March Madness winners

Congratulations to Miss Kent’s Fourth Grade class who took home the trophy for the March Madness attendance tournament!

During the month of March, Upper Elementary homeroom classes competed in a fun March Madness competition.

Principal, Trevor Haskell, said one of his main goals this school year was to improve attendance for students and staff. “Attendance across the state and really across the country is a problem for students,” said Haskell.

To get them excited to come back to school everyday, he decided to do March Madness brackets. The bracket was the first thing students saw when they walked through the front doors of the Upper Elementary School. Haskell and the school’s guidance counselors narrowed down the top four homerooms from the school year. Each day, he would pose a question over the morning announcements. “It was as simple as would you rather play in the snow or the sand?" Teachers would then record the number of students who answered the question. The class  who had the most answers at the end of the week, advanced to the next round.

“It’s competitive because the kids are all encouraging each other in the classroom that they have to get to school, and it also helps our students who sometimes don’t want to come to school,” said Haskell. The fun competition, worked. “I would say our attendance for the month of March has been our highest attendance with over 90% of the kids here.”

Haskell says this is much more than trying to get students to show up to class. “When they come to school they’re getting fed, they’re here learning, happy with their friends, learning social skills, coping skills, so it’s not just all about the academic piece.” Haskell is coming up with new ideas every month to get students more motivated to learn. 

The winner of the tournament had an ice cream party, and an extra recess.