March is the perfect time to bring some excitement into your elementary Spanish class with a March Madness music bracket! If you’re teaching little learners in PreK to 1st grade, this is a fantastic way to introduce them to new vocabulary, keep them engaged, and build classroom community through the magic of music.
This version of March Madness is short, sweet, and filled with animals! Each week or class, students listen to two animal themed songs in Spanish and vote on their favorite. The winner moves on until the class picks la canción favorita!
This idea was inspired by a conversation with my friend and collaborator Carolina Gómez.
Carolina created an animal-themed bracket for upper elementary students this month inside the Elementary Profes Club, and that motivated me to create a simplified version for our young learners. Whether you’re teaching PreK or 5th grade, there’s a way to bring the joy of music brackets into your classroom!
This is our inicial classroom bracket:
f you’re working with 2nd grade and up, you’ll definitely want to check out Batalla de Juegos. A super engaging way to bring games and friendly competition into your Spanish class! It’s full of ideas that pair perfectly with a bracket-style format and can help take the experience to the next level for older elementary students.
Why Use Music Brackets with young learners?
- Repetition with joy: Kids love hearing songs over and over, and you’ll be surprised how quickly they start singing along!
- Vocabulary boost: Each song introduces animal names, verbs, and expressions in context.
- Movement + engagement: Songs often include motions or actions that get students up and moving.
- Simple voting = Big excitement: Let students vote with movement or hand signs.
One of the best parts about doing this bracket with little learners is turning voting into a movement activity! After listening to both songs, I invite students to stand up and move to a designated area of the classroom to show which song was their favorite.
Here’s how it works:
- Choose two corners or sides of the room, one for each song.
- After both songs have played, I say something like:
“Si te gusta más Tiburón Bebé, ve a este lado. Si te gusta más Los pollitos dicen, ve al otro lado.” - Students walk, hop, or swim,(like the animal!) to the spot that matches their vote.
Featured Songs for Your Bracket
Here are 8 short, catchy songs that feature animals and are perfect for this age group:
- “Tiburón Bebé” : A classic that never fails! Great for family vocabulary and movement.
- “Un elefante se balanceaba”: Counting and numbers.
- “Los pollitos dicen”: A sweet, traditional lullaby with high frequency words like dicen, tienen hambre tienen frío.
- “Cinco patitos”: Perfect for number practice and animal vocabulary.
- “La araña pequeñita”:A Spanish version of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” that kids already know.
- “Lluvia vete ya: Great for weather words, family and gestures.
- “La vaca Lola” : Body parts
- “Bingo”: A great one for practicing letters and do some movements.
A Moment to Reflect: It’s Okay to Win or Lose
As you move through the bracket and songs get eliminated, it’s the perfect opportunity to have a little talk with your students. Remind them that:
Sometimes our favorite songs win, and sometimes they don’t, and that’s okay!
This is a chance to teach kids that:
- Winning and losing are both part of life.
- What matters most is that we’re having fun, learning new things, and doing it together.
- We celebrate as a class, not just for the winner, but for the joy we shared singing and dancing along the way.
This gentle message builds empathy, and reminds them that the real win is in the experience itself.
Tips for Teaching the Bracket
- Create a visual bracket on your whiteboard or wall using animal icons or song covers.
- Use props to introduce each animal before playing the song.
- Add a movement break after each song to match the animal (e.g., walk like an elephant or swim like a shark).
- Encourage student voice: Let them share why they liked a song (even just with gestures or simple words like me gusta).
I use these visuals around the room when we vote and do an animal movement!
Celebrate!
When your class has voted all the way to the top, celebrate with:
A fun freeze dance using the winning song
A mini dance party
A coloring page featuring the winning animal
A big round of applause for both songs. The winner and the one that didn’t move on.
Whether you’re singing about baby sharks or bouncing elephants, March Madness with animal songs is a playful way to build community, reinforce language, and make every student feel like a star in your classroom.
Our final bracket looks something like this:
I hope you feel inspired to jump in and create your own bracket for your little learners!
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