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Dental Health Talking About Teeth
I. Why Teeth Are Important Have children pronounce the words 'teeth' and 'toothbrush.' Then have them try to say these words without their tongues touching their teeth. Ask them to say the word 'smile.' Then ask them to try to say 'smile' without their upper and lower teeth touching. II. Keeping Teeth Clean Note: Pre-school children are not yet capable of safe and effective flossing. If you choose to talk about flossing and show how it is done, be sure to stress that this is something to do only with the help of their parents. Brushing should be supervised also because an adult should discourage the child from swallowing the fluoride toothpaste. III. The Dentist and the Dental Helpers Art Paint With a Toothbrush A variation of this activity would be to make toothbrush prints. Try using toothbrushes of a variety of sized and with both and hard and soft bristles. Have the children dip the bristles of the brushes into paint and then press the brsitles on a sheet of paper to make designs. Shiny Tooth Activities A Visit to the Dentist "What do dentists and their helpers do?" Help the children to understand the dentist's job. Explain some of the things the dentist does, such as the following:
Allow plenty of time for the children to tell about their experiences at the dentist's office. Encourage them to talk about ways in which the dentist helps them, as well as abut any fears or concerns they might have. Ask the children to describe some of the things they might see in a dental office. they might include:
Provide some props for the children and then suggest that they do some role playing and take turns being a dentist, and a patient. To practice dental health skills of brushing and flossing, proved a clean, empty egg carton, an unused toothbrush and narrow ribbon. Turn the egg carton so that the sections are on top. Explan that the egg carton sections represent teeth. Encourage hyour child to use the toothbrush and ribbon to practice brushing and flossing the egg carton. Make several tooth puzzles. Cut simple tooth shapes from white posterboard or foam board and draw a happy face on each one. Cut each tooth into two or more pieces. Place each puzzle in a separate envelope. Encourage your child to assemble the puzzles. Make a dental health collage using pictures of dental items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, etc and tooth friendly foods like milk, fruit, veggies, etc. Cut them from magazines sale flyers or newspapers. As your child works, talk about how each item or food helps our teeth stay healthy. BB display: Happy Tooth, Sad Tooth Book Give each child four pieces of different colored construction paper. Ask the children to glue one tooth onto each piece of paper. Have the children place the pieces of paper on top of one another to make a book. Punch holes in the upper left and lower left corners of each book, and help them thread yarn through the holes and tie knots. On the front cover, have children write "Happy Tooth, Sad Tooth Book" or "My Tooth Book" and then decorate. Have each child draw a happy face on the second page of the book. Ask children to find pictures in old magazines of healthy foods that are good fro teeth, such as fruit, veggies,milk and so on. Have each child cut out and glue the pictures of healthy foods onto the Happy Tooth page. On the third page of the book, ask each child to draw a sad face, and then find pictures of unhealthy foods (like soda, candy and so on). Ask children to cut out these pictures and glue them onto the Sad Tooth page. On the last page of their books, have children write or dictate rules for happy teeth. (Younger children may illustrate the rules instead of writing them down.) rules may also be copied from a group list. After reading one or more of the Dental Health books (below), have the children work in a make believe dentist's office in your classroom. Set up the furniture in your dramatic play area to resemble a dental office setting, using a doll's high chair as a dentist's chair and dolls as dental patients. Provide some or all of the following props: new toothbrushes, small cups, nonbreakable mirrors, white shirts and rubber gloves. Make a dental bib by tying the two ends of a length of white yarn to separate spring type clothespins and then clipping the clothespins to a white or blue paper napkin. Also set up a waitin room with chairs and children's magazines. When all is ready, encourage your youngsters to role play dentists, hygienists and other office staff. Be sure to leave this center in place until after a field trip to a real dentists office so that they can incorporate what they learn on the field trip into their dramatic play. Books My Dentist, by Harlow Rockwell Songs The Dentist Says Please floss your teeth (tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic) Brush and floss your teeth each day! Flannelboard Story To prepare for this activity, cut out both sets of flannelboard puppets (tommy tooth and tommy tooth2). Attach them to popsicle sticks to make stick puppets or use them on the flannel board instead. Use the following story to show the children how unhealth foods can harm their teeth: Here's Tommy Tooth. He's a happy, healthy tooth with shiny, white enamel all over the outside of him. (show Tommy) Tommy is healthy because he's been chewing on good healthy foods like these. (show the apple, the green beans, the chicken leg and the milk) But something terrible happened to Tommy. He wasn't so sny anymoe and there was a tiney hole in his side (show decayed Tommy) Tommy couldn't figure out what was happening. But then he thought about the things that he'd been chewing lately. (show the candy bar, the cake, the cookie and the soda) Tommy knew that these weren't the healthy foods that kept him strong. But he couled only chew the foods that were sent to him and the hole in his tooth just got bigger and bigger. (show decayed Tommy with a very big decay) Then one day, the dentist fixed the hole in Tommy's tooth, and soon he was chewing healthy foods again. Tommy was glad that he was being given good foods to chew again. He knew that they would help him to stay healthy and strong. (show happy, healthy Tommy Tooth) Talk with the children about Tommy Tooth and encourge them to think about the way in which holes might also develop in their own teeth. Encourage them to eat healthy foods so that their teeth will stay strong and healthy. Food Mix all ingredients in a blender until the mixture is frothy and lumps have disappeared. This recip makes about 6 servings. Crunch and Clean
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