Today we read "The Tooth Book" by Dr. Seuss. And you know, I really love that book. My favorite part is the last page:
And never bite your dentist
when he works inside your head.
Your dentist is
your teeth's best friend.
Bite carrot sticks instead!
Something pretty interesting about this book (at least interesting to me) was that it was Dr. Seuss writing as Theo LeSieg. Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) wrote and illustrated many of his books. Sometimes he had someone else illustrate for him. When he did this, he used the pen name, Theo LeSieg (LeSieg is Geisel spelled backward).
It's funny that my daughter chose to read "The Tooth Book" today. Since it was just the other day I had a conversation with someone who always believed that the tooth fairy was real. How else could someone take a tooth from under a pillow and replace it with money without waking him up. This was an adult speaking by the way, so I didn't have to have an answer. But when you're a parent or a childcare provider, I guess you have to have an answer. Not only an answer to "Why doesn't the Tooth Fairy wake me up", but "How does Santa get down the chimney without getting hurt", or "How does the Easter Bunny even hop in"? I don't have the answers. It was just something that I was thinking about today.
The other thing I was thinking about today was, who would think to write a book about teeth? I guess Theo LeSieg
and these folks:
Thanks for reading,
- Michelle
P.S. Here are some activities to do after you read "The Tooth Book":
- Make copies of some of the pages from the book. Then cut out a few fun pictures and let the children glue to construction paper. Hang the children's creations around the room. You could also have the children find photos from magazines of tooth brushes, tooth paste, teeth, dental floss, etc. They could make a collage using the pictures they found.
- Try making some teeth out of construction paper, or I'm sure you can buy play teeth. The children can practice brushing the construction paper teeth. This is good for older children who are learning to brush independently.
- Using construction paper make different characters with big teeth. Some of the characters in the story are: zebras, policemen, red-headed Uncles, and Lions. Then include characters like the snail and jelly fish who don't have teeth. Talk about who does and doesn't have teeth. If you can't find some templates to help you make the above, you could again make copies of the characters from the book and hang them on the wall or bulletin board.
- Setup your Dramatic play area as a Dentists office.
- Call a local Dentist and see if you could take the children on a field trip to their office on a quiet day. This is especially helpful for children who are afraid of going to the Dentist. It may help them to feel a little bit more comfortable.
- You could also incorporate a nutrition lesson here by explaining to the children that eating well helps them have healthy teeth and keep reminding them how important it is to have healthy teeth.
- Take pictures of the children with big smiles that show their teeth. Again these can be hung on the bulletin board.
- And of course read as many books as you can find about teeth. Especially my favorite "The Tooth Book".