Description: Students are introduced to the fur trade through songs and paintings.  Students will explore the use of primary colours (Grade 1) or secondary colours (Grade 2) in paintings depicting life during the fur trade, as well as listen to songs of the fur trade.  Beat and lyrics will be discussed and the students will learn a song to sing together.

Description: The program provides an overview of the influence of Aboriginal people on European fur traders and how the fur trade changed the Aboriginal way of life.  Discussion includes why the French and English settlers came to what is now Canada and where they set up trading posts. The present-day fur industry is also examined.

Target Audience:  Can be adapted for any elementary, intermediate, or high school class.

Availability:  Dependent on the availability of the guest speaker.  Please contact Christine Penner Polle, Education Coordinator of the Heritage Centre, if you are interested in participating in this program.

Strikin' It Rich

Description:  History comes alive as the students listen to stories about the first prospectors. The students get a chance to walk in the shoes of the early prospectors as they examine their equipment and living conditions. The students also learn some of their tricks of the trade as they become geo-detectives and identify unknown minerals. 

Target Audience:  Grade 4 – 7

Curriculum Links:  Grade 4 – Rocks and Minerals; Grade 7 – Natural Resources

Availability:  Year-Round, dependent on the availability of a guest speaker.*

*Bookings will need to be confirmed with guest speaker(s). Please book as early as possible to allow for these arrangements to be made. The museum educator will confirm the date with you once confirmations have been made

Red Lake has a rich history – the story of the First Nation Peoples, the natural resources of the Canadian Shield, and pioneering are all part of that history.  The Heritage Centre is happy to offer Red Lake District High School a variety of programs that are based on using the Heritage Centre and its exhibitions and archives for research purposes, as well as providing hands-on experiences for the students. 

The programs we offer can be a culmination of in-class education and use of the Heritage Centre’s exhibitions and resources.  All programs have been developed to supplement the Ontario Curriculum expectations.  The focus of the high school programs developed so far are the following subject areas: Art, English, History, and Geography.  There is the possibility that programs can be developed for the Sciences, Music, Drama, and Family Studies areas as well, if a need is identified by a teacher. 

The museum educator, Christine Penner Polle, is willing to offer her time and resources to develop new programs to meet your classroom and curriculum needs.  Please feel free to contact her if you have a question about the programs or about the possibility of creating a new program.  Ms. Penner Polle is also available to bring some of the Heritage Centre's resources to your classroom and present to your class, if that is more suitable than making an on-site visit.

Contact information for Chrstine Penner Polle:
Telephone: 727-3006
Email: cppolle@goredlake.com

Cost for the programs: $4.00 per student for a half day
                               $ 6.00 per student for a full day
Class visits without accessing a program: $2.00 per student

Fully Developed Programs
Created by Rhonda Bobinski

Letters from an Immigrant – Writing Program
Grade 11 English, University Preparation

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words – Poetry Program
Grade 9 English

Memorable Memory Boxes of our Pioneers –
Grade 10 History

The Art of Animal Tracking –
Grade 11 Visual Arts

Other Possible Programs


Walking tour of Red Lake    (History/Drama)

A walking tour of Howey Street highlighting the buildings and other landmarks of historical interest
Possible curriculum links:
Grade 10 History (Academic and Applied) – "Local communities" expectations.
Grade 11/12 Drama "Creating and Presenting Drama" expectations.

People of the Fur Trade, Then and Now    (Native Studies)

Provides an overview of the influence of First Nations peoples on European fur traders and how the fur trade changed the Aboriginal way of life.

Honouring the Original People of Red Lake     (Native Studies)

In this program, lead by an Aboriginal elder, the students learn about some of the traditional beliefs of Red Lake's Anishinaapek.  They play traditional games, learn to use snowshoes, experience a teaching story, and possibly view a skinning demonstration.
Possible curriculum links are at many levels in the Grade 9 – 12 Native Studies, particularly in the "Identity" and "Relationships" strands.

Gold and Other Minerals    (Geography)

The history of the area's natural resources and prospectors who mined them comes alive as
the students examine their equipment and living conditions.
Possible curriculum links:
Grade 9 Geography – Human-Environmental Interactions

The Boreal Forest   (Geography)

Spend the morning learning about the forest in the Red Lake area, and the specific importance of the Boreal Forest ecosystem.
Possible curriculum links:
Grade 9 Geography – learn the characteristics of natural systems and outline the criteria used to define selected Canadian ecozones.

Visual Arts

Botanical watercolour painting

Based on the flora of the district ie:  blueberry bushes, poplar leaves, rosehips
The hope is that displays can be made for the Heritage Centre to house these varieties of vegetation properly

Morrisseau Woodland paintings

-Based on personal symbolism using Morrisseau’s Woodland style
-Paint onto natural surfaces
-Go to Heritage Centre to look at Morrisseau’s work and learn more about his life in Red Lake

Portraiture series based on Red Lake heroes/pioneers

-Graphite portraits with the background reflecting the hero’s role in the development of our communities
-Use the Heritage Centre’s resources to research these various pioneers

Haute couture:  Red Lake fashion

-Artistic fashion inspired by Red Lake’s landscape
-Also look at First Nations artifacts from the Heritage Centre for fashion inspiration
-Discuss Linda Lundstrom and her journey in the fashion industry

Studying First Nations artifacts as artistic objects ie:  clothing, drum, handmade games, arrowheads

-Discuss objects as art and compare those artifacts with what is used today
-Ie:  moccasins vs. Sorels
-Arrowheads vs. guns, knives
-Handmade games vs. Play Stations
-Turn into a Pop Art piece based on the concept of usage, popularity, mass consumption

Comic Strips

-Discuss closure in cartoons (how to tell a whole story in a minimal amount of panels)
-Focus on a process ie:  the wild rice harvest, trapping an animal, building a shelter
-Draw a comic strip that shows the whole process keeping in mind that comic strips do not have to be (and originally were not) humorous.

Adversity, Journey and Redemption Collages

-Research stories in the district that suit different themes ie:  bush pilot stories, the Red Lake Inn fire, the death of Sam Yee, a prospector's life, the first women in Red Lake, etc.
-Create a collage based on one of those themes and use symbolism to represent specific stories

Environmental Assemblage

-Create plaster relief sculptures based on collecting found objects on the Millennium Trail ie: sticks, leaves, rocks, grass, even litter can be considered

Art talks

-Welcome artists from the area to discuss their choice of subject matter in their art with students
-Discuss how the district influences artists

Photo essays

-Document an issue that bothers/affects you in the Red Lake district and document it in a photo essay to be presented as a Power Point presentation or bulletin board display
-Ie:  vandalism, homelessness, litter, unemployment, teenage alcoholism, isolation

Environmental issues and the community

-Make sculptures out of recyclables such as cans, milk cartons
-Discuss the “first recyclers” such as the First Nations peoples and how they used everything, and did not waste.

 Red Lake Sound Expressions

-Abstract Expressionist paintings based on the sounds heard in the district
-Study of colour, line and shape
-Multi-media piece
-The multi-purpose room can be used to listen to the sounds while looking at the “northern lights”

Native legends transformed into artwork

-Printmaking, cartooning, painting, sculpture

Branching Out

-Students brainstorm together and create a word web on the theme of the tree
-They develop their own project after exploring the word
-Can go in any direction as long as the art work has a historical reference, a connection to themselves, includes the elements and principles of art, and symbolism
-This can be done with a number of topics such as: water, wildlife, aviation, travel, exploring, survival, etc.

Children’s story books

-Students create a children’s illustrated story book based on a point of history in Red Lake
-Ie: Gramma Gene’s Garden or Prospector Joe

The Group of Seven

-Students learn about how the Group of Seven was connected to the Red Lake area
-Learn about the style of the Group of Seven and create a painting on masonite that reflects their style.
-Can go on location outdoors around the Heritage Centre for inspiration