Curriculum

IditaRead Finisher’s Certificate

Your IditaRead “mushers” may be crossing the finish line soon. Here are the PDFs and jpeg for a black and white or a color finisher’s certificate for you to present to your finishers. Additionally, we want to thank the over 1,200 teachers that signed up for the digital IditaRead program.  The suggestion box is live …

Rookie Meeting Math

 Rookie Meeting Math   On Saturday, December 4, the rookie meeting for the 50th running of the Iditarod was held via ZOOM. A collection of veteran Iditarod mushers and Iditarod staff joined to preview the race and review the rules and dog care, as well as give advice to this year’s rookies.  Use these math …

Iditarod: The First Ten Years – Personal Narrative

IDITAROD: THE FIRST TEN YEARS – Personal Narrative This month’s lesson prompt, based on the book “The First Ten Years”, is for pages 146 – 147, “1979: So cold that My Boot Liners Froze” by Phil Meyer, D.V.M. On these pages, Dr. Phil Meyer, veteran Iditarod veterinarian, tells tales of cold, danger, and fun during …

Iditarod: The First Ten Years – September 2021

Welcome back to a new school year! The 2022 race is the 50th running of the Iditarod. The anthology, Iditarod: The First Ten Years, was compiled to preserve the stories of those who launched The Last Great Race. The goal of the Old Iditarod Gang was to have this book for classrooms to use as …

IditaRead Digital: The Last Great Reading Race Reaches Over 21,000 Students

On February 7, the Iditarod Education Department launched the new digital version of a favorite Iditarod classroom activity, an Iditaread.  Embracing technology and realizing the need for virtual and digital tools for learning, the education department and our technology partners developed version 1 of the IditaRead Digital. And you, our Iditarod teachers, responded immediately and …

Iditarod P.E. Challenge

Iditarod PE Challenge Hey amazing teachers, check out this PE unit that was designed for virtual education by Alaska teacher and prior Iditarod Teacher on the Trail Finalist Lisa Wiley.  Let the enthusiasm of the mushers and sled dogs inspire your students to complete all the Iditarod PE Challenges while they learn about the trail …

Going North – The Rush Is On!

In September of 1898, the “Three Lucky Swedes” discovered gold on Anvil Creek, founded the Nome Mining District, and started a new rush to the North.  By 1898, Nome had a population of 10,000, many of whom had arrived for the Klondike Gold Rush.  When gold was discovered on the beaches of Nome, the rush …

The Insider as an Instructional Tool – November 2020

These video segments feature authorities speaking about the makeup of sled dogs, their genetic disposition to run, the care and training they receive, and  variety of other topics that could be used to present opinion pieces, compare/contrast, and persuasive language arts pieces. Select videos, listed below, will be available for free without an Insider subscription …

The Insider as an Instructional Tool – October 2020

Combine the experience of world class videography of musher interviews, dogs, race footage, compilations, checkpoint action, dogs, pre and post musher interviews, veterinarians, dogs, wilderness vistas, and did I say dogs? Each month this article will have a standards based lesson idea connected to one of the Insider video clips. There will be ideas for …

Woodsong

Severe weather, sleep deprivation, and animal encounters are just a few of the challenges of participating in the Iditarod.  In Gary Paulsen’s Woodsong, he recounts his adventures in completing the Last Great Race on Earth! This book of memoirs is great for upper elementary and middle school students.  It gives students the opportunity to experience …