The Iditarod race crosses 1,049 miles of Alaska, so the mushers and their dogs travel through varied terrain.  This gives music teachers or classroom teachers an opportunity to teach the physical geographic features while following the Iditarod Trail!  

Geographic features here include the forest and a mountain in the distance [Andy Pohl’s team]

Our school’s music teacher and I created this little chant to help students understand some of the landforms mushers encounter.  It is a parody on the children’s chant, “Goin’ On A Bear Hunt.”  Use it for many levels of students!  A slideshow of photos to represent each landform can be shown while the students chant the words, appealing to visual as well as kinesthetic and auditory learners.  

The coast is beautiful, yet very windy.

This makes a great movement break and teaches about the Last Great Race!

We’re Going on Iditarod