Giant Lite-Brite Wall Installed at Brooklyn Park’s North View Middle School
In the not-too-distant past, a small light box with colored plastic pegs was a dominant force in the toy market.
That box was called Lite-Brite.
Kids would plug the colored pegs into a panel that would light up and create a picture.
Cori Smith of Osseo Area Schools remembers it well.
“There’s not a lot of Lite-Brites around anymore,” Smith said.
Smith works as an occupational therapist with the Osseo School District. While the Lite-Brite may have waned in popularity as a children’s toy, the concept has taken on a second life as an educational tool.
“We are always trying to do innovative things for our students,” Smith said. “North View is a great little community school, and so everybody has bought into it.”
North View Occupational Therapist Cori Smith does an exercise on the Lite-Brite wall with 8th grader Dwayne Hendrickson.
A tool for special education students
Earlier this month, North View Middle School in Brooklyn Park installed a giant Lite-Brite board. The goal is for special education students — and those who are visually impaired — to work on things like hand-eye coordination, motor skills and following directions.
“With some of our kids that are having difficulty with tabletop activities, this is a little more interesting,” Smith said. “And you incorporate movement by going to the board, going back from the board, working on hand skills. There’s just so much we can do with it.”
Considering that the Lite-Brite wall was just installed in mid-November, some of the pieces are a little difficult to work with. However, staff members at North View say they’re excited about the opportunities for incorporating the wall into the curriculum.
“It’s got so much variability to how we use it that we can curtail it to each student,” Smith said. “Plus, we also like to bring in two students at a time so you have some social and emotional learning with taking turns and working on a project together.”
The Lite-Brite wall cost about $2,000. Much of the funding came from the Lions Clubs of Maple Grove and Brooklyn Park.
Related: School Spotlight: North View Middle School Connects Students to Goals
