Day 1

So we had the first session today. In the end there were just six of us, as two people have dropped out and a third is busy on some other work for a couple of weeks. This means the group is a little less balanced than it was, with one boy each in years 1 and 5, and the rest all in year 3. It's not ideal, so I hope we get some more recruits soon.

So as you can see by the previous post, today's session was mostly focused on the topic of Infinity, in particular, the story of Hilbert's Hotel, otherwise known as Hotel Infinity. This hotel has an infinite number of rooms, which means that even when it's completely full, by moving people into different rooms we can make space for more visitors - even an infinite number of them!

The animation tells it better than words can, and it was a big success, I'm pleased to say, with the kids clustered around it pressing buttons and laughing like crazy at the end of the day - a nice sight for the head teacher when she came into the room.

The session was topped and tailed by a couple of classic puzzles. We started off, after a brief discussion of Thinking and what it means, with a wonderful Edward De Bono problem: given six identical rectangular blocks, can you arrange them so that each one touches exactly two others? What about exactly three others? (You can also do 4 and 5, although we didn't go that far)

At the end, they've gone away with two additional things to think about: a quick matchstick puzzle and a more difficult infinity puzzle. It'll be interesting to see whether they come back having looked at them.

All in all, I really couldn't have hoped for better. The room is great too, very out of the way and important.

Next week a bit more nonsense.

Hotel Infinity

Here's an interactive animation I put together to illustrate Infinity. It features Hotel Infinity, a hotel in a distant galaxy with an infinite number of rooms. Click the button on the bottom right (Blogger is refusing to display it correctly, but you can just about see the button) to experiment with a few infinite examples. Use the buttons at the top to change animation speed.
Full Screen Version
updateI've removed the embedded version as it was causing too many problems, sorry!

And the names are in!

So, a little less than a week to go, and the kids are back in school. I've received the final list of attendees and it's a nicely mixed little group. The youngest is my son in Year 1, then there's a girl in year 2, three boys and a girl (my daughter) from year 3, a year 5 boy, and a boy and girl from year 6. The wide range will be a challenge, I'm sure.

Note: I'm only going to say this once, so readers from outside the UK: pay attention! Year 1 is ages 5-6, year 2 is 6-7 and so on. The highest year in UK primary schools is Year 6 (10-11). Now I never have to explain it again

I've been busy for the last few weeks preparing ideas for the first few sessions. After each session after the write-up I'm going to put various materials on the site for anyone that wants to download them.

More on money

The only time in the past that I've done any 'proper' teaching (with an actual class) it was the administrative side that let me down - dealing with the institution and especially with the examining board. Admin has never been my strong point, and the nice thing about a club like this is that because there are no curriculum requirements, I don't have to keep complex teaching records, just dealing with attendance (although of course I'm keeping this record as well as my own notes just for reference). But it's interesting that before the club has even started, again it's admin that complicates matters.

All of which is just an intro to the following: contrary to my last post, please don't try to pay at the school office just yet. I'm still sorting out how payments are going to work.

Cost

The invitation for parents went out yesterday and I've had a couple of inquiries about the cost. I think the letter was a bit confusing, so for anyone that wants to know: we're charging £4 per session. That's all going to the school, and should be paid at the school office as with other clubs.

I'm pleased with the response so far - I've had quite a bit of traffic to this site and a number of people have already said they'd like to attend, so it's looking like we're good to go.