Lesson Nine Teaching Guide:
Suggested timings for today’s 1 hour class:
Get seated and settled - Class Intro (5 mins)
Read/Listen to Lesson/Story and review Demo board exercises (20 mins)
Students play on individual boards with partners. (25 mins)
Cleanup (5 mins)
Regroup/Debrief for review and awards for daily challenges completed. (5 mins)
Summary: Briefly review of last week’s lesson + chess challenge. Cover today’s story, demo board exercises + review questions, and the daily challenge.
Story + Demo Board Exercises/ Puzzles:
Story: Today we meet the Billy Goat Bishop Sisters. These sisters set off on a journey through the city - and into the unknown. Along the way, they’ll discover a powerful new team, a secret game, and the strength that lives in love, loss, and sisterhood.
Demo board: Demonstrate what a diagonal is and how 1 B sticks to the W squares, and 1 B sticks to the Black squares - they never change lane colors. Play "How many moves?" - fewest moves to arrive/capture on a certain address. "Where are their invisible force fields now?”
Game Instructions: 1st game: B's + P's vs B's + P’s. 2nd game: Add K’s + R’s. 3rd game: Add N’s
Game Objective/How to Win:
Capture the King a Bishop to Win!
Practical Skills learned:
How to move and capture with the B. How they use force fields and travel through time along diagonals. How to play with lots of pieces on the board. It's ok if it feels a bit overwhelming at first.
Emotional Skills learned:
Those we love are never truly gone, their lessons and love remain with us. Facing hard truths is easier when you’re not alone. Family, love, and connection are anchors in difficult times. Stories can help us make sense of the unimaginable. Imagination can be a bridge to truth. It's okay to not fully understand loss. It’s also okay to find your own language to process it. Love doesn’t end when life ends. We can move forward with purpose, guided by love and cherished memories.
Daily Challenge:
Capture the K with a B!
Review Questions for Lesson Nine: (Suggestions)
In what direction do the Billy Goat Bishops move, climb, and capture?
Of the four sisters, how many only move on the white diagonals, and how many only move on the black diagonals? Do they ever swap?
What skills do the girls have that helped them on their journey?
What other superpowers do they have? (force fields and finding shortcuts)
Have you ever had someone you love go away or be far away? How did that feel?
How does King Mateo show empathy to the girls when he first meets them? How or when can we do the same?
Introduce Game:
Who is ready to ready to play Knight’s Tour? Let’s go!
Piece Abbreviations
Kings = K, Puppy Pawns = P, Bull Rooks = R, Pony Boy Knights = N, Billy Goat Bishops = B
Piece Values: (See lesson 3 & 10)
K = Infinity
P’s = 1 points
R’s = 5 points
N’s = 3 points
B’s = 3 points
Post Game Debrief:
Review how the game went, if there were any problems/successes. Reward students for challenges completed.
Demo Board Setup and Explanations:
Board 1: Today we’ll learn how to move and climb like the Billy Goat Bishop Sisters!
First, let’s see where they begin their adventure on the chess board. Can you find C1, F1, C8, & F8?
Now let’s practice moving them along a diagonal. Remember, our Bishop sisters have decided that they must keep to one color each so as not confuse their teammates. One Bishop only ever moves, climbs, and captures along the white diagonal, and the other along the grey diagonal (or whatever color your board contains - sometimes it’s green, red, or black). Someone call out a random square, and then the rest of us will figure out which bishop can reach it the fastest! (Example: C5)
Board 2: Now, let’s practice using force fields! Each Billy Goat Bishop Sister has one. And if anyone from the opposing team steps into it… they’re in grave danger of being captured! This is why our Bishop sisters are so observant, they don’t want to miss out on any captures - unless they might be captured in turn. Help us make the right decisions!