Two years ago we were looking at new ways of challenging the children when Anne Smith, education officer in early years and childcare at East Dunbartonshire Council, approached us to see if we'd be interested in running a pilot chess project.
The idea was a bit daunting at first. One of the staff had played chess years ago, but none of us knew much about the game. But when we spoke to Anne about our reservations she reassured us, providing us with ideas for topics and discussing how we could introduce the game.
Initially we had a few practical concerns - how it would work? would the children be interested? We thought of chess as being for older, more academic-minded children, not really suitable for nursery-aged children.
However, my own son developed an interest in chess at nursery through his older brother, so I was confident that at least some children would be keen to learn a new game.
We were also a bit concerned that the game of chess is about armies fighting each other to protect their kings, but this didn't prove to be a problem. We simply made slight adaptations to our game, such as replacing the figurines holding swords with finger puppets.
The primary school we are attached to has a chess club run by Tom Dibble, secretary of the Junior Dragon Chess League. He and his wife provided us with lots of help and support. Mrs Dibble, a former primary headteacher, made up a chess booklet, with a plan of lessons and identifying appropriate resources, such as a story about chess to tell the children.
To begin with, the topic was introduced through storytime each day. The children learned about a game called chess where two armies are involved in a battle. They were also told traditional stories and nursery rhymes relating to the characters, including Cinderella.
Then the children were introduced to the 2D shapes of the pieces, daily over a long period of time so that they got to know names of each piece.
Slowly the children learned about the different 3D pieces, how to put them on the board, and then how to move them.
Recording progress
Help also came from the school children. The pupils from the school chess club regularly came into the nursery to help our children, and were patient and absolutely great with them.
To enable us to monitor how the children were getting on, we introduced them to the chess board in mixed age and ability groups and kept record sheets of each child's particular stage. While some children may have been just learning to recognise each piece, others may have moved on to making simple moves.
The basics of the game were explained to them - that there are two armies fighting against each other, and that only one person can move at a time.
Different games were played with the boards and pieces. In the Memory Game we took one piece away, with the children having to look at the board and work out which piece was missing in relation to their position on the board. Or we played with only the pawns on the board, learning how they move first before introducing other pieces. This helped the children to recognise and remember the different pieces and how they move.
The children enjoyed playing, but, as in anything, some children were more keen than others. Some of the children were not interested, so the record sheets were good for noting this.
But we do still attempt to get them all involved. Each year now we begin the topic in September, when most children have settled in to the nursery.
By Easter most of them know all the names of the pieces and how to set up the board, with some having gone on to making moves. We always take things slowly, not running before we can walk.
The staff have also received training of an hour a week for ten weeks, and now all have certificates which indicate that we are qualified to teach chess. In the beginning the staff were only one step ahead of the children, but Mr Dibble was always at hand to ask what to do next, giving us tips and advice.
As the children went home and told their parents what they were doing, parents began coming in and asking us questions, looking for books on how to play. The local authority purchased multiple copies of Chess - from first moves to checkmate for parents to borrow.
Some parents got back into the game after not playing for years, while some who had never played at all began to learn for the first time. Some of the children were able to teach their parents. Before long the chess club in the school became inundated with children wanting to join, as our nursery children taught older siblings.
Fairytale castles
The real key to our success with chess, though, was making it cross-curricular and having it as part of a project on fairytale castles.
It was the idea of a fantasy castle where kings and queens lived that captured and held the children's imaginations.
Children designed and created model castles and crowns. They designed flags and shields, and made collages of dragons. In the nursery garden they played knights and horses.
Discussing what it would be like to live in a castle and how you would need to grow your own food led us on to growing vegetables. We mixed black and white to create bricks for the castle wall, and sang relevant nursery rhymes and songs such as 'Humpty Dumpty', 'Old King Cole', and 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. At the end of our topic we all wore our crowns and had a Grand Ball in the gym hall.
The children also went on a trip to Mugdock Castle, a derelict building in a nearby country park. Before we visited we informed the park ranger of the reason for our visit, so on our arrival there were lots of relevant activities waiting for us. Treasure hunts were organised; the children made shields, and played a game of 'Find the Bishop'. A banqueting room was set up, and the children explored the castle. They loved it.
The school has now bought chess sets for every class. Their chess club continues to be busy as our children move up into school. And last year the school's headteacher and I went to an HMIE Early Years Best Practice conference at Herriot Watt University in Edinburgh, where we delivered a Power Point presentation on the pilot project.
We have also made up a 20-page booklet, Chess in the Early Years - A programme for young people. Copies have been distributed to all 49 pre-schools in East Dunbartonshire. The booklet explains what the project involves, how to introduce it and useful lesson plans, and indicates the type of learning that may take place.
The children have gained in many areas. They have learned to play by the rules of a game, improved their concentration, and extended their spatial awareness and problem-solving skills. They have improved their maths as they count out, and expanded their vocabulary as they begin to use different words, such as 'diagonally'.
The plan for the future is to develop an interest in the game with our new starts and develop the others' skills and confidence in the game before they move on to school. The project has been a huge success and we are all happy to continue to integrate it into the nursery curriculum.
