2021 ChessKid Grant Winner Walnut Grove Elementary Sets A Record!
Walnut Grove Elementary is an award-winning school in the Madison County, Alabama school system. It's also one of the ChessKid grant winners for the 2021-2022 school year. As part of a system-wide grant, Madison County schools wanted to teach as many kids to play chess as possible, and hosted a contest among its schools to see which one could teach the highest percentage of students in the month of April. The winner was Walnut Grove Elementary, where 92% of their students played chess online during the school day!How Walnut Grove Elementary Won
Library Media Specialist Holly Whitt was instrumental in helping her students learn to play chess and use the ChessKid program. She planned time during student rotations in the library for them to explore ChessKid. According to Ms. Whitt:
I love that it's a tool with a low floor and a high ceiling. Beginners in kindergarten can get on and start learning and playing without frustration, and advanced players in upper grades can also jump in and find challenging lessons and activities to engage them and keep their gameplay advancing to the next level.
Ms. Whitt's class enjoying ChessKid
Ms Whitt says that the students enjoyed the funny videos, that were short enough to keep their attention but also informative enough without being overwhelming. The students also enjoyed challenging each other to games and LOVED spinning the wheel to collect stars.
These library visits are a great time for students to engage in this kind of intentional learning on ChessKid, which supports the educational objectives of every school. The STEM skills that are taught through chess made this grant opportunity a win/win!
Walnut Grove Hosts First Madison County Chess Tournament
As the winning school in the system with the most kids learning to play chess on ChessKid, Walnut Grove hosted its first county-wide chess tournament. And, they walked away with a tie for the first-place team as well as some individual awards!
A local non-profit chess organization partnered with ChessKid to help Walnut Grove host its first chess tournament. They are now eager to host more next year. Ms. Whitt shared:
Our ChessKid scholarship created ChessKids all over Walnut Grove. We are so grateful for this opportunity to enrich our students' experience with the classic game that so many are afraid to play. It removed that intimidation and empowered our learners to know they can do hard things.
How Can Your School System Win Its Own ChessKid Grant?
ChessKid just announced its third year of school system grants with a more flexible deadline to apply for the next school year. If your system is seeking a grant for every elementary student, we recommend you apply by June 1st. But there are no hard deadlines for consideration. ChessKid is also offering classroom teachers the opportunity to apply for smaller chess club grants for 20 gold accounts throughout the year, with no particular deadline.