More Dental Health Fun

Here are just a few other things to share this week regarding dental health.

We painted with a toothbrush.  The children took a yellow tooth shape and painted it at the easel using a toothbrush and white paint.  You can add a few drops of mint extract to the paint to make it smell like toothpaste.  It makes the whole classroom smell good and the children get even more of a sensory experience.

Of course there are also so many great books to read. Here are a few of the books we read this week.

I Know Why I Brush My Teeth is a book for older children in pre-k and is a discussion between a mother and her son while he is getting ready for bed.  It talks about the parts of a tooth, the names of the different teeth, what makes plaque, going to the dentist and cavities.  It's very educational and my class was very attentive and receptive.

Tooth Trouble by Jane Clark is another book the class really enjoyed reading.  I have that book in big book form and somehow that always captures their attention too.  This story is about a little walrus who has a toothache. The little walrus can't do anything that walrus' are good at because they use their teeth for almost everything but he refuses to go to the dentist.  His mind is changed when he visits his grandpa and sees the old walrus' broken tusks and finds out that grandpa never wanted to go to the dentist either. 

The other books in th photo are good too and explore different aspects of seeing the dentist.  Reading books is a great way to relieve a child's fear of the unknown. 

I'd love to hear about your dental health ideas.

Two Toothy Eggsperiments

I love science in the classroom and always take every opportunity to do fun experiments with the children.  Today's 2 experiments have to do with our teeth and how the things we eat and drink affect them.  Below are the items we are using for the experiments.

We'll be using eggs for this experiment.  4 boiled eggs and one raw egg should do the trick.  Take two boiled eggs and put them in a small clear cups and cover them with a dark soda, coke or pepsi will suffice.  We will cover the other two with coffee or tea, your choice.  The eggs will sit in these drinks all day and then overnight and the children can check on them periodically. 

For the raw egg we also put it in a clear cup but poured vinegar over it and let it sit overnight. 

As for discussion we talk about what the drinks and the vinegar might do to the hard white shell of the eggs.  The eggs were stained within 5 minutes but had a much deeper stain the next morning. The initial thought of the children were that the drinks were going to somehow crack the eggs.  I guess we shall see.

Here's what happened to the eggs in the soft drink. The took on a deep yellow brown colored stain.  The eggs in coffee were not quite as brown but still had a nice deep yellow stain.  We talked about how soft drinks and coffee and tea affected the egg shell and how they can affect our teeth.

We used toothbrushes and toothpaste to clean the eggs by using the following at our sensory table.  The children couldn't wait to get their turn!

As for the raw egg in the vinegar.  The vinegar dissolved the whole shell over night and here's what it looked like.  The kids were amazed!

It was very soft and squishy (the kids words) and almost transparent.

We all took turns squishing it gently to feel the difference between the hard shelled egg we put in yesterday and the shellless egg we took out of the vinegar today. 

The egg also expanded in size compared to the two boiled eggs that spent the night in the coffee and soft drink.  Very Interesting.

So all of that and what did we actually learn?

• Coffee and softs drinks stained egg shells and they will also stain our teeth.
• Brushing with toothpaste can help remove stains from eggshells (teeth).
• Boys and girls should not drink soda (that came from the children after the experiment)
• Taking care of our teeth is important so they don't get soft and mushy with cavities (again, this is the kids words).
• Coffee and soda make your teeth turn yellow (kids again)

As far as the egg in vinegar we discussed that if we do not brush our teeth that the pieces of food that stay in our mouths mix with bacteria and make a slimy stuff called plaque.  Plaque will build up on our teeth and start eating away at them like the vinegar ate the egg shell.  We will get cavities, which are little holes in our teeth. 

The children know we can protect our teeth by flossing (we practiced that), brushing and eating healthy foods and drinks and going to the dentist regularly.

Toothbrush Chart

This is a really simple activity that gets the kids thinking about brushing their teeth.  I think it originally came from The Mailbox Magazine but it is a simple project that you can make yourself.  It would be easy to make the little chart in Word and add a little toothy clipart.

I give the kids a simple toothbrush shape made out of a 12x18 piece of bright colored construction  paper that has been folded in half lengthwise.  The children glue the inside and fold and then add a half sheet of copy paper between the two sides to make bristles for their toothbrush. They then fringe cut the bristles. 

After they are done fringe cutting they add the little chart and write their name and we put them on the wall so that we can refer to them throughout the week as we talk about teethbrushing.  I allow the children to add stickers to their teeth brushing chart even if they have said they have not brushed.  I encourage them to do so when they get home and inevitably they come to school the next day excited to tell me they brushed their teeth which was all I was trying to accomplish in the first place.

 How are you encouraging dental health in your classroom?

My Tooth Book (Dental Health)

Here is an easy project to do with your class. Make a tooth book.  I googled tooth images and found one that I liked for the front of my book.  I popped it into power point, made it the size I wanted and then added the title of our book.  Each subsequent page has a sentence at the bottom which describes what the child was asked to draw. 

Prior to letting the children work on the book make sure that you have talked about whatever concept is on each page.  A child might have a hard time drawing foods that are good for their teeth if you have not had a discussion, read books, had a visiting dentist etc...

I always write the words for whatever the child has drawn. This helps Mom and Dad when they don't recognize whatever the object is and it also is one more way to expose the children to print.  They know what their picture is, so they can tell Mom what the word is too.

The little boy who drew this picture made me smile when we were doing some egg experiements (another post soon) and I showed them how soda and coffee can discolor teeth.  I asked the children what color teeth they wanted and most said white but this little boy said "gold".  I told him we need to work on the white ones first.  Anyway, I think his picture reveals a quest for gold teeth. He's quite an artist.

We talked about the items we can use to take care of our teeth and I showed them little flossers. I loved all the floss depictions after that.

And the last page is a storytelling/imagination question.

I love writing down stories the children tell.  This little girl has such an awesome imagination.  She has an answer for everything and it is always entertaining. 

So, there you have it.  An easy book that you can make using whatever questions or ideas you want.  The children love working on the books and parents get a good idea of what the children learned this week.

I hope you have fun making books in your classroom.