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Materials needed:

- a selection of books detailing immigrant experiences. (e.g. The Keeping Quilt,Grandfather's Journey) plus the detailed bibliography in "Changes: Teaching about immigration and adjustment issues." There are many books, such as Becoming Canadians: Pioneer Sikhs in their own Words, that tell about the experiences of a particular group of immigrants.

- resource books/materials which look at immigration trends in Vancouver (Bruce Macdonald's Vancouver: A Visual History, published by Talonbooks of Vancouver; 1992, is excellent. Chuck Davis' Vancouver Book also has information about immigration and ethnic groups.)

- data from students' own families

- a map of world and possibly of Canada, or BC

- pins or string

- paper/markers for plotting class immigration patterns

- to collect data as to where student's families come from. (Note: sometimes, as with the Roeddes, there may have been several moves before finally coming to Vancouver).

Activity description:

This data can be visually recorded on a large map of the world, with pins and strings showing the moves, or students could make small flags of the various countries or provinces they come from and string them with Canadian flags in the classroom.

If many students have come from other parts of BC or Canada, the same activity can be done with maps of the province or Canada.

Also note when families came to Vancouver and organize the arrivals of class families according to time. Whose family immigrated the earliest? Whose is the most recent? Compare with other graphs of immigration to Vancouver such as those on pages 72-73 of Bruce Macdonald's Vancouver: A Visual History. What does the information tell us?

Compare countries of origin and date of immigration in the class with other immigration origins and waves in Vancouver's history. Students could work in small groups to research statistics of an immigrant group (both historic and recent). (They might want to research the nationality they read about the book they chose.)