Race Kit
This kit page includes User Guides to learn more about how to use the Idita-Read.org system. It also includes other resources freely offered for use by anyone who wants to do an Idita-Read event without a paid subscription to Idita-Read.org: Trail Tools include helpful printables to distibute to students; Supplemental Learning Links showcase other online, (mostly) non-commercial resources to support Iditarod-related themes; and, Activity Ideas submitted by Team Managers who participated in previous years.
User Guides
Use these guides to learn more about how Idita-Read.org's tools work. Printable Guides are in PDF (Adobe Reader required) and Screencasts are Flash movies (Flash Player required). Project the Screencasts for Mushers videos onto a large screen for the whole team or have small groups watch at computer stations.
Printable Guides 
Screencasts for Managers 
Screencasts for Mushers
Supplemental Learning Links
These third-party online resources provide learning activities and information about the Iditarod, along with other topics (e.g., science, social studies, art) related to Alaska, the Arctic, and lesson ideas.
Also, check out musher Book Reviews and Staff Picks for books covering various subjects and topics.
Multidisciplinary Related to the Iditarod Trail
- The Serum Run Game — Our absolutely favorite resource! This interactive game sends mushers on a mission that integrates the Iditarod Trail concept with geography, history, culture, and science. Mushers even get to pick their lead dog! Offers three levels of difficulty and three game lengths. A certain level of reading skill is required, however, as there is no speaking on the audio track.
- Bureau of Land Management's Iditarod National Historic Trail — includes trail chronology, stories, and more.
- Iditarod Historic Trail Visitor Guide — Part 1 (PDF)
- Iditarod Historic Trail Visitor Guide — Part 2 (PDF)
Reading & Writing
- Storyline Online — An excellent online streaming video program featuring famous actors reading chlidren's books aloud. Includes Closed Captioning.
- Into the Book — A highly interactive reading comprehension resource for Grades K-4 that focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing.
- Elements of a Story — An interactive resource for Grades 2-5 that explains the basic parts of a story.
- Read-Write-Think: Student Materials — Lots of lessons as well as printables and interactives for students, including Literary Elements Map, Story Map, Comparison and Contrast Guide and more.
- The Writing Site — Guidance for teachers on how to assess student writing.
- Stairway to Reading — Guidance for teachers and ready-to-use reading lessons and assessments.
- Creating a Classroom Newspaper — Guidance for teachers; Activity idea can be incorporated with Iditarod-relevant topics. See Newspaper Activity idea in right-hand sidebar below.
Iditarod Race & Mushing
- Official Site of The Iditarod
- Iditarod's section For Teachers
- Learn About the Iditarod
- Iditarod Trail Race History
- Iditarod Trail Race Media Guide — Includes descriptions of the checkpoints, trail legs & musher profiles
- Mushing Terminology
- Official Iditarod Trail Map
- Idita-Read.org's full-size Iditarod Trail Map — A larger, printable Google Map that includes the Iditarod Trail Race checkpoints.
- Cabela's 11x17 Iditarod Trail Map (PDF)
- Checkpoint Info (checkpoint descriptions) from Cabela's (doc)
- The Anatomy of a Dog Sled
- Pack a Dog Sled — a WebRangers interactive from the National Park Service
- Cool Jobs Videos — Iditarod Musher
- Student-made Iditarod PowerPoint Presentations
- PBS: Sled Dogs — An Alaskan Epic — A look at the sled dog, the history of the Iditarod, and the real life story of Balto and the race to save lives threatened by a diptheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska.
- The Iditarod: An Interactive Unit Study Outline — Many good activity ideas and additional links to information.
- EducationWorld: Iditarod Lesson Planning — Various activities that can be customized for all grade levels.
- Race to the Sky — Montana's annual sled dog race. February 12-27, 2010. They offer some Educational Opportunities.
Geography, Mapping & Climate
- Idita-Read.org's full-size Iditarod Trail Map — a larger, printable Google Map that includes the Iditarod Trail Race checkpoints.
- Geography Drop — Your mission is to correctly identify cities, rivers, and other locations in Alaska. Your airplane is ready to take you there!
- Alaska History & Cultural Studies: The Geography of Alaska
- Alaska Studies — Especially check out the Maps section.
- Arctic Climate & Meteorology Primer
- Alaska Climate Summaries — Compare and contrast climate trends.
- Arctic Map & Current Weather Reports
- EdHeads: Weather Activities — Interactive module for understanding weather reports and prediction, temperature conversion, and a weather glossary; includes teacher guidance.
- Franklin's Forecast — Instructions on how to make your own weather station and other weather-related explanations.
- Weather World 2010 Project — Integrates current and archived weather data (images & text) with instructional resources (modules & curriculum), including a collection of multimedia instructional modules covering meteorology and remote sensing.
- GeoKids: Geography for Kids — Read about the Earth in the Geography Online section and play some mapping games in the Geogaphy Games section. The Latitude and Longitude Map Match Game is especially good.
- National Geographic: Xpeditions — Lesson plans and activities for exploring geography through mapping skills.
- PBS/NOVA: The Search for Longitude — Play the two interactivities — Find Your Longitude, to understand why having a precise timepiece (known as a chronometer) helps you determine your longitude, and compare that with how GPS: The New Navigation works.
Science & Technology
- Cool Critters — Features some basic facts about Alaskan animals.
- Artifact Match — An interactive game featuring a variety of artifacts highlighting Alaska Native art and technologies. Players must match the artifact with its description.
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Digital Library — A great source for images and other media in the public domain to use for projects.
- All About Glaciers
- Arctic — A Friend Acting Strangely — This Smithsonian Museum online exhibit explores how the Arctic's climate is changing and how that affects the people and animals who live there.
- Auroras! Mysterious Lights in the Sky — Excellent animated overview of aurora science, created for Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum; especially good for younger students.
- Auroras: Paintings in the Sky — Get an overview of the science behind the Aurora borealis.
- Auroras Forecast — Explore this prediction site at the University of Alaska to get an idea of how scientists measure the conditions that can produce these natural beauties.
- Aurora Borealis Photo Gallery — Nome, Alaska
- Arctic Wildlife Portfolio — Grouped by Birds, Mammals, and Sea Mammals.
- Wild-eyed Alaska — Includes video clips of animals.
- Funtastic Facts about Alaska's Wildlife
- Alaska: A Bird's Eye View — Join Tutangiaq, the Canada goose, and explore Alaska from a unique perspective. Find out information on changing climate patterns, history in Alaska and much more. This site uses satellite imagery to illustrate volcanic eruptions and includes a compilation of online resources.
- Virtual Field Trip: Climbing Denali — Explore Denali — the tallest mountain in North America, learning about geology, ice science, and more! When you click Virtual Visit, it will ask for a Trip Password - just bypass that and click the Virtual Visit icon again (on that page) to start the field trip.
- Virtual Field Trip: Mammals of Denali — Learn about some of the ways in which animals here have adapated to living in this subarctic climate. When you click Virtual Visit, it will ask for a Trip Password - just bypass that and click the Virtual Visit icon again (on that page) to start the field trip.
- Minerals Management Service: Kids' Corner — Short Subjects — Includes information about crude oil, oil rigs, Alaska's volcanoes, etc.
- PBS: The Alaska Pipeline
- PBS: Building the Alaska Highway
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)
Social Studies
- NEW! Alaska Native Knowledge Network: Lessons & Units — A database of lessons and units searchable by content and cultural standards, cultural region and grade level.
- NEW! Dena'ina Qenaga Digital Archive — Provides information about the Dena'ina (Athabascan) language
- Col. Goodwin's report to the Alaska Road Commission after his surveying exploration to determine trail routes (PDF) — A digital copy of this primary source.
- Artifact Match — An interactive game featuring a variety of artifacts highlighting Alaska Native art and technologies. Players must match the artifact with its description.
- Alaska History & Cultural Studies — Great information about the state's Geography, its different cultures, its history as a Russia Colony and America's Territory, along with its Government and Modern Alaska life. Includes a timeline comparing events in Alaska with national and international events.
- Alaska's Digital Archives — Provides great primary source materials for exploring Alaskan history and cultures.
- The Story of Alaska's Flag
- The People of Whaling — This is an excellent photo exhibit giving an insider's view of the whaling culture of the Inupiat people.
- Crossroads of Continents — Explore this museum exhibit to learn more about Siberian-Alaskan peoples & history.
- North Slope Barrow — Explore the different Native Alaska Villages located along the northern coastline.
- Looking Both Ways — Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People of Southern Alaska
- Alaska's Gold
Fine Arts
- Totems — Art and culture related to Alaskan Totem poles. Compare these to cultural arts of other Alaska Native groups. When you click Virtual Visit, it will ask for a Trip Password — just bypass that and click the Virtual Visit icon again (on that page) to start the field trip.
- Yup'ik Masks — Explore the art, history, and cultural importance of these ceremonial masks.
- Northern Journeys
Miscellaneous
- Wumpa's World — A very interactive Web-based game designed for children ages 3 to 5. Create your own fish and save a baby whale. Paddle your kayak through the ice floes and catch fish through a hole in the ice. Play matching games with a seal. Paint with a polar bear. These are just a few of the activities offered on Wumpa's World. If the animation pauses, click around to move forward again. Audio speakers required.



