March Madness: Preschool Edition - Engaging Children with Brackets

March Madness is one of the biggest sporting events of the year.

Hardcore college basketball fans, and even those with only a passing interest in the sport, fill out NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets to win either bragging rights or money. Preschool-aged children, always attuned to the adult world, may even be aware of March Madness as their parents and family might be watching and discussing the games. While we would never introduce gambling into preschool, we can bring the concept and fun of brackets to early education as a way to teach children another way to visualize information. To do a March Madness in an ECE class, pick a topic like favorite book or favorite animal and create a bracket format. Each day, have the children vote on their favorite for each match, and the leading vote-getter moves on to the next round. This can be a fun, long-term project to do with the kids that teaches skills like counting, more than/less than, and mathematical literacy. Below are a few of my former preschool class brackets from over the years.

P.S. I picked St. John's Red Storm to win it all this year.