March Madness Style Game/Activity Ideas in a Classroom?

[Anonymous]

I want to incorporate a bracket style game/activity in my mix-age classroom (7 to 10, but mostly 8 and 9-yos). If you already have done something similar that you like please share.

My biggest issue right now is how to 'seed' the kids without hurting anyone's feelings. But perhaps I needn't use 'top/2nd/3rd' seed label?

[Anonymous]

Um you can't do the kids!! Pick something else they like to seed and rank - like ice cream flavors, foods, pets, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um you can't do the kids!! Pick something else they like to seed and rank - like ice cream flavors, foods, pets, etc

+1!

Or assign seeds randomly - they watch you pull names out of hat - and have them compete in rock paper scissors tournament.

[Anonymous]

Foods.

Conferences = sweets, fruits, salty snacks (chips, goldfish, raisins), meal foods (pizza, cheeseburger)

[Anonymous]

My son's APS elementary does a March Madness bracket every year with favorite classic childhood books. My first grade son is really into it this year!

Don't seed the kids.

[Anonymous]

We usually do this in my middle school, by showing book trailer videos and having kids vote on their favorite choice from each pair up. The books aren't "seeded", it's just Book A vs. Book B on a visual bracket.

Then all the bracketed books are available for checkout from the library.

With an elementary class, you could actually read the 16 books so kids could vote on their favorites and know what they were choosing.

[Anonymous]

+1M don't seed the kids!

Seed books, and have kids vote.

Seed anything. Best animals. Best cereal. Best school lunch. But not the kids!

[Anonymous]

Middle school history teacher has a year long March Madness style bracket for famous Americans. The kids prepare bullet points for one of the two people in competition that week. They present their bullet points and the class votes on which one is the most courageous. The winner advances to the next round. At the end of the year, there is a school wide presentation for the top two Americans and anyone who attends the presentation can vote for their pick.

[Anonymous]

Yep, don't seed the kids. Have them do a voting bracket of something else. For example when I taught music, I did a bracket of funny ways to sing. (Not my original idea.) btw, they voted the best way to sing was every-other-word (drop every other word//it was really funny). Opera style was a close second.

[Anonymous]

What are you trying to teach?

Usually you plan classroom instruction starting with the learning objective, and not the gimmick?

-- Teacher who is all about the gimmick, as a tool to get to the learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school history teacher has a year long March Madness style bracket for famous Americans. The kids prepare bullet points for one of the two people in competition that week. They present their bullet points and the class votes on which one is the most courageous. The winner advances to the next round. At the end of the year, there is a school wide presentation for the top two Americans and anyone who attends the presentation can vote for their pick.

Love this!

[Anonymous]

There are other ways to incorporate college b-ball into math. Depending on the age/grade, this could be total points won by a team or player during the tournament, avg points per game, etc. For geography, where the schools are located...