Today's topic was sled dogs. Sled dogs were probably the best loved part of our home study of Alaska, so I had high hopes for this day. However, I really had a hard time planning because I couldn't find an age appropriate craft or a game that I thought really fit the topic. I finally decided I would have the kids run a relay (because by 11:20 they all needed to run anyway) and have them pass off some of our stuffed dogs, but inspiration struck Thursday night - sled dogs carried mail, why not have a mail carrying relay where they passed letters - and so much less to tote back and forth for me!
I really think the mail relay idea would have been a great one with an older age group. This age group didn't know what a relay was, plus I hadn't found a good way to help the kids remember which team they were on and once we had them all spread out on their starting points, only the kids nearest me could hear what was going on - well at least we can all learn from my mistakes. In the end, the kids passed on their envelopes to whoever would take it and everyone just kept on running. Once they got to the kid playing postmaster, they ran him over and no one remember to give him the mail. Everybody wins! yea!
Once we got back inside, I gave all the kids a coloring page that had a sled dog team with a musher. I also gave each table a couple of library books that had pictures of sled dogs or huskies (I read the best sled dogs are usually more or less mutts - or really a mix of certain kinds of dogs) and told them (rather than read) the story or Balto. That all went pretty smoothly and actually since we ran a relay they kind of understood how the dog teams had to take turns carrying the medicine. I also tried to read to them the story Painter and Ugly while they finished up, but it was hard to show the pictures, they were all hungry to the point of grumpiness, and I ran out of time. All in all, not bad I think :)
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