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Geography
The formal name of the race we all know as the Iditarod is the Iditarod Trail International Sled Dog Race. And it truly is an international pool of mushers this year. A quick look at the musher list shows seven different countries (US, Norway, Jamaica, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden) and seven different states (Alaska, …
Last year, 2013 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail ™, Linda Fenton issued a challenge to see how many students she could get to read Stone Fox (http://itcteacheronthetrail.com/2012/12/28/stone-fox/). The timing was perfect for me. The fourth grade had recently dropped the novel from their repertoire, so I was able to pick it up and tie it …
One of the big parts of our Social Studies curriculum in third grade is the study of our National Parks as a subtopic of our study of Fifty States. Alaska is the home to 15 national parks, preserves, monuments and historic parks. The Park Service in Alaska also oversees 49 National Historic Landmarks and 16 …
“Fifty Nifty United States, From thirteen original colonies, Fifty nifty stars in the flag, That billow so beautifully in the breeze, Each individual state contributes a quality that is great….” This song has been stuck in my head for nearly a month now as we have been working on our Fifty States unit. If you …
We have been fortunate enough to host one of the Iditarod Traveling Quilts for the first month of school. The Traveling Quilt program began when the first quilt was created in 2005 and since then has grown to 11 quilts that zig zag the world bringing the race and its ideals to more than one …
When the mushers begin arriving in Nome at the finish of any race, there is a lot of focus on the race winner and who’s coming in next at the finish chute on Front Street. But, in the dog lot, where teams rest, eat, and wait for their airplane rides home, another winner is being …
McGrath is located where the Kuskokwim and Takotna rivers meet. The population of the village is roughly 400. There are two stores along with a restaurant. The school in McGrath has nearly 50 students. The village has a public library, a regional health clinic and an air strip. A person traveling to or from McGrath would go …
supervised, examined, kept safe, fed, loved on, and are the dogs that mushers drop from their teams when they arrive in checkpoints along the race. A dog can be dropped for a number of reasons–perhaps it has a sore wrist or shoulder, perhaps it isn’t feeling 100 %, perhaps it is running a temperature, …
Back in January of 1925 there seemed to be an outbreak of tonsillitis in Nome – except tonsillitis is rarely fatal. Nome’s sick children were dying. With more research into the symptoms of the children, Dr. Curtis Welch realized Nome was on the brink of an epidemic that could take as many lives as the …
Each time someone enters my classroom, they are reminded of the upcoming Iditarod. There are 2 large maps, several pictures, daily high and low temperatures in Waupaca and Nome, news articles, and much more. One of the maps in the entry is for students to track the progress on their IditaWalk. Each day when my …