Teeth and Skulls!

Talking About Teeth...and Skulls.

With all of the talk about dinosaurs in the Brown Room, the conversations have taken an interesting turn...to that of TEETH! To get a better look at teeth that were not our own, we first examined a preserved crocodile skull. 

Charlton and Louisa's Investigation
Karen: Under this blanket, there is something very special. Charlton and Louisa, you both know a lot about dinosaurs and dinosaurs’ teeth. So what do you think might be under this blanket?
Charlton: Dinosaur teeth!            
Louisa giggled: Nothing.
Karen: Let’s see…3, 2, 1…
Charlton: A crocodile.
Karen: Tell me what you notice about the crocodile.
Charlton was full of questions:

• Why is his mouth open?
• Eyes! Why is it not connected to something (its body)?
• Yeah. Why are its teeth sharp?

Karen: Louisa, do you know anything about crocodiles and their teeth or dinosaurs and their teeth?
Charlton observed, "They’re pretty sharp teeth." He then touched his own teeth, 
 "My teeth are not sharp."
Louisa pointed to her own teeth and then to the crocodile's teeth, "My teeth are not like this. My teeth are big."

Ellie and Ramsey's Investigation
Karen: What else do you notice Ramsey and Ellie?  Look closely.
Both Ramsey and Ellie leaned in to get a better look at the crocodile’s head.
Ellie: It close it mouth!
Ellie and Ramsey both pushed down on the upper jaw to see how it closed. Ramsay picked up the crocodile head and turned it over to examine it closer, "He doesn’t have to bite."
Ellie picked up the crocodile head and observed, "This has too big, big teeth. Look here." Then Ellie closed the crocodile's jaws and narrated, "We close this. Close, close, close."
Karen: Ramsey, did you want to add something?
Ramsey: Well, yeah. 
Ellie: Dinosaur has sharp teeth like this, Ramsey.
Ramsey: It has a line on it and its mouth is because his teeth are like a dinosaur. 
Karen: You think his teeth are like a dinosaur’s? What makes you say that Ramsey?
Ramsey: Because this has a hole (looking at the bottom of the crocodile’s head).
Karen: There’s a hole?
Ramsey: Yes….on, on this…(pointing to the lower of the crocodile’s mouth). 
Karen: Why do these remind you of dinosaur teeth?
Ramsey: Well, dinosaurs, there’s no teeth right here but they will eat fish without teeth.

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Drawing Skulls

After the initial conversations about skulls,  we decided to add a materials experience. The children have been doing a lot of drawing recently and we wanted to see how they would draw presented with the provocation of authentic artifacts in front of them. On the first day of drawing, we worked in the outdoor classroom, with just one skull. On days two and three, we provided the familiar crocodile skull, plus a deer skull and a cow mandible. While drawing, we stressed that it was important to look carefully at our artifacts and think intentionally about the details that we see as we draw. We were also curious about the comparisons the children would make. 

Day 1 Drawing Provocation

Day 2 and 3 Drawing Provocation

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Louisa's 3 Drawings

Before, beginning her first drawing, Louisa declared, "I want small paper." As she drew, she narrated her process, "I'm drawing the crocodiles’ head. Look at this. Look at this. I draw. This is his eye."
For her second drawing she once again chose, "Small paper because I like small. It’s baby tiny," before describing her work, "I’m going to draw his eyes. No, first his body. I write his ear up here. This is not his ear here. This is his 'nother ear. I want another one."
She provided a reason for choosing the smallest paper for her third drawing, "This is little. This is his body. This is his baby. This is his baby crocodile (picking up the skull).  He is a baby crocodile. This is his teeth. It has sharp teeth and ears."
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Ellie approached the table and looked over the paper choices, "I want to choose the big one. We drawing it. These teeth and mouth and eyes. I need to draw his face. I need to draw inside his teeth."

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Seon picked up the skull and examined it. She described her work, "Alligator! That’s his head. I drawing his eyes over here. I want to draw the nose. I did it."

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Cal picked up the deer skull:  "I want this one. I gonna draw this mouth." He went to the materials shelf in the studio and examined the drawing implements. He came back with a piece of charcoal that he used to add to his drawing.  "That’s the teeth. This his eye. That his nose. That’s his mouth. That’s his tongue. I think this might be a dinosaur or a stegosaurus."
Ramsey hypothesized, "Or and a T-rex. Maybe because it has these teeth."
Cal pointed to another hole in the skull, "Maybe this is another eye."
Ramsey looked at the skull that Cal was drawing, "Well, this is the bone and this is the face." 
Win examined the cow mandible first, but then decided on drawing the crocodile skull: "A dinosaur. The eye." Win chose the thin black marker and traced around the outside of the crocodile skull.
Mimi picked up the crocodile skull: I want teeth. Ouch! It’s eat me. It's very sharpie.
Cal looking again at the deer skull and shared his thoughts: "I think this is a diplodocus."
Rawls: I would like to draw this one (pointing up the crocodile head). The one that Mimi has.
Mimi: I’m drawing this part.
Rawls: I want to draw it, too.
Cal: I would like to draw that (pointing to the crocodile head again).
Rawls:  I'm going back to drawing. It is a spiky dinosaur. The crocodile has sharp teeth.

Fay and Mimi talked about why they chose their preferred artifacts to draw and then their conversation took a new turn.  As they continued to draw, they talked about the sizes of the paper choices in the studio and then compared what sizes of paper they have at home. 
Fay: I want this one. This one has sharp teeth.
Mimi: I want the small one. I always pick the small ones because I like them. They different. 
Fay pointed to one end of her drawing: That’s the tail. She pointed to the other end: That’s the eye. I draw the teeth. I draw all of the body. I have small paper at my home. 
Mimi: I have big paper at my home.
Fay: I also have big paper at my home. I make a small tail. It goes this way. 

Ramsey: There is a big long mouth. This is the eye and this is the body. It’s a skull.

Fay's 1st Drawing: "These are the teeth. A dinosaur is gonna eat mint," as she pointed to the zig-zags. Fay's 2nd Drawing: "These are the teeth," as she pointed to the vertical lines coming down from the right side of her drawing.

Ragnar looked at the deer skull and counted the holes that he found, "There’s 17 of those!" He described his drawing by saying, "The dots are all the eyes."

Isabelle: I draw its eyes. I make a crocodile.

As Cal pointed to the vertical lines coming down from the oblong shape he had drawn, he explained, "These are the teeth. The dots are the eyes. Triple eyes."