Dates (Weeks): March-April
Unit/Theme Overview
Overall Expecations:
Subject Area: Social Studies
A1. Application: compare key aspects of life in a few early societies (3000 BCE–1500 CE), each from a different region and era and representing a different culture, and describe some key similarities
and differences between these early societies and present-day Canadian society (FOCUS ON: Continuity and Change; Perspective)
A2. Inquiry: use the social studies inquiry process to investigate ways of life and relationships with the environment in two of more early societies (3000 BCE–1500 CE), with an emphasis on aspects
of the interrelationship between the environment and life in those societies (FOCUS ON: Interrelationships)
A1.3 describe some of the ways in which their daily life differs from the lives of young people from different backgrounds (e.g., wealthy, poor, slave, urban, rural, nomadic) in two or more early
societies (e.g., with reference to family life, education, leisure time and recreation, responsibilities, work)
A3. Understanding Context: demonstrate an understanding of key aspects of a few early societies (3000 BCE–1500 CE), each from a different region and era and representing a different culture, with
reference to their political and social organization, daily life, and relationships with the environment and with each other (FOCUS ON: Significance)
Topic-Theme: Early Societies
Grade 4
Time per lesson: Varies
Lessons per weeks: 3 lessons
Culminating Task (What will students learn?):
Students will create their own ancient civilization using recycled materials or Minecraft. They will research and write about their civilization using Kidblog.
Accomodations and Modifications through entire unit:
Use Expert Space as a tool to differentiate instruction during research.
Students can use Dragon Dictation to share their ideas and understandings
No
1
Concept/Topic
Introducing
Medieval
Societies
Story Drama
2 lessons
Specific Expectations
Learning
Goals
A3.8 describe the social organization of
some different early societies (e.g., a
slave-owning society, a feudal society, an
agrarian society, a nomadic society) and
the role and status of some significant
social and work-related groups in these
societies (e.g., women, slaves, peasants,
nobles, monarchs, warriors, knights,
priests/priestesses, druids, shamans,
imams, monks, nuns, merchants, artisans,
apprentices, scribes, midwives, healers)
A3.2 demonstrate the ability to extract
information on daily life in early societies
from visual evidence (e.g., art works such
as paintings, sculptures, carvings, masks,
mosaics; artefacts such as household
utensils, religious articles, weapons)
A1.2 compare aspects of the daily lives of
different groups in an early society (e.g.,
the work, family life, education, food,
dress, and/or housing of a slave and
senator in ancient Rome, women of
different castes in medieval India, a serf
and lord in feudal England, a man and a
woman in medieval China or Mohawk
society, or a merchant and noble in
Renaissance Italy), and explain how
differences were related to the social
organization of that society (e.g., the caste
system in India; the matriarchal
organization of some First Nations;
classes in imperial Rome or in feudal
societies in Europe or Asia; the
emergence of a wealthy merchant class in
Renaissance Italy)
We are
learning to
think critically
about elements
of power in
early societies
by creating
tableaus that
represent the
different roles
in early
society
Resources
-Chart Paper
-Markers
-Medieval
Pictures
Lesson
Activities – Strategies
Drama Lesson
Whole Class > Keeper of the Keys
 This game builds concentration, problem solving and a sense of exploration in a power
themed activity. One student sits in the middle of a circle with keys at their feet. They are
blindfolded. Choose one student to try to steal the keys and return to their spot in the
circle.. If the keeper detects the robber of the keys by pointing directly at them, then the
robber must return to their spot empty handed. If the robber successfully makes it back to
their spot, they become the keeper of the keys. Engage students in a brief discussion after
the activity. Prompts: How could a student cheat during this game? Was it hard to resist
cheating?
This game can be replayed throughout the unit to allow students to develop new winning
strategies.
Pairs > Think Pair Share
 Post a a variety of Medieval Images (Appendix B) throughout the classroom. Invite
students to view the images as they travel through the room on a gallery walk. Invite
students to stand next to an image that they feel drawn to. Ask students to discuss the
image with an elbow partner using the think pair share strategy. Prompts: Who do you
see in this image? What might be happening? Who might be missing from the picture?
 Have students make a list on posted chart paper of all the roles seen in each picture.
Prompts: When looking at your image, who appears to have the power? Who is
powerless? How can you tell who has/doesn't have power?
 Invite students, in groups, to create a tableau showing the roles in their chosen image.
Engage students in a discussion about all the images. Have students record on sticky notes
how they would describe the words power and powerless in their own words. Use these
group tableaux and sticky notes as an initial pre-assessment tool. Refer to BLM#2
Elements of Tableau Checklist and use as an anchor chart throughout the unit.
Consolidate:
Create two large Y Chart graphic organizers on chart paper and have students sort their
sticky notes accordingly (BLM#3 Y Chart Power and Powerless)
Evaluation/Assessment
- Assessment for learning:
Using anecdotal notes and
anchor chart to pre-assess
students understanding of
social organization
-Assessment as Learning:
Students share one thing they
understand about power.
Notes – Integration with
other subjects
Modifications/Accomodations
-Drama
Modifications/Accomodations:
Kinesthetic and Oral Learning
2
Elements of
Power in
Medieval
Society
Drama
2-3 lessons
A3.7 describe how two or more early
societies were governed (e.g., early
democracy in Greece; emperors in China;
the roles of nobles, priests, and the
military in Aztec society, of kings, nobles,
and knights in medieval France,)
A3.8 describe the social organization of
some different early societies (e.g., a
slave-owning society, a feudal society, an
agrarian society, a nomadic society) and
the role and status of some significant
social and work-related groups in these
societies (e.g., women, slaves, peasants,
nobles, monarchs, warriors, knights,
priests/priestesses, druids, shamans,
imams, monks, nuns, merchants, artisans,
apprentices, scribes, midwives, healers)
We are
learning to
think critically
about elements
of power in
early societies
By
participating
in role play
and creating a
role on the
wall about the
king and
peasants
-BLM 5
-BLM 4
-BLM 3
-chart paper
-pictures
Whole Class > The Kings' Bread Large Group Role Play
 Enter as teacher in role as the King. Invite students to gather in a circle at the castle's
outdoor arena. Read the narrative to the students describing the scenario of the roles,
context and problem (missing bread) of the large group role play using BLM#4 The
King's Tournament Narrative. Invite students to enter the drama in role when their name
is announced. An anchor chart of the feudal system can be posted in the room (BLM #5).
Individual > Character Building of Medieval Roles
 Invite students to re-examine role images from APPENDIX B Medieval Images of
different medieval roles. Put each role description (from the sticky note activity in the
Minds On section) into container for students to draw from. Prompts: What does your
assigned character look like? How might they move, dress etc?
 Invite students to find a spot in the room where they can move individually. Prompt
students to close their eyes and imagine themselves in their new role in the kingdom.
Introduce the elements of tableau with students and refer to the posted anchor chart in room
(BLM #3). Prompt: A picture tells a lot about character. Facial expression, body
language, interaction and relationship all shape a characters identity.
 Instruct students to show their character in 3 individual frozen statues at work, at home,
and at court with the King. Prompts: What might your character be doing in each of these
three scenarios? Remember to show levels, facial expressions, and body language for your
character.
Pairs > Tableaux
 Divide the class in half and assign partners. Each pair will take on opposite roles in the
hierarchy to stand for a portrait: one half will take on roles of those with POWER (nobility,
barons, bishops, knights, etc.) The other side will take on the roles of the POWERLESS
(merchants, servants, villeins and serfs).
 Have students create a group tableau that shows their characters. Extend the activity by
changing the emotions of the characters (sad, angry, tired, etc.) or mix groups together to
see how different roles would interact with one another.
Whole Class > Tableaux Crossover
 Separate the two groups (POWER roles and POWERLESS roles) on either side of the
room once again and place a visual marker (tape line, piece of material) in between the
two. Label one group A and the other group B. Have each side create a group sculpture
that shows how they were feeling in the last tableau. Unfreeze Group A and ask them to
study the position of their partner in Group B carefully so that they are able to recreate the
tableau. Repeat with Group B.
 Use a signal (drum beat, etc) and a slow count to ten. Have students slowly transition
across the center line to take on the position of their partner; two identical tableaux should
appear. Prompt students to begin to change their shape, level and facial expression as they
move from one position to the next and take on the perspective of the other person.
Prompts: How might your body move differently on the other side? Would your opinion of the
current situation change as well? How did it feel when you crossed over the midway point and
took on the role of your counterpart? Have you ever been in a situation wherein taking on the
perspective of someone else helped you to solve a challenge?
Ask students to respond orally or in written form in their drama journals.
Whole Class > Role on the Wall
 Draw a large outline of the King on butcher paper and with the students create a Role on
the Wall for this character (see BLM #6). Prompt: How might a member of the nobility
feel about themselves? Record information inside the outlined figure. Prompt: How would
the powerless characters in the kingdom perceive them?
 Record statements on the outside of the outlined figure. Invite students to add ideas
independently. Repeat the same role on the wall activity for the Powerless group. Compare
the similarities and differences between the roles.
Assessment for:
-Anecdotal notes and pictures
of tableauxs help assess
understanding of social
organization/power and
feudal system
-work from the role on the
wall activity assesses a
students understanding of the
feudal system and character
building (empathy)
-Drama
-Social/Emotional
-Kinesthetic learning
Whole Class > Role Play
 Review the initial narrative if needed prior to the role play. Enter once again as teacher in
role as the King. Prompt: Wait! I cannot start the games! The bread to be served at the
feast is missing! We have no way of honouring our guests. I will not be dishonoured in this
way! Where is our feast? Who has stolen the bread? I am outraged. . .Have no fear my
subjects. Although its true that I punish thieves severely, I am sure that I will not have to do
that. Just tell me who the thief is. Perhaps one of your sons? Or even a daughter? When I
find the culprit, I'm going to. . .well, I will decide what will happen. Please step forward
with your story.
Small Group > Overheard Conversations

Prompt students with a variety of statements about the bread theft in the Kingdom (see
BLM#7 Overheard Conversations Statements). Divide students into eight small groups
representing the POWER roles of nobility, barons, bishops, knights or the POWERLESS
roles of merchants, servants, villeins and serfs.
Have students spread throughout the room and role play a conversation about the statement they
have received about the bread theft. As each group improvises, approach the group in role as
another member of
 the community spreading gossip about what has happened.
 Next, as you move from one group to the next, use a signal to freeze the students in a
starting tableau and invite each group to share one by one by unfreezing as you approach
and continue their role play. As one group speaks, the other groups watch and listen until it
is their turn to speak.
Whole Class > Reflection
When the role play has ended, facilitate a class discussion with students about what they
observed and heard in the role play.
Key Questions for Discussion:
Who is starving in the kingdom and who is not?
What are the risks when going before the King?
What strategies will you use to ensure you are not found out?
How will you ensure that you don't give anyone else away?
In what way were the responses different between the groups?
How does the level of power affect the point of view of the different groups?
How do we know what is true and what is not?
 Discuss with students how power affects relationships. Who had power in this situation and
why? How did they use that power?
3
Medieval
Europe and
Daily lives
2 lessons
A3.1 identify the location of some
different early societies on a globe or on
print, digital, and/or interactive maps, and
demonstrate the ability to extract
information on early societies’
relationship with the environment from
thematic maps (e.g., climate, physical,
topographical, vegetation maps)
A3.3 describe significant aspects of daily
life in two or more early societies (e.g.,
with reference to food, housing, clothing,
education, recreation, spiritual/religious
life, family life, transportation)
We are
learning to
research about
different roles
of medieval
society
By reading the
textbook as a
class and
researching
independently
Minds On:
 As the cover page, have students complete a KWL chart. What do you know about
Medieval Societies? What do you want to know about Medieval Societies? Leave what you
have learned blank.
Engage:
 Hand out a map of Europe to students and have students label the countries when medieval
Europe took place and the major cities during that time.
 As a class read through the textbook looking at the daily life of all the medieval roles. Have
students complete a graphic organizer describing the lives of people in Medieval Society.
(Food, housing, work, clothing, education, recreation, religious life, family, and
transportation)
Assessment as learning:
KWL chart
Assessment for and of
learning;
Map of Europe
Assessment of learning:
Venn Diagram
Accomodations/Modifications:
Students drew picture in KWL
chart as well and writing words
Students draw pictures of
important information in their
graphic organizer. Scribed by
ESL teacher.
4
Feudalism and
Daily lives
1 lesson
5
No
6
Environment
and early
societies
1-2 lessons
Concept/Topi
c
Environment
and early
societies
1-2 lessons
A3.7 describe how two or more early
societies were governed (e.g., early
democracy in Greece; of kings, nobles,
and knights in medieval France,)
A1.2 compare aspects of the daily lives of
different groups in an early society (e.g.,
the work, family life, education, food,
dress, and/or housing of a slave and
senator in ancient Rome, women of
different castes in medieval India, a serf
and lord in feudal England, a man and a
woman in medieval China or Mohawk
society, or a merchant and noble in
Renaissance Italy), and explain how
differences were related to the social
organization of that society (e.g., the caste
system in India; the matriarchal
organization of some First Nations;
classes in imperial Rome or in feudal
societies in Europe or Asia; the
emergence of a wealthy merchant class in
Renaissance Italy)
A2.2 gather and organize information on
ways of life and relationships with the
environment in early societies, using a
variety of primary and secondary sources
in both print and electronic formats (e.g.,
thematic and physical maps showing
rivers, vegetation, volcanoes, soil types;
images depicting the daily life of different
social classes; religious/spiritual stories
that provide evidence of society’s view of
the environment;)
A2.3 analyse and construct print and/or
digital maps, including thematic maps, as
part of their investigations into
interrelationships between the
environment and life in early societies
(e.g., analyse a climate map to determine
the climatic challenges facing early
settlements; construct soil and vegetation
maps to determine the connection between
soil type and agricultural activity;)
on websites
like Expert
Space
Consolidate:
 Ask students to share the comparisons with the class.
We are
learning to
compare the
daily lives of
people in
medieval
society
Minds On: Review the idea of the powerful and powerless and different roles in Society.
Engage: ask students to choose two different roles and compare their daily lives in a Venn
diagram or t-chart. (Students could use puppet pals to present information.) Then ask students to
explain why their roles were different during the Medieval times.
Consolidate: Have students share with the class the roles they have compared and why their
roles are different.
By creating a
venn diagram
or t-chart
We are
learning to
investigate
climate and
vegetation
during
medieval
society
Minds On: Introduce climate, vegetation, and land maps to students during the medieval times
in Europe. Have a conversation about what a legend is? By looking at these maps what can you
see?
Engage: Using I-pads have students study specific physical properties of medieval Europe. In
partners fill out a specific property on a map and then add what they found to a class map.
Learning
Goals
A3.4 describe significant physical
features and natural processes and events
in two or more early societies (e.g.,
physical features: rivers, flood plains,
mountains, ocean shore, fertile soil;
natural processes: seasonal changes in
climate, animal migration, erosion;
natural events) and how they affected
these societies, with a focus on the
We are
learning to
think critically
about how the
environment
affected early
societys
Assessment for and of
learning:
Creating an ancient
civilization and writing about
it on the blog
Assessment of: Individual
maps
Assessment for, of, and as
learning: Creating an ancient
civilization and writing about
it on the blog
Use Expert Space as a tool to
differentiate instruction during
research.
Students can use Dragon
Dictation to share their ideas
and understandings
Consolidate: As a class review what was found and have students fill out the class map onto
their individual maps.
 Talk in detail what each physical region offers to human beings. How would people survive
on this land?
By researching
on the iPads
and reviewing
what we find
on a class
map.
Learning Statements (Lesson
Objectives)
Assessment of: Venn
diagram or t-chart
Resources
Lesson
Activities – Strategies
Minds On: Start by posing the following questions:
 When it is too cold or hot outside what do you do?
 During the winter, how do you get food?
 How do you respond to being sick?
 Why is nature important or not important to you?
Engage:
 In partners ask students to research how certain aspects of the environment affect the
Evaluation
Assessment for, of, and as
learning: Creating an ancient
civilization and writing about
it on the blog
Notes – Integration with
other subjects
Modifications/Accomodation
s
- The food they ate came from
the land they farmed
- How the climate dictated
their daily lives and how they
survived (Sickness, food
accessibility, comfort and
shelter, work)
7
Technologies
and early
societies
societies’ sustainability and food
production (e.g., how flooding of rivers in
ancient Egypt, India, and China enriched
agricultural land, making it possible to
sustain large populations)
A3.5 describe the importance of the
environment for two or more early
societies, including how the local
environment affected the ways in which
people met their physical needs (e.g., for
food, housing, clothing)
A2.1 formulate questions to guide
investigations into ways of life and
relationships with the environment in two
or more early societies, with an emphasis
on aspects of the interrelationship
between the environment and life in those
societies (e.g., connections between the
local environment and settlement, art,
medicine, religion, types of work; the
impact of agriculture or the development
of towns and cities on the environment)
A3.6 identify and describe some of the
major scientific and technological
developments in the ancient and medieval
world (e.g., calendars; the printing press;
developments in agriculture, architecture,
medicine, transportation, weaponry)
1-2 lessons
By answering
questions on
our blog and
discussing
with partners
and the whole
class.
8
Conflict in
early societies
- How Natural disasters
affected medieval society
Use Expert Space as a tool to
differentiate instruction during
research.
Consolidation:
 Have a class discussion about the affects of the environment on the medieval society
Students can use Dragon
Dictation to share their ideas
and understandings
We are
learning to
research and
compare early
technologies to
modern
technologies
By using
expert space to
research and
writing a
procedure
about how to
use a
technology
A3.9 describe some key reasons why
different groups in early societies
cooperated or came into conflict at
different times (e.g., to explore; to
expand territory; to make decisions,
govern, and administer; to promote
trade; to wage war or make peace; to
acquire wealth, power, and control; to
rebel; to spread religious beliefs and/or
enforce the power of particular religious
institutions)
A3.10 describe some attempts within
early societies to deal with conflict and to
establish greater cooperation (e.g.,
democratic developments in ancient
Greece; establishment of religious rights
in medieval Islam; matriarchal practices
medieval societies.
o How weather, land, animals affect work
o How weather, land, and animals affected food
o How weather, land, and animals affected health and safety
Minds On:
 Display in the class a variety of images of technologies used by medieval societies.
o Printing Press
o Medicine
o Transportation
o Agriculture
o weaponry
 Discuss what these technologies are and whether we still use them today.
Engage:
 Students research a specific technology
o Materials used
o How it was built
 Have a class discussion about pulleys and gear (introduction) and how they were used in
medieval society.
 Have students create a medieval Technology along with procedures of how to use it.
Consolidation:
 Share with the class the medieval technology.
Minds on:
 Show a short clip about peasant revolt during the middle ages.
 Brainstorm as a class why peasants would want to revolt during the middle ages.
Engage:
 From the point of view of a peasant ask students to write a monologue describing why they
are unhappy and want things to change.
Consolidation:
 Students can share their monologues with the class.
Assessment for, of, and as
learning: Creating an ancient
civilization and writing about
it on the blog
Science: Pulley’s and Gears
Catapults
Language: procedure writing
Use Expert Space as a tool to
differentiate instruction during
research.
Students can use Dragon
Dictation to share their ideas
and understandings
Assessment for, of, and as
learning: Creating an ancient
civilization and writing about
it on the blog
Language:
Point of view
among some North American First
Nations; the Magna Carta; guilds;
intermarriage between royal houses;
treaties and alliances)