I used the map from the website after getting your permission to do so.  I printed it and had it enlarged.  The cost of enlarging the map was about $10.  If I’d had it done in color, it would have been considerably more.

An idea for the website would be to have a black and white version  of the map available so copying would be more defined.   However, you’ll see from the included photo that the end product was very effective and useful.

I am a new faculty member at University School of Jackson, but have taught the Iditarod for several years with my teaching partner in Albany, Wisconsin.  When I came to this school, I was searching for someone to collaborate with on the Iditarod.  Ms. Allan, an 8th grade teacher, was teaching The Call of the Wild and was willing to collaborate on a project.   With the main character in The Call of the Wild being a dog, what better way to introduce the Iditarod.

Very few students understood what the Iditarod was or what it takes to be in the Iditarod.  After an introduction, the students researched about the Iditarod and chose the musher they wanted to follow for the race.

I’ve included two pictures.  One is an enlargement of the Iditarod map.  Students tracked their mushers daily whenever new race positions were posted (usually in the morning, lunch, and afternoon).

The other picture is where I would post the race positions along with images from the trail and news reports.

The hallway was a traffic jam every time a new posting went up.  The 8th graders had a blast following the Iditarod and learning something new – it will become a yearly tradition for University School of Jackson.
Thank you,

Kathryn

Please note:

Educators: Permission is granted to you— allowing you to print the Iditarod map on the website, enlarge it, and use it for your classroom.

The Iditarod Trail Map can be found at the LEARN ABOUT menu tab.  Click The Iditarod Trail.  (Or go to the link by clicking here!) Scroll to the map.  Notice miles from checkpoint to checkpoint are listed on the chart below the maps.  The Northern Route and the Southern Route are both included on this page.  This map is also a good map to print out for students to use as individual trail maps.  Students can use this in their projects or to mark their own progress in “Idita Reads and Idita Races”.

Click here!

Laurie was a Finalist for Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail^TM

To read all about this project, click here!  (PDF DOC)

To view a lesson plan by Cara Brunello and Laurie Nakauchi-Hawn , click here! (PDF DOC)

Diane,

Many late Hellos!!  This letter has been a year and a half in the making….maybe more.  Your email about using the Iditarod experience is coming back to you.  As a shop teacher, I was always looking for a way to include the experience in my life in my classes.  Well so far, I’ve found two ways.

One-  the current teacher from our school…. his/her students get to make a dog bone from a template that I made.  The students then choose which dog name they like from the list we get from the musher’s team that our current teacher is riding with as an Idita Rider at the start of the race.   Students  paint the name on the bone and have it as a keepsake.

Two- I was  looking for a way to include           students 8th grade through 12th in a long term project and came up with the idea of a totem pole.  I said to myself, if I am going to ask the students to try this idea out, maybe I should try to do it first.  You know, to check out where the construction problems may lie in wait and have solutions ready at hand.  My idea was something 12 inches high and 3 inches in diameter with proper base…. something they could have enough space to car on…. something that would be meaningful to them and not just a memento from their school years here, though it could be.

So, of course, me being me, I made a totem pole almost three feet high and over 5 inches in diameter not including the wings.  7 pieces glued together, blocked.. planed the corners down to round the pole out… made 2 eight-sided end pieces screwed in to allow for moving the pole in the direction you need to carve,  draw the items on the pole, carve them out…. then paint everything after taking off the end pieces and adding the final base.  It too a year and a half to complete the project.  As you can see by the pictures, I added the eagle head and the wings after finishing the pole portion mainly because I, at first, liked it the way it was, but then I saw that it needed something to really complete the totem.   The eagle head and wings were just the thing!

I hope that you can see that these examples are a labor of love.  Our time there with you, at the conference, with the Burmeisters, and the whole Iditarod Race and continuing story will always be with us.  Fate willing, some day we will return.

As ever,

Pete M

Pete teaches at a school in MA.  He and his wife, Peggy, attended the 2007  Iditarod Teacher’s Conference in Alaska.  Each year, a teacher from their school attends the conference and is an Idita Rider at the start of the race.

By Laurie Nakauchi-Hawn, Finalist for Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail^TM

First Grade, Friends’ School Boulder

With the Iditarod coming up, my first grade class has been studying the people and animals of the arctic. As a way for students to learn more about arctic animals and the Athabaskans, we made totem poles.

First, to introduce the animals of the arctic, we read Animals of the Tundra by Richard Vaughan. The children were fascinated by the variety of arctic animals. We discussed the adaptations that enable these animals to live in the icy arctic. Once the students were familiar with the animals, I brought in photos of totem poles and we talked about the significance of the totems and     animals represented on them.  We also talked about why Inuits would not make totems like the Northwest Coast Indians.

The children were excited to create their own totems. Using wrapping paper tubes, construction paper, crayons, scissors and glue; each child made a totem pole with the image of an arctic animal.

As a follow-up activity each child will identify the specific adaptations of the animal(s) on the totem.