In the Beginning
As a class, discuss some of the following topics and situations
related to early pioneer life. Everyone should be encouraged to
share their own ideas. Try to think not only as a person in the
21st century, but also as the first European settlers would have.

    - Your family is planning to move to a new land called Canada in the time of pioneers. Whether you sail on a ship from Europe or ride north in a wagon from the USA, you will only be able to take a chest or wagon full of items. Make a list of no more than five belongings your family would take to try and survive. Remember to bring useful tools. You don't know what the land is like, except that it is an unsettled wilderness. Make a second list of five items you'd take from your house today, if you had to fit them in a chest or small wagon and start life from scratch. Explain why you chose the items.


 
    - You belong to one of the first pioneer families in the area that is now Ontario. When you arrive, you are given the opportunity to choose the land you wish to make your home and farm. All of the land is wilderness and covered with trees and bushes. There are no roads, only a few small paths made long ago by the Aboriginal people. Would you choose to build on: (a) a plot of land along a long, broad river 
or  (b) a plot further inland, away from the water
      (c) a plot further inland, alongside a swamp
 
Remember to consider things like transportation, food gathering and other available resources. What makes one piece of land better than another?

    - You're settled on your land and after living in your wagon for two months, you're ready to build some shelter. Just as you're about to start building a log cabin for your family, two men from neighbouring plots of land visit you. They say that if you'll help build cabins for their families, they will hold a "bee" to help you build a cabin for your family afterward. Your other choice is for your family to try to build its cabin alone. What would you do?

    - Now it's time to decide what you're going to do for a living. Pioneers needed money too (or at least something to trade). What kinds of jobs could a pioneer do in a small community of other settlers?