Download SMART Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated Readiness Training

S.M.A.R.T.
Stimulating Maturity through
Accelerated Readiness Training
Developed by the Minnesota Learning
Resource Center
www.themlrc.org
What is S.M.A.R.T.?
• It is a multi-sensory approach to learning,
designed to develop and enhance the
physiological and neurological readiness
skills students need to succeed in school.
With these readiness skills in place,
students have the necessary tools to be
able to learn to read, write, and receive
information in the classroom.
Repetition!!!
• The whole basis of the S.M.A.R.T.
curriculum is repetition. Any new activity
should be reviewed within a twenty-four
hour period. New activities may only be
built upon once it has been established
that the student has retained the original
activity and transferred it to long-term
memory. (Usually working on the same skill set for a 2-week period.)
How Much Repetition is Needed?
Number of correct repetitions in a row of a new word
needed to “automatize” the word (R. Lyon, 1997)
Type of Learner
Number of Repetitions
Most Able
1 or 2
Average
4 - 14
Least Able
20 – 200 or more
S.M.A.R.T. Centers
• Balance and Vestibular Activities – Learning balance
develops and strengthens students’ core muscles while activities such as
spinning and rolling stimulate the brain by circulating fluid through the
canals of the inner ear. These activities also promote body awareness
which helps children sit still and remain seated in their chairs in the
classroom. (Spinning stimulates the same part of the brain that is stimulated by prescribed
impulse-control medications.)
• Gross Motor Activities – Developing eye-hand and eye-foot
coordination, movement concepts and skills of bouncing, catching, dribbling,
kicking and jumping. This center involves a progression of cross lateral
movements (i.e. Creeping and Crawling). The movements stimulate the
right and left hemispheres of the brain to work in cooperative balance rather
than in competitive conflict. (Crossing the mid-line promotes left to right awareness
needed in reading.)
• Fine Motor Activities – The focus is on developing the muscles
in the hand for writing in the classroom. Pencil grip, pressure, cutting and
shoe tying are just a few activities used to develop finger strength.
Lee Neill, PhD
S.M.A.R.T. Centers (continued)
• Auditory Activities – While this center works on letter sounds,
rhymes, sound blending and auditory commands, we also add activities
designed to introduce students to basic musical elements such as vocal
exploration, long / short, steady beat, no beat, same / different, fast /slow
and loud / soft just to name a few.
• Vision Activities – Incorporates activities designed to strengthen
the muscles around the eyes through tracking, lateral and vertical
coordination, and far & near vision skills that are used for reading and board
work.
• Instructional Activities – Reading activities emphasize listening
comprehension and memory recall as well as reviewing site words and high
interest words. Math activities focus on numbers, sorting, concepts such as
less, more and equal, and basic addition and subtraction skills.
How does S.M.A.R.T. contribute
to the Kindergarten curriculum?
We will use the Kindergarten Core Map as a
guide. Math and Language material
presented in S.M.A.R.T. will be a review of
what has been taught in the classroom.
“Learning is experience.
Everything else is just information.”
~Einstein
“Movement is the means through
which we experience and express life.”
~Yates
Reflex Activities
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1. Rocking Horse
2. Giraffe Stretch
3. Superman
4. Popcorn
~ Warm-Ups
Balance and Vestibular Activities
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1. Helicopter Spins
2. Log Rolls
3. Forward Rolls
4. Cartwheels
5. Balance Sequence
6. Tape Lines and Balance Beams
7. Hop Scotch
~ Gym
Gross Motor Activities
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1. Alligator Crawl
2. Flip Flops
3. Creep Track
4. Overhead Ladder
5. Kicking, Bouncing, Catching, Dribbling,
Jumping Activities
• ~ Gym
Vision Activities
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1. Wagon Wheels
2. Visual Pursuits
3. Scanning Game
4. Thumbkins
5. Pencil Push-Ups
~ Hall - Perryman
Fine Motor Activities
• (See Handout)
• ~Art – Beth Ann Moore
Auditory Activities
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1. Name that Sound
2. Rhyme Time
3. Sound Blending
4. Auditory Discrimination
~ Music – Lisa Crunk
Instructional Activities
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1. Listening Comprehension
2. Sight Words
3. Math Concepts
~ Library – Henderson / Smith