The Iditarod and painting
This is our Iditarod wall…. forevermore to be referred to as the Iditawall. On top we have the official Iditarod poster sent to us by Cabella’s (the sponsor for the race). Below that is our map of Alaska with the route marked by checkpoints. To the left, we have some race facts and figures. On the right of the map is a hook to hold our musher stat sheets. Each person in our family has chosen a musher and we are having an internal familial race. So far Daddy is winning because he chose Martin Buser, who, as of this writing is in the lead, 6th in the race. GB has chosen Jeff King, 19th place. I have DeeDee Jonrowe, 41st place. Aquagirl chose Dallas Seavy, 64th place. And Jabem chose Mike Williams, 43rd place.
Below the musher stat sheets is an envelope with spelling and vocabulary words that are special to the race and Alaska.
On the far right we have paintings that GB and I did today. We learned all about the Alaskan geography and spent a lot of time perusing the Iditarod web sites. One of the geographical phenomenon was the Aurora Borealis. We used watercolors to create our pictures and went on this site to learn more about where you can see them and what causes them. Take the self-guided tour, it’s cool! This is a close-up of the painting that GB did.
We also got our new Bluebird house at Ukrop’s. Our old Bluebird house fell apart this year, and we really don’t want to disappoint our Bluebirds. We have had a house, and gotten to witness baby Bluebirds each year since hurricane Isabelle came through and destroyed our woods. GB was so concerned with the birdie housing situation that he encouraged every kid he knew to ask Santa to bring them a birdhouse. Needless to say they have brought us a lot of enjoyment and contentment. We feel as if we are helping them to survive. We painted the house this afternoon, and I am so pleased with how it turned out.
You know how when you learn a new word and suddenly you notice the word everywhere, even though you never noticed it before?
Well, my family just decided to go to Alaska for summer vacation and now everybody is talking about Alaska!
Are you doing a unit study on the state? I would love some tips. I am going to puruse you blog a bit in search of tidbits.
Thanks. I love the paintings and the Iditarod poster.
Blessings,
Faith
Comment by
dumboxacademy — March 6, 2007 @ 8:02 am
The paintings are fabulous!!!! What fun!
Comment by
lapazfarm — March 6, 2007 @ 8:46 am
We are doing lots of things to bring more “nature” into our yard this year. I hadn’t thought of a bluebird house! We’ve been seeing a bluebird the past few days, so I’ll have to check into it!
Comment by Dana — March 9, 2007 @ 10:09 pm