Ikidarod races serve as learning tool for students at NSCS

• Checkpoint

A team leaves the checkpoint after stopping for a quick break, rotation and snack during the Ikidarod race at North Shore Community School last Friday. LaReesa Sandretsky
• Snack break

One of the students acting as a dog gobbles up Scooby Snacks at a checkpoint along the Ikidarod. LaReesa Sandretsky
• Mushers

Students cheer on one of the mushers during the Ikidarod at North Shore Community School last week. LaReesa Sandretsky
• Race start

A team starts the Ikidarod race at North Shore Community School last week. The students all play a part on the team—one acts as a musher, and the rest are “dogs,” pulling the musher who sits in a sled. LaReesa Sandretsky

Talk about it

Parents, instructors and students bundled up in their mukluks and winter parkas last Friday to watch the Ikidarod races at North Shore Community School. At an estimated quarter-mile long, the race is considerably shorter than its namesake, the infamous 1,000-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska. Instead of dogs, warmly-dressed second graders line up at the starting line on all fours, pawing the snow and doing their best imitations of barking huskies.

The race is the culmination of a unit on teamwork and compromise, explained second-grade teacher Dayna Phelps. The kids, six to a team, grip a long blue rope tightly in sled dog formation. One student acts as the lead dog and another rides in a sled behind the team, acting as a musher. The students rotate positions at every checkpoint, where they also receive some canine treatment, such as Scooby Snacks at or a veterinarian check.

Phelps said Anne Wiszowaty, her fellow second-grade teacher, came up with the idea six years ago, and the two second-grade classes have been participating in the Ikidarod ever since.

Photos by LaReesa Sandretsky

Tags: north shore community school, education, ikidarod