March is such an exciting time of year! With all the hoopla around the NCAA basketball tournament, it’s a great time to add in a little geography as you and your students jump on the bandwagon and celebrate.
The State of Things
Teachers find it tricky these days to bring fun into the classroom without covering curriculum objectives. With March Madness, you have a few options. You can cover Math, books, or Geography.
March Madness Math
Depending on your grade level, there are many math objectives you can cover. The more you link the activity to the tournament, the more excitement and “buy-in” you will have with your kids! Studies have shown kids learn better & easier when they are having fun.
Here are a few Math ideas for K-2:
- counting by 2’s or 3’s with “trashketball”
- jersey numbers for number ID
- You could have dice battles against other teams, keeping tallies on score
- graph free-throws from one game or round
- final scores place value or even-odd scores
March Madness Book Bracket
No matter what, having a bracket activity on your bulletin board is exciting! Your students can help fill in the large bracket, or you can run smaller ones they can work with partners. There are many free resources on the web you can download, and even more paid resources on TPT. You could have the students vote in your class, grade, or even set up voting as a school.
March Madness Geography
Another idea would be to bring in Geography. Most 1st & 2nd grade Social Studies curriculums include objectives for state recognition, and research of at least your state.
There are many things you can cover in Geography:
- have your students add the state outline to your bracket
- have small groups research elite 8 or final 4 with state atlas
- compete by state for the longest river
- compete by state for biggest city
- let students keep track of winners on a USA map
If you need a done-for-you resource, click on the cover on the left to check one out.
I hope you got an idea or two.
Happy teaching!
