Although my students live only three hours from Los Angeles, many rarely leave the small rural valley we call home. My students come from various small towns surrounding Lake Isabella and the Kern River in the Southern Sierra Nevada. It is a two stop light community that is close knit and poverty stricken. Many students live in trailers and come from single parent homes.
My students may be small town, but they are have big curiosity about the world around them.
They are boisterous and active. They are always excited to try new things and learn about the world outside of our valley.
My Project
Chess is an ancient strategy game where pawns, queens, knights, bishops, and rooks battle to trap the king and win. The game promotes creative and strategic thinking. It is also an excelent tool for learning about Feudal Europe.
Each chess piece represents a different social class in feudal european society; making chess an excellent tool for bringing history alive.
Every student will learn to play chess as we explore feudal european social structure. We will start with learning about peasants. As we dive into the daily life of this social class, we will also learn how pawns (which represent peasants) move on a chess board. Students will have the oprotunity to play pawn againts pawn the the chess board. From there will slowly add information about knights, the role of the Catholic Church, and monarchs off and on the board. The unit will end not only with fomal assessments, but also with a 7th grade Chess tournament.
This type of learning helps my kinesthetic learners engage in history. It promotes deep thinking in all of my student and it bring much needed joy into our spring trimester. Chess is not an easy game, but with your help students can become chess champions.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. HERRERA and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
