Appropriate grades or age groups:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Materials needed (if applicable):
Any of the following items: books, pencils, pens, gelpens, erasers, stickers, bookmarks...

Activity set-up/instructions or description of technique:
Instead of putting money underneath the pillow in exchange for the tooth, I put any school related items--books, bookmarks, pens, erasers underneath the pillow.

Other suggestions or comments:
Parents have to start this when the kids are very young--and start with reading to them every day. By the time they are in elementary school, and they start to loose their baby teeth, using the Tooth Fairy technique helps to teach the kids to listen and follow directions. Parents then encourage the kids to use the Tooth Fairy's gifts in order to reinforce their efforts. "Let's read the special book that the Tooth Fairy gave you." Or "Use the pen that the Tooth Fairy gave you to write, you will have a good penmanship." Parents can put different items under the pillow each time to keep things interesting, as long as they are books or school related items.


By the time the kids grow older and no long believe in Tooth Fairy, the good habit has already been established. Hopefully by the time they are in middle school, they will continue with the good reading habit and they will appreciate their parents' action of using Tooth Fairy to show their love and support.