Contact(s)
Parklandia is an educational program based around a pretend community. It teaches grade six students in the County the basics of community planning within a local government setting. The County provides lessons, worksheets and activities for the Parklandia program.
Curriculum requirements
The lessons have been designed to meet certain requirements of the grade six social studies curriculum. A few include:
- recognizing how individuals and government interact and bring about change within their local and national communities
- demonstrating an understanding of the fundamental principles of democracy
- analyzing the structure and functions of local governments in Alberta
For a full list of requirements covered, view our Parkland Curriculum requirements document.
Lesson plan
The Parklandia Program book outlines the components of the program and provides individual lesson plans and worksheets. The main parts of program are:
1. Classroom session
County Planners attend and present planning concepts and theories to the class in one half day classroom session.
2. Video lessons
Following the classroom sessions, teachers take over and complete five video lessons and debates based on the information learned in the first session.
By the end of the lessons, each classroom will have designed their own Parklandia based on the lessons that they have learned throughout the program.
3. Project
After all the lessons have been completed classes will split up into teams of 3-4 students, with each team given directions to develop their own unique community based on the information from all of the classroom activities. Communities are presented at a School Planning Fair run by grade 6 teachers, with the support of school administrators. Each team is required to construct a 3D model of their fictional community, using paper, clay, toothpicks, etc.
Want to get started?
The Parklandia Project is usually run between January - April. If you would like to participate in the program or have questions about Parklandia, please contact Mary McInnes at 780 968 8443 (ext. 8108) or using the contact information on the right of this page.