Week 4: Today, I was introduced to the chess club, which now meets on Fridays (during the time which chess occurs in the classroom). I taught the chess club by myself this week, and my friends went to 3 other classes. In the chess club, I went over the chess principles and the basics of an opening I had taught previously, mainly because some of the kids in the club were students I hadn’t taught before. After I reviewed the basics, I introduced the concept of checkmating with a king and queen versus a king. Finally, near the end of the session, I showed how to checkmate on the demonstration board and encouraged the students to try the checkmating technique at home.

Week 5: This week, three of us taught the chess club and my other friend was teaching a second grade classroom. In the chess club, we spent the majority of the time making sure that the children were learning how to checkmate with the king and queen (versus a lone king). This included demonstrating the concept on the board and then having the children practice the technique on their boards. We concluded the class by going over the checkmating pattern on the board and by engaging the students as we practiced the checkmate on the demonstration board.

Pictures to be posted soon!