Preschool Theme – Preschool Dental Health
February is Dental Health Month. Take the opportunity to teach preschoolers about the importance of good dental health. This curriculum theme will have preschoolers motivated to take better care of their teeth. Fabulous science activities will show preschoolers what really happens to their teeth if they don’t take care of them.
Preschool Dental Health Circle Time
Talk with preschoolers about which foods are good for their teeth and which foods are bad for their teeth.
Teach preschoolers how to correctly brush their teeth. Have them use their fingers to pretend.
Visit healthyteeth.org for information about teeth and gums to share with your preschoolers.
Get a Free Oral Health Kit for your Preschool Classroom from Colgate.
Preschool Dental Health Arts and Crafts
Tooth Cleaning Painting – Use a tooth template to draw a tooth on a piece of yellow paper. Have preschoolers “clean the tooth” by painting it white.
Dental Floss Painting – Give each preschooler a piece of dental floss. Fill a paper plate with paint. You can use several colors if you want. Have the preschoolers dip the dental floss into the paint and then, holding the dental floss with two hands, use it to paint on their paper.
Dental Collage – Make a dental collage by cutting pictures of food out of magazines. Grocery store ads are a great place to find pictures. Give preschoolers two paper plates each. In the center of one plate draw a happy face. In the center of the other draw a sad face. Have preschoolers cut out pictures of food and glue them to the happy plate if the food is good for their teeth and to the sad plate if the food is bad for their teeth.
Toothbrush Painting – Give each preschooler a toothbrush and a piece of paper. Fill a paper plate with paint and let the preschoolers use the toothbrush to paint on their paper. You can purchase cheap toothbrushes at a dollar store.
Preschool Dental Health Math and Science
Preschool Dental Lesson – Why the Dentist Fills Cavities. Give each preschooler an apple and have them carefully stab a fork into the apple several times. Ask the preschoolers to tell you the color of the inside of the apple. Talk about how cavities are small holes in our teeth. Let the apples sit out for a few days. The holes will turn brown. Ask the preschoolers to describe to you what the apple looks like where the holes are. Tell them that is why the dentist fills in our cavities and why we need to eat food that is good for our teeth.
Preschool Dental Lesson : Importance of Brushing Teeth – An egg shell is very similar to the enamel on our teeth. Soak hard boiled eggs over night in water, vinegar, and Kool-Aid and see how they change the next day. Each solution will change the hard boiled eggs in a different way. This is a great way for kids to see what different types of food can do to their teeth if they don’t develop good brushing habits.
Preschool Dental Health Music and Movement
Preschool Dental Health Pretend Play
Include a white smock, tiny dentist mirrors (these can be purchased at the grocery store), clean toothbrushes, a desk lamp with a flexible stand, and paper towels in your pretend play center. Ask preschoolers to take turns pretending to be the dentist and the patient. Be sure and tell preschoolers not to put things in their mouth. Explain that they can pretend to brush their teeth or look at their teeth by putting the props on the outside of their mouth and using their imagination.
