MRS. ANDREA H. DAVIS
Weekly Newsletter
December 4, 2015
THEME: All About Me
UNIT: Healthy Habits
EXTENSIONS: Dental Health
Key Measure: I know how to take care of my teeth.
LANGUAGE ARTS
PHONICS AND PHONEMIC AWARENESS: We focused on phoneme X this week. The
students are aware that very few words being with letter X, therefore we mainly learned
words ending with letter X. Ask your child who Max is in the poem we learned called “Max”
(he’s a robot).
LISTENING: At the Listening center, we have the book on tape about a dentist called A
Dozen Delicious Doughnuts. Ask your child why the donuts didn’t want to visit the dentist
(they were afraid). We talked about the fact that the dentist is our friend and that we
will have nothing to worry about if we take care of our teeth every day.
SPEAKING: The students are acquiring experience telling what happens first, middle and
last about an event or activity, focusing on dental hygiene.
WRITING: The students practiced tracing pictures and words that begin with the letter
we’ve studied. Tracing increases hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills.
READING: We read these books: Berenstain Bears visit the Dentist, Doctor De Soto,
Going to the Dentist, Albert’s toothache, Little Rabbit’s Loose Tooth, Arthur’s tooth and
How many teeth? We also read these books: The Inimitable Mr. X, Mr. Chatterbox, Little
Miss Chatterbox, X-ray X, A bat for Max, Six yellow ducks, and The big box.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Dental Health is a unit we can really sink our teeth into. We read about and talked about
eating foods that are good for dental health. The kids drew pictures of bad things and
good things for our teeth. We know that it’s OK to eat a small amount of sugary stuff as
long as we brush our teeth carefully when we’re finished. . Mrs. Bills was our helper today
and she is a dental hygienist. She talked to the kids about good dental practices and good
foods to eat to keep our teeth healthy. Thank you for bringing us goodie bags!
MATH
We played a favorite game of Circle Countdown where numerals six and sixteen had to sit
down. Ask your child who has won this game the most times. The kids decoded a secret
message from the dentist.
SCIENCE
We talked about the names of the teeth in a child's mouth (bicuspids, incisors, and
canines). We studied a large diagram of a tooth and talked about these main parts: the
crown, the enamel (we learned it is the hardest matter in your body), the root, the pulp,
the dentin, and the gum. We discussed the first George W's dental problems. Did you
know that he ruined his teeth by cracking walnuts in his mouth? His false teeth were NOT
made of wood but of hippopotamus, walrus and cow's teeth and elephant tusk!!! Did you
know the first toothbrush was invented in China over 400 years ago? Before that, people
cleaned their teeth by chewing on small twigs!!
ART
VISUAL: The students brushed paper teeth with white paint to make them sparkle! They
practiced brushing softly because brushing your teeth too hard is bad for your teeth and
gums. They made Happy Tooth / Sad Tooth puppets. Ask your child what made the teeth
sad (eating food and sugary food, then not brushing).
MUSICAL: We listened to and acted out the fun record by Raffi called "Brush Your
Teeth."
MOVEMENT: We practiced appropriate teeth brushing strokes. Don’t forget to also
brush your tongue!
TECHNOLOGY
We made a bar graph on the computer to show how many teeth our classmates have lost. I
assured the class that almost all kids will lose their first tooth by age 7. That means
some kids have to be very patient!
Have a great weekend!
Andrea Davis