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Ending the year's program with a tournament is a really fun and upbeat way to say goodbye to everyone for the school year. All the kids should be invited, not just the enrichment pull-out group that finished the program. Have a separate tournament for each classroom. Later, you can have the top winners from each classroom play each other for a school champion if you want. The tournament should take about an hour, or the amount of time you normally have for a lesson. They often run a little over, so allow yourself a extra half hour in between in each group for overtime.

I found having it in a space NOT the regular classroom made things much smoother. Most schools have a cafeteria area with tables, this gives you a lot of extra room for people to move about. The library or media center also can work well. Time will be of the essence, so set up the boards and stones in advance. Having someone else come in with you to help out is also extremely helpful if you can do this.

When the kids come in, explain the rules of etiquette again, and the prize structure, so everyone knows what to expect. Kids are mostly well behaved, but tell them in advance what kinds of behavior won't be tolerated and will qualify the kids to go back to their classroom or have to sit out a round. Have the classroom teacher there for enforcement of the etiquette rules. No suprises is good.

Here's a format that works well:

The students come in and are seated. Welcome everyone. Introduce your helper. Tell them that you both are there so that if there are any problems, they can call on you to work them out.

All games will be on 9x9 boards, players will choose for color.

You and your helper have different yarn colors. At the end of each game, the kids call one of you over. The winner gets a blue yarn for a win, and the loser gets a red yarn for a loss. The yarns are tied around each player's wrists.

Then the children look for someone with the same colors of yarn on their wrists to play next. Thus, the winners will play the winners and people who lost their first rounds will play someone else with a similiar record.

With each lost round, you continue to get another red yarn, but for your second win, you get , say, a green yarn. Then you look around for someone with a blue and a green yarn to play next. This way, the self pairing will automatically happen for people with the same number of wins to find and play each other. The third win gets a yellow yarn, the fourth win a pink yarn, and so on. Plan on around 5-6 wins maximum. It doesn't matter how many red yarns you have to find a new match, you only need to match up the number of wins. We keep track of the lost rounds, because 1) you have to lose a thousand games to make shodan, and 2) prizes will be given for the most numbers of games played, so losses count just as much as wins.

Explain you'll give prizes for the most number of wins, but also give prizes for the most number of games played, because in Go, the real idea is to play a lot and improve, not to win all your games. Have them start.

As it progresses, keep an eye on the kids with the most wins, make sure they are playing each other. As the last two kids without a loss play each other, have your helper start to wind down the other games. It can be helpful to have a demo board up to have your helper go over go problems to keep the children occupied who finish early.

When playing is done, have everyone sit down. To award prizes, you want to make sure everyone gets something. I start by saying (you need to know who played the least number of games, say it's four) OK, everyone who played at least 4 games, come up. Everyone will come up. Give a round of applause to each other for playing, and give each child a small prize. A piece of wrapped candy is always appreciated. (By the way, don't offer a choice, or the children will take a lot of time deciding if they want the tootsie roll or the starburst....)

OK, now everyone who played 5 games stay up here, others sit down. Give a second small prize, another piece of candy to this second group. Usually there will be a range of 3-4 games between the most and the least number of games. Then everyone who played 6 games stay up, and others sit down, and so on. When you get to the last group, who have played the most games, give them something a little more substantial. The paper 9x9 boards the AGA has are very good here, as it encourages them to keep on playing. Literally, the kids are rewarded for each game they've played.

The second round of prizes is for games won. Have everyone who did not win a prize but played through the tournament come up, and be recognized with a small prize as before. Praise them for continuing even without the encouragement of a win. Have this group sit down. Then call up everyone who won one game and reward them, have them sit down. Then everyone who had two wins, and so on. Eventually, as you get to the top winners, everyone will have come up for the second round of prizes also. Give something slightly more substantial to the top 2-3 winners, maybe a certificate for winning and a larger candy bar, but don't make the prize differential between the winners and losers too big. The point here is to reward everyone for having the tournament experience and to reinforce that winning is not the ultimate point of playing go, while recognizing the kids who are playing well.

At the end, you can have some very short ceremony to end to Go program. I usually tell the class how much I enjoyed them and relate a couple of little stories of things that happened in the class over the course of the go program. Greeting and bowing to, or shaking the hand of each child on their way out the door may be enough.

Thank the teachers. Give each teacher an evaluation form of the program with a stamped envelope with your address on it. (Make up an appropriate evaulation form in advance). Ask them the favor of filling out the form and putting it in the envelope for return. Tell them they need not sign their names, it can be anonymous. I have gotten both invaluable suggestions, and very kind and supportive testimonials about how beneficial the program was. This is a great selling tool for the next school you want to teach in.