This past week we kickstarted a mini-unit on Dental Health right as we approached our Fall Break. My French colleagues had been teaching all about teeth and taking care of teeth for about a week leading up to my lessons. I love piggy-backing off of what they're teaching because they do a wonderful job of building up students' background knowledge on the subject. Plus, they have the time in their schedules to really dig into the unit and explore the different concepts.
Me?
I only get an hour or so Mon-Thurs to reinforce concepts in English and workshop centers are a primary way for me to get in as much content exposure as I can. That's why I'm loving these teeth centers that bridge vocabulary and understanding with ELA objectives!
My favorite Teeth read alouds & activities
To begin my lessons I typically always have some kind of read aloud where students can enjoy a story. We're beginning a unit on sequencing and what better way than to start with brushing teeth?!
Bearenstain Bears Visit the Dentist
This is a great story for my kindergartners because it's so relatable! Many of them are beginning to experience wiggly teeth that are destined to fall out. And everyone has visited the dentist at least a few times so they were all tracking what Sister Bear and Brother Bear were experiencing throughout the story.
After reading the story we discussed why it's important for us to brush our teeth and visit the dentist. I then introduced the skill we'd be working on which is sequencing. I linked our learning to when we discussed washing hands and that we follow an order when we do it. Brushing our teeth follows the same concept: that we follow an order to make sure our teeth are clean.
I love using this FREEBIE from Melissa at The Printable Princess blog. She has so many wonderful resources and this Dental Health Freebie was just what I needed for my whole group lesson on sequencing how to brush our teeth! I used these cards to track our thinking about the order in which we brush, then followed it up with a quick cut and sort activity before releasing them into their centers that day.
Bear's Loose Tooth
Since students have developed a strong understanding at this point about their teeth I begin to transition our thinking to our ELA standards of sequencing events in a story. I love this story because the Bear series is one I use all year long. In this story, Bear has a wiggly tooth and his forest animal friends help him one-by-one to pull it out.
After our reading we review what sequencing is and how, as readers, we can sequence the events in a story. We discuss how it's important that we remember what happens and that we can retell the story in order from beginning, middle, to end.
As a whole group we practice remembering the order that the animals helped Bear with this FREEBIE from Melissa of First Grade Smiles blog! It's a great way to practice before centers because there are only 4 animals to sort. Quick cutting and sorting! We also discussed what each animal was - like, badger and wren - since these types of animals are new to a lot of my students.
Teeth ELA Workshop Centers
After our whole group lessons we break into our ELA workshop centers. This is 15-20 minutes of independent work time for my students that allows them the time to explore key ELA concepts - including the focus skill for the week.
Here's a peek at what I've placed in my centers for teeth week!
Another great sorting activity for happy and sad teeth is this Dental Health resource from A Dab of Glue Will Do on Teachers Pay Teachers. She has all kinds of activities that could be used during centers for $7!
I've used this in centers year after year and it's always been a hit. Just place a few toothbrushes in there as erasers and kids are engaged the whole time! It takes some time to prep because of the individual letter pieces but once you do you'll be set for years!
This center activity comes from Pocket of Preschool and another one I've used over and over again - and yet another that is quite a bit to prep. However, it's great because you can use the teeth to build names (like shown) or sight words! No matter how you choose to incorporate it into your ELA block it's sure to delight the littles.
Another great center for letter identification and reinforcement from Pocket of Preschool!
Other supplemental finds I used during Teeth Week are...
Later in our week we previewed this quick overview of the parts of a tooth from the American Dental Association. It was a great way to visualize the insides of our teeth and explain things such as why our gums bleed when our teeth fall out.
Afterwards we worked together to label the Parts of a Tooth with this FREEBIE diagram from Teaching for Keeps on TpT!
How to Catch a Tooth Fairy
This was just for fun on our last day of the week before break. The kids really enjoyed the story and afterwards we each came up with an idea for our own traps. With a bit of extra time I simply gave students a piece of paper and coloring materials and had them design their traps and shared them with each other.
There are so many ways you could use this story as a part of your teeth unit! It could be a source of inspiration for writing, drawing pictures, labeling, etc. There are so many resources out there that make great companions to this story!
Happy fall break, everyone!
