Iditarod

Iditarod

Iditarod

Iditarod

Here are some pictures from our Iditarod, which was held on Tuesday, March 24th. The kids had a lot of fun, but it was COLD (But hey, it was the Iditarod! What did we expect???)

* These pictures aren't in any kind of order!!!

Iditarod Teams

Here are the 5 teams racing in our Iditarod!

Idita"READ"

Here are the top 7 finishers in our Idita"READ." During the month of March, students had to "read" their way across Alaska. Every RC point got them 100 miles. Since the Iditarod is a 1,000+ mile race, the students had to get 10 RC points to accomplish this task! I am very proud of how hard the students worked to get this goal, and even more proud that they continued to read, take tests and get points even after they had their 10-point goal! 3A students earned a LOT of RC points in March!

Chayla - "Finished" her goal in 1 day! (She read a book & took a test worth 17 points!)
Mitchell & Mia - both finished in 5 days
Kaysha, Dylan S., Elle and Dylan T. - all tied and finished in 9 days

Iditarod Projects - Animal Research Posters

Iditarod Projects - Animal Research Posters

Some kids chose to do an Animal Research Poster for their Iditarod Project. They had to choose an animal found in Alaska, research it, and then create a poster of it. Here are the animals the students chose:

Dylan S. - Wolf; Payton - Wolf, Tanner - Wolf, Mitchell - Lynx, Dylan T. - Alaskan Husky, Eli - Moose, Korbyn - Wolf, Devon - Alaskan Husky

Iditarod Projects - Dioramas

Here are pictures of the kids who did Iditarod Dioramas. They made a miniature dogsled out of popsicle sticks and then had to create the background any way they wanted (as long as it matched some scenery from Alaska!) Many of them also made their dogs (for their sleds) out of clay.

Balto Story Pyramid

To start our Iditarod Unit, we learned about the "history" of the race. Back in 1925, Nome was struck with a diphtheria epidemic. The only way to get medicine there was by a relay of dogsled teams (because the weather was too bad for planes, ships or trains to get through). The final dogsled team to carry the medicine was led by a dog named Balto, who ended up being a hero. After reading the story of Balto, students had to "summarize" the story in the form of a pyramid (first line = 1 name of main character, second line = 2 adjectives that described the main character, third line = 3 lines that tell the setting, 4th line = 4 words that describe the problem, 5th-7th lines = the appropriate number of words telling events from the story, 8th line = 8 words telling how the problem was solved). The kids also got to enjoy watching the animated movie, Balto.

* There is a statue of Balto in New York's Central Park... if you're ever there, make sure to take a picture of your child standing by it (hopefully they'll always remember this story!)

Monte - Wildcat of the Week

Kristy Pottebaum, Monte’s mom, came to visit on Thursday, March 26th. Kristy works at Novartis in Larchwood. Novartis makes animal vaccinations/medicines (the Larchwood office concentrates on farm animals). Kristy works in the cell culture/growth department. They take cells that have been taken from cows and pigs and grow them in roller bottles in order to make vaccines for these animals. She stressed the importance of having a very sterile environment and how important it is to keep out any bacteria. She brought in “plates” so the kids could see how bacteria grows. In one plate, the kids could cough or sneeze into it. With the other plate, they could go around and touch different surfaces in the room to see if any bacteria is present. We let them “grow” over the weekend and checked them on Monday to see if any bacteria grew - it did!!! The kids were very excited (and some were grossed out!) to see how much bacteria grew! We would like to thank her for taking the time to come visit us (and for the pens and frisbees she gave to the class!)

Tanner - Wildcat of the Week

Tanner's mom, Janet Oleson, came in to visit with us on Thursday, March 19th. Janet works in the Deli at Sunshine Foods in Brandon (which is also part of Tony's Catering). Janet helps make and prepare the food that they serve at the deli for breakfast and dinner as well as prepare the food for different catering jobs for Tony's Catering (wedding receptions, graduations, etc.) She told us that her favorite part of her job is visiting with the people who come into the deli. She gave everyone in the room a Sunshine Foods magnet and pen, so we would like to thank her for those as well as taking the time to come in and visit with us!