S.M.A.R.T. NEWSLETTER - November '20 DISTANCE LEARNING

The proprioceptive system helps us understand the organization of our body parts. That’s because this vital system processes all the automated signals our muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons and bones send us about the stress they are experiencing. Without this information, we wouldn’t know how to orient ourselves or move in the space we occupy. We wouldn’t know how much force to use or or how to time movements. Proper development of the proprioceptive system in the brain stem is critical to children’s ability to navigate their bodies through the world.

​How do we ensure our students are building a strong proprioceptive system? Creeping! This activity, which involves purposeful movement of all body parts, stimulates the Brain Stem and supports creation of vital neural pathways that carry the needed information to help children move.

S.M.A.R.T. teachers know how important this is, and are always looking for ways to have children creep at home, but sending home a Creep/Slap Track for every student isn’t practical! However, playing “Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone?” makes it easy to add creeping into daily routines. Send home printed bones with the academics you are working on or email a PDF to parents. Have students hide “bones” around their learning area and then creep around the room to find the answers to your questions.

Download the editable Bone files so you can make “bones” to address the academics your class is working on or to address individualized learning.
 
References:
S.M.A.R.T. Pre-K CORE Guide pages 55-56
S.M.A.R.T. Curriculum Guide pages 72-73
 
Download:
Bone (editable in Word)
Bone (PDF)