Kinders Learn about Dental Health and Animals

To help promote dental health with Kindergarten, I choose to read Doctor De Soto by William Steig.  Of course I had to get more than just a read aloud in, so with this lesson I promoted award-winning books, an author and a bit of research and critical thinking.
This 30 minute lesson progressed as such...
1.  First a general look at the book, the award it won and a promotion of other books by the same author.
2.  Next, I read the book while we predicted along the way, talked about the big story problem and discussed what the different animals ate that were presented in the story.
3.  At the end of the book, I went back to the animals that were treated in the story and suggested that not all animals would be welcome, as indicated on Doctor De Soto's sign.  We discussed the differences between meat-eaters and plant-eaters.  I had previously introduced them to our online database (Worldbook Online) so again suggested we log on and see what other animals Doctor De Soto would be willing to treat.
4.  With pre-selected pictures of animals, we predicted with a raise of hands whether or not Doctor De Soto would treat the animal on the card.  They helped me navigate to the site and find the information on each animal.  They had to make inferences by the facts given about what the animal ate whether or not Doctor De Soto would treat the animal.  There were clues like "nibbled on grass" or "hunted for animals" that were great for inferring.
5.  I ended our search by asking them what would Doctor De Soto tell all his patients (and them) about taking care of their teeth so they wouldn't get a cavity like the fox in the story.  Of course, they knew the answer!

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