One Teacher, Several Grades: Northern Classroom Planning

Quick answer: Teach one lesson, not four. A multi-grade northern classroom works best when every student meets the same question and answers it in a different form: a drawing from the youngest, a list from the middle, a paragraph with reasons from the oldest. The preparation is one lesson; the differentiation lives in what you accept back.

How do I run one SEL lesson across four grades at once?

Start from a question every age can answer honestly. What makes something unfair? When is it hard to speak up? A seven-year-old and a fourteen-year-old will both have an answer, and the gap between them shows up in the reasoning, not in the topic. Set one stimulus for the room and vary only the response format by grade.

Funny Fish Art – Printable SEL Drawing Activity for Grades K–4 shows the format at its simplest, a printable drawing activity for kindergarten to grade four that gives the youngest group something to complete while you work with the older half of the room. Rotation is the practical skill in a combined class, and materials that need no explanation are what make it possible. Print a term's worth in one go.

Does the curriculum make multi-grade teaching easier or harder?

Easier, if your jurisdiction uses competencies. Yukon adopted British Columbia's redesigned curriculum outright, starting with kindergarten to grade nine in 2017-18 and phasing upward, and the Northwest Territories is converting to the same model with full transition targeted for 2028. A competency is written to apply across grades, so one lesson can legitimately serve four of them with different content and the same skill.

Nunavut works differently. The territory's program is guided by the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit framework, which is embedded across all materials rather than taught as a separate subject, and a new Inuktut-language curriculum has been rolling out since 2025-26. A purchased unit can supply structure there, but the content has to be adapted locally, with local guidance, rather than dropped in as it comes.

What do I put in front of the older half of the room?

Give them the same question with a harder demand attached. Where the younger group draws a situation that felt unfair, the older group has to name who was harmed, what a bystander could have done, and what it would have cost them. Prejudice, Discrimination and Moral Courage – Ethics Unit: Worksheets, Projects & Slides (Grades 6–9) is built on that ground for grades six through nine, with worksheets, projects and slides for a unit rather than a single sitting.

Keep the discussion protocol identical for everyone, whatever the grade. Students who have moved up through your room already know the rules, which saves five minutes every lesson and makes a new arrival easy to induct. More material sorted for northern and remote schools sits on Northern & Remote School Teaching Resources (Canada), filed by grade band rather than by course. Both halves of the room can work from it.

How do I plan a year with one prep for five grades?

Build a two-year cycle rather than a one-year course. In a combined class, a student who spends two years with you should meet different material each year, which halves your planning and removes the awkwardness of repeating a unit to the same faces. Write the cycle down once and it carries through every staffing change the school has.

XXL Ethics Bundle: Values, Responsibility & Society | 10 Complete Units · 30 Lessons | Grades 7–10 gives you enough for both years of such a cycle: ten units and thirty lessons for grades seven through ten, which one teacher can rotate across a combined class without rebuilding anything. Teachers following British Columbia's curriculum through the Yukon route will find the Yukon Curriculum Teaching Resources (K–12) the closest match to their own documents. Start with the unit you would teach first anyway.

Frequently asked questions

Are these tied to any territorial department of education?

No. They are independent teaching resources, not affiliated with or endorsed by any territorial or provincial department of education, or any assessment authority. Deciding which competency or outcome a task evidences is your professional judgment, and in a multi-grade room it may be a different one for each half of the class.

Do these reflect Indigenous knowledge and local content?

They do not, and they should not pretend to. Material rooted in a community's own knowledge belongs to that community and comes through Elders, local educators and territorially approved resources. Use a purchased unit for its structure, and let the examples, stories and language come from where you teach.

Can I print these once and reuse them for years?

Check the terms on each listing, since these are digital files with their own conditions rather than a blanket licence. Everything downloads instantly, which matters when a school order takes weeks to arrive. See the store's refund policy for anything to do with an order.

Related reading

• Teaching in a Fly-In School: Planning Around Supply and Weather
• Printing, Bandwidth and Materials North of Sixty
• Northern & Remote School Teaching Resources (Canada)