I chose Martin Buser to follow during the Iditarod.  He lives in Alaska.  He was born in 1958.  He came to Alaska in 1979.  He loves sled dogs.  I chose him because he had some wins already, and I wanted someone with a win.

I read Kavik during the Iditarod.  Kavik is an endangered wolf puppy who is in a cage and very smart.  I predicted that people would somehow keep the dog.  So they decided to keep Kavik, and Kavik had a broken rib and couldn’t swallow either.  They called a doctor for help, but the doctor didn’t want to help a dog.  The doctor also thought Kavik was a wolf.  The most exciting part to me was when Kavik went to see the doctor because it’s live or die and you don’t know if he will heal or die.

There was some excellent writing in the book.  Instead of saying they went around the corner, the author said, “The sled rounded the corner, sending snow flying!”  The author also said the dog shrieked, and the author made the story so sad.

I learned a lot about mushing during the race.  Dogs love running.  The dogs and mushers can explore so much.  Sled dogs are really fast.  I think a dog should never get sick if the musher takes good care of the dog.  I thought the GPS was helpful because you can see where your musher is.  The videos of the race were funny.

I made a list of strong Iditarod verbs to use in my writing.  I chose blow, mush, run, hustle, hurry, sleep, eat, hike, ride, and explore.

I compared the sport of mushing to a sport I enjoy a lot, basketball.  Basketball is different because you dribble, shoot, pass to people, have a certain time limit, and can only have five playing.  Mushing is different because you have as much time as you need, you have a lot of people racing at the same time, you ride, if you win you get a prize, and the last person over the finish line gets a prize too.  They are the same because you hurry, train, talk, use your brain, go quickly, have action, and can get hurt.

I liked getting to meet a real musher.  I liked how she taught us because she was nice.  She let us pull the sled with her on it.  It was fun, and the dogs were so cute.  The dogs’ names were Dory and Fiona.  Fiona kind of had a mohawk.  She taught me that there is a slow down pad.  It just slows them down.  She is a nice person.  She taught us things I didn’t know before.  I might want to be a musher one day.

Hot exploding gas

Dripping hot sand and sweating

While dying in sun

Our class was wild over our two week literacy unit surrounding the Iditarod Sled Dog Race!  We challenged our favorite musher by counting each page we read during the race as a mile on our giant map of Alaska.  We devoured all kinds of fiction and nonfiction mushing books. We discovered more about nonfiction graphic sources, and we ended every day dancing to “I Did, I Did, I Did the Iditarod Trail.”

The Moose Spy Poem

 

I’m the guy who watches everybody when they least expect it.

I’m the guy who the dogs don’t like very much.

I’m the guy who watches the musher and his dogs sleep at night.

I’m the moose spy that never ever stops watching you.

I’m a tundra stalker, the moose.

 

The Snowy Poem

 

I’m the thing that makes you struggle during the race.

I’m the thing that falls on your head while you’re racing.

I’m the snow of the Iditarod.

Some people love me and some don’t.

To celebrate the first day of spring, we romped about in the mud, brainstormed words using all our senses, and wrote about mud season in New England.

 

(photo by Muscle Master)

 

A Spring Story About Two Leaf Buddies

One spring day, a leaf named Joe was playing on the playground.  Then he saw another leaf. He went to that leaf and asked what the leaf’s name was.

 

The leaf’s name was Larry, but Larry had no friends.  He just got bullied all the time. So Joe decided to be Larry’s friend.

 

Then they were friends until the bullies came back.

 

 

And then . . . on the second day of spring . . . .

Three things you should know about me are I’m good at video games, I play basketball, and I like to play fortnite.  I’m looking forward to reading your blog!

Crushed my face with a napkin that made me clean.
Jumped off my bed to go play Fortnite.
Dashed off my bed to go open presents.
Crushed the hot cocoa in my mouth.

 

For week 9, we chose to try an Hour of Code activity.  We have been working with Coding Awbie on Osmo, and this week we tried some Minecraft tutorials.

I really liked coding with Minecraft.  I thought that it might have been a little better than regular Minecraft.  I think if you like coding, try it.  Maybe you could even try Coding Awbie.  I my opinion, I liked coding Minecraft better.

We interviewed a person we know who reached toward a really big goal using grit and determination.  I chose my grandma and her story of getting her house.  Click on the movie to see my interview.

Our engineering challenge was to design a bird feeder that would attract a certain type of bird.

My problem statement:

I want finches to come to my yard.  I need a bird feeder with seeds and pegs for my bird to stand on.  I will make the feeder safe from cats by having extra heavy duty pegs.

My ideas for my feeder: