Learning A–Z level S Multi-level J S X
Grade 3 Word Count 1,085
Lexile 900L Nonfiction • Informational
Refer to the Focus Question on page 2 of this title to guide
discussion and support additional learning connected to the text.
Canada
This fascinating book explores many facets of Canada,
the second-largest country in the world. Take your
students on a trip through the pages to learn more
about this amazing country.
Photo Credits: Front cover: © Natalia Bratslavsky/iStock/Thinkstock; title page: © Design Pics Inc/Alamy Stock Photo; page 3: © Paul A.
Souders/Corbis/VCG/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images; page 5: © Russ Heinl/All Canada Photos/Getty Images; page 6: © KIKE CALVO/
CALVK KIKE CALVO/AP Images; page 7 (top): © Mark Spowart/123RF; page 7 (bottom): © Gunter Marx/FD/Alamy Stock Photo; page 9:
© CaptureLight/iStock/Thinkstock; page 10 (top): © Robert Postma/First Light/Getty Images; page 10 (bottom): © Keith Monroe/Solent
News/REX/Shutterstock; page 11 (top): © Natalia Pushchina/Dreamstime.com; page 11 (bottom): © Dennis Fast/VWPics/Alamy Stock Photo;
page 13 (top): © Rick Rudnicki/Alamy Stock Photo; page 13 (bottom): Dan Leeth/Alamy Stock Photo; page 14 (top): © Ingram Publishing/
Thinkstock; page 14 (bottom): © Dave Reginek/National Hockey League/Getty Images; page 15 (top): © 3D_generator/iStock/Thinkstock;
page 15 (bottom): © Tdezso/Dreamstime.com
Countries Around
the World
For more great books visit Written by Nico Burke
www.readinga-z.com
© Learning A–Z, all rights reserved.
Glossary
cultures (n.) page 5
Canada
the ideas and customs of certain groups of people
First Nations (n.) page 6
people who lived in present-day Canada before
Europeans arrived or the descendants of those people
glaciers (n.) page 8
large bodies of accumulated ice and compacted snow
that are found year-round and that slowly move
downhill
interior (adj.) page 8
of or related to the inner part of something;
located inside
Inuit (n.) page 6
a group of Indigenous people who live in the Arctic
region of North America
Métis (n.) page 6
a group of people with a mix of First Nations and
European ancestry
provinces (n.) page 4
the largest areas that some countries are divided into
regions (n.) page 8
Above: The northern lights glow in Canada.
specific places, locations, or areas
Cover: A train on the Canadian Pacific railway
territories (n.) page 4
areas of land or water under the control of a specific
state or country; geographic areas Written by Nico Burke
16
Canada
Focus Question
How do Canada’s culture
and history make it special?
Population: 38,000,000
Words to Know
Land: 9,984,670 square kilometers
cultures Métis
First Nations provinces
(3,855,103 sq. mi.)
glaciers regions Capital City: Ottawa
interior territories
Official Languages: English and French
Inuit
Currency: Canadian dollar
Connections
Writing
Choose two animals that live in Canada. Write
a research paper on these animals, discussing
how each has adapted to live in Canada’s climate
and terrain.
Social Studies and Art
Make a poster of Canada’s seven main regions.
For each region, include its name, a description Source: Central Intelligence Agency (2021), World Bank
of the land, major cities, and some of the animals
that live there. Canada • Level S 15
People ice-skate to work, to school, or just for fun in Ottawa, Canada.
Conclusion
Ranchers herd cattle in Canada.
Canada is one of the largest countries
on Earth, stretching “from sea to sea .” It
has regions of ice and snow, tall mountains, Table of Contents
endless forests, and big cities . The people Where Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
who live there may speak French, English,
People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
or one of many other languages, but they
are all Canadian and proud of their country . Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Ice Hockey Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Ice hockey is so Canadian that it was History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
officially made a national sport. The rules
of the modern game were written by a Celebrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Canadian. The first modern games were
played in Canada. The sport soon spread Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
to the United States, but most of the
players in both countries are Canadian. Givani Smith Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
14 Canada • Level S 3
Canada Celebrations
ARCTIC GREENLAND Canadians celebrate their country’s
OCEAN (DENMARK) birthday every July 1 with fireworks and
Alaska parades . They also celebrate the Old West
(U.S.)
with bull riding, steer wrestling, and more in
Yukon Calgary every summer . Winter is one thing
Northwest
Territories
Nunavut that people celebrate everywhere in Canada .
Newfoundland
Saskatchewan and Labrador
British
Columbia
Hudson People in different areas
Bay Quebec
may enjoy ice-skating,
PACIFIC OCEAN
Alberta
Manitoba
St. dogsledding, skiing, and
Calgary
CANADA Lawrence Prince
River Edward
Ontario
Island more . A winter festival in
Ottawa New Nova Quebec is the largest such
★ Brunswick Scotia
UNITED STATES ATLANTIC event . People can enjoy a
OCEAN
snow-carving contest, visit
an ice castle, and
even stay in a
Where Is It?
hotel made of ice
Canada is the largest and northernmost and snow that is
country in mainland North America . The built every winter
country is made up of ten provinces and three and melts away
territories . Canada’s motto is “From sea to sea” every summer .
because it stretches from the Pacific Ocean all
A woman competes in a
the way to the Atlantic Ocean . Most big barrel race in Calgary (top).
A guest takes a ride down
countries have many neighbors, but Canada an ice slide at an ice hotel
has only one—the United States . in Quebec (right).
4 Canada • Level S 13
History Government buildings are in Ottawa, the
capital of the nation . Most government workers
Thousands of years ago, the first people
speak both French and English because the
to reach what is now Canada crossed a land
country has two main languages . People
bridge from Asia . The cultures of the First
in Canada speak other languages, such as
Nations and the Inuit thrived for thousands of
Spanish and Chinese, too . People there are
years . The first Europeans to arrive in Canada
from many different cultures . They enjoy
sailed from Greenland more than one thousand
different foods, wear different clothes, and
years ago, but they did not stay .
pray in different ways . However, during the
In 1497, explorer John Cabot claimed long, cold winter, Ottawans do something
Canadian land for England . Then the French special together . They go ice-skating on the
sent explorers to claim land . Explorers found world’s largest skating area, the Rideau Canal,
codfish and fur, expensive items in Europe . or one of the 267 neighborhood rinks .
Many more communities developed in the
region . As the colonies grew, they displaced
First Nations people and took over their lands .
The foreign nations formed some alliances with
Indigenous Peoples and a vast trading network .
France and England were often at war
against each other in Europe and in Canada .
France eventually lost its lands in Canada .
People still wanted to be free from English rule .
In 1867, Canada became a country with its own
government . In 1931, Canada became free,
while staying loyal to England . A hilltop houses Canadian national government offices in Ottawa.
12 Canada • Level S 5
Rocky Mountain goat
People In the steep and rocky
mountains, it helps to be
France and Britain helped build the nation
sure-footed . Bighorn sheep
of Canada on lands that had belonged to
have feet that are great for
Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years .
jumping and rock climbing .
Today, less than 5 percent of Canadians belong
All around Canada are
to three groups of Indigenous Peoples . The
animals that move with the
Métis (may-TEE) are mostly from the plains,
seasons . Caribou walk
Inuit live in the far north, and First Nations
hundreds of miles from one
live all across the country . Many people have
part of Canada to another .
families who came from France or England
Other animals such as
long ago . They were the first people from
salmon, geese, and even
Europe to come and stay in large numbers .
butterflies leave Canada for warmer weather .
Germans, Ukrainians, Italians, and others
The world champions for moving long distances
followed . Then people from China, India,
are arctic terns . They fly from the Arctic all the
other countries in Asia, and the Middle East
way to Antarctica, a journey of some 35,500
began to come . Today, people from nearly
kilometers (22,060 mi .) . Six months later, they
everywhere live
fly all the way back .
in Canada . One
in five Canadians
arctic terns
were born in
another country .
Many people say
this makes the
nation stronger . Inuit children play outside at school.
6 Canada • Level S 11
Nine out of ten Canadians live within
160 kilometers (100 mi .) of the United States
harp seal pup border . Most people live in large cities where
many work in hotels, banks, or schools . There
caribou are jobs in factories, too .
In some areas of the country, people drill
for oil or mine copper or gold . Others farm
the land or cut trees from forests . Many
Animals Canadian goods are sold around the world,
but most are traded across the border
In the snow-covered north, many animals with the United States .
can hunt or hide because they have white fur .
Polar bears are huge with black skin . Their
A farmer pours corn
white fur helps them blend in . Their main seed to plant on his
food is the harp seal . Before young seal pups farm in Ontario (right).
Women sell garlic
learn to swim, they are stuck out on the ice . at a farmers’ market
in Canada (below).
The seals use their white fur to blend in, too .
As soon as a pup learns to swim, it sheds
its white coat and grows a dark one .
In the northern forests, the ground is only
covered in snow for part of the year . Snowshoe
hares have winter coats of white fur to keep
them safe . When the snow melts, these hares
shed their white coats and grow brown ones
that help them blend in with the dark forest floor .
10 Canada • Level S 7
Regions of Canada
When the glaciers melted, rock piles were
ARCTIC GREENLAND
OCEAN (DENMARK) left, thousands of lakes formed, and endless
forests grew . The frozen Hudson Bay lowlands
Alaska
(U.S.)
on Ba sit within this region .
Re g i f f in
Artctic Is l a
nd
The Great Lakes–St . Lawrence lowlands,
or “Canada’s heartland,” is in the south . It
Can
Cordillera
Interior
is small but important—home to half of all
adi
Hudson
Ro c k y M
an
Bay Canadians and many of the country’s cities .
Sh
Plain
PACIFIC OCEAN
Great Lakes–
ie
u
o unt
Lo ds Finally, there is the Appalachian region with
H
ld
St. Lawrence
n
w on h
ia
ac
s
la B Lowlands
ain s
CANADA nd ay
s pa
l
its rolling, forested hills dotted by farms
Ap
Gr St. and edged with rocky shores . To the north
ea Ottawa★
t La Lawrence
UNITED STATES ke s River ATLANTIC
OCEAN
of all these regions and their forests lies the
Arctic, where freezing cold prevents trees
Land from growing . Canada’s 202,080-kilometer
(125,566 mi .) coastline not only wraps around
Canada is divided into seven main regions .
the vast mainland but 52,455 islands as well .
In the west is the Cordillera region with tall
It is the world’s longest national coastline .
mountain ranges . The Rocky Mountains are
the highest range, reaching 3,954 meters
Niagara Falls
(13,000 ft .) . Then the land drops and flattens
out, with lots of grass in the south and many In the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence
lowlands, water plunges down
trees to the north . These areas are the vast
57 meters (188 ft.) at Niagara Falls.
interior plains . Next, going around Hudson The part of the falls in Canada—
Bay is the huge Canadian Shield . Thousands Horseshoe Falls—is 670 meters
of years ago, heavy glaciers slowly pushed (2,200 ft.) long, which is as long
as six football fields end to end.
across this land .
8 Canada • Level S 9
