I love college sports so I cannot help but fall in love with this time
of year!! In Spain March Madness doesn't exist, which breaks my math
teacher heart. Why, you may ask? Because March Madness is the BEST time
to teach/review/explore fractions, decimals, and percents!! Last year I
used
Miss Nannini's March Madness packet and absolutely fell in love.
It's so simple to use. I started off by having my students fill in their
own
brackets. I took the time to explain step-by-step how they should be filled in. Even students
without any basketball knowledge can do this.
Next, we took blank brackets to
school administrators and convinced them to fill one in for us! Even the
gym teacher and our principal got involved! We posted their brackets on the bulletin board in the hallway so the whole school could follow.
Using the brackets, we had
fun completing Miss Nannini's unit- but we even took it a step further. As
the tournament went on we kept track of our predictions. For each game
guessed correctly in the first round, students got 2 points (you can go
higher to make the numbers more challenging- as long as you stick to the
same numbers for everyone), 4 points for the second round, 8 points for
the third round, etc... Every few days we would update our brackets and
see who was in the "lead". This made the unit feel more purposeful
because they wanted to see the likelihood of winning as the class "best
guesser".
If you're interested in some more ways to celebrate March Madness, one
of my favorites is what I call Math Madness! It's a super easy
review/practice game but students LOVE to play it. All you need is a
microphone (aka anything that you can hold and pretend to speak into), a
review sheet, and Jock Jams Instrumental. That's right- think Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan rockin' out.
And of course, you need your best game show
persona. I become
Math Mama and use my best game show voice. (Welcome to
Math Madness!! Mrs. Jamie, come on down!!!) I introduce the game and
explain the rules:
1) Everyone must participate
2) There is the be no
speaking
3) Don't work ahead- if you're using a review sheet
4) You may stand
up and dance silently when, and only when, you have completed your work.
- This strategy works best if you allow a little extra "dance time"
after each problem. Otherwise mathaticians rush right through their
work.
Then, write a problem on the board. If using a review sheet, just write a
problem from the page. Powerpoints work well too-
if you're one of those uber prepared type of people (not me usually!). I
love to have the music quietly playing as students walk into the classroom or at the start of math. One person
hears it and it builds the excitement and they get so excited over math!
Ha.
I keep the music quiet throughout the game so it doesn't become
distracting, but it definitely makes it all more fun. One student comes
up to the board to solve a problem. While they do the work, other students
check their work by solving the problem themselves. While they all work, I walk
around and check their work. This also gives me time to work briefly
one-on-one with students and provides great anecdotals! When a student finishes their problem, they may stand behind their chair and dance silently! When everyone is ready to discuss, we stop dancing and we check the students work and discuss the answer. When they
finish, I say, "Mrs. Jamie, you are now the proud owner of a
fresh-off-the-press, handwritten, check!!" And we all clap and they join
their classmates and the game goes on. I keep track of who I call up to
the front so everyone gets a turn (even if it's not all that day). This is great to play right before a
big test because you get time to review and discuss problems but it also
gives their brain a little break from the book work!
Looking for some March Madness literacy fun?! I cannot wait to use this idea from
The Brown Bag Teacher next year!! So adorable :)
Do you celebrate March Madness in your classroom at all? What do you do?
And don't forget to stop by this weekend to participate in our giveaway!!
First separate your class into 2-4 groups. Have each group stand in a line in front of your whiteboard {or chalkboard!}. Write a word on the board in front of each line. Then, the first student in the line of each group must use the last letter of the word to write a new word below it. So if the first word is Beautiful, the next word must start with "L". Then the marker is passed back to the next student and they write a word. If I were to incorporate this game into a traditional classroom, I would have students use only nouns, or only verbs, or words that are 7 letters or longer, or only words that begin with a prefix. I keep a word wall nearby to support my ESL kiddos, but many don't even look that way. Allow students to continue the relay for 2 minutes. {That's more than enough time!}
