Language Arts
Photos are a great way to introduce students to reading skills they may be unfamiliar with or need extra practice with prior to using more complicated texts. Moving from photos, to short passages, to longer texts allows students to have a chance to refine their skills and build their confidence. The Iditarod is fortunate to …
We are happy to provide you with contact information of mushers agreeing to receive letters from students. If you are writing to mushers, please follow the instructions below- EVEN if you have done this project before, please read the information again- to gain optimum success on your project. Read the information below, follow the directions …
Grades 3-6 What if Cinderella was a musher? Or instead of seven dwarves, Snow White had found seven huskies? In this unit, students will explore some Alaska themed retelling of fairy tales and folk tales as they prepare to write their own Iditarod themed retelling! Mentor texts used include Alaska’s Sleeping Beauty, The Salmon Princess: …
Grades 2-6 Why do sled dogs howl? Why do they love to run? Why do mushers stand behind the sled? All of these questions are great fodder for writing pourquoi stories – stories that explain why something is the way it is. In this unit, students explore northern themed pourquoi tales. Inhabit Media, and Inuit …
Grades 2-4; others with modification Meet Kamik, an Inuit puppy, in this series that is based on life memories of elders from Arviat, Nunavut. In book one, Kamik: An Inuit Puppy Story, Jake finally gets a puppy all his own! But a puppy is far more work than he ever imagined, especially a puppy like …
Grades 3-6 (others with modification) One of the big buzzes that was happening at the first day of sign ups for the 2018 Iditarod is that Matt Hall, the 2017 Yukon Quest winner, has signed up for his rookie Iditarod run. One question that was asked repeatedly? “Could he win the Iditarod as a rookie?” …
“World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and creates a community of readers taking action to show the world that the right to literacy belongs to all people.” (World Read Aloud Day Website) This Thursday (February 16, 2017) classrooms across the globe will celebrate World Read …
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 …
These ready to use lessons and activities for reading and writing are a great way to get your students involved in reaching academic success the Idita – way — Follow the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race® and engage students in life long learning. (By Martha Dobson) Download the PDF Document: Reading and Writing on …
The Winter Walk by Loretta Outwater Cox, published 2013, nonfiction, secondary students and older, winner of the Alaska Indigenous Literature Award This is the true story, more than a century old, of Cox’s great-grandmother’s walk to survival with her two young children. Cox’s great-grandmother was Inupiaq, and the older of the two children was Cox’s …