Language Arts

Iditarod: The First Ten Years – Reading Informational Text

Following our Teacher on the Trail’s theme of the Iditarod Air Force, this month’s lesson prompt, based on the book “The First Ten Years”, is for pages 114 – 115, 117 – 118. “The History of the Early Iditarod Air Force” by Rob Stapleton. The comparison text is “Iditarod Air Force: lifeblood of the race” …

IditaRead Digital v 2.0 is Up and Running!

We read your suggestions and thought every one of them was a great idea!  IditaRead Digital Version 2.0 is updated to reflect the most common requests.  Now you can copy assignments within a class, copy assignments across classes, and import student names.  And the school year label has been added as well. If you used …

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 …

Summer Reading – Dog Days of Summer

As we get closer to halfway through summer, students often need serious inspiration to be motivated to read.  The books we have on our Elementary Fiction and Elementary Nonfiction lists are bursting with tales of inspiration, daring, adventure, and acceptance.  With beloved characters like Balto and Togo and inspiring new stories like Sled Dog School, …

Summer Reading – Sizzling Reads About Cool Dogs!

Summer is ticking along and kids have all kinds of activities going on, but there are always those moments for relaxing, filling time between the water park and the summer movie series, and riding in the car to the next great vacation destination.  Or use reading goals to incentivize reading for your student; they will …

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 …

Get Ready to Visit Flat!

For the first time in Iditarod history, the teams will be traveling seven miles southeast from Iditarod to the town of Flat, Alaska. Flat came into existence after the Christmas Day, 1908 Gold Rush on Otter Creek by John Beaton and W. A. Dickeman. Although word of that strike got out slowly, in 1909 more …

Get Ready to Visit Iditarod!

With the Iditarod Trail Committee announcing the historic route for the 2021 Race, The Gold Trail, all attention this year will focus on the historic town and checkpoint of Iditarod. Iditarod came into existence after the Christmas Day, 1908 gold strike on Otter Creek, a tributary of the Iditarod River. By the summer of 1909 …

Hot Cocoa With a Side of Poetry

  I have spent a great deal of time getting to know our 2016 Iditarod mushers this year.  My special focus has been to share the stories of the rookie mushers, and their personal journey to the starting line.  Like many teachers we have a poetry unit each year, but I wanted to find an Iditarod …

The Insider as an Instructional Tool – December 2020

Summary:   This month’s video segments have no embedded narration.  They showcase people, animals, trail experiences, and the majestic landscape through which the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race runs. Use them for many types of writing and publishing.   Beauty of the Checkpoint – March 17, 2020 12:50am Time-lapse of the Hustle & Bustle Leaving …