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Elementary
In honor of Valentine’s Day and the Iditarod, my students and I worked together to write a special form of poetry called an ode. An ode is an exaggerated poem that celebrates something ordinary as extraordinary. They are great fun to write because they use figurative language, vivid verbs, expressive language, personification, and can be …
The Iditarod Summer Camp for Teachers is a remarkable opportunity to meet mushers at the volunteer picnic as they sign the dotted line and enter the Last Great Race on Earth®. I had the pleasure of meeting rookie musher Mary Helwig that day. I remember Mary casually mentioning to me that she had lost …
Puppies are the future for an Iditarod kennel. As the 2016 Iditarod draws near, we have been spending a great deal of time talking about husky dogs and learning all about them. We fell in love with veteran musher Matt Failor’s puppies this year after his Insider interview when Iditarod veteran “Cool Cat” gave birth to …
“How do sled dogs know where to go?” This simple question has been asked often in my classroom this year as my students learn more and more about the Iditarod. Mushers and their teams have a very special and trusting relationship, but how do they communicate on the trail with each other? For help …
*This post has been edited to reflect current 2022 data and available resources. Reading the actual Iditarod rules is a fascinating learning experience for any classroom teacher, and it is a very important process to understanding how the Last Great Race on Earth® is successful all the way from Anchorage to Nome. There are …
In honor of Thanksgiving this year, my class disguised paper turkeys as husky dogs and mushers preparing for the 2016 Iditarod. They wrote about their plans for escape from the farm in first person narratives. This time-honored school tradition involves a lot of creativity, humor, and great writing. What a perfect way to save a turkey …
We have been spending some time in class this last week learning about some of the people behind the scenes of the Iditarod that help bring The Last Great Race® to people around the world. When my students see the amazing photographs of the mushers and their dog teams along the trail, they ask …
In Texas, we love our symbols. The famous “Lone Star” is a symbol that is easily recognizable by just about anyone, young and old. In our state social studies standards in fourth grade, we dig a little deeper into the symbolism and start to really understand our history and what those symbols we see and …
If you enjoy following the Iditarod, you will enjoy it more by following the race with a Fantasy Iditarod Team. Just before I left my students in Iowa, we held our own draft for Iditarod mushers. With their team names created and their teams selected, my students are geared up for the race to begin. …
One of the most asked questions I hear from people is, “What are you going to wear to stay warm?” I have to laugh a little bit, because it has been colder here in Iowa than it has been in Alaska. Yesterday morning, February 19, my school had a 2-hour late start due to cold …