4TH Practice - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.”
– Emo Philips


The fourth Burroughs Chess Club practice SHOULD take place at 3:00 this Friday (Feb 5th) in the Burroughs lunchroom, provided we get some more volunteers signed up. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS TO AVOID CANCELLING PRACTICE
Our signup sheet only shows three volunteers (out of 12) for Friday’s practice. I suspect we have several volunteers who plan on coming but just haven’t signed up, but I’m not comfortable taking that chance with 90+ kids, so if you can be there, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0205

If it looks like we don’t have enough coverage, I’ll need to cancel the practice.

OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 13th
You need to signup TONIGHT to be pre-registered for our first tournament, as I’ll be sending the organizers the list sometime tomorrow. You can signup at:

http://mysignup.com/burroughscheckitout

If you don’t sign up be tonight, you’ll need to register in person that morning, starting at 8:30 AM. I’ll paste the form your children got at practice on Friday at the end which provide more info. Also, you can always ask questions by emailing BurroughsChess@gmail.com

If you think your child is interested in eventually attending a chess tournament, I can’t encourage you enough to try this first one. The “Check It Out” tournament is BY FAR the friendliest tournament for beginning chess players. Is isn’t a School Chess Association tournament – it’s just sponsored by the Mpls Public Schools, and so there are a lot more beginners than there are at any other tournament. It’s also free and lunch is provided free too. Finally, it’s the only tournament where kids don’t need their own chess sets.

But it is a long day. The kids play seven rounds of chess divided into K-3 and 4-6 grades (I think). Each round lasts about a half hour, and then they have long breaks in between to socialize, play with each other, play Nintendo DS, etc. Registration starts at 8:30 and my experience is that the awards ceremony ends around 5:00.

MIKE DIETRICH WILL LEAD THIS FRIDAY’S PRACTICE
I’ll be out this week and so Mike Dietrich will be leading this practice. If you’re a volunteer, look to Mike for direction.

Getting to the Cafeteria
Chess club members will be released to the lunchroom by their teachers. Mr. Cadotte will announce this on Friday and we have provided a list of students to the teachers, but if there is any confusion, a child can tell their teacher that is where they should be. Mpls Kids can also report directly to Chess Club.

Kids Check-in (2:55-3:10)
Outside of the lunch room, each grade will have an area where they can put the coats and backpacks. Also a volunteer will be in that area with a list of nametags for each grade. So as teachers dismiss kids to the cafeteria, they should stop at their grade’s station to take care of those things. (Volunteers will be outside the lunchroom to help them.) Once kids are inside the lunchroom, they can start playing right away!

Snack
We’ll allow snack during the first few minute. Unfortunately, we can’t provide a snack. If you want your child to have one, please send one with them to school. They can eat it in the cafeteria as they get settled. Also, please make sure that your children know that the snacks that are in the cafeteria are for Minneapolis Kids students only.

Playing Chess (3:10-4:15)
We’ll have chess sets out and kids can pair up and start playing. We’ll have one table set aside for beginners who want a little extra help. All kids will play and report their results to the check-in table. Then they’ll find someone else to play and repeat that throughout the hour. I think this is the week we’ll start tracking results and ranking kids, so the level of motivation will likely rise.

Chess Lesson (varies)
During the play time we’ll interrupt them once or twice to conduct a short lesson or review something from last week. This week the lesson will be covered by Mike Dietrich.

Cleanup (4:15-4:20)
Kids will put both black and white pieces for their games into a zip bag and bring the bag and the board to the check-in table.

Pickup Kids (4:20 – 4:30)
Please plan on picking up your child by 4:20. We cannot supervise children that are not picked up by 4:30.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll hopefully see you on Friday.
Sincerely,
John