Teacher’s Brain

Bring March Madness Fun Into The Classroom

March is officially upon us and that means March Madness has begun! March Madness is a yearly NCAA Division I basketball tournament. It takes place every year from the middle of March to the beginning of April. 

68 college basketball teams play against each other for the chance to win the spot as the year’s National Champion. Needless to say, it’s pretty exciting! 

March Madness pin image

Even for people who aren’t usually basketball fans, this time of year can still be fun. Everyone chooses their teams and predicts who they think will win. It’s also so fun to watch the games with family and friends. 

Given that it is so thrilling for students and teachers alike, I created some resources so that you can easily bring the March Madness fun into the classroom and celebrate while reviewing skills in math, language arts, and STEM.

First up, I wanted to share my March Madness Math and Literacy worksheets. 

March Madness Activities

These basketball-themed worksheets will enhance learning language arts and math skills during March Madness. It includes over 60 worksheets that you can easily print and go. Perfect for using all throughout the tournament!

This resource was designed for kindergarten and first grade students. It even includes some fun games to get your students excited to learn! 

march madness activities

You’ll get answer keys to the activities to make them easy to implement. Check it out here!

The second resource I wanted to share is my March Madness STEM Catapult Challenge! 

march madness stem activities

This hands-on STEM challenge is guaranteed to get your students engaged! Students will build a hoop and catapult to launch their “basketball”. This resource is great for learning about basketball and levers. 

This resource includes 3 days of plans and is perfect for kindergarten, first grade, or second grade students. It comes with 30 printables, 2 posters, print and go plans, answer keys, rubrics, and a journal. Everything you need! You can add your own materials or use the premade version. 

march madness stem activities

Check it out here! 

I hope you love these basketball-themed activities! What’s your favorite part of March Madness? Let me know in the comments!

 

Everything You Need To Survive Teaching Kindergarten

It’s time to start preparing for the next school year! If you are a kindergarten teacher and you are ready to get ahead of the game this year and stop the lesson plan scramble once and for all, I have you covered.  

I created a bundle that has everything you could possibly need to survive teaching kindergarten! You’ll get engaging activities to do with your students for every subject. 

kindergarten

Here are the subjects included in this kindergarten bundle: 

  • Monthly Writing Themed Journals
  • Morning Work Journals
  • Kindergarten Math Centers
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Guided Reading

Reading Curriculum

kindergarten

Teach students to read with these activities, lesson plans, and assessments over phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Your students will be confident in their reading by the end of the year. 

Math Centers

kindergarten

Who doesn’t love math centers? In this resource you’ll get tons of math centers that cover counting, numbers, sorting and classifying, addition within 5, measurement and data, word problems, graphs and data, 2D and 3D shapes, teen numbers, comparing numbers, addition to 10, subtraction to 10, telling time, and money. Every kindergarten math topic is included at a center with task cards or worksheets to use with manipulatives.   

Science Activities

kindergarten

Teach your students the wonders of science with these fun lesson plans, activities, and assessments! Topics covered include the scientific method, five senses, state of matter, energy, sound, and light, force and motion, push and pull, day and night, animal life science, plants, real vs. make-believe, weather, and sun, moon, and earth. 

Social Studies 

Teach students about American history, geography, community helpers, civics and government, money, and needs vs. wants with these lesson plans, activities, and assessments. 

Kindergarten Writing Prompts

Get your students comfortable with writing with a full year’s worth of writing journals. You’ll get one journal for each month with writing prompts for each day. Never search for a grade-appropriate writing prompt again! As a bonus, you’ll also get my silly story starters!

Kindergarten Morning Work

Create a class routine and simplify your mornings with morning work activities. In this bundle, you will get morning work for each day of the school year. Activities included are letters, numbers, math, sight words, and more! 

This bundle truly has everything you need. All that is left for you to do is teach. Your students will love these fun and engaging activities and they will be meeting standards with ease. 

Check it out here! 

Want more kindergarten tips? Check out my post on how to have a stellar first day of kindergarten here!


 

How To Set Up A Math Cafe

Kindergarten Math Cafe

Looking for a NEW way to engage your students in learning math at the beginning of the year? Creating a Math Cafe or Math “Salad Bar” is a great way to hit target skills, engage the students, and free you up to monitor learning. You can use the “recipe” cards as task cards, set up a cafe in your room, or just use the printables in small or whole groups.

math centers

What is a Math Café?

I like to keep all of my math manipulatives in one place, and hold students responsible for cleaning up after their activity. You can make your Math Café out of a bookcase or a rolling cart.

 A student pulls out the manipulative cart (Café). Students choose a recipe card (task card – with the material list, number of people who can participate in the math activity and directions), choose their partners if required, fill their tray with materials, do the activity anywhere in the room, and easily clean up by using a tray to hold their materials. 

You float around and take notes. One task card is labeled “Teacher’s Group.” This can be used when you see a student needs extra help with a concept. They will sit with you to review the concept, if you give them the card. There are also ipad, computer and blank recipe cards.

My Math Cafe Kindergarten Math Centers resource will give you everything you need for your own Math Cafe. 

This resource focuses on counting and cardinality numbers 1-5. 

math centers

Here’s a look at what you’ll get: 

  •  Standards
  • Unit 1 Counting and Cardinality with Numbers to 5 Directions, Suggestions, and Links
  • Materials List Needed for Activities
  • Task Cards (“Recipe Cards”) 1 Blank, 1 Teacher Station, 1 Computer Station, 1 ipad Station
  • Trace Write Draw Activity
  •  Read and Roll Card with Printable
  • Spin and Color the Fish
  • Spin ROLL Doh WRITE
  •  RACE CAR Game
  • Race and Roll to the TOP
  • Cover It –Spin a Number
  • Roll and Color a Picture
  • Number Order (count on from a given number)
  • Trace the Numbers (using sheet pan, magnetic numbers)
  •  Roll and Color (5 Frame)
  • Roll and Build a Cube Tower
  • Bowling with Markers
  • Roll and color the Bugs
  • Roll and Cover Caterpillar (with pom poms)
  • Race and Roll to the Top with Number Words
  • Count and Color the Number
  • Color by Number (Roll a die.)
  • Assessment Numbers 1-5
  • Small Posters for Touch Math Numbers 1-9
  •  Posters for Numbers 1-20 with Ten Frames
  •  Rules Sign
  • Math Café Sign
  • Recording Data Sheet for Teacher
  • Pictures of Set Up

 

Here is a helpful video about how to set up a Math Cafe or Math Salad Bar for math centers in your kindergarten classroom! 

 

 

If you love this bundle, you’ll also love my Math Centers Yearlong Bundle! It includes 14 units along with the Math Cafe bundle above to keep your students engaged with fun math centers for the entire school year.

math centers

math centers

For more Kindergarten math center fun, check out this post here! 

How do you like to make your math centers more engaging? Let me know in the comments!