Hi!  I teach 1^st grade at St. John the Baptist School in Green Bay, WI. I just wanted to share what we are doing for the Iditaread challenge.  The Iditaread challenge was kicked off with a small banquet of dog bone shaped Scooby snacks, popcorn balls and snow cones.  During the Banquet teams were announced.  My students were divided into 5 groups of 4.

The students sit at a table with their team for the duration of the race. They work as a team each day to keep their space clean. They are asked to work as a team to complete various assignments. Students record reading minutes which are totaled each week. The students graph their minutes by teams until the last day of the race. During the 2009 race, our last day was March 22nd.

This year, I read many stories about the Iditarod, Alaska, and Eskimos.  Students learned about totem poles and made their own totem pole to retell a story of their choosing.

This year I have found more lessons from the Iditarod Insider that I will work on incorporating into my curriculum.  I am hoping in the future I will be able to teach many subject areas around the Iditarod during March.

From April