Coach Information - Traditional BOB

Budget $ for BOB

• Plan in cooperation with the MTAC or administrator where funding will come from

• Typical expenses:

  • NCSLMA membership (required for participation),

  • books,

  • bus and driver (only for Teams in the finals),

  • lunches (only for Teams in the finals),

  • question subscription (provided by LMS Dept for 2025-26)

“Buddy Up” with another school already doing BOB

• Observe a practice or get tips from an experienced coach

  • SLMC Directory

• Practice together in-person or virtually

Involve other teachers

• Use the books as class read-alouds

• Get help recruiting students or coaching

Determine when you can practice

• Before school, during lunch, and after school are common meeting options

Create questions

• Read the books and write your own practice questions

• Make question writing a group activity

Ensure all students understand the rules and expectations.

• Good sportsmanship

• Appropriate times to talk/communicate

  • conferring only after name is said a second time

  • understand that communication is verbal and non-verbal and what judges will look and listen for

• How they sit and where they should be looking during their rounds

Ensure all of the students memorize the authors and titles.

• Use the author pronunciation guide to help students with author names

• Find videos of the author saying their name or being introduced

• Decide on a consistent pronunciation

Practice the timing and the structure of rounds.

• Timing of questions (20 seconds for questions, 10 seconds for rebounds)

• Use a timer/stopwatch regularly during practices

• Students should not see the timer

Make and practice with name tents (if competing in Finals only).

• Names should only be showing when it is the student's turn to answer

Set up a scrimmage with another team.

Have an assembly for classes or a showcase for parents so students have the experience of competing in front of other people. 

Example videos:

• virtual scrimmage

• live competition

Read the books yourself and be excited about them!

Advertise in newsletters, flyers, on bookmarks, TV/PA announcements.

• Involve students from the previous year’s team in recruiting

Set goals for reading the books and award students (small) prizes as they reach milestones.

Use graphic organizers to help students compare the books.

Have students write practice questions.

Use Kahoot or other games to practice author/titles.

Create experiences to help students connect to the books (food tastings, virtual field trips, etc).

Have a kick-off party for students to get to know each other.

Have a BOB family night to let students share what BOB is and what they are doing with families.

Have students choose a a team name.

Develop a team cheer.

Design and make team t-shirts instead of buying them.

Schedule scrimmages with other schools.

Have a BOB showcase for younger grades so the team can show off what they know (and get students excited about joining when they are older!).