It’s the time of year again. It’s March! While Pi Day and St. Patrick’s Day are almost here, what has me most excited is the upcoming basketball season! I’ll be rooting for my favorite team from South Bend, of course, and for lots of good games, some buzzer-beater shots for the win, and an underdog Cinderella team to cheer on.
Some people are surprised that I consider this a most wonderful time of the year, given that I’m just 5 feet tall, but we adore the college basketball, especially in March, and enjoy fun basketball-themed food and drinks, including this chocolate peanut butter basketball cake.
This yummy cake is a slam dunk with even those who don’t love basketball. Here’s the recipe:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Basketball Cake
Cake
Ingredients
While the cake bakes, make the filling.
Filling:
Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
8-9 tablespoons whole or low-fat milk
Frost cake with your favorite kind of frosting. I used orange-colored buttercream. (You can also make this with your favorite brand of box chocolate cake mix and icing.)
If I don’t get a good amount of sleep, I have a headache the next day. With games running late into the night and trying to keep up with everything else in life, there isn’t a lot of rest during tournament time. It’s also possible that I turned my ankle last year as the result of excessive celebration, and my husband’s back wasn’t thrilled that he sat in the same position too long. Having Advil on hand means we’re prepared for anything. You can find an Advil coupon here.
Given that this is chocolate peanut butter cake is a rich dessert and we’ll be indulging in some other fun foods, I also grabbed some Nexium 24HR. Click here for a Nexium coupon, but also be sure to ask a doctor before use if you have a history of stomach problems, such as heartburn.
You can see how other people are #GameforBasketball here. What is your favorite part of March basketball season?
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Use Team Location to Learn Geography
Get out the U.S. map or an atlas, and find the location of the schools. You may have to look the schools up first because, well, not everyone knows where Davidson and Hampton are located. (Hint: Davidson is in Davidson, North Carolina and Hampton is in Hampton, Virginia.) You can adjust based on your kids’ school level, sticking with just finding the home states of New Mexico State or North Dakota State. Kids working on map skills can work on using coordinates to locate cities in which the colleges are located.
The Tournament Offers Lots of Math Practice
When watching a game, you can practice greater than/less than using the score. Learn fractions talking about the quarters of the game, or the half court line (any over and back calls?) Talk about odds and probability with brackets.
For older kids, the NCAA tournament is a great chance to introduce and practice calculating percentages. Here’s a lesson on calculating the percent of shots made. Free throws are a good way to do this, as often the announcer will say how many free throws a player has made of ones taken in a game, or they will show the player’s free throw percentage on the screen.
Mascots Can Be a Great Way to Learn about Habitats
Have kids research some of the mascots and their connections to the schools. Why is Maryland’s mascot the terrapins? (Hint: You can read why, and why the diamondback terrapin is the state animal, here.) Why is Arkansas the Razorbacks? (Hint: Razorbacks are native to the Arkansas wilderness, according to the university’s website.) And I admit that I didn’t know that there were piney woods in East Texas until reading about why Stephen F. Austin has the lumberjacks as its mascot.
Get Moving for Physical Education
Yes, this may seem obvious, but in addition to getting outside and playing some basketball yourself, it’s possible to make watching games – usually a sedentary activity – more active. Have your little (or big) viewers do as many jumping jacks as point a team has scored, see who can do the most sit ups during a time out, or watch a commercial break in defensive stance.
Prior post: As a life coach Cookie Monster offers great advice for moms and kids
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