Grade 8 Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 8 social studies in the Nunavut Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Nunavusiutit: heritage and culture, history, geography, environmental science, and civics and economics, with a focus on Nunavut and its links to Canada and the circumpolar world.
- Inuuqatigiit, the curriculum from the Inuit perspective, shapes how the strand is taught.
- Skills of inquiry, working with others and respecting different points of view.
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
Making Nunavut
Covers the timeline from the land claims talks to the new territory in 1999. Light on detail and in the present tense where possible.
Being a Historian
Telling primary from secondary sources, fact from opinion and bias, reading timelines and maps, and checking where information comes from.
Sources & Evidence
Children practise choosing and judging sources, reading artifacts and art, comparing accounts and drawing conclusions from evidence.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- 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.
- Exceeding
- 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 Nunavut 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 Nunavut Curriculum Grade 8 social studies units include making nunavut, being a historian, sources & evidence.
Free printable Grade 8 social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.