Hi Jan, Here are some of the things we are doing to track the Iditarod in Room 502:
We keep a musher log and update it every day. This template came from the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail web site. We get our stats from Iditarod.com. This is where we learn about statistics, average times and speeds, needs of dogs, etc. Before we update our logs, we always look at new blog posts and read some of the Iditarod news. We also look at pictures of the check points. This is Lance Mackey's log...this student had nice, clear handwriting:
We each chose a musher and created a Musher Trading Card. Now everyone in the school can learn about each of our mushers. Here is Jan's card.
In our hallway we have a map of the trail and each day we move our mushers to their most recent checkpoint. The red yarn helps us line up the mushers since there are always many at each checkpoints. See our Jan Steves tribute?
We each have a map we keep with our musher log. We also look more closely at the terrain through pictures and discuss some of the challenges we think our mushers are facing.
These are three of the books we are reading right now in small groups that have dog-sledding in them. In Winter Camp, 11 year old "Toughboy" and his sister must survive the harsh Alaskan winter at a family friend's trapping camp. They use dog-sleds to check their trap lines and to send for help and supplies. They wouldn't survive without them. In Woodsong, a non-fiction book, Gary Paulsen tells about raising his dog team in Minnesota that he eventually uses for his Iditarod race. We love Gary Paulsen and the fact that he actually completed the Iditarod in 1983. In Stone Fox, the main character, Willie, a young boy, enters a dog-sled race to try to save his grandfather's farm. He has many challenges and adventures on the trail!
Each reading group is in the process of creating a bulletin board to represent the books we are reading to hopefully get other groups excited about the books. Here are the beginnings of our work:
Has anyone read "Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod" which is also by Gary Paulsen? The movie "Snow Dogs" was loosely based on this book. My favorite part is when Gary brings home a dog team after they have chased a skunk and his wife makes him sleep in the barn with the dogs. Guess who I saw the movie with? JAN STEVES! Of course! CindyK
ReplyDeleteAs a high school geography teacher one year, I too used the Iditarod as a learning tool, but not as in-depth as this class. Wow, what an engaging lesson! Other events we used that year were the ongoing Winter Olympics and the tv show The Amazing Race. It just goes to show "you can teach everything from anything".
ReplyDeleteNow that I think back, when I taught world history, I would show clips of Rick Steves visiting the caves of Lascaux, visiting the pyramids, and visiting the Ironbridge Gorge, to name a few of the times my class was enriched. I used to tell them to grab their passports, get their seats in an upright position, and fasten their seatbelts, because they were going with me on a field trip, a virtual field trip to be sure, all due to the wonderful work of Rick Steves.
If I had been taught history like that, I might have actually enjoyed it. Good ideas! CindyK
DeleteDear Cindy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for featuring our work! We had to work hard this morning to update our musher logs. We are surprised how far our mushers go in one weekend. We are glad to see Jan hanging in there and working so hard to get to each checkpoint. Keep going Jan!!!
Mrs. Peterson's Class
P.S. Our school district featured our project as well! See this link:
http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2013/03/5th-graders-at-meridian-park-follow.html