Weekly Update

It's the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas...Iditarod! In addition to lighthouses, my other addiction is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. I got hooked on it about twelves years ago, and have been using it in my classroom ever since. The Iditarod offers students a chance to learn about something new and hopefully exciting. It teaches them about hard work, perseverance, determination, and overcoming obstacles. Within the context of that, we do numerous reading and writing activities that coincide with the language arts curriculum.

Last week the students had an opportunity to watch the video of last year's race. This week we talked about qualities that mushers must have to run the Iditarod and then discussed what qualitites they, as individuals, need to accomplish their goals in life. The students created stars with those goals and traits, and they are now hanging from the ceiling. They also wrote acrostic poems using the letters I-D-I-T-A-R-O-D to describe traits that describe both mushers and themselves. They then wrote an essay describing those qualities.

Another skill that is important in life is being able to read and comprehend non-fiction. To that end, we are reading the rules of the 2010 Iditarod and applying them to various scenarios. This activity should help students see the incredible care these dogs are given to help them safely do what they love--run!

The final activity the students are working on this week is to research a checkpoint along the Iditarod trail and create a travel brochure to share that information.

Please feel free to check out my Iditarod website: www.ovdmush.co.nr. It has many interesting links on it for following "The Last Great Race." On the main page you will find information about "Iditarod Insider." This is a subscription-based service that our Home and School graciously purchased for our classroom. Because it is a classroom subscription, students will be able to log on at home and check out videos from past years, daily videos from this year, the live start, the restart, the live finish, and check in on their mushers at any time using the GPS tracker! In the past, many families have found this to be a fun activity to follow together. Thank you Home and School!

In Religion this week, we were able to watch the infomercials together. I hope you had a chance to check them out. I have uploaded on late-comer. There may or may not be some audio problems with this one. It works fine on my computer at home, but at school, there are parts that are barely audible. Check it out anyhow--Josh and Andy did a great job!

I hope to see you all at the Beach Bash on Saturday. Come and take your best shot at dunking me in the dunk tank! I'll be there from 4:00-4:30.