March Book Madness

Are you gearing up for some March Madness? What about March Book Madness? My students are so absolutely pumped up about participating in this year's March Book Madness. Last year, I created my own March Madness spin-off and it was pretty easy to put together but I had to create all the brackets, voting forms, etc. This year, after attending Nerd Camp (Michigan), I decided to join the global March Book Madness started by two teachers (Tony and Scott) from Ohio. My fellow Buckeyes have made jumping into a tournament of books so easy!

They've literally done all the work for us! Thanks guys! There is a link of tips (for newbies) and the books and brackets are already completed! Plus, they've linked loads of book trailers and also have a map so kids can see all the schools participating! My students have been watching trailers and reading some unfamiliar titles so that they're ready to fill out their middle grade brackets next week. We'll then need to make some tough first round decisions! There are also brackets for picture books and YA titles. I may actually give my students the picture book list on the back because we've read so many!

I started creating my bracket today after school but... I ran out of tape. #teacherfail. Thankful for Amazon! I'm hoping to get it finished up next week so that we can start moving our books toward the final match-up and get our reading game on!

If you're looking for a cute display The Brown Bag Teacher (Catherine Reed) has a Book Madness Freebie in her TPT store! I just printed mine at FedEx Office and laminated! I also used Scotch expressions colored masking tape to make my straight (or almost straight) bracket lines. A trick, is to use push-pins on the books so you can easily move them around!

Happy Reading,

Reading Resolutions & March Book Madness

I decided to spend some time our first day back celebrating all our reading this year! I also know that many students were having some trouble deciding what to read next as our Mock Newbery Book Club is coming to an end. I thought, it was time to start talking up March Book Madness so that they can read the books in this year's bracket. I learned about March Book Madness at Nerd Camp Michigan this summer and I knew I wanted to participate! Visit the official Weebly {here} for all the details on the Middle Grade bracket. There are also brackets for picture books and YA. This year's theme is "New Classics."

If you'd like to save a copy of my Google Slides Presentation you can grab it {here}. Just make a copy to edit! I also did slide at the end for some goal setting in 2017. Gave my students some tips on setting goals and I also included my reading goals for 2017!

Hope it can help you out!