Grade 8 · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 9
Life in British North America
Farms, timber, ships and the sources that tell us about them.
What your child practises
Practises the living conditions of peoples in British North America in the 1800s: farming, the timber trade, travel, schools, health and newcomers, using primary and secondary sources. It follows the Grade 8 social studies skill descriptor on human systems and interactions in the New Brunswick curriculum.
New Brunswick Curriculum skill descriptor: Geography: Human Systems and Interactions · living conditions for peoples in British North America, using primary and secondary sources
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What did colonists in British North America mostly buy from Britain?
- fresh potatoes
- manufactured goods such as cloth, tools and dishes
- timber and fish
- maple syrup
manufactured goods such as cloth, tools and dishes
Hint: Factories in Britain made goods that colonists could not easily make.
Question 2
How did settlement affect Wabanaki communities in British North America?
- They were given most of the farmland
- Settlers took over land, rivers and forests that families depended on
- Settlers left the forests untouched
- Nothing changed for them
Settlers took over land, rivers and forests that families depended on
Hint: Wabanaki families often had to move and find new ways to make a living.
Question 3
Why did settlers clear forest land?
- to make the weather warmer
- to make fields for crops and animals
- to build airports
- to stop the rivers
to make fields for crops and animals
Hint: Clearing land by hand was slow, hard work.
Question 4
Why were many roads in British North America hard to use in spring?
- They were made of glass
- They were covered in ice all year
- Melting snow turned them into deep mud
- They were closed by law
Melting snow turned them into deep mud
Hint: Many people waited for summer or winter to travel by land.
Question 5
Where did loggers live during the long winters in the woods?
- in log camps built near the cutting
- on cruise ships
- in apartment towers
- in hotels in the city
in log camps built near the cutting
Hint: Camps were crowded, smoky and far from home.
Question 6
Why might a farm family in the 1830s be better fed than a poor family in a port town?
- Farm families were all wealthy
- Towns banned eating
- They grew and stored their own food
- Port towns had no food at all
They grew and stored their own food
Hint: Families in towns often had to buy food with low wages.