- Definition
A settler is someone who moves to a new place and makes it their permanent home, often taking land that was already home to Indigenous people.
Early European settlers in North America built farms on land that was already home to Indigenous peoples.
How to teach this in 30 seconds
Try this analogy: A settler is like someone who comes to a playground where kids are already playing and decides to build their own new house right in the middle of it.
Ask your child: Who might already live in a place before new people arrive?
Common mix-up: Kids may think settlers arrived in an empty land, like finding an empty room. The key idea is that settlers moved into lands that were already home to Indigenous peoples.
Examples
- A group of people moving to a new land and claiming it as their own, even though others live there.
- Building new towns and roads in a place that has been the traditional territory of an Indigenous nation.
settler is a term used in Ontario’s Kindergarten to Grade 8 curriculum.
Where this shows up
- Grade 3 The Arts
- Grade 2 Social Studies / History / Geography
- Grade 3 Social Studies / History / Geography
+29 more mentions across the curriculum
The descriptions on this page are SmartStudy’s own original, plain-language writing — not the Ministry’s wording. They are aligned to the Ontario Curriculum, © King’s Printer for Ontario. For the Ministry’s official wording, see the source link below. SmartStudy is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Government of Ontario or the Ministry of Education. Ontario Curriculum and Resources ↗
