The Iditarod

For the week before the Iditarod started, my class spent about an hour a day learning about the history, ins-and-outs, and mushers for the 2010 Iditarod. Even though we live in Kansas, this is always the second favorite unit of the year. (The first favorite is our market economy unit, and I'll talk about that more when we get there!)

I always create a bulletin board that has a map of the trail. Then I make a little 1 inch sled dog picture and glue it on magnet. The students research a musher of their choice and write their bib number on the sled dog picture. I teach the kids how to track their musher throughout the race, and they move their little magnet along the trail during the week of the race. This year the race ended over Spring Break (which is this week), so I'm looking forward to Monday when the kids come back to see if anyone followed their musher to the end!

I got most of the ideas from www.iditarod.com, like the tracking form. I also create my own things like a t-shirt design. I'll post pictures on Monday of all these things. :-)