SMarteenies facts for kids

SMarteenies was a fun art show made for younger children. It was a spin-off from the popular children's art programme SMart. The show started on the CBeebies channel in February 2002. It was shown every day. The series was repeated until January 2008.

Each episode began with the four presenters. They would use a rhyme to decide who would start the first art project. The rhyme was "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Smarteenies guess who'll have a go." After each art piece, the show would return to this screen. Then, they would pick the next presenter.

Meet the Presenters

The presenters in SMarteenies were the same as those from the original SMart show. The segments they hosted would change every other episode.

Jay Burridge

• Jay Burridge hosted a segment called 'Man of Letters'. He wore a postman's cap and carried a bag. This bag was covered with alphabet letters.
• The bag held items and art tools. All of these items started with a special letter of the alphabet. Jay then used them to create a piece of art.
• His other segment showed how to make pictures. He demonstrated using things like coloured pencils and wax crayons. Jay usually wore a dark blue shirt.

Lizi Botham (Bizi Lizi)

• Lizi Botham, also known as Bizi Lizi, had a segment where she used her fingerprints. She would create pictures right on the camera lens. These fun pictures appeared three times in each episode.
• Her other segment involved visiting children at a school. She would work with them to make something creative. Lizi typically wore a yellow shirt.

Kirsten O'Brien

• Kirsten O'Brien appeared with a puppet named Doogy the Dog. Marcus Clarke played Doogy.
• Doogy often drove his small blue car, called the Doogymobile. He would go out to get things for Kirsten.
• Kirsten's other segment was 'Pattern Palace'. Here, she used different art materials. She created fun and colourful patterns. Kirsten usually wore a pale blue shirt.

Mark Speight

• Mark Speight hosted the "Shape Store" segment. In this part, he would make pictures using different shapes.
• His other segment was called "Big Picture, Small Picture". He would create two versions of the same scene at once. One was normal-sized, and the other was very large. For the large version, he might use mops instead of paint brushes.
• Mark wore a red shirt. In the Shape Store segment, he also wore a brown jacket over his shirt.

Show History

SMarteenies first aired in February 2002 on CBeebies in the UK. Later, in 2006, it also aired on CBC Kids in Canada. The show was also shown on the Australian CBeebies channel.