March 19

Learning the art of Chess

This term we have been fortunate to have Chess expert Alan Goldsmith from Knights & Bytes teaching us all about the game of Chess. He has been teaching Grange kids and staff the skills of how to think logically and strategically  in order to capture the opponent’s King for many years.

Alan taught us about each piece and how to move each piece. We also needed to know how much they were worth if we captured one.

While we knew the information, winning a game is about careful thinking, planning and strategy! We found out it is important to think about the opponents next possible moves. We gave it a go.

 

Alan taught us to read the board as if it was a map and we could move pieces according to their position. for example Q to F4.

Did you know you need to do CPR in chess? That means if you hear that your King is in Check there are three things you should do.

  • C – Capture Can you capture any piece? If you can, then do that and the King is safe, if not then…
  • – Protect Move a piece in to protect the King, if you can, then the King is safe, if not then…
  • – Run The King needs to flee to safety!

Chess is all about protecting the King.

 

But if you want to do some extra chess playing go to www.chesstempo.com that is a site that will teach you exciting strategies.

If you really want to get into more chess then checkout  www.knightsandbytes.com.au   Alan has a host of chess information and activities available for you to peruse.

Next term we are having a chess tournament to find the top players in year three. Will it be you?  Start practicing.

What have you learnt about Chess?

What would you still like to know?

Do you think playing chess is a useful activity? Why, Why not?

April 6

Chess with Alan

sport-graphics-chess-196681

This term we have been fortunate to have Chess expert Alan Goldsmith from Knights & Bytes teaching us all about the game of Chess. He has been teaching Grange kids and staff the skills of how to think logically and strategically  in order to capture the opponents King for many years.

IMG_0148IMG_0149

We have had to learn how to set up the board, always making sure we place the correct Queen on her colour.IMG_0152

Alan taught us about each piece and how to move each piece. We also needed to know how much they were worth if we captured one.IMG_0240While we knew the information, winning a game is about careful thinking, planning and strategy! We found out it is important to think about the opponents next possible moves. We gave it a go.

Alan taught us to read the board as if it was a map and we could move pieces according to their position. for example Q to F4.

IMG_0226

Did you know you need to do CPR in chess? That means if you hear that your King is in Check there are three things you should do.

  • CCapture Can you capture any piece? If you can, then do that and the King is safe, if not then…
  • P – Protect Move a piece in to protect the King, if you can, then the King is safe, if not then…
  • R – Run The King needs to flee to safety!

Chess is all about protecting the King.

Later this term Alan will put our class on chess kids.com

But if you want to do some extra chess playing go to www.chesstempo.com that is a site that will teach you exciting strategies.

gmlogo If you really want to get into more chess then checkout  www.knightsandbytes.com.au   Alan has a host of chess information and activities available for you to peruse.

Next term we are having a chess tournament to find the top players in year three. Will it be you?  Start practicing.

What have you learnt about Chess?

What would you still like to know?

Do you think playing chess is a useful activity? Why, Why not?

 

September 20

Congratulations

DSC08556We are proud of our four students who put their Space Board Game into The Sir Mark Oliphant Science awards. Last Thursday night they attended an awards night at Grange School and were presented with a certificate and a fabulous medal for their participation. Congratulations for your efforts Emilia, Kate, Tia and Alicia, you look so proud. Science needs enterprising thinkers like you.

The board games are now on their way home I hope you all enjoy playing them with your families.

What do your families think of playing your games?

Were they able to answer any of your questions?

July 20

Board Games

Last term during our science investigations on Day and Night, students chose to either research in depth The Sun or The Moon. Armed with this new learning I asked each child to design a board game that would teach people about their topic.

We began by playing some games and brainstorming what we thought games had.

We began by playing some games and brainstorming what we thought games had.

Then we listed things that made a game fun to play.

Designing and making the pathways on our board game was fun.

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Even though we made the games independently, we still needed to work together to share information and equipment.

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We needed a  lot of mathematics, numeracy and literacy skills for our science activity.

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After designing our own pathways we needed to create questions to ask using the Question Matrix.

After designing our own pathways we needed to create questions to ask using the Question Matrix.

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Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 3.53.20 pm

 

We are pretty proud of the effort we put into our games. Perhaps you’ll get to play them. Our neighbours in a year five class played some of our games and chose 4 of them to be entered into the Sir Mark Oliphant Science awards. We wish them well.

How good are these?

How good are these?

What was the best thing about making the board games?

How did you feel about other children playing your games?