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Smarty Pants uses balloons to teach, entertain Adler School students
Adler Park School Principal Jon Bogie sneaked around the curtain causing students to squeal with laughter while he scurried around wearing mouse ears and a tail.
It was all part of the fun and learning in Smarty Pants’ “The Mousetrap Machine Show.” He used colorful balloons to create simple tools like wheels, levers, pulleys, inclined planes and screws to teach and entertain students at the Libertyville school.
“We like to present the machines in a fun, memorable way through balloons,” said Smarty Pants. “That helps them learn what the machines are about and how they work. The best way to learn is to have entertainment while you are being educated.”
Students participated in the fun by walking around with a wheelbarrow made from balloons and throwing screw-shaped balloon darts around the gym.
In the end, a group of students put their balloon machines together to create the ultimate mousetrap and they captured the scampering Mouse Bogie.
“I thought it was pretty good,” fifth-grader Tabata Valdez said after the show. “You didn’t expect what was going on. I thought they were going to catch a little mouse instead they caught Mr. Bogie.”
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