Today we finished up mushing novels (Oh, Stone Fox, how do you manage to wrench my heart every time?), wrote Iditarod poems, and even headed to the MakerSpace to make tiny Iditarod dogsleds out of nearly all reused materials (to continue our reusing challenge). More Iditarod posts still to come . . . . 
So the final musher has passed beneath the Burled Arch, earning the Red Lantern for not giving up on the long, exhausting trail. We are wrapping up our unit, already missing ending our Iditarod days dancing to “I Did, I Did, I Did the Iditarod Trail.”
One Iditareader reached Nome by reading over 1,049 pages during the race. Here he travels beneath our own burled arch.
We used our word choice skills to brainstorm specific Iditarod words that would capture our feelings about the race in some way. We wrote “I poems” and painted a work of art to match the feelings we expressed. Be sure to catch the students’ poems on their blogs!
Forty Below
by Miss Blessing
I zap your energy.
I sneak through your parka,
Nipping your fingers and biting your skin.
I might just be the winner of this race if you don’t watch out!
Bootie up those dogs because I have razor sharp edges.
I swirl.
I whirl.
I boss.
I exhaust.
I make the snow squinch and scrunch with my mighty arm.
I am the bullying, frostbite-your-nose, below zero cold of the Iditarod!
1 day, 20 hours, and 29 minutes until the Iditarod!
We are . . . .
using the internet safely
thinking of strong keywords for searches
skimming articles for the information we want
locating answers to the questions we have
discovering more about Alaska
conquering the winter doldrums with an exciting mental trip to the tundra!
Stay tuned!
Is the Iditarod an engaging way to study literacy skills? Hmmmm . . . .
IDITAROD!!!!!
Families, join us as we enjoy a mid-winter boost by following the Iditarod for the next two weeks. We will be strengthening our literacy skills through lots of mushing reading, writing, and inquiry.
Since the race’s ceremonial start is Saturday, there is a note in your child’s Friday Folder so your family can have access to the Iditarod website over the weekend if you wish to be at the starting gate with the huskies. Because of Alaska’s current lack of snow, an emergency trail is being used this year, going north toward the Arctic Circle rather than over the usual Alaskan Range. This move means the official start isn’t until Monday this year, as they need to move the teams to Fairbanks from Anchorage.
I purchased a classroom Insider subscription, which allows my students each to sign into a computer, whether it is at school or home. I hope you enjoy the race as a family over the next few weeks, as the 2nd/3rd graders do some wild racing through Alaska. The daily short insider videos are especially fun, and your child will be racing against a special musher you can follow in the standings.
Mush on!
(local musher, Christine Richardson of Seal Cove Journeys, in the Can-Am 250 this week)
A special thank you to Ms. Christine Richardson and her friend Kip from Seal Cove Journeys Kennel, along with Pebbles, Dutchess, and Xander, who topped off our mushing unit with their informative and very enthusiastic presentation.
We read like crazy during the two weeks of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska, trying to read a page for every mile our mushers raced. To celebrate the end of the race, we welcomed local musher Christine Richardson to DES.
Lilly: I learned that being a sled dog is hard and dirty, but fun! It seemed hard to memorize that “gee” is left and “haw” is right. Being a musher is challenging. It is expensive. You also have to care for your dogs a lot. It requires lots of hitching up dogs, sleds, and more dogs. You would have to have a job aside from mushing or plenty of sponsors. You would probably have to own your house too because with twelve or more dogs and their hair and noise, not many renters would want you there. I thank our musher for bringing the dogs along for us to enjoy.
Morgan: I loved the dogs! Today I met a musher with thirty-two dogs. We got to hold the gangline and pull the sled like we were the dogs. We had to go left when she said, “Gee!” and right when she said, “Haw!” We also got a dog bootie as a gift from her. I am so happy because the dogs amazed me a lot. I loved Daisy the most, and I wish I were a musher too. My top three favorite parts of the visit were petting the dogs, meeting our musher, and pulling Ms. Richardson along on the sled.