March Book Madness

During the last four weeks, students in Mrs. Bentley’s fourth grade class have been working on something special during their reading block! It was March Book Madness, and students worked their way through a bracket of books to narrow it down from sixteen contestants to one final winner. Students were excited by the book bracket in the hallway and would often want to go look at it throughout this process! The class started with an introduction of the Sweet 16 books with a Google Slide displaying the cover as Mrs. Bentley read aloud a brief paragraph summarizing each book. Students voted and narrowed it down to the Elite 8. Students were then split into groups where they read the book assigned to them and completed their own Google Slides presentation to share with the class. After narrowing it down to the Final 4, Mrs. Bentley read the books to the class and students completed a book review for each. Then there was a vote to determine the final match, which was Rescue and Jessica by Jessica Downes and Patrick Henkes versus Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick – both true and heartwarming stories. These two books the students chose over all the others truly goes to show how thoughtful and compassionate these kids are. The class then reread the books and students chose a character to analyze deeper through the character’s words, thoughts, actions, and character traits. Then students completed a March Book Madness opinion organizer before making their final vote. The class’ big winner was Finding Winnie! #WeAreRSU18