It’s time to start thinking about getting your March Madness Book Bracket started! This year I am doing a fiction vs. non-fiction book challenge with my third graders. 
I have created a 27 page PDF including a bulletin board title “2017 March Madness Book Bracket”, place holders for Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, 2 championship games, the 2017 Best Book winner, and a few blank bracket options. I also created a black and white options for educators that don’t have access to a color printer. Get your 2017 March Madness Bracket packet here.
Here are the 16 books I have chosen to do with my students. I have selected 8 fiction books and 8 non-fiction books. I decided to choose books that I already own or that are easily bought from Scholastic.
Fiction:
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot
I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion
Non-Fiction:
Who Would Win: Ultimate Bug Rumble
The Magic School Bus – Lost in the Solar System
Titanic
You can pick any books that you would like. Enjoy!
Do you read aloud the books and then have them vote? Do you have specific criteria?
Most of the books I read aloud to the entire class and I try to incorporate a lesson to go along with the book. Then some of the books are assigned as small group book studies. By voting time, all of the students in my classroom have read all of the books on our list. Then as we vote and get closer to the winner, we recap and do summary or compare and contrast lessons on the books to help hit some of our Common Core Standards.