Wednesday, March 9, 2011

dental health

I'm pretty sure that Dental health month is in February, but we are just getting to it as part of a larger community helpers unit.  Today's theme was technically dentist.  There are lots of pictures from today.  It feels like we did a ton.  (new addition at the bottom- 5/2013)

Here are the books I read.  Max Goes to the Dentist by  Adria F. Klein  and Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut.  The Max book was a good follow up to our special guest today and the Clarabella book was just a short cute book about an crocodile who spends all day brushing since she has a tiny brush.


Our craft was a gluing activity.   The kids glued paper squares for teeth onto a printed mouth sheet.  I don't get to choose the crafts, we all do the same thing.  I do miss planning the crafts but I don't miss preparing all the pieces.


I didn't prepare this, so I'm not sure where he image of the mouth came from, but you could probably google image something and find a similar mouth. 


We had a guest speaker today.  It was actually the first thing we did for the day.  My dentist came in to speak. He's very good with the kids and was happy to come in.  He's younger than I am, but it's cool.


We did a sorting activity.  I found all these pictures in just a small stack of magazines I borrowed from the paper recycling center. The little sad tooth says, "Sad tooth, sad tooth, full of tooth decay.  Sweets and soda pop made me this way."   The happy tooth says, "Happy tooth, happy tooth shiny and bright, brushing keeps me healthy and white."


Bee gave it a test run at home.  I laminated all the cutouts and they worked pretty well. 


We talked about cavities.  This apple showed how a little hole in your teeth can get pretty yucky inside.  I only left this out 1 night, I probably should have cut it out two or more days before so it would be super gross.


Here was our snack, which we recreated for a snack at home.  It's two apple slices with a layer of peanut butter in between.  Mini marshmallows make the teeth. 


I boiled an egg in tea and stained it brown.  I showed the kids a white egg and the brown egg.   We took turns brushing the dirty egg (like a dirty tooth) with real toothpaste.  During each friends turn, we sang:

Brush, brush, brush your teeth
at least 2 times a day
cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, 
fighting tooth decay.

This picture is us trying it at home in advance.  It really does come clean.  mostly anyway.  When we did it in class, I put the egg in a small bowl and place it on a tray.  I also had a damp rag on the tray so the kids could wipe off their fingers. 



We also talked about flossing.  I saw this activity somewhere years ago when I taught 2nd grade.  The play dough represents food and gunk that gets in between your teeth.  The yarn is the floss.  You use the yarn just like floss and easily get out the food.  The kids asked for this to be out after snack time and they took turns flossing and resetting.


 I'm sure I saw this counting activity somewhere online or I adapted it from another idea.  I made up a paper mouth with marks for the teeth.  We rolled the dice and added that many teeth.  First I just made up one set, then I decided to make one for everybody.


For the circle marks, I stamped a marker lid in some black ink.  The teeth are mini marshmallows.  These are the same marshmallows from a snow project so we had a good talk about not eating them.


The last four pictures are activities from Musings of me.   They are activities that I set out after snack.   We aren't into the tooth fairy, so I downplayed that part and worked around it.





We have another guest next week for firefighter week.  Should be another fun one. 

addition 5/2013
Here's this years dental craft:


I am linking up to some of these fine kiddo related parties:

Wednesday's A story + art = A Great stART  @ A Mommy's adventures,   Wednesday's Kids Get Crafty @ Red Teg Art's Blog, Tuesday's Show and Tell blog hop ad ABC and 123, 
Tot Tuesdays at Delicious AmbiguityFor the Kids Fridays @ Sun Scholars

23 comments:

Kelly said...

I absolutely cannot imagine how much work goes into planning one of the amazing classes! Those kids are so lucky to have you

RedTedArt said...

Wow this is really a great resource for teeth brushing activities! What great collection of things to do - the apple is a very clever idea, as is the eggs scrubbing.. actually, I like it all!

Maggy
PS Thank you so much for joining Kids Get Crafty, much appreciate your fabulous visit!

jess_hak said...

This is fabulous! We are going to be doing community helpers/occupations soon and you gave me some fantastic ideas. I'll be sure to link back to your post! :)

Beth- the mama bee said...

I just found these songs that I will pick through for next time. http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music-station08/teeth-songs-dec08.shtml

Jen @ lil Mop Top said...

How fun! I will save this for our dentist week activities! :)

Tracey @ www.dontmesswithmama.com said...

These are the best ideas I've seen for teaching kids about dental health. Great job!

Jenna said...

These are some awesome ideas! Thanks for sharing!

Mrs said...

Fabulous! I will be linking back to this post! BTW, according to the American Dental Hygiene Association (ADHA) October is Oral Hygiene Month!

Anonymous said...

National Dental Hygiene month is in October, but Children's National DH Month is in February. I am a second year Dental Hygiene student and these activities look great! I have to give two lesson plans in the Spring as part of my Public Health class and I may use some of your ideas, they are really good and seemed effective with the kids. Thanks!

sunnymum said...

A really well thought-out unit! It gives me some good ideas for encouraging good oral health with my students. Thanks!

jane said...

Another activity I did during dental week- at the beginning of the week place a hard boiled egg into a cup of coke or pepsi. In 2-3 days the egg shell turns brown. The children can watch daily as the use of daily sugar & caffiene ( or simply state junk food) changes the color of the white egg ( or tooth).

Jedda said...

love these fabulous ideas--thanks!

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this. My 3.5 year old and I are focusing on the letter D this week, and Dental health/densist is one of the components. I will be linking up to your blog when we work on the happy tooth/sad tooth activity!

Thanks again
Adora
http://www.gingerbreadmum.blogspot.com

Bonita said...

Oh my goodness, what fantastic ideas! I don't have little ones any more, but still share ideas with other homeschoolers. How I wish blogging was around when mine were young so I could use these great ideas!

John Moran said...

It's such an interesting post. I really like it. You shared a really good information I appreciate it.a healthy smile is an important part of overall health. Thank you and keep sharing.

Shelby Dentist

Tate said...

Love these ideas for helping to teach your kids the importance of keeping their teeth healthy.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this great blog. What a great way to get kids excited and motivated with there http://technorati.com/blogs/dental-health-now.blogspot.com. I think its important to teach children at a young age about how important dental health is. Thanks again, this is great!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the idea. We will be doing the mouth with cut out teeth today at CLOVER KIDS! :D Appreciate you sharing!

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing such informative post with us. I am planning to use some of your ideas to create awareness among our children about their oral health. The song which you have mentioned in your post will definitely help people to understand the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day. Being a dentist in pueblo Colorado I really appreciate your ideas.

Unknown said...

Great ideas! I pour cola on a hard boiled egg & let it sit for 10 minutes. It turns brown and then we brush it clean with toothpaste. It freaks the kids out that soda can do that to their teeth!

Dentist in Chatsworth CA said...

These are the best ideas I have seen for teaching kids about dental health. Excellent job!

Kenneth Barn said...

What a great Idea! Thanks for the inspiration. Maybe I can do the same this year at our community here.

Brigitte said...

I used some of your ideas today. It went very well. Thank you. Brigitte.