Dear Room 2
Parent(s), Tuesday, March 24,
2015
March has certainly been a busy month here
in Room 2! Our curriculum provided a rich and diverse set of experiences for
these wonderful first graders.
The 2015 Iditarod
Sled Dog Race
Mushers take your mark, get set, HIKE!! I
hope your child told you that that’s the way to get your sled dog team to GO!!
Our study of the race brought great excitement to our classroom! The Iditarod
is an annual sled dog race that is run in Alaska. This year was the 43rd
running of the race that celebrates the ”1925 Serum Race To Nome”; a relay of
dog teams that ran life-saving medicine to children dying of diphtheria in
Nome. Balto, a dog who’s well-known for his position as lead dog in the final
leg of the relay, helped to get the serum to the sick on time, saving the town
of Nome. This year, 79 mushers travelled with their teams of 12 to 18 dogs across
the incredibly beautiful and treacherous land that is called the Iditarod
Trail. Here are some questions to facilitate discussions at home:
1. What is a musher? A man or woman who guides the sled and
team of dogs.
2. Where does the race start and end? The race is run from Anchorage to Nome.
3. How long is the race? According to “Checkpoints and Distances on
the Iditarod.com website, 1,049 miles is a symbolic figure. The distance is
about 1,000 miles and 49 was added to signify Alaska, the 49th
state. In even numbered years, the Northern Route is run and in odd years, the
Southern Route is run. This year, the Southern Route measured in at 998 miles.
4. How long does the race take?
Anywhere between 8 and 35 days.
5. When does the Iditarod begin? The race begins on the first Saturday of
March.
6. What are booties and why are they
important? Booties are protective socks worn by most
sled dogs. They guard the pads of their feet from ice, rocks, and snow. Each
team goes through about 1,000 booties during the race!
7. Do the dogs and mushers prefer warm weather
or cold weather during the race? COLD weather! The dogs have extra-thick fur that
is suited for cold weather. Warm weather puts dogs in danger of overheating.
The dogs like it best when it’s about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. The cold weather
also helps to preserve the snow that may otherwise give way to jagged rocks on
the trail. The cold weather also freezes a small stretch of the Bering Sea and
the lakes, which are easier to cross when solid!
8. Who checks out the health and well-being of
EVERY sled dog at each of the checkpoints along the trail?
Veterinarians
We read several
great books to introduce the race and its history: The Bravest Dog Ever: The
True Story of Balto by Natalie Staniford and Mush! Across Alaska in the
World’s Longest Sled Dog Race, by Patricia Seibert. The children also
enjoyed Akiak and Big Enough Anna. We learned 2 new songs, “Take Me Out to
Alaska,” and “Northern Lights.” We followed the race on a daily basis, tracking
the leaders and other notable mushers on our race route map in the classroom.
We were very
excited to hear that Dallas Seavey won this year’s Iditarod in 8 days, 18
hours, and 13 minutes. He also holds the record for the fastest race time in
Iditarod history (2014 Iditarod)! He won the race three years ago and was then
crowned the youngest musher to ever win the race. Congratulations to all the
mushers and their brave, strong, teams of dogs. We’re sad that the race has
ended but know that the mushers will soon be training again for next year’s
race after a nice rest at home!
Maple Sugaring:
Children have enjoyed learning about the
process of maple sugaring. We discovered that people have been making maple
syrup and maple sugar for hundreds of years! Native Americans first discovered
how to make maple syrup and taught the art of maple sugaring to the early
colonists. We tapped a sugar maple tree
in front of Happy Hollow with the other first graders and have rotated the
daily collection of sap. Yesterday we collected 52 cups of sap! Ask your child
about the process of tapping the tree, the tools used, and what kind of weather
is needed for sap to run in the trees. Did you know that you need 40 cups of
sap to make one cup of maple syrup? Once the sap is collected, syrup is made by
heating the sap until it boils. Water in the sap turns to steam. The sap
becomes darker, thicker, and sweeter as the water is boiled away, and it
eventually turns into syrup. We saw maple sugaring in action on our filed trip
to the Land’s Sake Sugar Shack at the Weston Middle School. We are also very
excited about our Pancake Breakfast next Wednesday, March 26th! If
you are interested in joining us on Wednesday morning, please let me know. It’s
a great way to celebrate our unit of study and to enjoy one of nature’s many
treats here in New England!
Math
We have had loads
of fun and hands-on experience working with a variety of addition and subtraction
activities over the past month. We have also moved into studying about money
(pennies and dimes) as well as place value. We’ve been building 2 digit numbers
and one digit numbers and have been adding them together during math stations.
We hope you all
have a lovey, springy weekend ahead. Thank you all for your continued support!
Take care,
Lise Weig J and Mary Ann O’Loughlin J
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