THE DOG LOT
EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL FOR THE YOUNGEST LEVEL
The dog lot is one of 9 podcasts produced for the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat by Katrine Nyland.
BOOK CREATOR AS A TEACHING TOOL
The Dog Lot is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Dog Lot. The duration of the podcast is 5:08 minutes.
The activities have been designed to focus on the investigative, experimental, and creative approach of the students to learning. The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast
- Listening to and working with the podcast
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
We recommend that students work in pairs or individually. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Nature/culture/technology
Cross-curricular – languages and science
- Students acquire a fundamental knowledge of the sled dog and its importance for humans at the Icefjord.
- They practise their skills in communication and collaboration.
- They obtain an understanding of the importance of ice for life around the Icefjord.
BOOK CREATOR AS A TEACHING TOOL
The Dog Lot is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Dog Lot. The duration of the podcast is 5:08 minutes.
The activities have been designed to focus on the investigative, experimental, and creative approach of the students to learning. The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast
- Listening to and working with the podcast
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
We recommend that students work in pairs or individually. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Nature/culture/technology
Cross-curricular – languages and science
- Students acquire a fundamental knowledge of the sled dog and its importance for humans at the Icefjord.
- They practise their skills in communication and collaboration.
- They obtain an understanding of the importance of ice for life around the Icefjord.
The dog lot
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing respectively summer and winter.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differs where you live.
The students see a map of Greenland. A marker indicates where Ilulissat is located.
In class you can talk about:
- What you see on the map.
- How many people are living in Ilulissat.
- What else you know about Greenland and Ilulissat.
- Do you know the names of other places on the map?
The students see part of a world map. The job now is to move the red marker down to the map to show where each student lives. The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Where your hometown is located.
- How many people are living there.
- Do you know the names of other places on the map?
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Dog Lot. They start the podcast by clicking on the icon in the middle of page 12.
It is recommended that they listen in pairs or small groups.
Let the students spend some minutes talking to the one next to them about what they just heard.
On page 13 the students will make short sound recordings, telling about the podcast. The pictures on the page may help them remember what they heard.
This is how to make a sound recording in Book Creator, web version. See instruction 1 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed where you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Review in class
It is recommended to have a joint discussion in class when working with pages 12-13 is finished. We suggest that you support this with writing and maybe illustrating concepts and keywords on the blackboard. You could talk about:
- What surprised the students when listening to the podcast.
- Concepts and keywords that the students encountered in the podcast. You may find inspiration for the conversation below.
Concepts and keywords
- Culture
Culture consists of all the values, habits, traditions, knowledge and attitudes which characterize a society or an individual in their own historical and geographical context. - Hunting and fishing culture
Since the first immigrations at Thule about 4-5.000 years ago Greenland has been dependent on nature’s resources in the form of fish, birds and land and marine mammals. Hunting and especially fishing still are important as livelihood for Greenlanders and Greenlandic society. These natural conditions have led to the development of a unique culture, built upon proud traditions.
What do you know about the culture of Greenland?
What other cultures do you know?
- Cornerstone – the dogs are a cornerstone of the Greenlandic hunting and fishing culture
A cornerstone is part of the supporting foundation, an important precondition for or component of something. A house without a foundation tumbles down. Without frost ice becomes water; frost is a precondition for the formation of ice. The dogs transport the catch, fish and people across ice and mountains, where no other means are available.
Why are the dogs a cornerstone in this culture?
Could you be a hunter and fisher without having dogs?
- Lifeblood – in the community/ transportation of catch and humans
“The dogs are the lifeblood of the community where they in generation after generation have hauled the catch home to the settlement and transported people between settlements and continents,” the podcast states. Even though the dogs still play an important role, especially for tourism and the popular dog races, the snowmobile gains more and more ground.
Lifeblood is an element that is a critical condition for something being able to function. The dogs are a condition for transporting the catch back to the settlements and towns.
What does it mean that something is the lifeblood of a community?
What is the lifeblood of your everyday life?
- Cycle – the cycle of the game animals follows the seasonal cycle of the ice.
A cycle is characterized by something returning more or less regularly, repeating itself.
A calendar day has a known and fixed course. It is divided into day and night. The seasons come and go in a definite order. The ice has a cycle. The movements of the ice are influenced by cold and heat (the cycle of the seasons), which in turn influence the conditions of life for the game animals.
What are the four seasons called?
What is characteristic of the seasons where you live?
- Tradition – the sled dogs, hunting and fishing
The sled dogs are part of special Greenlandic traditions that granddad Niels would like to pass on to his grandchildren.
What is the difference between a working dog and a family dog?
What is a tradition, and what other traditions do you know?
- Missing – Granddad Niels lives in Ilulissat, and his grandchild William lives in Hjørring. Granddad Niels misses his grandchild and the time when they could seek adventure and go hunting together.
William and his granddad talk together on Messenger. Do you know Messenger?
How do you talk with those you miss, or who are far away?
William misses his dogs, granddad Niels misses William. What might the dogs be missing?
The students see a map with Greenland and Denmark. Markers show where Ilulissat and Hjørring are located.
In class you can talk about:
- How far away William and Granddad live from each other.
- That it takes almost ten hours to travel from Hjørring in Denmark to Ilulissat in Greenland
- Whether you know someone who lives far away.
- How and when you visit each other.
Now the students will make their own reference book using words from the blackboard. Text as well as pictures can be inserted.
Insertion of text, pictures and sound see instructions 1, 2 & 3 here.
The students may also draw their own pictures and place them on a page as described above.
The students are to take pictures of sled dogs or search for pictures of sled dogs in Greenland and insert these in the frames on the pages.
Insertion of pictures see instructions 1 & 2 here.
The students will make their own model of a dog sledge.
Find a template in appendix 1.
When the model is finished a picture of it is inserted in the book.
See picture for inspiration:
Model made by students from the settlement school in Qassiarsuk after template in Papirklip / Kalaallit Numaat, Qiortakkat by Søren Thaae.
The students’ task is to make a short story about their dog sledge. The story is made up of four pictures taken with the students’ iPads. These pictures will tell a small story about a dog sledge.
Insertion of pictures and sound see instructions 1& 2 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed where you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Here you may read the book Qimmeq which is about the Greenland sled dog. On the following pages we have selected a small part of this book for our work. We recommend that you read the text together with the class.
If you want to, you may choose further topics in the book and learn even more about the Greenland sled dog.
Read pages 6-9 aloud to the students.
In class you may talk about:
- What makes the sled dog a special dog?
- What do you know about sled dogs from your own life?
Subsequently the student fill out the page with what they know about sled dogs. They can write text or tell in short sound recordings.
Insertion of sound see instruction 1 here.
At this point the students have learned a lot about sled dogs. To round off they will draw or paint their own sled dog.
The students must imagine that they have a sled dog. If they do in fact have a sled dog, this exercise can be adjusted so that they tell about their real sled dog.
When the drawing is finished, it is inserted in the book.
In class you can talk about:
- What the sled dog is called.
- How the relationship to the dog is.
- What to keep in mind when close to a sled dog.
- How a sled dog differs from a family dog.
In class you can talk about:
- How to take care of a sled dog.
- What a sled dog eats.
- Where a sled dog lives.
Insertion of pictures see instruction 2 here.
The students present their visual stories to the class.
Make sure that the framework for feedback is positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing what is good – and what might be done better.
Not specifically with a view to making new visual stories, but rather to let students discover and work with such constructive and positive criticism.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre, it might make sense to save the students’ Book Creator book and dog sledge so that they may be used again.
If you want the students to make use of the feedback from the class, you could reserve time for further work with the visual stories.
The podcast The Dog Lot has been created for the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat by Katrine Nyland.
Graphics were produced by Oncotype.
Teaching material for the podcast has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann from Anholt Læringsværksted with feedback from Leg med It.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed as part of the project Nutaaliorta from Kivitsisa. The template was designed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed and Daniella Manuel, Leg med It.
The teaching material The Dog Log is published under a Creative Commons crediting licens CC:BY.
The Qimmeq project has been developed by Ilisimatusarfik and the University of Copenhagen. The children’s non-fiction book “Qimmeq – kalaallit qimmiat qimuttoq – the Greenland sled dog” was produced by Anne Katrine Gjerløff, Ilisimatusarfik and the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Dog Lot by the Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing respectively summer and winter.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differs where you live.
The students see a map of Greenland. A marker indicates where Ilulissat is located.
In class you can talk about:
- What you see on the map.
- How many people are living in Ilulissat.
- What else you know about Greenland and Ilulissat.
- Do you know the names of other places on the map?
The students see part of a world map. The job now is to move the red marker down to the map to show where each student lives. The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Where your hometown is located.
- How many people are living there.
- Do you know the names of other places on the map?
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Dog Lot. They start the podcast by clicking on the icon in the middle of page 12.
It is recommended that they listen in pairs or small groups.
Let the students spend some minutes talking to the one next to them about what they just heard.
On page 13 the students will make short sound recordings, telling about the podcast. The pictures on the page may help them remember what they heard.
This is how to make a sound recording in Book Creator, web version. See instruction 1 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed where you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Review in class
It is recommended to have a joint discussion in class when working with pages 12-13 is finished. We suggest that you support this with writing and maybe illustrating concepts and keywords on the blackboard. You could talk about:
- What surprised the students when listening to the podcast.
- Concepts and keywords that the students encountered in the podcast. You may find inspiration for the conversation below.
Concepts and keywords
- Culture
Culture consists of all the values, habits, traditions, knowledge and attitudes which characterize a society or an individual in their own historical and geographical context. - Hunting and fishing culture
Since the first immigrations at Thule about 4-5.000 years ago Greenland has been dependent on nature’s resources in the form of fish, birds and land and marine mammals. Hunting and especially fishing still are important as livelihood for Greenlanders and Greenlandic society. These natural conditions have led to the development of a unique culture, built upon proud traditions.
What do you know about the culture of Greenland?
What other cultures do you know?
- Cornerstone – the dogs are a cornerstone of the Greenlandic hunting and fishing culture
A cornerstone is part of the supporting foundation, an important precondition for or component of something. A house without a foundation tumbles down. Without frost ice becomes water; frost is a precondition for the formation of ice. The dogs transport the catch, fish and people across ice and mountains, where no other means are available.
Why are the dogs a cornerstone in this culture?
Could you be a hunter and fisher without having dogs?
- Lifeblood – in the community/ transportation of catch and humans
“The dogs are the lifeblood of the community where they in generation after generation have hauled the catch home to the settlement and transported people between settlements and continents,” the podcast states. Even though the dogs still play an important role, especially for tourism and the popular dog races, the snowmobile gains more and more ground.
Lifeblood is an element that is a critical condition for something being able to function. The dogs are a condition for transporting the catch back to the settlements and towns.
What does it mean that something is the lifeblood of a community?
What is the lifeblood of your everyday life?
- Cycle – the cycle of the game animals follows the seasonal cycle of the ice.
A cycle is characterized by something returning more or less regularly, repeating itself.
A calendar day has a known and fixed course. It is divided into day and night. The seasons come and go in a definite order. The ice has a cycle. The movements of the ice are influenced by cold and heat (the cycle of the seasons), which in turn influence the conditions of life for the game animals.
What are the four seasons called?
What is characteristic of the seasons where you live?
- Tradition – the sled dogs, hunting and fishing
The sled dogs are part of special Greenlandic traditions that granddad Niels would like to pass on to his grandchildren.
What is the difference between a working dog and a family dog?
What is a tradition, and what other traditions do you know?
- Missing – Granddad Niels lives in Ilulissat, and his grandchild William lives in Hjørring. Granddad Niels misses his grandchild and the time when they could seek adventure and go hunting together.
William and his granddad talk together on Messenger. Do you know Messenger?
How do you talk with those you miss, or who are far away?
William misses his dogs, granddad Niels misses William. What might the dogs be missing?
The students see a map with Greenland and Denmark. Markers show where Ilulissat and Hjørring are located.
In class you can talk about:
- How far away William and Granddad live from each other.
- That it takes almost ten hours to travel from Hjørring in Denmark to Ilulissat in Greenland
- Whether you know someone who lives far away.
- How and when you visit each other.
Now the students will make their own reference book using words from the blackboard. Text as well as pictures can be inserted.
Insertion of text, pictures and sound see instructions 1, 2 & 3 here.
The students may also draw their own pictures and place them on a page as described above.
The students are to take pictures of sled dogs or search for pictures of sled dogs in Greenland and insert these in the frames on the pages.
Insertion of pictures see instructions 1 & 2 here.
The students will make their own model of a dog sledge.
Find a template in appendix 1.
When the model is finished a picture of it is inserted in the book.
See picture for inspiration:
Model made by students from the settlement school in Qassiarsuk after template in Papirklip / Kalaallit Numaat, Qiortakkat by Søren Thaae.
The students’ task is to make a short story about their dog sledge. The story is made up of four pictures taken with the students’ iPads. These pictures will tell a small story about a dog sledge.
Insertion of pictures and sound see instructions 1& 2 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed where you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Here you may read the book Qimmeq which is about the Greenland sled dog. On the following pages we have selected a small part of this book for our work. We recommend that you read the text together with the class.
If you want to, you may choose further topics in the book and learn even more about the Greenland sled dog.
Read pages 6-9 aloud to the students.
In class you may talk about:
- What makes the sled dog a special dog?
- What do you know about sled dogs from your own life?
Subsequently the student fill out the page with what they know about sled dogs. They can write text or tell in short sound recordings.
Insertion of sound see instruction 1 here.
At this point the students have learned a lot about sled dogs. To round off they will draw or paint their own sled dog.
The students must imagine that they have a sled dog. If they do in fact have a sled dog, this exercise can be adjusted so that they tell about their real sled dog.
When the drawing is finished, it is inserted in the book.
In class you can talk about:
- What the sled dog is called.
- How the relationship to the dog is.
- What to keep in mind when close to a sled dog.
- How a sled dog differs from a family dog.
In class you can talk about:
- How to take care of a sled dog.
- What a sled dog eats.
- Where a sled dog lives.
Insertion of pictures see instruction 2 here.
The students present their visual stories to the class.
Make sure that the framework for feedback is positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing what is good – and what might be done better.
Not specifically with a view to making new visual stories, but rather to let students discover and work with such constructive and positive criticism.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre, it might make sense to save the students’ Book Creator book and dog sledge so that they may be used again.
If you want the students to make use of the feedback from the class, you could reserve time for further work with the visual stories.
The podcast The Dog Lot has been created for the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat by Katrine Nyland.
Graphics were produced by Oncotype.
Teaching material for the podcast has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann from Anholt Læringsværksted with feedback from Leg med It.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed as part of the project Nutaaliorta from Kivitsisa. The template was designed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed and Daniella Manuel, Leg med It.
The teaching material The Dog Log is published under a Creative Commons crediting licens CC:BY.
The Qimmeq project has been developed by Ilisimatusarfik and the University of Copenhagen. The children’s non-fiction book “Qimmeq – kalaallit qimmiat qimuttoq – the Greenland sled dog” was produced by Anne Katrine Gjerløff, Ilisimatusarfik and the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Dog Lot by the Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
