Learning Together Joyfully: March – “Tooth-tastic” Dental Care
World Oral Health Day is on March 20 and National Dentist Day is March 6. This is a perfect month for all of us to be reminded of the importance of maintaining our dental health. Keeping a child’s teeth healthy and strong is important to their oral and overall health and development. With proper care people can keep their teeth for a lifetime. Without proper care, children can suffer from dental disease, such as cavities and gum disease, and may have trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating and suffer emotional distress. Teeth are an important part of a children’s speech development and self-confidence; their baby teeth play a significant role in the placement of permanent adult teeth. Read more about Oral Health for Children – A Parent’s Guide.
1. Read together 📚
- The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss. This is a fun read in the traditional Dr. Seuss style. This one will make your child laugh out loud as they learn about teeth and what they do! Dr. Seuss shares the basics of maintaining healthy teeth in his distinctive rhyming and rhythmic verse.
- How to Catch the Tooth Fairy by Adam Wallace. From losing your first tooth to waiting for the arrival of the mysterious tooth fairy, This book celebrates this special event in any child’s life with a lively story of the tooth fairy’s escape from some very determined kids! Get ready to laugh along with this zany story as the tooth fairy dodges traps, drool, dental floss webs, and more in this fun bedtime book for kids that combines silly rhymes and bright illustrations with STEAM concepts!
- Andrew’s Loose Tooth read by Robert Munsch. Andrew bites into an apple and his loose tooth hurts. So his dad tries to take it out with a big pair of pliers, but no luck. So they call the dentist, who tries to pull it out with his car, but no luck. So Andrew’s friend Louis calls the Tooth Fairy. She comes on her motorcycle and tries to pull out the tooth, but with no luck. So it’s up to Louis —he uses pepper to make Andrew sneeze the tooth all the way across town.
- Brush your Teeth Please by Leslie McGuire. This fun and interactive pop-up book helps to illustrate the proper brushing technique. Grandparents might consider purchasing this for younger grandchildren. Whether a reminder to brush your teeth up and down like a bear, don’t forget the back teeth like the hippo or to floss like a shark, this delightful book will help encourage and teach children proper dental hygiene.
- Going to the Dentist by Anne Civardi. This book illustrates the visit of siblings, Jake and Jessie Judd to the dentist. It walks children through the entire visit, from the dentist checking and cleaning their teeth to filling Jake’s first cavity. It also highlights the importance of taking care of their teeth by eating healthy foods and proper brushing technique.
- Just Going to the Dentist by Mercer Mayer. This funny and heartwarming style of writing, also walks children through every step of a visit to the dentist, from X-rays to having a cavity filled and even down to the treat at the end. This book does mention a shot before the treatment as well as the drilling of the tooth, and although realistic, your child’s age and anxiety should be considered before reading this one.
- All About Teeth by Mari Schuh. This author has a variety of non-fiction books about oral health and general teeth information. All About Teeth illustrates the different types of teeth, what they look like, what they do, and most importantly how to take care of them.
- Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World by Selby Beeler. What do you do when you lose a tooth? Do you put it under your pillow and wait for the tooth fairy? Not if you live in Botswana! Children there, throw their teeth onto the roof. In Afghanistan they drop their teeth down mouse holes, and in Egypt they fling their teeth at the sun! Travel around the world and discover the surprising things children do when they lose a tooth. The book perfectly captures the excitement and pride that children experience when a tooth falls out.
DENTAL HEALTH SONGS
- This is the way we brush our teeth
- Brush and Floss
- Stop Zombie Mouth
- Toothbrushing Song
- Hey Kids! Learn How to Brush your Teeth
- From Sesame Street:
- Tooth Fairy Song
2. Create together: Puzzles, Crafts, Drawing and Constructing 🧩
Having routines in place to practice good oral health and to prevent dental disease is important. The following activities encourage children to have fun and learn more about good oral habits.
- Within your classroom dramatic play area or at home, you may wish to create a Pretend Play Dental Centre with the following templates:
- A Dental Health Chart (which can also be using for a graphing activity)
- A Dental Appointment Book Cover (Print one copy)
- Pages to add to the Dental Appointment Book (Print several of this page to create a booklet)
- Check out the downloadable package of Dental Health Literacy and Math Activities.
- Play the Roll & Cover Playdough Game with these templates that include instructions. This activity will help children with number recognition and counting. Roll 1 die and place a playdough tooth on top of the matching number.
- Children can be reminded of good oral health habits by completing this Crossword Puzzle and Maze activity.
- Familiarize children with upper and lower case letters with this Word Clip Activity: Tooth Fairy Upper Lower Case Clip Cards. Print, cut and laminate the following letters: ab, c-e, f-h, i-k, l-n, o-q, r-t , u-w, x-z. Have the children put a clothespin on the “pillow” that has the corresponding lower case letter.
- Consider using these downloadable Tooth Calendar Numbers at home to play math games or in the classroom with your calendar and other math games: 1-3, 4-7, 8-11, 12-15, 16-19, 20-23, 24-27, 28-31, 0 and Blank
3. Explore, Engage & Interact together 🌍
- After singing the Tooth Fairy Song and reading How to Catch the Tooth Fairy by Adam Wallace, download the Tooth Fairy Pack, from 3dinosaurs.com which includes 65 pages in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 with writing, sequencing, pocket chart cards, missing pattern activities, tooth care booklet, letter to the tooth fairy and so much more!
- This simple Toothbrush Pocket Chart Activity can be used with children learning to read colours. Print, cut and laminate onto legal size paper. Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Have children put the corresponding toothbrush near the correct sentence.
- Dental Graphing Activity. For a group activity, print off the top of the chart and attach it to your pad of paper on your easel OR laminate the chart and have children complete it individually and tally the answers.
- A Tooth Brushing Chart for parents can be used to motivate children to brush regularly.
- Add a Colour Flip Book with a Toothbrush attached, then duplicate these templates: Cover with instructions; Blue; Brown and Purple; Orange and Yellow; Pink and Gray; Red and Green; Black and White
4. Healthy Living: Movement & Nutrition 👭
- Encourage children to eat the right foods with the following Tooth Activity. Print 2 tooth patterns and ask children to cut them out and label one Happy and one Sad. Have them draw a happy or sad face on each.
- After copying the food images, ask children to cut them out and glue them onto the appropriate to create a collage.. Ask them to think about what foods make a tooth happy and what foods make a tooth sad.
- Engage in a Dental Health Science Teeth Experiment to emphasize the effects of different drink choices on our teeth and the importance of brushing.
- Dance and move to the:
5. Reflect: Thoughts of the Day about Learning 💭
