What Is It Like to Drive A Sled Dog?

Imagine that you are in Alaska and that you are  participating in the Iditarod, an annual race for sled
dogs and their handlers. How would you give orders to your lead dog? "Let's go" is the command to start running. "Whoa" is for stop.

 You can find this information in Sled Dog : Powerful Miracle by Stephen Person. This 32 page chapter book begins with the story of Isobel, a sled dog who went blind. Isobel was unhappy because she was no longer allowed to race. So her owners put her back in the dog team and she did very well.

This book then goes on to talk about the different type of sled dogs, such as the Siberian husky.  But the best sled dogs are a mixture of breeds and are called Alaskan huskies.

What Is Grassland?

"Grasslands are large open spaces where most of the plants are grasses." So begins  About Habitats: Grasslands written by Cathryn Sill and illustrated by John Sill. The two page picturebook spread here consists of a one sentence description on the left. The right has a full page illustration. For example,
The companion illustration for the first sentence shows American bison on a shortgrass prairie.

Other grasslands are located in Europe and Africa. Visit them in this book. For more information visit this website listed at the back of the book.

A Chinese American Who Wanted To Fly

Everyone has a dream.  Mine is to swim a mile next summer.  Maggie  Gee wanted to

fly airplanes.  During World War II, she joined a group called Women's Air Force Service Pilot or Wasps for short. Their principal job was to  ferry airplanes from the factory to the field where male pilots would fly them in battle.
This week's curriculum tie-in is Sky High : The True Story of Maggie Gee by Marissa   Moss. This picturebook tells  Maggie's story from her childhood  through her flying adventures, in  the first person. You feel like Maggie herself is talking to you.The  author's note includes more information plus some photographs from Maggie herself.

How to learn about animal migration

Why Do Animals Migrate? by Bobbie Kalman is my curriculum tie-in this week. I'd recommend this to grades 3-5. It is a chapter book;  32 pages in total.
It starts with definitions. Example: "All animals have areas where they live. These areas are called habitats." The book gives the reason for migration: because when seasons change it becomes too difficult to stay in their habitats. So they move to a new habitat for a certain period of time. They migrate.
Teachers, here are two questions to ask of your classes.

Q. Why do Canada geese fly in a V-formation?
A.  Flying in a V-formation keeps them from getting too tired. p.10

Q. Which animal migrates the farthest?
A. The arctic tern. p.12

A Feel of the Early 1960's

Curriculum tie-in
The early 1960's in New York City was a period where folksingers met in coffeehouses. For teachers doing a section on the '60's I recommend this slice of life picture book biography, When Bob Met Woody ;written by Gary Golio and illustrated by Marc Burckhardt.  Bob Dylan is still with us but Woody Guthrie passed away many years ago. This biography takes Bob  from his early interest in folk music to his meeting Woody Guthrie. A nice feature of this book is "Quotation notes" where the actual sources of the quotes in the book come from.

Learning About the Native American

This week's post highlights a couple of books  exploring the Native American culture.  The first title: Black Elk's Vision: a Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson gives a first person perspective on Black Elk, a Lakota -Oglala medicine man who was a cousin of Crazy-Horse. The author includes archival images as well as his own art work. This 48- page book is suitable for grades 3-6. Another title detailing the customs of Native Americans  is Indians of the Northwest by Petra Press.  This title is part of a series called The Native Americans. Other titles in the series are: Indians of the Great Plains, Indians of the Northeast, Indians of the Northwest, Indians of the Southwest. They are all available from your local library.

Elephants On My Mind

This is my niece, Marina. She kindly provided this photograph taken
on a recent visit to Thailand. Here's Marina:

"We visited elephants outside of the town of Chiang Mai on an eco-reserve. There are two types of elephants in Thailand - domesticated and wild elephants. These elephants were not wild, and in fact wild elephants are not possible to command. One thing I learned that surprised me is the average life span of an elephant -- if I remember correctly, they live to 80 years old on average!
Riding on top of the elephant, it's immediately apparent just how much larger they are, proportionately. When several people ride on an elephant, their spinal chord protrudes and is quite large, about 3-6 inches in radius (if I had to take a guess); their 'hair' is thick and bristly; their ear holes very large; their skin of such great thickness that they can barely feel your touch as you grab the skin and climb along their leg to get to the head (i.e. your seat)... and yet despite their advantage in size, one also notices how slowly they trot! Perhaps it's all the weight which holds them down. "

 Elephants Trumpet by Pam Scheunemann, our curriculum tie-in this week, is a nonfiction early reader.  Here is a sample: "The elephant  is the biggest animal around. It can make a loud trumpeting sound."
For a fictional picture book on elephants, see Kai-Mook by Guido van Genechten about the birth of a baby elephant.