{"id":24258,"date":"2023-03-02T13:57:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T01:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kamiapp.com\/?p=24258"},"modified":"2023-07-31T12:19:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T00:19:48","slug":"march-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/march-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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321, jump ball! Are you ready to tip off into March Madness?<\/p>\n\n

March Madness is a big part of the American sporting calendar and a chance for people from all over the United States to get behind their team in one of the country\u2019s premier basketball competitions.<\/p>\n\n

You\u2019ll probably be hard-pushed to find many people who don\u2019t know what NCAA March Madness is, especially high school or middle school students, but in case you or any of your students don\u2019t, here\u2019s a quick rundown.<\/p>\n\n

What is March Madness?<\/h4>\n\n

March Madness is the nickname for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, sometimes referred to as the NCAA bracket, which takes place each year in March and April. It generally features 68 college basketball teams from around the US, starting with the eight lowest-ranking teams playing the First Four matches. The winners of those games join the other 60 teams in the main tournament which is divided into four regions of 16 teams each. Each team is seeded and basketball games are played in a bracket format with the winner of each game proceeding to the next round until just one is left standing. In the first proper round, higher seeded teams play against lower-seeded teams as a reward for their high seeding. The first proper rounds usually coincide with St. Patrick\u2019s Day weekend and the Final Four takes place in early April with the eventual winner being crowned national champion of college basketball.<\/p>\n

March Madness classroom activities<\/h4>\n

Get ready for the excitement of March Madness<\/a> with our exclusive templates in the Kami Library!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tournament Template 4 Brackets | March Madness<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tournament Brackets | Large | March Madness<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tournament Template 6 Brackets | March Madness<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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See these and more in the Kami Library.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Although March Madness is a basketball competition, there are plenty of ways to incorporate March Madness activities into non-sports related activities in your classroom at any grade level.<\/p>\n

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Here are some ways to slam-dunk March Madness into your different curriculum areas when you are creating your lesson plans for March and April.<\/p>\n

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Sports<\/h5>\n

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The most obvious way to celebrate March Madness basketball is with your own basketball competition. You could have mini-games between groups in your class, or if you can get the whole year group involved, set up your own tournament with brackets just like the NCAA tournament. Check out our editable tournament bracket templates<\/a> in the Kami Library.<\/p>\n

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If you have keen teachers or parents, then think about setting up a friendly \u201cteachers vs. students\u201d or \u201ckids vs. parents\u201d game.<\/p>\n

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Of course, March Madness games are not limited to basketball. You can use the March Madness bracket system for any competitive sport you\u2019re practicing with your students.<\/p>\n

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For not-so-athletic students (or younger students), you could organize a gentler game like balloon basketball where the aim of the game is to keep a balloon in the air and pass it across the room to score in a basketball hoop (or a trash can) \u2014\u00a0not as easy as it sounds!<\/p>\n

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Math<\/h5>\n

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Themed March Madness math activities are a great way to make practicing math skills fun. You introduce concepts like fractions and percentages, place value, and odds to students. You can get students to calculate each team\u2019s chance of winning depending on a set of statistics or challenge students to pick the results in a bracket and then see how close they get to the actual results. You could also run an alternative competition where you calculate the odds of a team winning based on how students think their mascot would fare against the opposing team\u2019s mascot.<\/p>\n

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English<\/h5>\n

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The tournament bracket competition format can be applied to a whole range of activities.<\/p>\n

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Book madness<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Have your students to some March Madness reading! Create a series of brackets with books you have read in class recently and ask students to vote for a winner, giving their reasons why. You could present the bracket on a bulletin board and hold a vote with your students each lesson.<\/p>\n

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For younger students, you might want to choose book characters or even characters from movies or TV shows to go up against each other.<\/p>\n

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For very young students, you can always create a wordsearch<\/a> with book titles you have read in class.<\/p>\n

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Organize a spelling bee<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Use the bracket format to organize a simple spelling bee for your class. Students can compete in each round until an overall winner is found.<\/p>\n

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You can use the bracket templates in the Kami library to make it easy to keep track of your competition.<\/p>\n

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Social studies<\/h5>\n

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Learn more about St Patrick\u2019s Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The first weekend of real competition in March Madness takes place over St. Patrick\u2019s Day weekend. Devote a class to learning more about St Patrick and the origins of the day. To find out more about St. Patrick\u2019s Day activities, check out our blog<\/a>. Younger students will love the St. Patrick\u2019s Day printables<\/a> in the Kami library.<\/p>\n

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Research a team<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Teams in March Madness come from all over the United States so it\u2019s a good opportunity to learn more about the country. Assign students or groups of students a team to research. They can report on:<\/p>\n

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