Civics in the Classroom: Citizenship Challenge Elementary Education Guide

ACTIVITY 5: PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT It is a responsibility of people in Canada to help protect Canada’s natural environment. This is something that anyone living in Canada can do, and it can begin in your local community. Small actions can make a difference in ensuring that Canada’s environment is protected for future generations. Actions to protect the environment connect you to the global movement to make our communities more sustainable and help save the planet. PART I: 1. The United Nations (UN) has a list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment ) to promote prosperity and protect the planet. Have the teacher select a few of the UN goals — or, if time allows, all 17 — and discuss as a class how these goals are connected to protecting the planet. Be specific. For example, climate change is creating more deserts. We need healthy soil to grow enough food to reach the UN Zero Hunger goal, so we need to prevent desert land from spreading. 2. Refer to the class Visual Anchor Chart (Activity 1) and discuss the responsibilities that each jurisdiction has in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and/or good environmental stewardship. PART II: 1. Divide into groups of three or four students and take a class walk through the neighbourhood around the school. Each group will select one natural feature or natural space around the school that they would like to protect for themselves and future students. Alternatively, bring in images or pictures of natural features or spaces in the larger community that the group can choose from. 2. Back in the classroom, get into your groups and brainstorm specific issues related to protecting that feature, or needs that should be addressed by the local government for the feature to thrive within your community. Below are some examples of issues: • Lack of garbage cans • No signs helping to educate people about the importance of healthy waterways • Little natural space • Nothing to encourage biodiversity (building bat houses, bird houses, or pollinator gardens) or prevent habitat loss ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP – TAKING ACTION IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY Earth Day parade in Montreal, Quebec (Dreamstime/Meunierd/47373908). AMidland Painted Turtle investigating trash in Toronto’s High Park (Dreamstime/Beth Baisch/117147098). Canada goose goslings snuggling with mother (Dreamstime/Leerobin/115160892). 7 TREATIES IN CANADA Treaties are formal agreements made between parties. Today this usually refers to agreements between Indigenous peoples and the Government of Canada. In the era of New France (1608-1763), the French Crown entered into alliances and treaties with Indigenous peoples. After the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , the British Crown (and later the Government of Canada) also made many treaties with Indigenous peoples to encourage trade and settlement on lands where Indigenous peoples lived and worked. Most of these agreements describe exchanges where Indigenous nations agree to share some of their lands in return for various payments, goods, and promises. Treaties were often understood and interpreted differently by Indigenous peoples and the Government of Canada. The meanings of many treaties are still debated in Canada today. Watch the Naskumituwin (Treaty) Heritage Minute as a class and consider: How do the meanings of treaties change when we consider them as relationships rather than contracts? What does it mean to violate these relationships? How are they interpreted differently between Indigenous peoples and the Government? What can Canadians do to honour treaties? For further activities exploring treaties, Indigenous perspectives and history, see the Treaties in Canada Education Guide and the Indigenous Perspectives Education Guide on the Education Portal .