Elementary

“Under the Burled Arch in Nome” – 2025 Trail Mail Design Contest

  Annual Iditarod Education Department Trail Mail Design Contest Attention 5th – 12th Grade Artists,  Teachers, & Parents:  It’s time again for our student art contest to create the 2025 Iditarod Trail Mail envelope design. What is the Educational Trail Mail Project? To honor the Historic Iditarod Trail’s use as a mail trail, the Educational …

3D Sled Designs

Technology at its finest. Lesson plan submitted by Kelly Searson, I.C.E. certified teacher. Click on each link for the lesson plan and 2 movie demonstrations. 3D Sled Designs Lesson Plan Movie 1 Movie 2  

Tracking Forms! Follow the Mushers During this Race. Collect Data.

Following the race is exciting for students. To keep track of musher progress and other data during the race as mushers travel from checkpoint to checkpoint, use one of our sample tracking forms that are listed on this page or create a chart to gather the data you want students to collect. During odd numbered …

2024 Educational Trail Mail Design Winner Announcement

Just like the mushers of the Iditarod, Karlyn T. of WY showed perseverance and has been selected as the artist for the 2024 Trail Mail envelopes.  Karlyn entered last year’s Trail Mail design contest as well and was a top finalist. Meeting and exceeding the criteria of content and artistic aptitude, this 13 year old’s …

Updated 2024 Winter Conference Information

Updated speaker and schedule information. Learn how to harness the power of the Iditarod and sled dog racing to increase student engagement and drive in your classroom.  Add new gear to your classroom sled bag.  Broaden your repertoire of Iditarod lessons in a multitude of content areas and across a wide range of age and …

Filling the Dog Yard!

NOTE:  This lesson plan was updated August 2023 to reflect active links and current race information. One more idea for room set up as the summer starts to wind down…. I am calling my classroom the 3A Dog Yard these days…. for reasons that I am sure you can understand!  To get my students in …

Iditarod National Historic Trail Junior Trailblazer Booklet

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is run along the Iditarod National Historic Trail.  The Bureau of Land Management and other entities that own the land which the trail runs through all work in conjunction with the Iditarod Trail Committee to run the race each year.  It is Alaska’s only winter National Trail and was …

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 …

2023 “Return to the Southern Route” Trail Mail Design Winner Announced

Over 50 entries were submitted for the 2023 Trail Mail Art Design contest.  There were many, many outstanding designs and choosing just one was difficult. The Education Department thanks our judges Jon and Jona Van Zyle as well as Wendy Brott for their continued support in this project. In the end they took into consideration …

Educational Trail Mail Sales are Open!

We are so excited to announce that sales for the Educational Trail Mail Project are open! This is an amazing chance for your class to send a piece of mail down the trail in one of the 2023 student-designed cachets and help us raise funds for our education programs at the same time! It’s very …