Grade 4 ...Design Your Own Civilization

Using the story, Westlandia by Paul Fleischmann, we explored how to Design our Own Civilization.

One of the Big Ideas in Social Studies in grade 4 is:  "The pursuit of valuable natural resources has played a key role in changing the land, people, and communities of Canada." In order to have students understand what a natural resource is, and really incorporate the importance of natural resources, we read Westlandia- a wonderful picture book about a boy who grows his own staple food crop, and designs his own civilization.  

 From reading the book, we have been learning about the natural resources in Canada, and how they have played a key role in defining our country.  The students have also been deciding upon their own natural resources that will be part of their civilization.

 Above:  a map of a student's civilization

 A passport.  Students have created passports, and they will go and visit other civilizations in the classroom, and have their passport stamped.  We inquired about why citizens have passports, and what they are, and what information is included in a passport.

This book, above, written by Valerie Wyatt, is an exceptional resource
that details information about how to create a country.  I have used it for years to help students develop concepts about government, constitutions, laws, and citizenship.

We will keep you posted as we put our countries together, in a flop board format, for our final presentations.