Discover Canada: Canada Unit Theme for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners
As the second largest country in the world, Canada is rich in learning opportunities for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Whether it’s learning about culture, animals, or diverse physical geography, Canada is a country to base a unit theme on for primary aged kids. Keep reading for a complete Montessori-inspired Canada unit theme for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
I created these activities for my own daughter and we absolutely loved completing them during our homeschool time. And read to the end for your own downloadable (and free!) choice board!
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Books About Canada
Magic Postcard: Canada
If I could only pick one book to get about Canada for my preschooler, it would be Magic Postcard: Canada. This is a series from Crabtree Publishing, and we absolutely love it. Think Magic Treehouse, but instead of traveling through time, this set of siblings is traveling the world.
There’s colored illustrations on every page, making this a great read-aloud for preschoolers as well as an early reader book for newly independent readers.
The siblings travel to different iconic sites throughout Canada, including Niagara Falls and Toronto.
It’s a great overview of the country, gets kids excited about learning more, and pairs great with the geography activites I created below.
It’s available on Amazon here.
Goodnight, Canada
I love this series by Adam Gamble. Whenever I need a book to introduce a new place, I tend to turn to this series first.
Each book in the series introduces iconic places throughout Canada with more detail than the Magic Postcard book including Prince Edward Island, theaters, and Quebec City.
The illustrations are adorable and the rhyming of the book makes it a great pick for preschoolers (and even toddlers who are joining in!).
The amount of detail though makes it great for kindergarteners and lower primary students.
All in all, it’s one that’s great for multiple ages year after year.
It’s available on Amazon here.
Blastoff: Canada
If you’re looking for a nonfiction book to include in this unit, I recommend the Blastoff series. With actual photos and informational text, this is a great book for multiple ages. For preschoolers, encourage them to focus on the photos and give them the highlights. (Even encourage them to match the pictures to the illustrations in the previous books included.)
For primary aged students, this is a great introduction to more information about Canada, including their capital city and regions of the country.
It’s available on Amazon here.
Language Activities
Learning Three French Words
I’ve always thought it was cool that Canada has two official languages, and that French has held on despite English being much more widely spoken. So to emphasize the lasting cultural impact that France has had on Canada, have kids learn three words in French.
Another activity could be to learn the words to “Frere Jacques” and sing it in both English and French. (If you’ve forgotten the words yourself, here’s a great YouTube video for it that actually emphasizes teaching French to kids!)
If you want to help pull in the geographic concept of a language’s hearth, or if your kid just loves coloring, you could have them color a map of Canada in two different colors to show where English and French are primarily spoken.
History/Culture Activity
History can feel intimidating to approach with young learners, but keeping it simple is a great way to build a strong framework that will make history so much more enjoyable for them later on (almost like learning a language).
For Canada, I simply broke up their history into three MAJOR phases: Indigenous Period, European Exploration and Colonization, and the Modern Era. I put together this VERY SIMPLE printable with an image representing each of these three time periods and asked my daughter to try and place them in chronological order.
We talked about things she noticed in each image to help her decide what order to put them in.
I also made sure to discuss that just because the Indigenous Period came first, that does not mean that the impact indigenous people had on Canada ended in the 1500s.
That printable is available FOR FREE here.
Science Activities
Animals of Canada
Canada has such cool animals to learn about! Here’s a couple of different ideas for how to approach this:
Identifying Animals
Use this set of printable language cards to identify the different animals of Canada and talk about them. You could even set this up as a Montessori 3-Part Lesson (and if you’re not sure what this is-check out this YouTube video that offers a GREAT explanation of it.)
I also created a super simple and adorable worksheet where kids circle which animals live in Canada. Perfect for morning baskets, this is a great way to reinforce what they’ve already learned with the animal cards. That printable is available here.
(And if you want to snag all of the printables in this Canada unit theme, be sure to get that link at the end of this post to get them for a discounted price!)
Sorting by Ecosystem
- Use the language animal cards to sort by ecosystem (i.e. ocean, tundra, mountains and rivers, plains, etc.) I added these ecosystems to the printable language card set to make this extra easy. Just print, cut, and go.
Pick one animal to do a deep dive on!
After introducing the major animals of Canada, if one grabs your child’s attention more than others, encourage them to learn more about that animal.
Go to the library to pick out some books or even have your child write their own story about that animal.
For hands on activities, make a model of their habitat. For example, my kid went through a phase where she was fascinated by beavers. We used play-doh and sticks to make a small dam for her beaver figurines (all of our animal figurines are from the Safari LTD Toobs which I CANNOT recommend enough.)
For Canada, you may need to mix and match some of these Toob sets, but they’re a worthwhile investment. And if your kid loves working with them, I have several language card sets for them here as well as a whole post coming soon on ways we use these in our home for YEARS.
Learn to Make Maple Syrup
Ok I’m not saying to actually make maple syrup- I’m saying learn how to make maple syrup from none other than our good friend- Curious George.
There’s a great episode from Season 6 called “Maple Monkey Madness” where George and Allie learn the basics of how to make maple syrup from the most accomplished TV character of all time- Mr. Renkins.
They learn how to identify maple trees, how to tap the tree and wait for the sap, as well as how to boil it down.
It’s a cozy episode and was a great chance for me to finish my coffee while it was still hot.
And if you’d prefer the same lessons in book format, there’s a book that’s based off the episode, available on Amazon here.
Geography Activities
I think people also get intimidated by introducing geography to young kids, but it can actually be so much fun!
For Canada-themed geography activities, I pulled together a few different resources.
Printable Geography of Canada Cards
I traced a large map of Canada onto a poster board and had my preschooler color it in using a map in an atlas. (I outlined the map but she made the key and colored everything.) Then we took these cards and placed them on the right spot of the map to talk about physical and cultural geography. We also used these below in our pretend play activity.
You could also use these cards to match to the places mentioned in the books I used in this Canada unit theme.
Those cards are available here.
Canada Puzzle
And if your kiddo LOVES puzzles, Masterpieces makes a great Canada puzzle for preschoolers and primary aged students. It has different images on the pieces to help kids learn about different cultural and geographical areas of Canada.
We got ours for a BARGAIN at Ollie’s, but Amazon does have them here. (You could also use this floor puzzle with the activities above instead of making your own Canada map!)
Pretend Play
Take a Rail Trip Across Canada
I love to incorporate pretend play into our unit themes when I can as this is such a small window of time where pretend play is one of the BEST ways for kids to learn.
So for Canada, pretend to take a train across Canada. Use the geography cards and books to plan out what we wanted to see, made an itinerary, and fill little backpacks with binoculars, a map, and a toy camera.
Lay out the geography cards in different places around the house (bonus points if it goes in geographical order) and explore your way across Canada.
Read an Anne of Green Gables adaptation on Prince Edward Island, wear a rain jacket at a pretend Niagara Falls, and have lunch at Lake Louise.
This could just be one of those days that both you and your child will remember for some time to come.
Art Activity
Make a Canadian Flag
We kept this art activity as simple as could be. I printed out a maple leaf outline and my daughter colored it in. Then she cut it out along with two rectangles of red construction paper.
Lastly she glued it all on to a white piece of paper and taped a pipe cleaner to the edge so that she could wave it.
It was so easy to do, but now she’s noticing Canadian flags on her puzzles and books and getting excited about it.
Literature/Culture Activity
Anne of Green Gables is absolutely one of my favorite books. And while I can’t wait to read it with my daughters, I also know they’re not quite old enough yet.
So instead, I found a couple of different Anne of Green Gables adaptations for little ones.
There’s A TON to pick from, but I think my favorite so far is Merry Christmas, Anne by Kallie George.
It focuses just on the Christmas chapter of Anne of Green Gables. Through the illustrations and the writing, it manages to capture the coziness and warmth of the original work- all while keeping young readers’ attention.
It’s available on Amazon here.
Additional Resources
If you would like to grab all of the printables I created for this unit theme for a discounted bundle price, that’s available here.
If you’re looking for more Canada printables, I found this website here with preschool activities for Canada Day.
And for a FREE downloadable choice board with these activities, be sure to sign up here for it to be sent directly to your inbox! (We like to hang ours on the refrigerator and then my kiddo can pick a new activity each day.)
And lastly, if you’re looking for more country unit themes for preschoolers and early elementary students, be sure to check out my posts below!
