Language Arts
“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 …
By Jonathan London and illustrated by Jon Van Zyle, the Official Artist of the Iditarod, this book for 6-9 year olds describes a young musher’s experience raising and training sled dog puppies and her run with them on a sled in winter. Readers as young as 4 years old and as old as 11 and …
Grades 1-4 – Others with modifications For many, the real kickoff to Iditarod Race time is the Junior Iditarod. Introducing the Junior Iditarod to students is a great way to jump start their enthusiasm, as it is sometimes easier for them to relate to the junior mushers who are closer to their own age. …
Grades 5-8 (Lessons could be adapted for other levels) Diamond Willow is a young Alaskan girl of Athabaskan and European descent who wants nothing more than to be allowed to mush her team of dogs alone to her grandparents’ house. When her first solo trip results in a horrible accident that blinds her family’s favorite …
Two great races, the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race™, are the basis for this compare/contrast article for middle school students.Higher order thinking skills get exercised and flexed in this lesson. It’s also a good article for adult readers to use to see how these races are similar and different and how …
Grade 3 – 5 (Lessons coud be adapted to middle school students) Having a big dream and the courage to work hard to accomplish that dream is something we all want for our students. It’s wonderful when we can share real life examples of kids who have done what we want our own students to …
Dog Diaries #4: Togo by Kate Klimo is a fantastic story of Togo who, according to many historians, should get the most credit for the success of the 1925 Serum Run into Nome. Balto was the lead dog who carried the serum into town, but Togo was the lead for the longest leg of the relay, almost …