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About the 2006 Census Teacher’s Kit

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 is Census Day. Approximately 31 million people in Canada in 12.7 million households and all agricultural operations will count themselves in by completing and returning their census questionnaires on-line or by mail.

As teachers you can communicate the importance of the census to your students, fostering a sense of civic responsibility. An accurate census helps your school and community to get the funding they need.

Statistics Canada has developed the 2006 Census Teacher's Kit for use in elementary, intermediate, secondary and adult classes across the country. Students play an important role as future respondents to the census. Some students may help parents complete their household's questionnaire if their language skills in English or French are stronger than those of the parents.

The Teacher's Kit contains 8 teacher-ready activities as well as a guide to provide:

• an explanation of why Canada conducts a census and how census results benefit society
• an introduction to census data as an information source for school papers and projects
• an alternative approach to studying math, geography, English, French, and social sciences

A fun colouring book and game placemat for younger students are included.

The activities have been prepared with the help of a professional educator and have been classroom tested in English and French for suitable content and grade level. They are appropriate for English, math, theatre arts, art, social sciences, geography, history, family studies, and physical education. Suggested grade levels are indicated on each activity, and all necessary tables, charts, graphs and data are included. A teacher requires one kit; photocopying is required for student handout sheets. There is also a separate ABE/Literacy Kit available.

What's in the Census Teacher's Kit?

Activity / Suggested Grade	Description
1. Taking a Census / Elementary	Students learn what the census is and role-play the census process by counting the people in their homes and class.
2. Add! Don't Subtract! - A complete count / Elementary	Students learn the concepts of complete count and undercount, interpret a map, summarize data, and make decisions.
3. Important Decisions Don't Just Happen! Using data to plan your services / Intermediate	Students gain hands-on experience using census-like data as a basis for decisions about community services and businesses.
4. Where Do We Come From? / Intermediate, Intermediate ESL	Students learn about the places of birth of immigrants to Canada, and how this information is gathered through a census.
5. Agriculture at a Glance / Elementary, Intermediate, Secondary	Students examine the trends identified by the Census of Agriculture, and work on 1 or all of the activities.
6.Immigration / Intermediate, Intermediate ESL	Students develop an awareness and appreciation of the multicultural nature of Canadian society. They carry out a small survey by making up a class profile, and review the language questions from the 2006 Census questionnaire.
7. That's Easy for You to Say! Survey Project / Secondary	Studentsstudy the process of designing, conducting and analysing the results of a survey. They have the option of carrying out a survey project.
8. Census Game / Secondary	Students participate in a game designed to help them understand the range of demographic information provided by the census.