#10 The Teeth

Review
We began, of course, by reviewing the previous lesson, The Digestive System.

Day One Story & Exploration
I took my story for The Teeth from Linda Allison's book, Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides.

The chapter is called "Teeth: Nippers, Chompers, Grinders." I required that the older students take notes during the lesson.

We started with page 31 (What Vore?) and then I had them do activity 4.2 from Easy Genius Science Projects with the Human Body: Great Experiments and Ideas. This is why I was cutting up all those styrofoam cups. I had the styrofoam pieces from the last time I did this, with Natalie. At that time Zac had only one tooth. I passed around his little tooth mark. It was adorable. One of my students lost her two front top baby teeth and, even though the new adult teeth are growing in, they were too short to make a mark yet.

We read page 33 (Somthing Missing?, Open Wide) and I passed around some of my daughters' baby teeth. It is easier to see the difference in the shape of an incisor and a molar if you can hold them in your hand. I also had a tooth with a full root on it, which Natalie knocked out at the age of 3. That is really interesting to see!

We did the Tooth Dissection activity on page 34 with one of Becca's baby teeth and then I showed my class the diagram in the book of the cross-section of a tooth. We read the rest of page 34 (Inside Stories, Cavities Mean Holes) and then did Test II from the Acid Attack activity on page 35. My favorite soda is a Dr. Pepper, so that's what we used. One of Leah's baby teeth went into the bottle and we closed it up and labeled it March 15th.

Then we read the rest of page 35 (Counterattack) and I talked about disclosing tablets (which they mention in the Red Alert activity on page 36). Some of the children had used them before and some had not. We finished with page 36 (Golden Tooth Rule).

Main Lesson Book
Students continued to draft their summaries and illustrations for The Digestive System. I told them that they could choose whether to put The Teeth in as part of The Digestive System, or give it its own two-page spread.

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