Healthy Teeth Interest in Preschool
Healthy Teeth week in preschool! It is so important to talk about caring for your teeth with young people. Dental health habits start when they are small and continue for their lifetime. We did a lot of fun activities. Some of the favorites are included here.
Toothbrush painting was a hit. We simply practiced holding and using a toothbrush by using it to paint on paper. You culd also paint on other surfaces like egg cartons etc.
This is more of a process art than a "pretty art" but so much fun and the kid's loved it.
Making Toothpaste was actually easier than it sounds. (see recipie in photo) We talked about toothpaste being the helper in theit mouth. It helps get all the germs and plaque off theit teeth. In small groups they scooped ingredients and mixed. I taped each bag shut at the top to prevent spillage and attached a parent note with all the ingredients listed so parents could know what was in the bag.
The kids were super excited to make their own toothpaste!
The Doll toothbrushing station was popular as well. I demonstrated how to brush your teeth at circle time and put out several dolls and tooth brushes for the children to free play brushing the doll's teeth during centers.
This activity we reapeated for two days. by the third day they were getting silly with it so I changed the teeth brushing station from dolls to cut up strips of egg cartons ( to pretend they are teeth) to brush. This worked well too.
We also learnt about flossing your teeth. I added a different tooth brushing station. I also demonstrated this at circle time and set out large building blocks with play dough smooshed in the creacks. The children used floss and tooth brushes to clean the "teeth".
This was a big hit! They loved using the tooth brushes the most but they tried the floss. Next time instead of real floss I will try using embroidery floss as the floss. It would be easier for them to handle and use.
The Pinch N' Put is one of my favorite activites no matter what my theme is. Simply add two clear plastic bottles with wide opening and some kitchen pinchers / tongs. I change up the items to match the theme. For Healthy Teeth week I added tooth brushes, white pom poms to act as teeth, small floss containers and wrapped up floss picks. The children use the pinchers to put the iteme, one by one, into the bottles. They love this activity and it is so simple and easy to do!
We did several creative activites. We made a tooth paper bag puppet, we painted cardboard egg cartons white (for teeth) and added faces and the most fun was cutting sponges in the shpe of teeth and sponge painting on black paper. The black paper was a great contrast to the white paint. This was a little messy on the hands but so much fun to do.
There are many ideas for Healthy Teeth week! Soon I will post some resources you can download to help you with your theme. Happy palying!