S.M.A.R.T. Newsletter - Dec. '17

S.M.A.R.T. Spaces 
EASY. FREE. EFFECTIVE. Do we have your attention?! We’re here to help you add to this month’s festivities by providing these gift bow Slap/Creep Track cards as a free download!

We love this idea shared with us from Alisha, Pre-K teacher in Lake Crystal, MN, because of its simplicity. Bonus? It is fun for the students! Using gift bow cards, create a color pattern for students to call out while creeping on the Slap/Creep Track. (Red, Green, Blue, Red, Green, Blue, etc.)

Sometimes as educators this activity can trip us up. We feel compelled to teach, teach, teach all day long. We may even forget that the movement itself is what is stimulating the brain! The cards are meant to direct the student’s eyes from side to side, or one card to the next, as they are creeping. These eye movements help build the foundation, and are a critical component, for reading.

So remember, the cards in the pockets of the Slap or Creep Track must be review! The content should be material familiar to all students so they move smoothly through the activity.

What if a student cannot call out the material? Tell them to gently slap the card with their hand. We are more concerned about the movement of the eyes than the knowledge of what is on the card.
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Share any festive cards you are using in your Creep or Slap Track on our Facebook page for others to enjoy!

Downloads:
Red & Green Bows (PDF)
Blue & White Bows (PDF)

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S.M.A.R.T. at Home
Need ideas to keep your child busy during the upcoming holiday break?

How about having a screen-free zone where your child can create, imagine, and play! 
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We all can remember the sheer joy of making a fort in our house as children. Maybe your fort was built between the couch and living room chair using the throw pillows, couch cushions, and all of mom’s blankets! Perhaps you used the dining room table as your structure and borrowed some bed sheets from the linen closet to create a perfectly cozy cave. Do you remember how much time you spent in your fort?  All day!

When children are building and playing in forts, they are often crawling, creeping, climbing, and twisting around. These movements provide excellent stimulation to the brain by building coordination, integrating both sides of the brain, and enhancing their visual system.

​Making the fort a “screen-free zone” can encourage creativity and imagination. Children of all ages will enjoy reading their favorite stories, building with legos, playing with their newly acquired toys, having a picnic lunch, drawing or coloring, and possibly even taking a nap in their special space.

What can you as the caregiver do?
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Instead of focusing on the “mess” the fort makes, draw from your imagination and foster that love of play with your child in the free moments you may have with them this upcoming holiday break season. Who knows? Sitting in that fort just might awaken a memory or two to share with your child. If not, you’ll be creating new memories with your child.

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Time Saving Tips
Organizing seasonal celebrations, squeezing in a holiday gift project, creating literacy centers, grading assessments, teaching subtraction, searching for a lost lunch box, cleaning your desk, hunting for the custodian, buying supplies for your class art project, checking homework, writing next week’s lesson plans, putting a Band-Aid on a boo-boo, attending PLC meetings. Need we say more?

Teaching is not a 9-5 job and we appreciate the effort and passion educators bring to their profession and students each day. This month, we are dedicated to helping you implement S.M.A.R.T. with the least amount of prep time possible.

Katy, 2nd grade teacher from Janesville, WI, wants to share her Visual Mazes she created for her students. Please enjoy a wide variety of Katy’s December and January themed Visual Mazes and for those of you who are in early childhood, use them as Tactile Trackers*.

*Early childhood and some Kindergarten programs find that when adding a tactile component to the maze, students slow down when tracing the line and tracking their finger.  Be creative in adding glue dots, glitter, beads, pipe cleaners, feathers, puff paint, sand paper, etc.

Downloads: 
Winter Visual Maze (PDF)

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That's One S.M.A.R.T. Teacher! 
One S.M.A.R.T. Teacher Katy, a 2nd grade teacher from Janesville, WI knows how important it is to switch things up for her students. Her students show her when they rush through the activity that it’s time for a change.

Katy works hard every school day to implement S.M.A.R.T. core activities. She carves out time during math centers to incorporate a S.M.A.R.T. course in the hallway for small groups of students. In order to get in essential vision activities, Katy uses an area almost all elementary school teachers have access to…lockers.

Using a clear page protector, Katy puts a Wagon Wheel on one side and a Visual Maze on the other. She adheres a magnet that, not only keeps the vision posters on the lockers, but also makes them easily adjustable to the height of the student. Her second grade students use the procedure of covering the left eye and tracing, then the right eye while tracing, then tracing with both eyes open so this can be an independent activity with a teacher monitoring the group as a whole.

Katy creates several thematic posters each month to keep students engaged in the activity. In addition to the themes, Katy adds 2nd grade concepts into the Visual Mazes. Below is an example using antonyms and homonyms.

Thanks One S.M.A.R.T. Teacher Katy for sharing your awesome work!

Why encourage completing S.M.A.R.T. eye movement activities with the three-step procedure? See the answer featured in last month’s newsletter.