This session explores how sports—from ancient games to modern athletes—can serve as a powerful lens for teaching complex social ideas in upper elementary. Participants will see how literature, historical artifacts, and archaeological evidence can help students investigate culture, identity, fairness, ethics, and social change. By examining the rules, practices, and stories behind sports, students can grapple with questions about power, inclusion, citizenship, and community values, while connecting past traditions to contemporary issues. Attendees will leave with practical strategies, lesson ideas, discussion prompts, and texts that integrate critical literacy, inquiry, and Alberta’s new Social Studies curriculum, helping students think deeply about the ways sport reflects and shapes society.
