The other day several of my primary students were in line waiting to go to their classroom. I noticed several students wiggling a tooth. One youngster looked at me and pointed to his missing tooth.
Gleefully another one told me, “My tooth is loose.”
A third child not to be outdone, showed me his loose tooth and added, “I’m trying to get it to fall out during school. Because then I will get one of those plastic teeth to put it in.”
They all made me smile. The magic of losing those first teeth. The excitement when it finally happens. A shared milestone, we even have songs that refer to the loss of baby teeth.
Last fall I read the book “Teeth” by Sneed Collard III. I started to share the book talking about the title and author. One boy told me, “ I’m really not interested in the topic of teeth.”
I looked at him, “That’s ok. Sit quietly and listen, other people may be interested.”
“Ok, but I’m not interested.”
When I got to the part about the largest elephant molars weighing 9 pounds. He was leaning forward listening. When we got to the part about the great white shark having 3000 teeth, he couldn’t contain himself.
“They have 3000 TEETH?”
As he digested this information I saw his tongue moving over his teeth as he tried to count his own. I’m not sure whether he added or subtracted for the new front teeth that were crowning.
