Lesson Ideas
A great way to kick off the Tooth Tally Project is the Tooth Fairy description activity. Participating classes are invited to do this activity and select a picture to upload to the wiki.
You'll find the description of this year’s tooth fairy on The Project page. Read it to your students. Have them close their eyes to visualize her as you read. Download the description work sheet or post the written description on chart paper or the overhead and have your students read it to themselves as they draw a picture of her. Then decide on your class’s favourite drawing and upload it to the wiki. Why not make a classroom book of the pictures?
Instead of trying to squeeze the Tooth Tally Project into an already packed teaching day, why not integrate it into your regular curriculum? Here are some ways you can use the Tooth Tally Project to teach your regular curriculum objectives. Many of these ideas have come from previous Tooth Tally teachers!
If you've got a lesson to add to this page, please email!
1. Adapt these worksheets for your classroom. Thanks to Paul White
from a previous year's project for submitting them.
Graph
Sheet ~
Tally Sheet
2. Create graphs using
a free online graph
program. Use these graphs to
answer questions like:
-
Which class lost the most teeth last month?
-
How many more teeth did Mrs. Smith's class lose than Ms. Clark's?
-
How many teeth in all did Ms. Lewis' class lose this month?
-
Which class lost fewer teeth than Mrs. Campbell's class this week?
-
How many teeth did Ms. Edward's class and Mrs. Brown's class lose
altogether?
3. Distribute a set of
"tooth" counters
to each student to use as manipulatives as they
work word problems read by the teacher. Here are some sample word
problems:
- John lost 6 six teeth and Sarah lost 8 teeth. How many more teeth did
John lose than Sarah?
- How many teeth did John and Sarah lose altogether?
- Last month the tooth fairy came 12 times to Mrs. Campbell's first
graders. This month the tooth fairy came 5 fewer times. How many times
did the tooth fairy come this month?
- The Johnson children have really been losing teeth this month! James
lost 2 teeth. Jan lost 3 teeth and Sue lost 1 tooth. How many teeth did
they lose in all? If the tooth fairy gives $1.00 per tooth, how much
money will she leave at the Johnson house this month?
4. For homework, have each student write down the type of toothpaste they use at home. At school the next day, graph the results! Or have students survey 10 family members and friends to gather data. Then graph the results. Here's a form you can use!
5. Teach ordinal numbers and capitalization by having students write
these sentences in a class journal or on chart paper:
- Kelly lost our first tooth on February first.
- Taylor lost our second tooth on February fifth.
- Arthur lost our third tooth on February ninth.
- Amy lost our fourth tooth on February eleventh.
- Cori lost our fifth tooth on February seventeenth.
- Ben lost our sixth tooth on February twenty-first.
- Spencer lost our seventh tooth on February twenty-third.
6. Make a classroom Tooth Tally Journal out of a ring binder. When each child loses a tooth, give them a Tooth Tally sheet to fill out. (Click here for the Tooth Tally Sheet.) When it is returned, it is placed in the journal.
Each child could write something like this: My name is Jordan and I lost a tooth today. It came out while we were playing outside at recess. It is the fifth tooth our class has lost this week. So far during the project our class has lost a total of 23 teeth. (Data for last 2 sentences come from classroom charts.
7. Students design their own Tooth Fairies on paper or with a program like KidPix. Then students can create a web with Kidspiration to describe what their tooth fairy looks like. Last, students can write about their creations.
8. Print out your group's wiki page entries during the project. Bind them together into a Tooth Tally book. Share the book in class and allow students to read it during free time. Students can also make a book about what the Tooth Fairy does with all the teeth she collects.
9. Sentence Scramble! Print out this worksheet. Students should cut the sentences apart on the lines. Put each sentence in an envelope or baggie. Students read the words and make a sentence out of them. Great vocabulary activity!
9. Books to read:
-
I Know Why I Brush My Teeth by Kate Rowan,
- The Tooth Witch by Nurit Karlin,
-
Throw Your Tooth on the Roof - Tooth Traditions from Around the World by
Selby Beeler
10. Read The Tooth Book by Theo LeSieg. That's Theo Geisel spelled backwards (otherwise known as Dr. Seuss). Have a backwards day and spell your own name backwards!
11. Story Starter:
The tooth fairy quietly slipped into Reggie's room. She reached under
his pillow for his tooth. Hmmm...that didn't feel like a tooth! When she
pulled the object out, she was surprised to find...
12. Make a list of all the things the tooth fairy might make out of the teeth she collects.
13. Use this project as a springboard into a mini-lesson on plurals: one tooth - two teeth; one mouse - two mice; one goose - two geese.
14. Practice rhyming words: tooth - booth; lost - cost; fairy - hairy; loose - goose; wiggle - giggle; brush - crush
15. Have students type the tooth fairy's description using a word processor. Using a scanner, scan in their fairy drawings to illustrate their typing.
16. Make a smile collage. Take a digital photo of each student's smile and create a class collage. Variation: take a photo of each student's smile when they lose a tooth.
17. Write a class story about the adventures of the tooth fairy. Each student can contribute a sentence as the teacher writes on chart paper or the overhead projector. Then give each student his/her sentence to illustrate and type with a program like KidPix or PowerPoint. Print and bind to create a new book for your classroom library.
18. Use HyperStudio, KidPix or PowerPoint to create a 4-slide project about how to take care of your teeth. Slide one: title slide, slide two: brushing correctly, slide three: flossing, slide four: eating healthy foods.
19. Each year my class locates each state on a map. One year I assigned each student a state from our group. They researched the state at home with their parents and shared what they learned with the class. This year each student is completing a state research sheet for each state. They will put all the pages together in a book with other Tooth Tally information that we collect. Thanks to Julie McGough, Fresno, CA.
Downloadable Resources
Some of the links below require a PDF reader to open files. Download Foxit Reader if you cannot open these files.
**NEW**
Interactive
Tooth Tally Notebook for IWBs and Smartboards. Graphs and lots of
interactive activities.
Download and check it out! (NB. Notebook10 software required.)
**NEW**
Newsletter Updates. Latest email
newsletter - just in case you missed it.
Tooth Fairy description worksheet
Tooth Fairy description typing template
Toothpaste survey chart
from: www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/
04/lp332-02.shtml
How to Brush
from: www.ada.org/public/education/teachers
/smilesmarts/shining_materials_brush.pdf
Brushing chart -
Thomas & Friends
from: www.orajel.com/products/toddler/
brush_chart.htm
Brushing chart - Scholastic
from: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lesson
repro/lessonplans/profbooks/brushteeth.pdf
Printable tooth book
from: www.atozteacherstuff.com/printables/
book_teeth.pdf
Healthy Mouth Colouring
from: www.ada.org/public/education/
teachers/smilesmarts/shining_activity_finders.pdf
Editable graph sheet (MS Word)
from: Paul White
Editable work sheet (MS Word)
from: Paul White
Australian NSW DET Teachers:
The Tooth Tally Project Lesson Plan
from: www.computerkids.com.au
Visit
Computer Kids for
more technology lesson plans and teaching resources.