Teachers For Teachers

This photo is from the Clutter Free Classroom blog. Who reports: "It is currently the most popular book in our class library." SMILE!!!

I appreciate the creative effort and time teachers spend outside the classroom preparing to make learning meaningful and memorable.  So I want to thank all of you for that work.

I especially want to thank those of you who are developing activities based on my books.  I value the ways you're finding to make my books special discovery experiences for children.


So I want to share a few of the blogs I know are sharing one of my books--WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH? (Scholastic, 2013).  I hope those of you who are also sharing this book or know of blogs with activities based WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH? will Comment. I'd love the sites I'm sharing here to grow, and grow, and grow. SMILE!

Definitely check out Science For Kids: Adventures of An Elementary School Science Teacher by Sue Cahalane.

Sue has created activities based on my book WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH?  She shares patterns for four kinds of teeth (narwhale, elephant, camel, tiger) kids can use while imaging themselves with different kinds of animal teeth.  She also shares worksheets for an animal classification activity based on this book.

At Oceans of First Grade Fun by Yolanda Arnold. You'll find patterns for the other kinds of animal teeth in this book. Like her students, your children can try their hand at a little opinion writing answering these questions:

• If you could have teeth like any one of the animals in this book, which would you choose?
• Why would you like to have that kind of animal teeth?

Of course, like the book, also challenge children to think about what's great about having human teeth.

At First Grade W.O.W. (Windows On Wonder) Nancy Vandenberge shared her entire class with their animal teeth.  These kids also examined some cool REAL teeth Nancy brought in to share.

"I love collecting fun things for our science center.  I have a bull skull which includes many of his teeth, a small deer jawbone, and a good friend just gave me an elk skull with teeth.  We had an amazing time examining each one. " Nancy Vandenberge

And what a great chance for children to think about how each animal's teeth are just right for what that animal eats.

Definitely don't miss Homeschool Share. Scroll down to Science Activity 7 and Animal Teeth

You can download a  worksheet with wonderful photos your children can use to match animal teeth to just the right animal.

Or go to Science Kids: Fun Science & Technology For Kids.  There your students can play an interactive game. They're challenged to drag teeth to the right animal, including a human, and click on EAT.  Making a mistake is as much fun (and interesting) as getting it right.

And you'll find more fun at Teach Mentor Texts.  There, Jen gives the book five hearts and suggests this activity.

"Writing Prompts: Imagine that you did have animal teeth - as if they were a super power. What could you do with animal teeth that would help you in your daily life? Write a story where you show how you would put your animal teeth to use. Choose two animals from the book to compare and contrast. How do they use their teeth in similar or different ways?"

Also check out one more activity called One Big Bite. It has lots of action-packed, mind-building fun for your students to chew on. And if you have a special way you're sharing WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH? with kids please click on Comment and share. That'll let us all share the SMILES!!

And while you're sharing how you're building activities around WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH? here are some more teacher created activities you won't want to miss.

Lesson Plan Resource File--Animal Teeth--Estimating Length