S.M.A.R.T. activities teach students to learn in a different way
(Part two of two)
Last week this program was explained in detail on what it stands for, what it is accomplishing with students in Blackduck and how these students are responding to this program.
The following list is some of the activities the students are doing while they are boosting up with S.M.A.R.T. You as a reading might not know what these activities are, but if you ask a student from Blackduck Elementary, they most likely will know! They will most likely tell you it is one of their favorite parts of their day. They will most likely explain it to you with a smile on their face. Learning is truly fun inside the doors of Blackduck Elementary school!
S.M.A.R.T. activities (organized by physiological area enhancement)
BALANCE AND VESTI-BULAR (Spinning)
* Hotdog Roll
* Helicopter Spins (we learn names of our bones while doing these)
* Flamingos
* Balance Beam
* Rocker/Teeter Boards
* Hop Scotch
* Astronaut Spins
GROSS MOTOR
* Spiderman Crawl
* Creep Track/Snail Trail
* Monkey Bars
* Cross Pattern Walking (we do silly things down the hall instead of walking in a plain straight line)
* Bear Walk
* Catch and Toss
FINE MOTOR
* Paintbrush Writing
* Rainbow Tracing
* Tiny Tweezers and beads
* Penny Flipping
* Dice Stacking
* Hole Punching
* Rice Sorting
REFLEX ACTIVITIES
* Superman
* Popcorn
* Giraffe Stretch
* Wall Lean
* Rocking Horse
AUDITORY (Hearing /Listening)
* Name that Sound
* Rhyme Time
* Sound Blending
* Auditory Memory
VISUAL EFFICIENCY
* Wagon Wheels
* Swinging Ball on String
* Scanning Games
* Peg Arcs with golf tees
* Sliding Bead
* Basic Vision Light Flash (learn to count in different languages while doing this)
* Brock String
* Thumbkins
VISUAL PERCEPTION
* Geoboards
* Puzzles
* Crossover Simon Says
* Jumping letter sort
* Silent Ball
* Figure Eights
* Kaleidoscopes
* Beanbag Activities
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
* Black Light (reading and learning from neon words or visual aids)
* Domino Dot Cards
* Number Ladders
* Concept Cards
* Fast Math Facts
These are just a few of the activities the students get to do in the S.M.A.R.T. room. We as teachers set up an 11 station obstacle course that the kids get to participate in daily.
We create many holiday or theme based obstacle courses for the kids. This keeps it even more kid-friendly. Our next obstacle course is going to involve a station where they will be "building" deer shacks. During Thanksgiving they get to be turkey farmers and collect turkeys. At Christmas time they get to be Santa's helpers and deliver presents across the balance beam by balancing a "gift" on top of their head and traveling to the house across the balance beam.
The kids have reacted very well to S.M.A.R.T. It provides extra time to be moving around just be kids. The giggles, smiles, dance moves, and teamwork are priceless to see as the students rotate through the S.M.A.R.T. obstacle course each day!
We encourage you to check out the Minnesota Learning Resource Center's Website for more information on the S.M.A.R.T. program. http://www.themlrc.org/about/about_history.htm.
