Thursday, July 7, 2011

Healthy Teeth Everyday

This week we focused on how to keep our teeth healthy.  
We learned proper brushing techniques and what foods were good and not good for our teeth.

I bought each child a toothbrush so we could do this exercise today.
They practiced in the mirror brushing their teeth, at the top, bottom, back, and brushing their tongue.
I explained to them how important it is to brush their teeth.

Now I will let them find out for themselves.
Preschool Playbook demonstrated to her students what fruit punch could do to our teeth if we do not brush. So I thought this was a great opportunity to have a hands on exercise that they could really understand by doing , and seeing it happen before their eyes!
 By pouring fruit punch in a bowl with a hard boiled egg they took their toothbrushes and began to brush the eggs like they were teeth. 
They could see the changes almost immediately!
I explained this is how our teeth stains from cola, tea, & fruit punches!
They really had a good time with this!

We also categorize foods that were "Good for Teeth" and "Not Good for teeth"
They loved this too, because they were raiding my pantry!
But they really did a great job!
I read The Tooth Book by Dr.Seuss
This book of course has a rhyming text and in a very humorous way
shows children animal teeth, people, and explains to them why they should take care of their teeth. 

Since the book tells us how many teeth we will have, we made a model of our teeth by rolling 
pink play dough in the shape of a mouth.
 Then added white beans for teeth!

During free play I set up a pretend dentist office. Everyone had to play the dentist. 
So our stuffed animals had to be the patients. They love playing these types of roles because they
can dress in scrubs and we have lots of pretend doctors office toys.
 I guess it's a vet's office now.

And here were their patient's patiently waiting!    
With reading material! :)

This book was a favorite of my children when they were young and I still have the book!
Little Rabbit looses her first tooth and tries to imagine what to do with her tooth.


Healthy Tooth Necklace

For this craft we used:
Tooth template (googled)
White cardstock
White yarn
Googly eyes
marker
glue
scissors

I traced and cut out the teeth. 
They added the eyes and drew a mouth.
They placed two of the tooth templates together with the yarn between and glued together for the necklace.
And that was it! 

Very fun week!
:)


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It's Playtime at hands on : as we growClassified: Mom


5 comments:

Nicolette said...

I love this whole theme. I'm pinning the playdoh and the beans. So cute! Another cute idea would be using those costume teeth you can get around halloween with the playdoh.

Lori said...

Yep! We had some at Halloween someone gave us for our party and I didn't want to give it to the kids! Haha! But I did.
Thanks so much for pinning and stopping by!

Brooke said...

What a great idea that I think my kids would benefit from. I think we may try this this week before our trip to the dentist the following week.

Aimee said...

Teeth are so important! I laugh because my son did this at preschool this year with soda. I was in the store that week he did this lesson and went to go buy a bottle of Pepsi when he blurted out to the cashier "Mom I will not let you by that- Soda (we say pop) is NOT HEALTHY!" I had to put it back! Thanks for sharing your idea with us on The Sunday Showcase ! PS- love the new look!

Unknown said...

Moms will surely appreciate the things you have done. I wish I could also send my niece there so he can enjoy these activities as well. Keep blogging.

austin tx dentists

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