The Adventures of a Tooth (Free PDF)

One occupational hazard of being a first grade teacher is watching kids twist and turn their teeth,  finding bloodied Kleenex in your trash and having someone shout, "IT CAME OUT!" in the middle of a great lesson! But, one of the joys of being a first grade teacher is seeing the excitement that comes from a child when they lose a tooth!  Last year I graphed the teeth that were lost in my classroom by recording the child's name and day they lost a tooth and putting it up on my window. This year I'm taking it a step further by stealing an idea from my childrens' first grade teachers.

 Last year after my daughter lost her first tooth, she came home with "The Tooth Bag" that had a book (or two?) for us to read together and a composition notebook where Ali Jane wrote (with a lot of detail I might add) about the circumstances of her losing her first tooth.  She also illustrated it and it was adorable!  We went through the book looking at entries from students who lost teeth before her and she loved it and truth be told, so did I.
By now you may have noticed that I often tweak things a bit and so this is what I'm doing. I'm totally stealing the bag and book idea but instead of a composition book, I am sending home a little binder.

 On the first page is a "Congratulations" on losing your tooth note with directions.  If you want to see how I worded my letter you can click on any picture to enlarge it, or email me and I will send you this file in publisher (you will obviously need to change your name). The student who lost a tooth will take a blank journal page from the left, illustrate and write the story of their lost tooth and put it in a plastic page protector. The reason I am going this route and not the composition book route is two fold.  1. I am anal about how things 'look' and whenever I put a paper in a protective sleeve it tends to look better and 2. (and most importantly) By putting each entry in a sleeve, I can remove the entry and send it home with the students at the end of the year so they can look back and remember what happened to that baby tooth they lost back in first grade.

You can click HERE for what I sent home (though I took out my name).  Have fun!

What do you do when a child loses a tooth?  Share, so I can steal it! ;-)