/ News for Educators / Iditarod Learning in PA

Iditarod Learning in PA

Home School Families Use the Race

by Education Department and Stephanie

05/26/2008

An email from one of our families following and using the race: 

One of the projects this year for our homeschool Iditarod study was to make a 1/3 scale dog sled. The kids enjoyed putting it together and they turned out great. We had an expert carpenter that put this together for us and talked the kids through the assembly process.

We also attended a presentation on the Iditarod at a local park here in Pennsylvania. The Springton Manor Farm Park invited local dog sled teams and a past Iditarod attendee to make a presentation. The kids enjoyed learning about the Iditarod, seeing the slides of Alaska, meeting the dogs and watching them pull the sled with wheels. www.pennsleddogclub.com

Each child picked three mushers to collect biographies on and follow during the race. We read several books including The Great Serum Race by Debbie S. Miller, Stone Fox by John Gardiner, Woodsong by Gary Paulsen, and The Bravest Dog Ever-Balto by Natalie Standiford.

Another fun project was making a lapbook that held our book reports, musher biographies and tracking information and a dog bootie we made. The lapbooks also held small booklets the kids filled in with information about Alaska, time differences, and dog care. The last meeting we had an Iditarod 2008 recap making a scrapbook page with the list of prizes, winners, and some facts about this years race. If you are not sure what a lapbook is just do a search for "lapbooks" on the internet.

We sent a self addressed stamped envelope to the post office in Nome and they sent it back with official Iditarod Sled Dog cancellation stamp over the postage. It was a nice memento to add to our project.

This was a great unit study for us and we will be doing it again next year.

Stephanie