Little school on chessboard

What is „Little school on chessboard“ ? New original educational programme inspired by the game of chess. It offers an enjojyable daily activities in a fairy-tale environment. The programme has been elaborated by a special educationalists, psychologists and chess experts. The programme develops specific intellectual abilities and skills of children between 3 and 7 years. Children play various games with chess pieces. They learn how to think, how to find the best solution, how to create combinations, they train their memory and learn how to judge different situations. It is a true „learn by play“.

What it brings to children The programme spontaneously develops and improves mainly the following basic skills: intellectual abilities and skills (reasoning, abstract thinking, communication skills, mathematical skills, memory development, space and right-left orientation, improving concentration) aesthetic sense (imagination, creativity, painting) ethical behaviour (game rules) motoric skills understanding of team work

Special tools The special tools are an important part of the educational programme. Children do not quietly sit above the chessboard. Our task is to develop the kids’ creativity and playfulness. The main parts of the programme are: original chess set that can be separated in parts and serves as a brick- box as well. It is easy to work with and enables to develop perception of shapes and colours and supports motoric skills at the same time. 200 pieces of coloured wooden parts that can be used with ordinary chessboard as well as with a magnetic wall chessboard magnetic wall chessboard large ‘walking’ chessboard made of cloth exercise books guidelines for teachers (including children songs for each book)

Exercise books The main part of the programme are pictured exercise books containing hundreds of exercise and tasks. There are 6 exercise books named according to chess pieces (king, queen, bishop, etc.). Each book contains 10 series of tasks, each series consisting of 4 pages: first page with motivation picture, little motivation poem and a task. The task is presented by a little fairytale story. second and third page provides four difficulty levels of exercise in four little chess boards. The boards are filled with different objects relevant to the story. Children search for the best solution. fourth page of each series serves for amusement and relaxation (labyrinths, colouring, etc).

Contacts and more Petra Rožková Martina Kořenová phone: Martina Kořenová (*1975) Charles University, Faculty od Education, teaching at elementary school, kid’s chess school in Ricany. International Chess Master, five times best Czech women player, 3rd at the Junior World Championship, Chess Olympiad, winner of the Women Grandmaster Tournament. Three children (2002, 2004, 2008) Petra Rožková (*1975) – University of Economics in Prague, awarded NATO Science Fellowship – a year stay at the University of North Carolina, USA. Institute for Economic and Environmental Policy – responsible for the EU funds project proposals and project management. Foundation for Organic Agriculture – project GEF/UNDP. European Science Foundation - Exploratory Workshop focused at multiple sclerosis patients. Two children (2003, 2005) _________________________________________________________________________________________ The Little school on chessboard has been supported for pilot testing in 6 special elementary schools in Prague by European Social Fund in 2006.