NATCHEZ &045; It takes a ride on a giant red peanut to simulate life with limited muscular strength.

The fifth-graders in Janice Davis’s McLaurin Elementary School class were playing it cool until the inflated rubber ball they were sitting on started rocking and swaying to mimic what it might feel like for a stroke victim.

&uot;It gave them a sense of what it’s like to be off balance,&uot; said Joanna Brumfield, an occupational therapist at Natchez Regional Medical Center.

Brumfield and four other teams of occupational, speech and physical therapists paid a visit to the fourth- and fifth-grade classes Friday to give real life experiences to the children’s science books.

Fifth-grade science teacher Rachea Bailey invited the medical personnel as part of the science lesson on the skeletal and muscular systems.

&uot;What you are doing is brining everyday, real life from the community into the classroom,&uot; Bailey said. &uot;When you have people who do it every day, it’s more real.&uot;

The therapists traveled in small groups to each classroom demonstrating a different disability in each room. The students participated in balancing, standing and electrical stimulations and used dressing aids to put on articles of clothing.

&uot;They were really excited and had good questions,&uot; Brumfield said. &uot;About what it’s like for people in hospitals.&uot;

Fifth-grader Devaonay Grandson sat on the red peanut and tried to catch a ball while Brumfield pulled the peanut in different directions.

&uot;It was fun and easy until she started moving it,&uot; Grandson said.