brush your teeth! GRAND dental health activities Littles will love!

2 days ago

Thursday, February 27, 2025

There’s lots to smile about today!

The weekend is getting closer and that’s always something to celebrate!

It’s also the last Thursday of February

which means that March is just around the corner and Spring is sure to follow!

And, of course, we’re smiling because YOU stopped by to visit!

THANK YOU!

Before we bid adieu to February though,

today’s post focuses on DENTAL HEALTH MONTH!

We’re sharing activities we can use to reinforce

the importance of good oral hygiene and dental care with our Littles!

When we were each teaching,

we’d usually devote time in February to learning about good dental care!

A dentist would make an annual visit to our classrooms

and our kindergartners would get

a new toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste to take home

as well as a few red tablets that identified areas that needed help.

Do you remember these little tablets

and the way our teeth and gums turned bright pink after chewing them as kids?

Since we were reminiscing,

we thought we’d share a few of our favorite hands on activities

- ones that intrigued and/or interested our 5-year-old students -

so that you could give them a try with your Littles!

Your grandkids, your own children, those you care for or teach…

They will all love these ideas!

This was always a powerful lesson that Laura did with her class each February!

It’s a great reminder for Littles to take good care of their teeth

and the importance of brushing your teeth twice each day!

So, if you can spare an egg or two for this experiment, give it a try!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• 1 or 2 hard boiled eggs (do not peel these eggs!)

• soda, coffee OR dark juice

• water

• 1 drinking glass per beverage being tested

• a toothbrush

• a tube of toothpaste

Before you begin, explain how certain food and drink can stain our teeth and how brushing our teeth keeps our smiles clean and bright!

Show your Littles a hard boiled egg and ask them why they think you might be using an egg to demonstrate how important it is to brush your teeth. Their answers are always so interesting! Explain that an egg is white (an obvious connection) and that it has a hard outer layer to protect the inside just like our teeth. Older Littles might enjoy learning about teeth enamel. NOTE: This can be done before Step #1 below OR even before Step #2 if you prepped the eggs before your Little(s) were with you.

DIRECTIONS

Step #1 - This first step needs to be done earlier in the day or even the day before. Soak each hard boiled egg in one of the beverages you are testing. (We soaked one egg in coffee and one in plain water.) Let these soak for several hours or overnight. This process will stain the egg in the dark beverage which represents your teeth before they are brushed.

Step #2 - Gently remove each egg from glass filled with liquid. Compare the two eggs. What do you notice? Challenge your Littles to clean the stained egg (your “tooth”) by first rinsing it in water. Does that clean the egg so that it looks like the white one?

Step #3 - Show your Little the toothbrush and have them predict what will happen if you scrub the egg with the toothbrush, using water only to do so! (At this point, many Littles will start to giggle! Using a toothbrush to clean an egg? So silly!) Test your theory. What do you notice? Does the toothbrush alone clean the egg?

Step #4 - What else could you do? Hopefully your Littles (or, if needed, you) will suggest using toothpaste to scrub the stained egg. (Toothpaste on an egg? Get ready for more giggles!) Start in a small area and gently scrub the egg with the toothbrush, rinsing occasionally. What happens now? Continue scrubbing until more of the stain disappears (or the egg shell cracks)!

While the egg will still be lightly stained (especially after sitting in a dark beverage for a long time), your Little will see firsthand how important regular brushing and using toothpaste is for a sparkling smile!

While we are no longer in the classroom,

once a teacher, always a teacher!

Right?

As GRANDS we love to plan activities with our Littles

that build in fun moments of learning and sharing!

Do your Littles know how many teeth they have? (Most Littles have all 20 of their baby teeth by the time they are 2-3 years old.) Together, look in a mirror and count them! If you are comfortable doing so, open your mouth, too, and show your Little your teeth, too. This is a great opportunity to talk about your own teeth and how you’ve taken care of them over the years!

🦷 A Model of Your Mouth!

Then try making a model of your Little’s mouth! All you need is construction paper, scissors, a pen, glue and mini marshmallows!

Take a piece of construction paper (we used pink to show the gums!) and fold it in half. From the folded line, cut the paper into a half circle big enough to hold 10 teeth on each side. Open the paper back up and draw 10 small circles on each side as shown below.

Then let your Little glue a mini marshmallow (or bead or crumpled paper) on top of each circle.

For Young Littles Try This!

You could also use playdough and pony beads to make a model of your teeth. We used pink playdough and pushed white pony beads into it to represent the teeth. (Your Little can hunt through the pony beads to find the white ones, too!)

Toddler and preschool Littles will have fun doing this over and over again but only if they are no longer putting things in their mouths!

🦷 Count Those Teeth!

Here’s a fun activity to work on math skills with your Littles! Again, all you need is a piece of construction paper (we used pink), scissors, a pen and small white objects (we used mini marshmallows but little pieces of crumpled paper is a great option, too).

Again, fold your paper in half and cut from that fold to make a half circle. Open up your paper and draw 20 circles or X's (10 on each side) on the paper, as shown below. For school-age Littles, draw 32 circles or X's (16 on each side) to represent how many adult teeth people have!

Playing with Young Littles!

Three and four year olds will have fun adding teeth to their mouth! Depending on their skill level, show them a number (usually between 1-6) and, if needed, say the number together and clap how many before adding that number of white objects to their mouth. Keep doing this until your Little has filled their mouth with "teeth"!

Playing with Older Littles!

School-age Littles would love turning this into a board game. Make two mouths ahead of time (or one for each person playing). Take turns rolling one or even two dice and then adding that many white objects to your mouth. The first person to fill their mouth with "teeth" is the winner!

You could even practice subtraction skills with your Little by starting with a full mouth of “teeth” and then taking turns by rolling the dice and taking that many objects away during each turn. Play continues until one person loses all their "teeth"!

🦷 Floss Those Teeth!

Littles can practice their flossing skills by using an empty ice cube tray, an egg carton or even big Lego or Duplo blocks as teeth! Put some playdough in the spaces between and around the ridges of your “teeth”.

Then give your Little a piece of string to practice flossing.

While they are using the string to get the “food” out, explain how food can get stuck between our teeth and how toothbrushes can only brush from three sides of our teeth. That’s why flossing is so important!

🦷 Toothbrush Fun!

Do you have an extra toothbrush tucked into a cupboard somewhere! If so, try a few of these activities!

EXPLORING - Infant Littles will love the tactile experience of you rubbing their arm or leg with a toothbrush. Give them a wet toothbrush and let them explore on their own! Toddler and Preschool Littles would be kept busy with a bowl of water, a toothbrush and some plastic toy animals or a plastic doll. Let them brush the toys’ teeth or simply scrub the toys! Older Littles might be challenged if you add some sticky food (jelly or syrup work well) on a plastic spoon and let it sit and dry for a short time. Then let them try to clean it… another great way to reinforce the importance of brushing!

MEASURING - Give Older Littles (preschool and older) a toothbrush and several small items that are the same (raisins, buttons, coins, cheerios). Let your Little measure how many of each is the same length as the toothbrush!

PAINTING - Provide a variety of toothbrushes and paint and paper and allow Littles to paint freely using the toothbrushes instead of paintbrushes.

While February is Dental Health Month,

the practices of taking good care of your teeth is worth repeating

any time of the year!