March (book) Madness

I am not as into basketball as I used to be. The past few years, I’ve seen brackets for everything from Disney movies to cereal flavors. And I participate in them! Once got into a heated discussion over R&B groups (#TeamBoyzIIMen), but I”ll post about that another time. The point of THIS post is to say that Kinders don’t know much about brackets and March Madness. So on the list of things I HAVE to teach them, this is a nice thing I GET to teach.

I LOVE March Book Madness. What a creative way to introduce children to books they may never look at for themselves! The diversity! The inclusion! The excitement of “pay attention because you have to vote on a favorite”!
Then we get to talk about voting. Everyone gets ONE vote. They write their name on their ballot (sticky note) and the title of the book they want to vote for. We tally the votes and declare a winner. The winner moves on to the next spot on the bracket.
THEN the fun begins. “Why do I have to vote between two of my favorites!” “Why did no one else vote for the book I voted for?” “Can you read Stroller Coaster again?”
THEN we compare brackets with other Kindergarten classrooms at different schools. My Penguin friends are thrilled to learn what other kids think, and what they have in common with kids they don’t get to see.
The Winning book will be purchased for our classroom, and we will date it and all sign it as the winning book for 2022. They are very excited about signing a book.

I love to read. I love books. And I love getting tiny humans excited about books. And reading.

The end.