🍀🍀🍀🍀 March Madness🍀🍀🍀🍀

     March Madness has always been filled with anticipation for basketball lovers like me! It's the month of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. That means... time to fill out your brackets and watch some quality college basketball. Hopefully, your team makes it to the Sweet Sixteen, Elite 8 and then the Final Four.  If you're a basketball fan like me, March and early April can be exciting or heart wrenching depending how your team plays, of course! 

     Some years you have a few super stars that come in and lead the way or never really become part of the team because they are off to the pros so fast.  Other years, you have players that have been with the team for four years. You've watched them mature and become great players and leaders along the way.  They might not be future pros, but they play with heart and they make a great team. Personally, I love this scenario because you get to know the players and of course, teachers are all about building relationships!  

     Once I started teaching, I still looked forward to the basketball tournament, but in the classroom, "March Madness" took on new meaning. In my teacher life, it meant:  finishing projects, updating data notebooks, getting grades into your grade book, filling out report cards, preparing for conferences, realizing how much curriculum I still have to cover and often state testing dates were thrown in there somewhere...PHEW!!!  There have been years when I thought I would never make it to spring break, but somehow, I always did!

     I can't help but notice the similarities of March Madness for college basketball and my classroom full of fourth graders.

• Both have achieved so much to get to March but there are so many more goals to accomplish before the end of the season/school year.

• The team or classroom dynamics are different every year but they both need to work together to succeed.

• Leadership is important to be successful on a team or in the classroom.  Whether you are a teacher, a basketball player or a student, everyone needs to find the leader within themselves to achieve goals.

• Building positive relationships and community will help you go farther on a team, in school and in life.

     As hectic as March can be, I always like to take time to build community within my classroom.  Taking well deserved breaks or "a breather" from the daily routine, standardized tests, final projects, gathering data and reflecting before conferences is important. Sometimes kids just need to be kids and have some good old-fashioned fun.

     St. Patrick's Day is the perfect time in March to do just that! Set aside a Friday afternoon to do some community building.  It's always a good time to encourage team work and have some fun with each other. 

     STEM activities are always great for encouraging teamwork. leadership and a feeling of accomplishment for everyone involved.  The FREE Leprechaun Trap STEM activity is a fun way to give your kids a much needed break. They can work with a partner or individually to build their trap.  

First, they will learn a little about leprechauns to help with their design.

Next, they will make their leprechaun and build a trap. 

To make a leprechaun, they will have to do a little math.





Finally, they will write about their Three Wishes once they catch their leprechaun!

Click here to grab your freebie! 

If you like this St. Patrick's Day activity, you may want to extend your celebration!

Click to check out the St. Patrick's Day Minute to Win It! Challenge!

Have fun rejuvenating your classroom community at a very busy time of the year! It will be worth it. Everyone will go away smiling!

Visit my blog for more ideas and resources to make your teaching life easier!

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