Battle of the Books - March Madness Style

 

Our wonderful librarian has put together a really fun way to expose our elementary kiddos to a lot of different books.  We got an email last week requesting 1 or 2 book titles that we have used in our classrooms, read to our own children, or loved while children ourselves! Then she pitted each book against another in a March Madness-style bracket.   

I think this is so cool!  

She knew we wouldn't have all of these titles in our own libraries, so she found YouTube links for each book and shared them with us.  She even developed a schedule of each round to keep us all on track.  Every couple of days, we read two books to our class and then vote on them.  The book with the most votes in the K-3 elementary, moves on to the next round.

Round 1

The Gruffalo vs.  No Matter What

Round 2

The Story of Ferdinand vs. Too Many Toys

Round 3

Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type vs. Arthur's Eyes

Round 4

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? vs. Little Blue Truck

Round 5

Dragons Love Tacos vs. Jubal's Wish

Round 6

The Book With No Pictures vs. Railroad John and the Red Rock Run

Round 7

Press Here vs. Pete the Cat's Rocking in My School Shoes

Round 8

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie vs. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

  

I know which ones I would pick to go all the way........

~Stacy

Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks A-MA-ZING!!!!

 About two years ago, my partner teacher and I attended the Raising Student Achievement Conference in St. Charles, IL.  While there, we met an amazing couple who runs the incredible company Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks.  They are Jane and John Felling.  They are both educators who have dedicated their lives to making learning fun, engaging and successful. 

 

 

 

These two tirelessly present and demonstrate their amazing products, which consist mainly of dice and dominoes, all over the continent and will even come to your school to work with your students.  Now that is a salesman!

 

They are also incredibly generous!  During their presentations, they provide you with copies of a few of their games.  I wanted to share these with you.  Please note: the downloads I am sharing with you today are not my property.  They are copies of what they have posted on their website free for download.  Click on the image below for your own copy!  Simply print out on different colored paper and laminate for durability.

 

 

 

The great thing about these games, all you need is several sets of dominoes.  Box Cars sells the dominoes at their site, and even mesh baggies to store them in!  They offer several colors so you can easily keep sets organized.  Always pair students up with different colored sets, so in case the doms get mixed up they're easy to separate!

 

 

 

Because it would be too hard for me to explain how to play each of the games I have included in the freebie packet, I am going to send you to the Box Cars site for video posts by consultant Suzanne Weider.  When you go to the main page, scroll down to "Back to School Learning Links".  Click on the image and the appropriate links to take you to videos of how to play the games.

I use many of the games they offer in my classroom on a weekly basis.  They're great for review, assessments, and even time-fillers.  My kids LOVE getting out the dominoes. 

This game is called March Madness.  This page isn't part of my freebie download because it's just a simple basketball court diagram that I Googled.  Here's how you play it: group students into three's, give them one play mat and one set of dominoes.  One student is "Home", the other is "Visitor" and the third is the referee.  The ref tosses the domino into the air. (like a jump ball)  The first player to shout out the sum of the pips gets two points.  The ref makes the call on who is first.  If there is a tie, the ref leaves the "ball" on the court and does another "jump ball".  The winner of that gets both dominoes and four points.  When all the dominoes are gone, the students count up their points (by two's) and the winner is the player with the most points.  They play again, but change up the titles.
This game can also be played with a football theme. (just find a football field diagram)  I call mine Monday Night Football!

Some other time, I'll share some of their dice games and even their literacy products.  YES, even literacy!  But now it's time to scoot out of here and enjoy my weekend!

~Stacy