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Language Arts
One of the special benefits of the Jr. Iditarod is that the young mushers bond with each other in a unique and lasting way. In the woods at Yentna Station, after taking great care of their dogs for the night, they bonded over a campfire and shared trail stories. It was remarkable to see, …
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 …
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 …
As the year comes to a close, we have been organizing, cleaning up, and preparing our classroom for the new year. One of these tasks involves bringing down our Iditarod calendar from the wall. Old calendars can be recycled into a fantastic art project I like to call “stretched art” using basic art supplies and …
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 …
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 …