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Tooth Month Writing Lesson – Toothy Tales

Home » Tooth Month Writing Lesson – Toothy Tales
Tooth Month Writing Lesson – Toothy Tales

Tooth Month Writing Lesson – Toothy Tales

A tooth month writing lesson is a great addition to our writing block in February. After all, February is National Tooth Month. It seems an odd thing to celebrate, doesn’t it? Some of our “National month and day” focuses are quite odd.

Nonetheless, we end February with a little focus on all things teeth – both animal and people. Today we read this book.

A Bridge to Prior Knowledge

Have you read it? It’s cute. And very funny. It’s also relatable to little first graders!

Poor Andrew has a tooth that is hurting him and he can’t get it out of his mouth. His mom couldn’t pull it out. His dad couldn’t grab it out with pliers. The dentist destroyed his car when he tied one end of a rope to his fancy tooth mobile and the other to Andrew’s tooth and drove off. The tooth fairy’s hammer could not break it out. However, Andrew’s friend, Luis, poured some pepper up Andrew’s nose. That sneeze that resulted from said pepper shot that tooth across town. It’s definitely a silly, fun story.

And… it opens a whole huge discussion about wiggly teeth. Stubborn teeth. And tooth loss. They can relate!

A Writing Lesson Plan

After we discussed all things loose teeth, I did a sample pre-write plan with drawing boxes on Andrew’s Loose Tooth. Then another example of a story of my own making.

I like to do samples this way so they can see that using your own ideas is just as easy as using the author’s. I encourage them to use their imagination and come up with their own crazy, wacky adventure.

After my examples, the kids make their pre-write drawing boxes for their own make-believe or exaggerated real life story of all of the different ways they tried to get a loose tooth out of their mouth. We call them “Toothy Tales”.

I absolutely LOVE their creativity. I think they really stretch their stories because most of them have some experience with the oddity that is losing teeth.

After making drawing boxes, we take our plan a step further and turn those drawn ideas into actual sentences.

Writing this way makes it easy for the kiddos to take ownership for their stories right from the beginning. The task is not overwhelming and they are excited to tell their tale. (See my post on Engaging Writing for more writing instruction info.)

Want this tooth month writing lesson activity for your kiddos? Grab this FREEBIE in my store. 😀

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13 Comments

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  • Kimberly
    · Reply

    February 22, 2012 at 10:59 AM

    I'm gonna have to put that book in my shopping cart right away (before February is over)! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your hard work!
    Kimberly
    Funky First Grade Fun

  • Holly
    · Reply

    February 22, 2012 at 12:56 PM

    I love Robert Munsch…if you go on his website, he reads lots of his books. I can't remember if he reads this one…he's a hoot!

    Thanks for the freebie- I'm going to use it {I always wonder if anybody is actually using my stuff….thought you'd want to know!}

    Happy Wednesday!

    Holly
    Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade

  • Sarah Paul
    · Reply

    February 22, 2012 at 4:23 PM

    Thank you so much for these fabulous freebies! These are both so great. 🙂
    Sarah
    Sarah's First Grade Snippets

  • Andrea
    · Reply

    February 22, 2012 at 5:21 PM

    I love that book!! Thank you for the freebies!

    Andrea
    Cheers to School

  • Jen R. @ The Teachers' Cauldron
    · Reply

    February 23, 2012 at 12:16 AM

    cute! I always do a tooth writing too…it comes from a scholastic book by Mary Rose (who actually works in my district and I took a workshop from her! woohoo!)
    The Teachers’ Cauldron

  • Kristin
    · Reply

    February 23, 2012 at 2:20 AM

    I love Robert Munsch — that story makes me happy! 🙂
    Thanks for the freebie!
    A Teeny Tiny Teacher

  • vicky1970
    · Reply

    February 23, 2012 at 2:30 AM

    Hi traci
    Those are great ideas and thank you for sharing. :o)
    Vicky
    Traditions Laughter and Happily Ever After

  • Mrs.LaSota's Blog
    · Reply

    February 24, 2012 at 4:31 AM

    This is great! Thank you for sharing. I'll have to check out that book!
    -Danielle
    http://lasotaslittlelearners.blogspot.com

  • Lori Faas
    · Reply

    February 25, 2012 at 11:02 PM

    Traci—SO cute! My kids love listening to Robert Munsch read his own books and your freebies are adorable!! Thank you so much for sharing!

    By the way, I have tried several times to get my button up on the blog…..it seems to never link out right…….any suggestions? These days when I get frustrated, I just ignore it! LOL!

    Lori
    bee-the-chang.blogspot.com

    • [email protected]
      · Reply

      February 25, 2012 at 11:43 PM

      You're welcome.

      I'll email you about your button.

  • stephanie
    · Reply

    February 2, 2020 at 9:11 PM

    Hello,

    I saw on Pinterest that you have a “My loose Tooth” poem activity… but I can only find this writing lesson. Do you have the poem with activity in your shop? I can’t seem to find it!

    Thanks in advance 🙂
    Stephanie

    • Traci
      · Reply

      Author
      April 27, 2020 at 9:31 PM

      Hi Stephanie!
      You can grab it from my Google Drive here!

  • Stephanie
    · Reply

    April 27, 2020 at 10:14 PM

    Thank you so much ! Greatly appreciated

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Hi! I’m Traci and I’m super glad you’re here. I’m passionate about sharing all the *wisdom* gained over my many years of teaching. I love helping teachers find their joy, develop efficiency and ignite their own teaching strengths. I believe simplicity and fun coupled with effective strategies and engaging and focused lessons are the key to it all. Also… laughter can carry you through just about all things.

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