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

S.M.A.R.T. Spaces
Happy Fall y’all! Paper pumpkins, calico corn, and furry woodland creatures may be adorning your classroom this time of year. They may even be incorporated into your lessons to add a little fun. So, why not incorporate autumn into your S.M.A.R.T. program?

By now, your students have been practicing S.M.A.R.T. activities for several weeks. You know what happens when students do the same things over and over…they can get bored. With a little creative thinking and some suggestions from your program guides, you can make S.M.A.R.T. activities new, novel, and stimulating to the brain again!

When adding a thematic twist to your S.M.A.R.T. routine think in terms of function, what the students can use, not fluff or simply decoration. On the Balance Beam you can use mini pumpkins, gourds, or calico corn to step over while maintaining balance in a heel-to-toe walk. The Pencil Roll can become ‘rolling in the leaves’!

If you have an Overhead Ladder, hang construction paper leaves with an academic twist. For young students, they could simply look at the leaves, perhaps saying the color of the leaf as they move from rung to rung. Older students can read sight words or numbers as they move across. The leaves give a thematic twist adding a little fun yet still encourage eye teaming.
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For those of you working in an early childhood setting pull out your S.M.A.R.T. Pre-K CORE Guide and turn to pages 104-105. Elementary teachers, take a look at pages 11 and 12 in your S.M.A.R.T. Curriculum Guide. These guides have some Awesome Autumn theme suggestions to put a little pumpkin spice in your S.M.A.R.T. program. ​

Check out the Time Saving Tips section of this month’s newsletter for some visual development activity downloads and follow us on Facebook to share your fall S.M.A.R.T. ideas.

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S.M.A.R.T. at Home
Looking for some creative ways to help your child with homework? We have some fun and effective ways using one of our S.M.A.R.T. Principles: Movement Anchors Learning!

We know you’re not alone if you find that, by the time they get home from school, your child is tired of sitting. So tackling a stack of homework at the table can be a real struggle. But did you know that thinking and learning aren’t just in our head? The body plays an integral part in our intellectual processes. Developmentally, movement plays a major role. Movement influences the ability to concentrate in a classroom and to learn to read and write. Movement can also be used as a way to recharge the brain!

How can you as parents successfully pair learning with movement? No need to feel stumped because we’re here to help! So whether homework is a battle or not, we have some fun ideas for you that involve movement!

Sports and Spelling: Incorporating your child’s favorite sport with a homework task can help keep them engaged, have fun, and learn faster! If basketball is your sport, you can combine dribbling with spelling. Here’s how:

• Tape the spelling list up on the wall. (Try the garage when it's warm outside, or the utility room when it’s cold.)
• Looking at the spelling words have your child dribble the ball while saying each letter out loud, one letter per dribble.
• Repeat 5 times with the right hand and then 5 times with the left hand.
• Complete the entire list this way.
• Then have your child turn their back to the spelling words and dribble while spelling the word that you call out.​

If your child misses a word or two, no problem, they can practice again and they do because it is so much fun!

​Parents who have used this technique report that it has helped their child to look up while dribbling and gain confidence/skill dribbling with both dominant and non-dominant hands. Oh yes, and they get all of their spelling words correct too!

Jump Rope: Students can pair a fun activity like jumping rope with homework. Use math fact flash cards and show the cards to our child while jumping. Have your child look at the cards and jump while saying the math fact out loud, one item per jump. (2 x 5 = 10 is 5 jumps.)
Repeat 5-10 times. Work on 3-5 facts per day. And remember, it’s always a good idea to include math facts they already know for review.

NOTE: Jumping rope is an incredibly high level motor skill. (Not to mention it takes quite a bit of energy and endurance.) If your child hasn’t gained this skill yet you can use the jump rope in other ways!

• The jump rope can be placed on the floor and become a balance beam for students to walk while practicing spelling words or math facts.
• Or, with the jump rope on the floor, your child can jump over the rope (side to side).

These Movement Anchors Learning ideas can be used with any number of things children need to learn: colors, shapes, numbers, letters, words, spelling, math, etc.

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Time Saving Tips
Loop de Loos, Overs and Unders, and Tactile Trackers oh my! 
November is the month to give them a try!

To develop and enhance eye movements and eye-hand coordination skills students need vision activities. Below are several fall themed activities for you to download, print, and practice.

Loop de Loos – Scanning Game
Draw a continuous line as you loop around the pumpkins. Some students may need a line to trace in order to practice smooth eye movements.

References:
S.M.A.R.T. Pre-K CORE Program Guide page 76
S.M.A.R.T. Curriculum Guide page 155

Overs and Unders – X and O
Draw a continuous line under the pumpkins and over the other fall pictures. Some students may need lines pre-drawn to trace with their finger or writing utensil. Some S.M.A.R.T. teachers have placed these vision activity sheets in page protectors or had them laminated for students to use over and over with Dry Erase markers.

References:
S.M.A.R.T. Pre-K CORE Program Guide page 78
S.M.A.R.T. Curriculum Guide page 215

Tactile Trackers – Wagon Wheels
Add a seasonal twist by having students trace the line from the digit to the correct number of objects. A beginning letter activity sheet is also included. 

References:
​S.M.A.R.T. Pre-K CORE Program Guide page 64
S.M.A.R.T. Curriculum Guide page 148

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That's One S.M.A.R.T. Teacher!
How often do you catch yourself asking your students “Did you trace three times?” Tactile Trackers or Wagon Wheels, two S.M.A.R.T. core vision activities, require that a student covers their left eye and traces a line, covers their right eye and traces a line, and finally traces with both eyes open.

Why? 
If the eyes are out of balance it can have negative effects on how a student learns. We want to ensure each eye has the opportunity to receive the stimulation individually to promote improvement for each eye and balance for both eyes so they can work as a team.
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Leslie, one S.M.A.R.T. teacher from Morganton, NC, uses three colors when drawing new pictures for students to trace. She found this to be an effective way to train her students in the three-step procedure. They trace one color while covering one eye, another color while covering the other eye, and they trace the third color with both eyes open. Feel free to make your own three-color version of Leslie’s November turkey!