Iditarod Quilt Visits the Cornhusker State
By Judi Roach
The 2006 Iditarod Quilt made its appearance at Central Elementary just as students were finishing up “Iditaround Nebraska”. Students earned miles on the trail for reading, tracking their nutrition and fitness, completing checkpoint reading and writing activities, and for documenting their usage of the Habits of Mind thinking strategies taught by their teacher Mrs. Roach. All students completed the race of 1,037 miles. This race is over 1,000 miles, just like the Iditarod and the additional 37 miles signify that Nebraska was the 37th state to join the United States in 1867. The quilts arrival provided an opportunity for Mrs. Roach to involve her reading class in a fun Iditarod based reading activity.
Mrs. Roach’s Reading Class took on the job of creating questions for a quit scavenger hunt. Each quilt square was numbered with sticky notes. The students worked hard to develop questions that would require the rest of the fourth grade students to think critically and read carefully. Each student created two questions. This was not an easy task! Phrasing the questions so that they were not too easy, but challenging enough to make the students think took some practice. The remaining students at Central worked with a partner to find the answers to the scavenger hunt. They “read” the quilt to find the answers. This was a challenge; no group got all of the answers correct! Those were tough questions!
The students enjoyed reading the inspirational messages on the quilt and seeing the names and autographs of famous people associated with the Iditarod. They recognized author Pam Flowers name as we have some of her books in our school library. They were very excited to see Jeff King and Lance Mackey’s signatures on one of the quilts square. The original artwork helped them see how creative and talented teacher’s can be. Thanks teachers of the 2006 Iditarod Teachers Conference for creating this quilt and making it available to students around the country. It was enjoyed by the students and staff at Central Elementary in Sidney, Nebraska.
