March Madness could be one of my favorite times of the year! I am a HUGE fan of college basketball, especially my Butler Bulldogs! Because of my love for this wonderful month, I worked very hard this year to incorporate it into my classroom at school. I have a a solid group of students who have gotten into it this year because of the excitement I have built up around it!
I have compiled a list of how I incorporate NCAA March Madness into my classroom. Most of these ideas can work in other grade levels other than 5th!
The classic March Madness fun, filling out a bracket! The Monday after Selection Sunday, we took 15 minutes before loading busses learning how to fill out a bracket. The students had until Thursday morning to turn in their finished brackets. They took them home and finished them, no time during school except during breakfast.
With the completed brackets, we made a little friendly competition with it. After each night of games I would check (and still checking) their brackets to see how many wins they predicted correctly. I also kept track of the wins on a poster sized bracket! My kids loved coming into the room and going to check who won the day/night before.
I kept track of the number of correct games on my back blackboard of my classroom. After every day of games I would write another column so they could see how many games they got right. The winner, who gets the most games correct, gets a special prize, that I am not disclosing yet, and that is KILLING my kids. (Insert teacher laugh here!) They want to know so bad. These pictures are from the first round, the scores are much closer toward the end, we'll see who wins!
I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but I LOVE watching college basketball. As a proud alumni, Butler basketball is my favorite and they made it into the tournament this year and played at 12:40 on Thursday, right smack in the middle of our day! I am so lucky with who I have as my administration because they allowed me to watch the game! Don't worry, my kids had a wonderful activity to do as they watched the game thanks to Kristine Nannini over at Young Teacher Love and her March Madness Math Pack!
We cheered the Dawgs to victory! I love showing my students how they can use their math skills they are learning in fifth grade in the real world!
The final way I incorporate March Madness into my class is through math centers. I have created 4 different stations that are all basketball themed just to bring the excitement into math! They were a huge success with my kids and they loved when they had the chance to do these centers! Something as easy as a math station can bring the March Madness into your classroom!
Here are all of the products listed above!
I know we are coming to the end of the tournament and March Madness will be over soon, but take from this whatever you can, and prepare for next year! :) That's the beauty of March Madness, it comes around every year. :)
PERSONAL: This is a picture of Butler Blue 2 from when I was lucky enough to go to the National Championship in 2011 when Butler went. I love reliving these amazing memories I was able to make!
What did your students do while watching the game? What were they tracking? I'm planning to start a March Madness unit when we return from Spring Break!
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