The NFB is committed to respecting your privacy

We use cookies to ensure that our site works efficiently, as well as for advertising purposes.

If you do not wish to have your information used in this way, you can modify your browser settings before continuing your visit.

Learn more
Skip to content Accessibility

Life in Early Canada Series (Ages 5-8)

6 films
Leaving soon

This series brings together seven stories vividly depicting daily life in pre-Confederation Canada.

Up next: Woolly's Gift
This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
Your rental expires on
You've already purchased this film.
Download it from My purchases.
Not available
Share
Life in Early Canada Series (Ages 5-8)

This series brings together seven stories vividly depicting daily life in pre-Confederation Canada.

Playlist

  • Henry Settles in Upper Canada
    Henry Settles in Upper Canada
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Eva Szasz 1995 10 min

    After a long, hard ocean voyage across the Atlantic, twelve-year-old Henry and his mother arrive in Upper Canada. Uncle Ned meets them and takes them to rest up. Homesick, Henry takes a turn around the village and discovers what village life is like in a well-established farming community. He soon settles in and brings some good news to his mother.

  • Homesteading on the Prairies
    Homesteading on the Prairies
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Eva Szasz 1995 11 min

    Set in Manitoba in the 1890s, the story traces an Ontario farm family as they move west in search of cheap land. They experience travel on the recently completed CPR, build a sod house, battle a prairie fire and celebrate their first harvest.

  • Jamie Really Liked to Eat
    Jamie Really Liked to Eat
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Jocelyn Rehder 1985 6 min

    Jamie Really Likes to Eat shows the life of a young boy living on a homestead around 1830 and how many pioneer parents depended on their children to help them gather and prepare the family's food. Jamie fishes, plucks ducks, and traps rabbits. He helps his mother churn butter, collect eggs and bake bread. Children can compare the food Jamie eats with the food they eat - some of it the same, like buckwheat pancakes and blueberry muffins, and some of it different, like rabbit stew and duck pie.

  • The New Schoolhouse
    The New Schoolhouse
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Jocelyn Rehder 1995 9 min

    A story of village life in Ontario in the 1850s as seen through the eyes of three young children. The whole community participates in the building of the new schoolhouse and its opening day celebrations.

  • The New Schoolteacher
    The New Schoolteacher
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Jocelyn Rehder 1995 9 min

    The New Schoolteacher describes the life of Ella, a young teacher in the 1850s. Not much older than the senior students in her charge, she is responsible for everything in the school from teaching all grades, all subjects, to discipline and housekeeping. It is a difficult job but Ella proves that she can do it and starts a baseball team too.

  • Woolly's Gift
    Woolly's Gift
    Jocelyn Rehder 1985 6 min

    Woolly's Gift takes youngsters step by step through the making of fabric for Annie's new dress. Students see Annie and her family shear Wooly, a mother sheep, and wash the wool. They see the wool carded, spun into yarn, dyed and woven, how leftover wool was bartered, and the daily activities of a pioneer girl.