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Mrs. Waffenschmidt
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Gail Hennessey
Updated 8/2012
ALASKA
Here are two worksheet activities to help foster geography awareness on the state of Alaska. Students could work in groups and use reference materials to find the answers to Mrs. Waffenschmidt and her new puppy, Schnitzel’s, travels to the state of Alaska. I’ve found several great sites to help young people learn about Alaska.
* With all websites, please check them out to see if they are appropriate for your grade level.
Map Work on Alaska:
Use the following websites to answer the map questions on Alaska:
1. What is the city which is the furthest north in Alaska?____________
2. Main river in Alaska and where does it begin? _____________
3. This is the highest peak in Alaska(and North America)_________________
4. Two peninsulas in Alaska:______________________
5. Islands found to the south:_____________________
6. Country on the other side of the Bering Strait:_______________
7. Capital of Alaska:___________________________
8. The Iditarod dog sled race runs from the city of Anchorage to this city on the Seward Peninsula:___________
Did you know?
The longest glacier in North America is the Bering Glacier in Alaska. It stretches over 122 miles.
The name Alaska come from an Eskimo word, Alakshak, meaning “great lands or peninsula”(from:50 States )
Potatoes as valuable as gold? During the 1897-189 Alaskan Klondike gold rush, miners traded gold for potatoes!(needed the vitamin C in potatoes).(from: Food Reference)
The
country of Russia is less than 3 miles from the United States(Alaska)
in the Bering Straits where the two islands, Big Diomede Island(owned
by Russia) and Little Diomede Island(owned by Alaska) are located.
Alaska
is the largest of the 50 states and is over twice the size of Texas.
You could fit 425 states the size of Rhode Island inside of the state
of Alaska!
Travels
with Mrs. Waffenschmidt and her new puppy, Schnitzel(Alaska) No,
Schnitzel, stop your begging. Be a good puppy. Cheechako
isn’t a food treat! That man welcoming us to the state of
Alaska was calling us Cheechakos, meaning “newcomer to Alaska!
Lets see what we can learn about the 49th state!
The
first outsider to discover Alaska was______ in 1741. This Danish
explorer spotted the area on a voyage to Siberia. In fact, the strait
separating Alaska and Russia is named for this man. My travel guide
says that Alaska is the only state to touch these three different
seas _____________. The state has has 47,000 miles of coastline!
Alaska
was purchased from the country of ________ in 1867 for $7.2 million
dollars. That was about 2 cents an acre! You certainly can’t
buy much of anything for two pennies these days! Many people thought
the purchase was a waste of money back then and called the purchase
“Seward’s Folly” after the Secretary of State
William H. Seward who supported its purchase.
Then,
in 1880,_______ was discovered in Alaska causing many people to go
to the area. Thousands of fortune hunters, called sourdoughs, head
to Alaska hoping to strike it rich. A sourdough was the nickname for
prospectors because they traveled with the starter to make this type
of bread. Schnitzel, after the tour of the dredge mining place here
in the city of Fairbanks, let’s get a couple of pans and go
over to the water and see if we can find some fleck of that
glittering rock!
Are you getting hungry, little guy? I don’t
think you’d want to eat muktuk, which is raw_________blubber!
Some of the natives of Alaska , however, consider it a delicacy!
But, I did find a can of salmon puppy flavored food and giant king
salmon is the state fish. Some get as large as 100 pounds.
In _______, Alaska became the 49th state. It’s nickname is the “last frontier”. I’d like to get a souvenir of the Alaska state flag. It is blue with (eight) golden states representing the _______, found in the constellation Ursa Major, or Big Bear. Interestingly, a 13 year old Native American boy, in 1926, won a contest to design the Alaska state flag. His name was __________.
I asked the hotel receptionist to wake us up around 2:30 AM because I know you’ll want to join me to see the wonderful brilliant greenish or reddish colored lights in the winter sky. Called the___________ they are visible in the North sky from September to October and from March to April.
Maybe, Schnitzel, you’d like to train to become a dog in the famous sled race call the____________. Although Siberian huskies and Alaskan malamutes are the two main breeds, I’m sure if you worked hard, you could be sled dog. Stared in 1973, the race is done in honor of the Great Race of Mercy. Back in 1925, many people, especially children, were sick from a disease called___________ . The city of Nome, was difficult to reach since there were few roads. The medicine was transported 674 miles from Nenana(near the city of Anchorage) to Nome by dog sleds. In 5 1/2 days, 100 dogs pulled twenty teams of sledders, called____________, bring the needed medicine.
The most powerful _________ recorded in North America occurred on Good Friday in 1964 in south central Alaska. Lasting 5 minutes, the majority of deaths, about 140,were from the huge waves, called _______,caused from the quake. Another terrible event happened 25 years later , also on Good Friday. An oil tanker, the _________. ran aground at Bligh Reef and spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound. It was the largest oil spill in North American history.
You’ve been a very good dog on our travels to Alaska! I found a cuddly dog toy of the the state mammal of Alaska, the _______, to give you as a souvenir of our trip to Alaska, Schnitzel!
Websites of Interest(Alaska)