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Looking for a little inspiration to refresh your S.M.A.R.T. Core routines?  Take a peek at our Pinterest board—it’s packed with creative ideas to help you reignite what you’re already doing and tweak activities in fun, meaningful ways. Sometimes a small shift can make a big impact! Remember, new and novel experiences stimulate the brain, boosting engagement and learning. Let it spark your next great idea!
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What activities should we include in a calm corner? Many classrooms are being set up with a calm corner, specifically designed as a space for students to go to and practice regulation techniques. These spaces are often cozy with pillows, stuffed animals, fidget toys, and breathing techniques. All of these tools are wonderful for regulation. We want to share some other strategies that can be incorporated into this area that might not already be there. Many behaviors reveal that children need heavy work to help them regulate their body systems. While we might shy away from adding in large movement activities in our “calm” corners, they are in fact what might be exactly what our students need to find their calm. Students who are constantly getting up, have lots of energy, calling out, or are feeling restless need to push, pull, sway, spin, and squeeze. Proprioceptive input helps regulate the nervous system and support emotional control. Proprioception—the body’s sense of muscle and joint movement—provides deep pressure and resistance that can be very organizing for the brain and grounding for children. When students push, pull, squeeze, carry, or press against something, their bodies receive calming input that can reduce stress, improve focus, and restore a sense of control. Download these proprioception activity suggestions for use in your classroom today!
February is a great time to step back and assess if your activities are ready to level up. Here is an activity we practice in our workshops that is a kid favorite… Stick Scotch!! Watch this quick video to refresh yourself on how fun and easy it is to learn the activity that adds engagement and increases the level of difficulty to the Hopscotch. All you need are some paintsticks or strips of tape to create a jumping pattern all are sure to enjoy. Download the activity on our webpage! HERE
Got some winter Olympic enthusiasts in your class?? Tell them to pretend they are pro snowboarders taking on a new course! Kendall, a kindergarten teacher from southern Minnesota, came up with a great variation of Visual Pursuits. When discussing the role Tactile Trackers or Visual Pursuits play in developing and strengthening smooth eye movements, Kendall asked if she could use a small manipulative for kids to maneuver along the lines. What a great challenge! Kendall was thinking of having her students use one finger to hold a small glass bead (with the flat bottom) and drag it along the line as they are tracing. This could be done on a vertical or a horizontal surface. The variation can fit the ability of your student. In thinking of this variation, we thought it might be fun to try it using the tracks made from a skier cruising through fresh snow. It also pairs well with the Olympic themed ideas from S.M.A.R.T. Spaces :) Here are a few downloads for you to give it a try with. Happy “skiing” with your eyes!  Download: Skiing Visual Pursuits HERE
“I’m bored!” Do you ever hear your child saying this? Give them a fun activity to do that is brain boosting and will support school readiness! Tape lines on the floor, yardsticks, jump ropes, ribbon or string all make perfect balance beams for the home. Encourage children to walk very slowly with a heel-to-toe walk without falling off the line. Challenge older children to place objects on their head or shoulders to balance from beginning to end.  Learning balance helps a child know where their body is in space. In a classroom, having a good sense of balance and body awareness helps them to remain seated in a chair. Remaining seated and comfortable assists them in paying attention in class.
Great photo ideas like the ones above can be found on Pinterest. Check out our Pinterest page filled with S.M.A.R.T. ideas by clicking here. 💡Low Prep Vision Activity💡  Using your bulletin boards that contain academic content—such as letters, heart words, pattern words, numbers, and shapes—can easily double as an engaging eye-movement activity in the classroom. By slowly moving a flashlight or red laser pointer from one content word or symbol to another, students visually track the light as it travels across the board. This encourages smooth eye movements as their eyes follow the light from left to right, up and down, or across different distances. While tracking, students are also visually reinforcing academic concepts, making this a simple, purposeful way to support both visual skills and learning at the same time.
The same bulletin board of academic content can also be used to encourage saccadic eye movements, which involve quick, purposeful shifts of the eyes from one target to another. Instead of moving the light smoothly, briefly point the flashlight or laser dot to one letter, word, number, or shape, pause, then quickly jump to a new location. Students move their eyes rapidly to find and fixate on each new target, strengthening their ability to shift focus efficiently. This activity supports visual attention and control while continuing to reinforce familiar academic content in a fun, low-prep way. On a recent visit to an elementary school, teachers inquired how to get more eye teaming in for their younger elementary aged students. They were incorporating a lot of the CORE vision activities in the classroom but were hungry for more ideas. Enter the Peg Arc. This visual tool is one that students prefer because it is game-like and used independently. As you can see in the picture, the student will “leapfrog” the golf pegs one over the other from side to side and up the center of the Peg Arc. It is key that they should not move their heads but only have their eyes following the pegs.  A couple of these arcs can be used in classrooms for students who may need a little extra visual stimulation, as a waiting activity in the S.M.A.R.T. room, or even a quick individual break during long classroom work times. The Peg Arc can be passed from student to student. When it is their turn, they stop their work, take a minute to do the arc, and then pass it to the next student in front or behind them.
Don’t have a Peg Arc but would love to incorporate it into your S.M.A.R.T. routine? You can purchase them at our online store and get them shipped right to your school! Find a Peg Arc here: https://www.actg.org/store/p55/Peg-Arc.html S.M.A.R.T. workshops emphasize how crucial visual development is. Vision is a complex process involving over 20 visual abilities and more than 65% of all of the pathways to the brain. But do you remember this shocking statistic? Some optometric and pediatric sources estimate that roughly 25% of schoolchildren have vision problems that have not been formally diagnosed and that potentially impact learning, reading, or classroom performance. That’s right…1 in 4 of your students may be quietly struggling! We have shared this resource before and we will share it again because it is just too good.  Katy, 2nd grade teacher from Janesville, WI, drew up some winter themed Visual Mazes for her students and has kindly shared them with us for you all to benefit from a low prep activity. Thanks Katy!
These mazes are our Tactile Trackers from the S.M.A.R.T. PreK CORE guide page 64 and a variation of Wagon Wheels in the S.M.A.R.T. Elementary Guide on page 150. This activity helps to develop smooth pursuit eye movements and eye-hand coordination in a fun and engaging way. Refresh yourself on how to guide students in the activity as this one tends to have students rushing through. The guides contain some helpful directions and tips! Download: winter_visual_mazes.pdf Have you noticed that kids tend to rush through S.M.A.R.T. movements when doing the activities in a circuit with their classmates? We have had several write-ins asking how to address this situation.
Movements such as crawling, rolling, balancing, and hopping are most beneficial when they are done with intention, control, and efficiency rather than speed. These foundational movements help organize the nervous system and build strong neural connections between the body and the brain. When students rush, they often rely on momentum instead of muscle engagement, which limits the brain’s opportunity to integrate sensory input, coordination, and motor planning. Slowing the movements encourages focus, body awareness, and accuracy, allowing the brain to strengthen pathways that support attention, self-regulation, and learning. Emphasizing “smooth and steady” over “fast” helps students gain the full neurological benefit of the activity. How do you explain this to a student in a supportive and corrective way? Try something like this - “When you move your body slowly and carefully, your brain gets stronger. If you rush, your body is moving but your brain can’t keep up. Going slow helps your brain and muscles work as a team—like best friends. Smooth, steady movements help your brain practice balance, focus, and control. So slow doesn’t mean easy or boring—it means your brain is doing important work!” We strongly advocate for more movement during the school day. While S.M.A.R.T. is an excellent way to do this, using it as more of a free for all, “get your energy out”, kind of movement break, can diminish some of the neurological potential and growth. Smooth and Steady in 2026 🌟 |
AuthorSCheryl Smythe Archives
August 2026
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