Frequently Asked Questions and Welcome Package
How much does it cost?
$5.00 per student for a half day
$10.00 per student for a full day
$7.00 per Jr/Sr High Self-Guide Tour
$150 per 2 week rental of a Resource Kit
How long are the programs?
Each program is 1.5 hours except for Meet the Mounties (1 hour), Settling the West (2 hrs) and Jr/Sr High Self-Guide (2 hrs).
Each Educational Resource Kit is a 2 week rental.
When are the programs available?
Availability subject to change. New bookings will be taken on a first come first serve basis. All booking requests subject to confirmation.
How many students can I bring?
Capacity is 30 students except for Meet the Mounties (20 students) and Sketch It! (50 students).
What are the guidelines for my field trip?
Read our Welcome Package.
What is the Waste Free Lunch Program?
ConocoPhillips Canada, The City of Calgary, Green Calgary, Society of Educational Resource Groups (SERG) and local School Boards helped pilot a Waste-Free Lunch Program. Teachers and students are encouraged to bring a waste-free lunch on school visits to Fort Calgary, TELUS World of Science, the Glenbow Museum, Inglewood Board Sanctuary and Campus Calgary City Hall School. During this school-year we hope to eliminate up to 8000 lbs of lunchtime waste and educate parents and students on lunchtime food and packaging options that will help reduce their Eco-Footprint. For more information about this program check out the Eco Footprint Litterless Lunch.
Are the programs indoors?
Yes! Fort Calgary is a National Historic Site: a 36-acre public park featuring the outdoor reconstructed Fort and a museum. Most programs take place either inside the museum or our Learning Centre (or both). The exception is Sketching which is outdoors.
Classes may explore outdoors at lunch or after their program.
Do you offer financial assistance for low-income schools?
Thanks to funding from an anonymous donor, Fort Calgary is able to offer free program fees and bussing to qualifying schools. Ask your principal if they received an invitation to participate as part of our Equal Access program.
How do I register?
Thank you for your interest in Fort Calgary’s School Programs! The only programs we have available to book at this time are the junior high program, Perspectives on the NWMP and Western Settlement, and the kindergarten program, Meet the Mounties. You can register for either of these two programs by booking now. If you would like to join our waiting list for any of our other programs, please CLICK HERE.
School Programs 2011/12
We will start accepting bookings for 2011/2012 school year online on August 1.
Click here if you wish to join our mailing list and receive our next school program brochure!
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Museum Tour
Grades 1-6
If you want to explore the museum, book this program! Become a NWMP police officer with the help of a Fort Calgary facilitator; role-play a real life Calgary train drama. Teachers and adults take over as students uncover clues throughout the museum in our scripted scavenger hunt (also available in French).
Location: Museum
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Meet the Mounties
ECS-Grade 1
Shake hands with an artifact and make friends with a museum! Listen to the sounds of the prairies in Calgary’s past and hear a Mounted Police tale from a surprise storyteller. Students will touch Mountie artifacts and explore our hands-on exhibits. Includes a take home Mountie craft. ESL-friendly!
Location: Museum
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Building Calgary
Grade 1-2
Linking social studies and science, this program keeps your students moving! Travel through the museum, using your body and imagination to role play the construction of buildings from Calgary’s past. Co-operate with your classmates to build a child-sized log cabin in our Learning centre! ESL-friendly!
Location: Learning Centre and Museum
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Calgary: A Prairie Community
Grade 2-3
Our most popular program celebrates the diversity of our prairie home! Build a giant 3-D map of our city and celebrate the language and culture of Calgary’s founding communities. Students love to dress in costumes, learn new languages and handle artifacts as they learn about what makes different cultures unique. ESL-friendly!
Location: Learning Centre
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Grade 2 Teachers! Fort Calgary & Cantos Music Foundation present: Canadian Communities Celebrate
Visit two museums in one day for twice the fun! Join Cantos Music Foundation and Fort Calgary for a full day of hands-on learning about Acadian, Inuit and Prairie communities with Canadian Communities Celebrate. Students will discover how these three unique Canadian cultures celebrate by making their own music on traditional instruments, handling artifacts, singing, dancing, wearing costumes and more! Half a day is spent at Fort Calgary learning about a prairie community in the past in Calgary: A Prairie Community. The other half day is spent at Cantos for the revised Canada: Music Nation program; teaching students about Canada’s diverse musical culture.
Visit either museum first, making it easier to co-ordinate your day. Eat lunch at your starting location and then switch! Teachers are responsible for coordinating transportation between both locations.
Length: 1.5 hours at each location (plus 1 hour lunch/ travel time)
Maximum two classes, Cost: $ 10 per student
Location: Fort Calgary and Cantos Music Foundation (134-11 Ave SE)
For more information on the Cantos Music Foundation, visit:
http://www.cantos.ca/educate
Curriculum Connections, Pre/Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Citizens Calgary
Grade 3-4
Become history detectives and investigate the luggage of early Calgarians. Students will handle artifacts and primary sources, to think critically and determine the factors of Quality of Life that were important in the past and continue to make a difference in Calgary today. Includes a take-home art activity on active citizenship.
Location: Learning Centre
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Grade 3 Teachers!
Rent our Resource Kit Four Countries Celebrate: India, Tunisia, Peru and the Ukraine in addition to booking your Citizens Calgary school program and let Fort Calgary cover your Social Studies unit for you!
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Life and Times of Captain Deane
Grades 4-5
Laugh out loud at the comic-book style illustrations that will introduce your students to the legends and stories of Captain Deane and his Deane House. Learn what it was like to be a Mountie under Captain Deane as you go on your first patrol: seeking evidence throughout the museum and even throwing the wanted man in jail! Dress up in period costume and immerse yourself in the roles of Calgary’s past. ESL-friendly!
Location: Learning Centre and Museum
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Archaeology
Grades 4-6
Uncover the story of Calgary’s oldest National Historic Site with a hands-on dig! Students will sharpen their observation and analytical skills as they inquire about the artifacts they find. An “archaeological conference” and precise record-keeping allows students to measure, describe, sketch and share their discoveries. ESL-friendly!
Location: Learning Centre
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Settling the West
Grades 5-6
Students who like a challenge will map out the exploration and settlement of Canada with their facilitator. They will then immerse themselves in history working to research and understand the stories of people who helped settle Calgary and the West. Encourage historical thinking with a variety of primary and secondary sources such as newspapers, photographs, diary entries, artifacts, maps, charts, and much more! Students don period costume to bring their research to life in a student presentation.
Location: Learning Centre
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
Settling the West - character research
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NEW! Settling the West - Theatre Option
Integrate drama to your social studies visit and extend your comprehension of early Calgary settlers by turning your half day program into a full day! Classes now have the option of using Fort Calgary’s replica Palace theatre and costuming/props in the afternoon as an extension to the Settling the West program. Instead of presenting in the morning, allow your students the freedom and time it takes to fully research and creatively present their Settling the West character by adding this option (+1.5 hours).
Location: Museum
Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
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Mountie CSI: Part I & Part II: The Trial
Grades 4-6
In Part I, students will become Mounted police officers and use forensic science experiments to analyze the evidence from a real historical crime in Calgary’s past. Grade six students can choose to stay for a full day in Part II to determine guilt or innocence in early Calgary’s democratic system with a mock trial! Some pre-visit work required.
Location: Learning Centre
Mountie CSI part 1: Curriculum Connections, Pre-visit work/post-visit lessons & vocabulary
Mountie CSI part II: Curriculum Connections, Pre-visit work/post-visit lessons & vocabulary
Teacher's Mock Trial Guide
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Sketching in the Garden
Grades 3-9
Follow in the footsteps of Mountie artists, Henri Julien and Richard Nevitt! Join a facilitator in Fort Calgary’s award-winning community garden and learn how to focus on observing the natural world around you. Discover, through sketching and journaling how the Mounted Police were inspired by and relied on the prairie landscape around them. Dress for the weather and bring your sketchbooks!
Limited run: Sep 7-Oct 15 and May 16-Jun 25
Location: Outdoors, Rain or Shine!
Curriculum Connections, Pre-visit work/post-visit lessons & vocabulary
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NEW! Fort Calgary and Lougheed House present: Sketch It! Home & Garden
Grades 3-7
Spend a fabulous day tying history and art together at Calgary’s only two National Historic Sites. Half a day is spent at the Lougheed House exploring Victorian style and design motifs in the Art and Architecture program. Students will explore the house and learn how to create abstract images using graphite. The other half of the day is spent outside on Fort Calgary’s 36 acres of parkland where they will take part in our Sketching in the Garden program (see above). Visit either site first; eat lunch at your starting location, and then switch! In partnership with: www.lougheedhouse.com
Length: 1.5h at each location, plus one hour travel/lunch
Maximum 50 students. Teachers are responsible for arranging transport between locations. This program runs Mondays & Tuesdays; Sept-Oct and May-June.
Location: Fort Calgary and Lougheed House (707-13 Avenue SW)
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Perspectives on the NWMP and Western Settlement: Self-Guide Program
Grades 7-9
Self-guide Fort Calgary with purpose! Using our take-home booklet as a guide, determine what life was like for the Mounted Police who built Fort Calgary and investigate the various perspectives of the Chinese, Black, Métis and European immigrants that settled in Calgary after the NWMP arrival. The primary sources, archival photographs and critical thinking questions in the booklet develop the media and visual literacy skills needed to inquire about historical perspective. Some pre-visit work suggested.
Location: Museum
Perspectives on NWMP: Curriculum Connections, Pre/ Post Visit Lesson Plans & Vocabulary
Online resources for student research
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Resource Kits for the Classroom
Four Countries Celebrate: India, Tunisia, Peru and the Ukraine
Grade 3
Having trouble finding information and resources on the four countries? Rent our kit for two-weeks of hands-on learning about the culture, language, geography and traditions of four very diverse countries. Cultural artifacts, child-sized costumes, music and a teacher’s guide full of interactive, fun activities (and a resource section to photocopy) makes teaching this unit a breeze!
Location: Your Classroom
What can I do with the kit? Table of Contents & Sample Activity
What does the kit look like?
   
The Buffalo: A Way of Life
All Grades
The Siksika and Tsuu T’ina people depended on the buffalo for food, clothing, shelter and tools. Rent our kit for two weeks of artifact handling and interactive classroom activities that help students learn how First Nations people used the natural resources around them.
Location: Your Classroom
What can I do with the kit? Table of Contents & Sample Activity
What does the kit look like?
NEW! A Settler’s Life for Me
Grade 4 & up
Can’t make it to the Fort? Bring the excitement of our Settling the West program right into your classroom! Rent our ‘Research Boxes’ to learn about the contributions these real historical figures made in Calgary’s past by exploring articles, artifacts, music, & pictures, creating a unique education experience for all types of learners. Choose to rent either 6 or 12 different Research Boxes for two weeks, or focus your class on a single settler for one week.
Location: Your Classroom
Cost: $100 for 6 Boxes/2 weeks
$150 for 12 Boxes/2 weeks
$25 for 1 Box/1week
Links to Resources
To prepare for your field trip, please also visit the Resources page for more great links.
Check out our page for students!
What is critical thinking and inquiry based learning? How do I teach historical thinking? How do I use primary sources with students? How can visual thinking strategies help my students?
Social Studies
- Alberta’s Online Encyclopedia: A digital resource that consists of over 80 purpose-built websites including text, images, audio and video. The sites make learning about Alberta’s historical, natural, cultural, scientific and technological heritage fun. www.albertasource.ca Follow the link to a 60 page Teacher’s Guide!
- Edu-kits - www.edukits.ca:
Explore provincial, national, and international history in a virtual classroom filled with lesson plans, activities, games, and interactive multimedia content specially designed to meet the standards of the Alberta educational curriculum.
- A critical thinking lesson plan based on the website: "Without Fear, Favour or Affection:" Men of the North West Mounted Police for Grades 7-9 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/nwmp-pcno/025003-3000-e.html
- Educational resources and lesson plans based on the website Force of the North - http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Force/en/resources/
- CBC Digital Archives - http://archives.cbc.ca:
Excellent resource for video clips on Canadian current events of past and present; organized by subject and topic
- Images Canada: Picturing Canadian Culture - www.imagescanada.ca
- Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory -
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/framingcanada/026020-2000-e.html
- Historica - http://www.histori.ca:
Canadian History Education
- Virtual Museum of Canada: Interactive Teachers' Centre - Lesson plans and other educational resources from Canadian museums:
http://agora.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/Login.do?method=load
- Dictionary of Canadian Biographies Online -
http://www.biographi.ca/index-e.html?PHPSESSID=ychzfqkvzape
- The Youth Encyclopedia of Canada -
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCESubjects&Params=J1
- Alberta Heritage Digitization Project - http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/home.htm
- Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park: Culture of the Siksika People -
http://www.blackfootcrossing.ca/exhibits.html
- Teaching Canada’s History - a special issue of The Beaver magazine for teachers and educators; available online at www.canadashistory.ca/teaching
Teaching Resources
Fort Calgary is not responsible for any content of any linked website.Fort Calgary provides these links as a convenience only, and a link does not imply endorsement, sponsorship or any affiliation with the linked website.
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