Grade 6 Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 6 social studies in the Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Citizenship, power and governance. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the origins, functions, and sources of power, authority, and governance.
- Culture and diversity. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of culture, diversity, and world view, recognizing the similarities and differences reflected in various personal, cultural, racial, and ethnic perspectives.
- Individuals, societies and economic decisions. Students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to make responsible economic decisions as individuals and as members of society.
- Interdependence. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the interdependent relationship among individuals, societies, and the environment—locally, nationally, and globally—and the implications for a sustainable future.
- People, place and environment. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the interactions among people, places, and the environment.
- Time, continuity and change. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the past and how it affects the present and the future.
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
How We Are Governed in Newfoundland and Labrador
Practises the three levels of government, the House of Assembly and MHAs, how a bill becomes a law, the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and the Indigenous governments of the province. Indigenous content is light and needs review by Indigenous partners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What Makes Canada, Canada?
Official languages, parliamentary democracy and the constitutional monarchy, multiculturalism, the Charter, built and physical features, and groups working for inclusion.
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
- Not Yet Achieving
- 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.
- Good
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excellent
- 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 Newfoundland and Labrador 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 Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum Grade 6 social studies units include how we are governed in newfoundland and labrador, map skills, global challenges, governments & rights, trade & globalization, what makes canada, canada?.
Free printable Grade 6 social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.