Region

Edmonton and area (St-Albert)

School year/Age

Grades 1 to 12

Language level

French as a First Language
French immersion

School subject (primary)

Social studies

School subject (secondary)

Aboriginal studies

Teaching materials

Education Kits

Links with the curriculum

THE FUR TRADE GAME: Fur Trade, Stories about Alberta, Aboriginal Peoples, citizenship and identity, intercultural contact, historic thinking.

LIVING LONG AGO: My Community, Community Changes Over Time, Cultural Diversity

 MISSION HILL TOURS: Alberta, Métis, First Nations, Francophone Histories, Stories of Mission Hill and St. Albert's Beginnings

A COMMUNITY IN THE PAST: Historic daily life, Heritage buildings, Community change over time, Historic thinking.

Description

In 1861, Father Albert Lacombe and the Métis constructed a log building to serve the new St. Albert Roman Catholic Mission. This simple chapel, Alberta's oldest building, became the center of the thriving French speaking Métis settlement of St. Albert. Our school programs complement and integrate the Alberta curriculum with hands-on, minds-on activities that bring cultural history and art to life, provoke discussion and enrich learning.

THE FUR TRADE GAME (Grade 4-12)
Fur trading is an important part of Canadian history, but not everyone lived in a fort! Communities, like the Mission of St Albert, were established and provided a place for families to live and support the fur trade by supplying food, furs and horses. At the chapel children discover what the fur trade was all about through an interactive role playing game where they earn beaver pelts to trade at the local trading post for items that will help ensure they survive an 1800’s Alberta winter. Kids will also get to feel what a beaver fur feels like all while learning at the oldest building still standing in Alberta.

LIVING LONG AGO (Grade 1-2)
Visit the Chapel, built in 1861, and learn what it was like to live in this part of Alberta more than 150 years ago! Storytelling, a puppet show, bannock tasting, crafting and discovering what a beaver’s fur actually feels like are all elements of this program as we introduce younger children to the people and places significant to this historic site!

MISSION HILL TOURS (Grade 5-12)
Mission Hill in St Albert is one of the best places to come and learn about the early history of Alberta in the oldest building still standing! An interpreter will guide you and your students around the provincial historic site reinforcing learning with stories, objects, pictures, activities and discussions about the Father Lacombe Chapel, Mission Hill and the area we now call St Albert. Tour includes a Grotto, Crypt and cemetery. 

Tours can be booked to include additional heritage sites including Founder’s Walk, the Little White School, the St Albert Grain Elevator Park and downtown St Albert.

A COMMUNITY IN THE PAST (Grade 2)
Stepping into the Father Lacombe Chapel is like stepping back in time. Students visiting this historic site will need to ‘spot’ what is old and what is modern as the program begins. Learning how a building could be built without nails, tasting bannock, feeling some real furs, participating in an interactive story and making a simple sash are all a part of the experience as young students realize just how much fun history can be! All while visiting the oldest building in Alberta!