Sled Dogs Teaching Ideas and Resources!

Celebrate the Iditarod and have fun with sled dogs in your classroom this winter by incorporating some super simple ideas and great teaching resources! I am super excited to be partnering up in a product swap with some of my favorite blogging buddies! Lucky me! I get to feature classroom activities to highlight a great teaching theme for the month of March! 

Teaming up for Teaching About Sled Dogs

Teaming up with me is the talented Jen from Teaching in the Tongass! I am a big fan/addict of all of her amazing clipart and now a fan of her adorable classroom crafts and teaching products!

Jen, as you may have guessed from her shop and blog name, lives and teaches in Alaska. Although it is one of our great states, to my little second graders, it is light years away from us here in Michigan!

Before we started with our Iditarod activities, we spent some time reading books and watching travel videos about Alaska. The Iditarod race started on March 1st, so the timing for this unit was perfect! 

We had a blast incorporating the printables she sent me into our unit! They are from her resource called Dog Sled fun!

Here they are!

After learning a bit about Alaska, the race and watching the video, Balto, we had an Adopt-a Dog Day! Each child was asked to bring in a stuffed dog for adoption day. 

The students pretended to be a musher searching for the perfect dog to adopt to lead their team. We brainstormed a list of qualities that would make an excellent lead dog. I purchased clipart from Teaching in the Tongass’s Alaska Clipart Bundle to use to create this chart and for our other activities.

The students used their own list of character traits to name their adopted dog. In the Adopt-a Dog packet there is also a list of suggested names that students can choose from. 

Here is my adopted dog! I named him, Smokey Wisdom!

The kids wrote their dog’s name in a frame. This tag is tied around the neck.

 The ends are taped to the back of the sign.

Here is another friend from the adoption center!

The kids came up with some really clever names on their own too!

Then, we held a public adoption and the students had to tell about the character traits they were hoping for in their dog and promise to train and care for them properly before leaving our “center”. 

We wrote more about our dogs on this page from a journal packet. This was great practice for descriptive writing.

The kids did such an adorable job that we will publish these into a class book to display at conferences! The parents will really enjoy reading them.

Then, it was time to use our imaginations and start on our first journal entry. The students could choose to write as the dog to their musher, or as musher to their dog. They came up with some really creative tales!

The journals come with adorable cover pages like this one! 

I used the book binder to make them even more special!

The writing pages inside each have a variety of colorful graphics like a bush plane, red lantern, cabin and other Alaskan wildlife. You can see them in her product cover.

In their journals, the students wrote about their adventures along the trail as they learned about in this wonderful story, Kiana’s Iditarod, by Shelley Gill. If you are not familiar with this story, here is a summary from Amazon:

Kiana is no ordinary dog. Born and bred to race, she leads her team of huskies on a journey unlike any other. The Iditarod – known traditionally as Alaska’s ‘Last Great Race’ – spans 1,049 icy miles from Anchorage to Nome. From the treacherous terrain to the bitter, blowing winds, the trail is full of obstacles Kiana and her team must overcome in order to reach the finish line. Along the way, they encounter packs of wild wolves, a mighty moose, and other dog-sled teams fighting for first place. Can Kiana summon the strength of her team and lead them to victory? Author Shelley Gill brings her firsthand experience as the fifth woman to complete the Iditarod race to this crackling adventure story, while Shannon Cartwright’s vibrant color illustrations bring Kiana and her team’s extraordinary efforts to life for young readers.

To bring the Iditarod theme into behavior management, the red lantern was awarded each day to a student who worked extra hard. They loved proudly displaying this card I made them on their desk!

Our unit ended with this adorable sled dog craft! It was super simple to prep and organize for the kids. We made white, black and gray dogs! I like the wide lines for writing. You can see how nice and neat the student work samples are!

My students absolutely LOVED all of the Iditarod and sled dog activities and they learned so much along the way!

 Jen has some great posts about how she studies the Iditarod in her classroom. Be sure to go check out her fantastic blog!

Thanks Teaching in the Tongass for sharing these printables with us!

Books About Sled Dogs:

If you are looking for more resources for teaching about sled dogs and the Iditarod, check out these: ( Amazon affiliate links)

Storm Run: The Story of the First Woman to Win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race

The Adventures of Balto: The Untold Story of Alaska’s Famous Iditarod Sled Dog

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Step-Into-Reading)