5th Grade Language Arts

Welcome to Debski’s Diner: Lesson Ideas from the I.C.E. Cohort

Our first Iditarod Certified Educator’s cohort is off and running down the trail! Their first challenge was to develop a quick lesson idea based on the theme of Debski’s Diner. Debski is the amazing cook for all of the volunteers in Nome. She serves as a kind of den mom for all of the volunteers …

An Animal Encounter

Over the summer I did a post about Alaskan animals.  I was fascinated by seeing a moose, porcupine, and bear all in one night.  After that night, I took what I saw and turned it into a language arts and science lesson.  Along the Iditarod trail, and during training, a musher may encounter may different …

Book Review: Sled Dogs Run

By Jonathan London and illustrated by Jon Van Zyle, the Official Artist of the Iditarod, this book for 6-9 year olds describes a young musher’s experience raising and training sled dog puppies and her run with them on a sled in winter. Readers as young as 4 years old and as old as 11 and …

Book Study: Diamond Willow – A Novel in Poetry

Grades 5-8 (Lessons could be adapted for other levels) Diamond Willow is a young Alaskan girl of Athabaskan and European descent who wants nothing more than to be allowed to mush her team of dogs alone to her grandparents’ house.  When her first solo trip results in a horrible accident that blinds her family’s favorite …