the first course in Canada to be named after a woman.
Joanne is very pleased and proud to be honoured in this way.
In 1988, Yvonne and two of her friends bought a house with 4 apartments. They called it Sofia House. The name Sofia comes from the Greek language. It means wisdom. It also means support for families who are suffering.
Sofia House is a second stage transition house, the first one in the province. A transition house is a place where women and their children may go to live for a while when they need to get away from abuse in their homes. A lot of people need the safety of a transition house and there are not very many in Saskatchewan. So usually a woman and her children have to leave after several weeks and find another place to live. At Sofia House, a second stage transition house, a family may stay longer, even up to a year if necessary.
Where did Yvonne and her friends get the money to buy the house? They didn't get any from the government. They asked a lot of people for donations and they hosted special events. It took them a few years to raise enough money.
Why did they do it? It is taking a lot of time and energy. But they think it's worth it. Yvonne believes in the saying, "Love your neighbour as yourself."
Sister Yvonne was born in Paris, France. When she was three years old, her family moved to California. When she was quite young, her parents separated and Yvonne lived in foster homes and boarding schools.
Her father came to Canada. Here he met the Sisters of St. Louis. He persuaded Yvonne to go to high school with them. So, when she was 14 years old, she took the train by herself from California to Medicine Hat. And that's where she stayed for a long time.
When she was in school, she loved Science. At university she studied Physics, Chemistry and Maths. As a teacher and later a principal, she worked in schools in Melville, Marquis, Wilcox, Moose Jaw, and other places, often teaching Science.
All her life she loved to learn and go to school as well as teach. She went to night classes and took classes by correspondence to get her teaching degrees. When she was 60, she went to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to study about libraries. When she was 75, she enrolled in a school in Oakland, California to take some courses there. For Yvonne, learning and teaching go together. At 82 years of age, she is still teaching and learning. What is she teaching? "Oh," she said with a smile, "I teach pretty well anything - to people who can't afford to pay."
So how did she get interested in setting up a transition house for mothers and their children in Regina?
Well, when she was in her fifties, she decided she wanted to do something different. So she applied to teach in a teacher training college in Tanzania a country in Africa. She was there for three years. She loved the experience. It was so interesting to live in a different country with people from another culture. But while she was there, it really started to bother her that men and women were treated differently. The women in the school lived together in big dorms while the men had more private rooms. The women had to take pregnancy tests when they came to the college, and could attend only if they were not pregnant. One day one of the men at the college invited her to his home for dinner. After sitting in his home for awhile, she asked about his wife. She was in the back yard cooking the meal. When it was ready, the man and Sister Yvonne sat while the man's wife served them.
When she thought about it, she realized that women and men in Canada are, in many ways, treated differently too. When there is violence in a family, it is usually the woman and the children who are abused. So when she got back to Saskatchewan, she and her friends decided they would do what they could to offer help to at least some of those women and children.
And that's how Sofia House was started. The house could have been named after one of the women who started it. But they decided on a name that means what the house is all about - wisdom and support for families in need.
Tregarva, Saskatchewan. That was the place where Ruth Pawson started teaching. The year - 1927. It was a one room school, 36 students, Grades 1 to 10. When she visited the school during the summer, she was shocked at how few books there were. How could children learn to read without lots of books? Before school started, a salesman selling encyclopedia visited her. She bought a set. She didn't have the money to pay for it right then, but she paid a little each month for the whole year. "I don't know how I could have got through the year without that set of encyclopedia," she recalls. The students loved it too. They did all kinds of research projects using it. They had never done things like that in school before.
And that's the kind of teacher Ruth Pawson was for many years. She loved and cared about the children in her classes. They often came first in her life. She was also a leader among teachers, the first to try new ideas and help other teachers use them too.
Ruth had another love - painting. Her grandfather was an artist. Unfortunately, she never had the chance to meet him. But when she was very young, her mother became sick with TB (tuberculosis) and had to live in a sanatorium for a year. So Ruth, along with her four brothers and sisters, went to live with different relatives for that year. Ruth went to Toronto to live with an aunt. Her aunt's house was filled with her grandfather's paintings. She especially remembers a group of paintings showing ancient myths. She thought it would be wonderful to paint like that.
She didn't ever illustrate myths, but she has painted hundreds of prairie landscapes. Whenever summer holidays came, Ruth was off to Emma Lake to learn about and practice painting. Two famous artists she studied with were A.Y. Jackson and Augustus F. Kenderdine.
When Ruth retired from teaching, she travelled to many places - Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia. New Zealand, Morocco, Spain, and others. She also painted a lot. But no matter how busy she was, she always kept in touch with students. Teachers often invited her to talk to their classes and show her art work. She liked to tell stories to children, or help them prepare for speech or poetryy contests. For several years she helped make school broadcasts both for radio and television. These broadcasts were used across Western Canada.
Then one day in 1976, while she was having a family birthday dinner, the telephone rang. The voice at the other end said that a new building was going to be named after her. What kind of a building do you think it was? A school, of course. She was so shocked, she started to cry.
Ruth visited her school as often as possible. She attended the assemblies, she went on field trips with classes, she worked with small and large groups in many ways. Every Christmas she bought special books for the library. Every Christmas she gave a Christmas card to each student - with a picture (lithograph) of one of her paintings. She learned to know many of the families in the school district. "I feel very lucky to have this contact with children," she said.
The students, teachers and parents of Ruth Pawson School feel very lucky and proud for that contact with her.
One day in 1994, Ruth died very suddenly. Many people felt sorry to lose her, but happy to have known a good teacher, a popular artist, and a loyal friend.
(Note: Regina has a street named Pawson Street which is close to the oil refinery. It is named after Ruth's brother who worked at the refinery for many years.)
The Souris River was special to the Indian peoples. They made their camps along the river. In those days it was known as the "Foaming River" because of the way it foamed around rocks in certain places. One day some French traders came upon a group of Indian peoples camped along the river. The interpreter inquired about the name of the river and the Indian peoples explained that they called it the "Foaming River". The French decided to call it the Mousse river because that word means foam in French.
Some time later a group of English explorers came along and inquired about the name of the river. They mistook the word `mousse' for `mouse' and started calling it the Mouse River.
Later, another group of French traders came along and when they inquired about the name of the river they were told it was the Mouse River. They then gave the river the name "Souris". The word souris is mouse in French.
To this day it is called the Mouse River in the United States and the Souris River in Canada.
Student Information Page: Saskatchewan
Cities
A place has to have a population of at least 5 000 people to be called a city.
The twelve cities in the province are listed below along with their population according to the 1981 and 1991 census figures. The 1991 figures for Regina and Saskatoon are from more recent dates.
City 1981 1991 Estevan 9 174 10 240 Lloydminster 6 034 7 241 Melfort 6 010 5 628 Melville 5 092 4 905 Moose Jaw 33 941 34 130 North Battleford 14 030 14 350 Prince Albert 31 380 34 181 Regina 162 984 184 830(1992) Saskatoon 154 210 192 147(1993) Swift Current 14 747 14 815 Weyburn 9 523 9 673 Yorkton 15 339 15 315(Note: You may be able to get more recent figures from your local library.)
Identify trends.
| Age groups | 1921 | 1991 |
|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | 113 218 | 78 165 |
| 5-9 | 106 492 | 81 250 |
| 10-14 | 81 187 | 78 040 |
| 15-24 | 120 471 | 137 630 |
| 25-34 | 126 152 | 157 940 |
| 35-44 | 107 238 | 139 055 |
| 45-54 | 55 843 | 91 510 |
| 55-64 | 29 759 | 85 405 |
| 65-74 | 13 122 | 77 375 |
| 75-84 | 3 498 | 47 820 |
| 85+ | 530 | 14 730 |
| Total: | 757 510 | 988 930 |
Student Information Page: Where should we
move?
Explore reasons why people would settle in particular areas. Read the following scenarios about families that are planning to move. Where is the best place for the family to go? Give reasons for your answer.