Grade 6 Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 6 social studies in the New Brunswick Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Geography: Methods and Tools. Locate the Atlantic region in relation to other regions.
- Geography: Human Systems and Interactions. Examine contemporary cultures in the Atlantic region and their connections to other global cultures.
- History: Events and Peoples. Investigate the history of cross-cultural understanding in the Atlantic region.
- Civics: Power and Governance. Explain how peoples in the Atlantic region shape political culture by exercising power and influencing political decisions.
- Civics: Civic Engagement. Explain how peoples in the Atlantic region are members of global communities.
- Wabanaki: Reconciliation. Explore the impacts of reconciliation in the Atlantic region.
- Economics: Systems. Discuss the role of economics in the Atlantic region.
- Economics: Sustainability. Analyze local, regional, and global economic patterns and related issues that are challenging the Atlantic region.
- Economics: Decision-making. Research trade and other economic linkages among the Atlantic region and national and global communities.
Easy ways to practise social studies at home
- Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently.
- Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying.
- Use an atlas or online map to trace a trade or travel route.
- Ask “Whose voice is missing from this story?” when reading about the past.
What each unit covers
Map Skills
Reading latitude and longitude on a grid and in a table, telling which hemispheres a place is in, and knowing the continents, oceans and key lines like the equator and prime meridian.
The Atlantic Region
Practises where the Atlantic region is, its physical features and weather, and the cultural, ethnic and linguistic groups who live there. It follows the Grade 6 social studies skill descriptors on geography in the New Brunswick curriculum.
What Makes Canada, Canada?
Official languages, parliamentary democracy and the constitutional monarchy, multiculturalism, the Charter, built and physical features, and groups working for inclusion.
Governments & Rights
Democracy, constitutional monarchy, dictatorship and other systems; how Canada's government works; and rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Canadian Charter.
Working in the Atlantic Region
Practises the role of economics in the Atlantic region, from primary industries to trade and sustainability. It follows the Grade 6 social studies skill descriptors on economics in the New Brunswick curriculum.
Trade & Globalization
Imports and exports, market, command, traditional and mixed economies, supply and demand, tariffs and trade disputes, and the benefits and costs of globalization, presented from several points of view.
Global Challenges
Poverty and inequality, global environmental problems, and how individuals, governments, NGOs and the UN work together, including the Montreal Protocol as a cooperation success story.
Helping Around the World
How governments, NGOs and citizens respond to disasters and global issues, the Montreal Protocol and Paris Agreement, refugees, and a factual look at Canada's response to the MS St. Louis in 1939.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Working below
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excelling
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the New Brunswick report card guide.
Common questions
Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently. Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The New Brunswick Curriculum Grade 6 social studies units include map skills, the atlantic region, what makes canada, canada?, governments & rights, working in the atlantic region, trade & globalization.
Free printable Grade 6 social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.