Hello....
Sorry I didn't get this out sooner, but came down with a very bad cold. These are
the replies I rec'd concerning a book and chess club. My original letter comes
first:
Hello,
I am starting this year for my very first time....both a book club and a chess
club. I am working with our oldest age group......2nd graders. I plan to choose 8
kids for each club and let them meet with me during lunch......bringing their
lunches to the library. Other than that.....I am not sure how to run these. Does
anyone have any experience they could share????? I would appreciate it SO much!!!
I do book clubs at my school during lunch and it works really well. I have
presented these at our district level and at a conference level regarding how to do
this. I have attached copies of forms I use. The kids have to “apply” and then get
accepted (I never turn anyone down) and agree to responsible behaviors. They
re-apply for each book we do. This shows commitment to being a member of a group
and respect for the library especially regarding “food”.
I don't know how small your school (or your library) is, but 8 seems like a tiny
group for chess. I can see it for book club because with more than that the
discussions would be difficult. You might do a survey among the kids of how many
would play chess if they had the option. I may be wrong, but in my experience,
you'll have a bunch of disappointed kids if 8 is the limit. If the kids are fairly
experienced, a larger group would be easy to handle, after you'd trained them to
play quietly. If the kids don't know how to play, starting small would work.
I can send you a list of chess books/resources if you like. My club has about 80
kids in it (just 3rd-5th; I'd be over 100 easily if I opened it up to lower
grades). We do it for an hour after school.
Hi. I am in a high school and we have both a chess club and a book club. The chess
club meets after school, but the book club meets during the lunch hours. The book
club meets four or five times a year. The chess club meets twice a month.
Obviously, I am dealing with much older students, but one thing that I would
suggest is that you involve a parent or a fellow teacher or even a librarian from
the public library ( our teen department librarian works with us and actually
conducts the discussions, something our kids enjoy but younger ones may prefer you
or a classroom teacher whom they know. We give our students a choice of reading one
book or three. You might want to stay with one. As for chess, this should be a fun
and learning experience.
My partner in the media center sponsors the chess club, but we keep a table and
boards available. Students come in and play before school, during lunch and after
school. This is a very successful club, but many students who play are not members
of the club.
Both the chess club and the book club meetings feature food. We provide the
beverages and chips for the book club and students may bring sandwiches. No one
misses lunch. The chess club has snacks when their members meet.
I wish you well as both the chess club and the book club have added a lot of fun
and flavor to our media center.
I hope that you will find this true,as well, and please feel free to contact me for
questions or comments.
, too, have a chess club going. This will be our 2nd year. I do this with our
custodian (can you ask yours for help?). Anyway, instead of holding it at lunch,
students come in once a week during their recess. This means they miss out on
recess weekly but for those who want to play chess, it's OK with them. They sign a
contract with me, committing themselves to do this for ~6-7 weeks. Then I get
another group or grade in for the next few weeks.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your new venture; the kids really love it.
Debbie McCormack
Willards Elementary
Willards, MD
djmackmd@hotmail.com
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