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Mush! Iditarod Quest

Summer Camp for Students

by Cathy Walters

03/28/2008

Mush! Iditarod Quest Get on the sled! Come and be a part of the Last Great Race on Earth! Every activity in this camp will revolve around the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race. The campers will make their very own Alaskan husky and learn what it takes to be a good musher. There will be singing, games, races, stories, crafts and more! Mush down the trail with your trainer and kennel owner, Cathy Walters, one of three national "Target® Iditarod 2009 Teacher on the Trail" finalists.

This is how my camp is listed in my school's Summer Quest brochure. Summer Quest is "a day camp dedicated to nurturing the individual child while discovering the delight of experiential learning and the simple joys of childhood." I decided to offer this camp for the second year in a row because it was so successful, so much fun, and a great time to create new Idita-lessons! During the week of July 21-25 I, along with my three or four high school assistants, will have over twenty kindergarten through second grade campers for four hours a day. I will have a great variety of activities planned and my assistants will have just as much fun as the campers! This will come as no surprise to those of you who know how engaging the Iditarod is as a theme of instruction. Let me share how I use this high-interest race in a camp setting.

The Iditarod is just as easy to tailor to campers needs as it is in helping students meet educational standards during the academic school year. In fact, many of the lessons I create in the summer will be used in my classroom the following school year. I include what I consider to be camp essentials. Songs. I have songs that help campers remember the character traits that make a good musher, silly songs just for fun, a general Iditarod song, a geography song, and a new one that tells what animals a musher might (and might not!) see on the trail. Arts and crafts. Campers will make their own husky pup complete with collar and birth certificate, bead a necklace, create a puzzle showing where Alaska and the Iditarod Trail are on the globe, paint an Alaskan animal in the wild, and create a miniature sled. Games. Campers will play a Serum Run board game, bingo and memory games about Alaskan animals, learn to be huskies in training by pulling a plastic sled on the school's soccer field, have relay races with sleds, and work as a team in a race called "dog bootie relay." Science Experiments. There is nothing better than discovery through science and the campers will do just that in finding out how Alaskan animals stay warm in winter and how their camouflage changes with the season. Stories. This is probably the most difficult piece of the curriculum. There are just too many wonderful books, videos, and stories "to tell around the campfire" in a one-week camp!

This is just a "snapshot" of what my campers will be doing in July. I know that each child will "discover the delights of experiential learning and the simple joys of childhood" through curriculum based on this amazing race called the Iditarod. I hope it encourages you to think about having your own Iditarod-themed camp. Or perhaps, this sparks your desire to go to camp. If that's the case, the Iditarod Education Department has just the one for you! Be a part of this adventure by attending the 2008 Idita-Summer Camp for Educators and have one of the best camp experiences of your life!