3 March Madness Classroom Activities to Try this Month
March Madness is a fun basketball tournament that many students enjoy watching. Incorporating March Madness classroom activities is a great way to increase student engagement. Try one of these three ideas to add some basketball-themed fun to your lesson plans!
Do a March Madness Tournament
Some of the most popular March Madness classroom activities that I see are tournaments! They don’t require much prep work and they are really fun. The tournament can be a competition of whatever you want – books (like the one pictured above from The Brown Bag Teacher), academic progress (like the iReady one pictured below from Fantastically Fourth Grade), or favorite things such as color, hobby, etc.
Use Basketball-Themed ELA or Math Activities
Include basketball-themed activities in your lesson plans. These March Madness classroom activities review necessary skills and incorporate basketball activities. The literacy center activities that I made for my first graders include important ELA skills like nouns and verbs, syllables, punctuation, vowel sounds, contractions, etc. and a writing component.
You can click on the images above to check out the literacy centers!
Basketball-themed activities are fantastic because your students are still academically challenged while maintaining high engagement. You can even go big and do a room transformation! Click here to explore some room transformation ideas.
Complete a STEM Challenge
STEM challenges are so fun! Incorporate March Madness in your classroom activities by doing a basketball STEM challenge. This challenge from Carly and Adam is fun and would work for a variety of age groups!
STEM activities are always a hit with my students. This will be no different! I would recommend doing this toward the end of the day. Looking for more STEM activities? Teachers are Terrific has some fun ideas, especially the basketball goals one!
I hope these ideas have sparked your creativity for your own classroom!
Want more seasonal activities? Check out these blog posts!
Have a fantastic March!
Hi, I’m Libby!
I’m so happy you’re here! I love all things first grade – the curriculum, the content, and the sweet kiddos. I’m passionate about helping K-2 teachers save time in the classroom with fresh ideas and fun, engaging resources.
