I started off by having the kiddos add information to our schema chart. Schema, as I explained to the boys and girls, is information we already have about a topic that we store in our brain. I put that information on a post-it and placed it on our chart under the heading of "Schema". Every one's contribution to our schema chart was included. For the next three days, I read books to the kiddos and showed a video about dental health. After each lesson, we came together and added more information to our chart but this time under the heading of "New Learning". Each day I used a new color of post-it. For information we discovered wasn't correct, we moved that post-it to "Misconceptions".
Our Schema Chart
We also did a little experiment illustrating what happens to your teeth is you do not brush regularly. I used two hard boiled eggs, each representing a tooth. I discussed how, like the egg, a tooth is hard on the outside to protect the soft part of your tooth. One egg was placed in vinegar. This was to represent a tooth that was not brushed very often. The kiddos observed how bad the vinegar smelled. One little kiddo said, "Mrs. Straight it even smells like bad breath!" After just one day the egg in the vinegar was discolored and soft with a yucky film on it. (Yes, we touched the egg - then quickly washed our hands!) The kinders agreed brushing is a MUST!!
The nice clean "tooth"
The yucky "tooth"
It was hard to get a good picture but trust me, like the boys and girls said--- "GROSS!"
Our hallway display....
Can YOU find your child's toothy grin?
That egg experiment brought back some childhood memories! When I was a kid, I wondered why the egg had bubbles on it and why it started to peel off like crazy. Now I'm accustomed to the "seashell" test. It is easily breakable, but you'd rather talk about taking care of your teeth than having it pulled, right?
ReplyDeleteHarry Bronson