What others say
Description
Bring the history of Early Canada to life with this engaging Canadian fur trade project-based learning (PBL) activity! Students take on the role of archaeologists tasked with locating the site of a fictional fur trading fort. This immersive task helps students explore life in Early Canada through critical thinking, creativity, and historical inquiry.
Students will complete this fur trading post activity by:
- creating a map showing the location of a fictional fur trading fort.
- designing a visual representation of what the fort may have looked like. This can be a drawing, diagram, diorama or even a screenshot of something created digitally. Students have made models with cardboard, building bricks and even video games.
- writing a detailed report about daily life in the fort, including weather conditions, defense strategies, trade routes and goods, natural resources in the area, a plan to transport furs back to Europe, Indigenous People who may have lived (or still live) in the area.
What's Included in this fur trade project:
- ✅ Complete lesson plan for teachers with step-by-step instructions to walk students through the project. Instructions for how to do project-based learning in your classroom is also included.
- ✅ Differentiation options to support a variety of learners such as options to simplify or complexify the activity for your students. Students can do this project with a paper and pencil, a computer or with hands-on building materials.
- ✅ Student planning pages to guide their research and creativity. Students can use a paper or digital version for their planning.
- ✅ Three student checklists to choose from based on your classroom needs. These are in varying levels of detail so you can choose what works best for your classroom learners.
- ✅ Assessment rubric clearly outlining expectations to make marking easier for teachers.
- ✅ Teacher background information organized by category for easy reference. You don't have to be an expert. This information is based on Early Canada, but if you have your own information, this project can still work with anywhere in North America.
- ✅ Student reflection page for thoughtful learning integration and to help students assess their own progress through the project.
- ✅ Suggested reference websites to aid student research or provide more background information for teachers.
- ✅ A map of Canada to help your students who can't draw as quickly or easily.
- ✅ Examples of completed student work – maps, fort visuals, and written reports.
- ✅ Digital pages for some of the planning and reflection activities to save printing or to allow some flexibility for students. To access the digital version, please download the PDF and use the link inside that file.
Why Teachers Love This Fur Trade Activity:
- Keeps students actively engaged for weeks.
- Promotes collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.
- Works well with individual, partner, or small group projects.
- Tested and loved by hundreds of classrooms across Canada.
- Flexible: students have created forts using diagrams, drawings, video games, cardboard, sticks, and more!
Ninja Note: While a basic understanding of the fur trade and Canadian geography helps, students can learn as they go with the included materials.
This is a very open-ended task, with a clear rubric outlining the content which is expected to be addressed. Students are kept engaged in their learning for 2-3 weeks of social studies classes. We've done this project for as long as a month.
If you teach in Alberta, this resource was written for the old Social Studies Program of Studies. It has not yet been reviewed or adjusted for the new Alberta social studies curriculum which is being piloted in the 2025-26 school year. To learn about how we plan to address the changes, visit our site https://brainninjas.ca/social-studies-in-alberta/
This resource aligns with:
- Alberta Program of Studies for Grade 5 Social Studies: Early Canada
This resource supports:
- any lesson covering Canada's fur trade. While the materials are designed to be used for the Canadian fur trade, but they can easily be adapted to use in the United States as well. The background information is specific to Canada.
Ninja Note: This resource was updated in November 2020. We changed the perspective of the task to be more mindful of how taking on the role of a fur trader is insensitive to our students who identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit. There are changes throughout to better align with our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation. While the activity is generally the same, the fur trader role play has been removed. Please use this version from now on.
Check out our other Social Studies resources.
FOLLOW US TO GET THE LATEST!
Please let us know how this resource works for you by rating it or providing feedback. You'll get TpT credits to use toward future purchases.
Our website at brainninjas.ca is full of ideas for using our resources.
Thank you for your consideration! Happy learning about fur trading posts from the Brain Ninjas!
Canada Fur Trade PBL Social Studies Canadian History Project Based Learning
Highlights
What others say
Description
Bring the history of Early Canada to life with this engaging Canadian fur trade project-based learning (PBL) activity! Students take on the role of archaeologists tasked with locating the site of a fictional fur trading fort. This immersive task helps students explore life in Early Canada through critical thinking, creativity, and historical inquiry.
Students will complete this fur trading post activity by:
- creating a map showing the location of a fictional fur trading fort.
- designing a visual representation of what the fort may have looked like. This can be a drawing, diagram, diorama or even a screenshot of something created digitally. Students have made models with cardboard, building bricks and even video games.
- writing a detailed report about daily life in the fort, including weather conditions, defense strategies, trade routes and goods, natural resources in the area, a plan to transport furs back to Europe, Indigenous People who may have lived (or still live) in the area.
What's Included in this fur trade project:
- ✅ Complete lesson plan for teachers with step-by-step instructions to walk students through the project. Instructions for how to do project-based learning in your classroom is also included.
- ✅ Differentiation options to support a variety of learners such as options to simplify or complexify the activity for your students. Students can do this project with a paper and pencil, a computer or with hands-on building materials.
- ✅ Student planning pages to guide their research and creativity. Students can use a paper or digital version for their planning.
- ✅ Three student checklists to choose from based on your classroom needs. These are in varying levels of detail so you can choose what works best for your classroom learners.
- ✅ Assessment rubric clearly outlining expectations to make marking easier for teachers.
- ✅ Teacher background information organized by category for easy reference. You don't have to be an expert. This information is based on Early Canada, but if you have your own information, this project can still work with anywhere in North America.
- ✅ Student reflection page for thoughtful learning integration and to help students assess their own progress through the project.
- ✅ Suggested reference websites to aid student research or provide more background information for teachers.
- ✅ A map of Canada to help your students who can't draw as quickly or easily.
- ✅ Examples of completed student work – maps, fort visuals, and written reports.
- ✅ Digital pages for some of the planning and reflection activities to save printing or to allow some flexibility for students. To access the digital version, please download the PDF and use the link inside that file.
Why Teachers Love This Fur Trade Activity:
- Keeps students actively engaged for weeks.
- Promotes collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.
- Works well with individual, partner, or small group projects.
- Tested and loved by hundreds of classrooms across Canada.
- Flexible: students have created forts using diagrams, drawings, video games, cardboard, sticks, and more!
Ninja Note: While a basic understanding of the fur trade and Canadian geography helps, students can learn as they go with the included materials.
This is a very open-ended task, with a clear rubric outlining the content which is expected to be addressed. Students are kept engaged in their learning for 2-3 weeks of social studies classes. We've done this project for as long as a month.
If you teach in Alberta, this resource was written for the old Social Studies Program of Studies. It has not yet been reviewed or adjusted for the new Alberta social studies curriculum which is being piloted in the 2025-26 school year. To learn about how we plan to address the changes, visit our site https://brainninjas.ca/social-studies-in-alberta/
This resource aligns with:
- Alberta Program of Studies for Grade 5 Social Studies: Early Canada
This resource supports:
- any lesson covering Canada's fur trade. While the materials are designed to be used for the Canadian fur trade, but they can easily be adapted to use in the United States as well. The background information is specific to Canada.
Ninja Note: This resource was updated in November 2020. We changed the perspective of the task to be more mindful of how taking on the role of a fur trader is insensitive to our students who identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit. There are changes throughout to better align with our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation. While the activity is generally the same, the fur trader role play has been removed. Please use this version from now on.
Check out our other Social Studies resources.
FOLLOW US TO GET THE LATEST!
Please let us know how this resource works for you by rating it or providing feedback. You'll get TpT credits to use toward future purchases.
Our website at brainninjas.ca is full of ideas for using our resources.
Thank you for your consideration! Happy learning about fur trading posts from the Brain Ninjas!
