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2.22.2012

FUN Dental Health activities!

Did you know February is National Dental Health Month?

I think that is so fitting...considering all the treats we get at Valentines ;) What better time to focus on taking better care of our teeth...and mostly, passing that on to our children? This week our theme is TEETH and we did some fun activities yesterday that really helped the kids visually understand the importance of brushing and flossing. I got both of these ideas from The Imagination Tree...and then adapted them to use things we had on hand and to work with my kids particular ages and stages :)


First up we did a REALLY fun teeth brushing craft. All you need for this is some teeth cut out of yellow paper, some type of dark soda, paint brushes, old toothbrushes and white paint.



To get started we talked about how sugary treats and especially soda can be bad for your teeth. We discussed how these things can be ok in moderation, but when you DO have them you need to make sure you always brush really well after. I let the kids take paintbrushes and paint their yellow teeth with root beer. They were totally grossed out at how brown and splotchy they got...great teaching moment!! You could see them understanding what soda and sugar do to our teeth.



Once their teeth were all dry, we talked about how important it is to brush 2 times a day to get off all that yucky stuff and help our teeth be white and healthy. This is where the old toothbrushes and white paint came in :)


The kids loved transforming their yellow, stained teeth into beautiful white sparkling ones! Plus its always fun to paint with something different...like a toothbrush! :)

While the teeth were drying we did a GREAT flossing activity that visually showed the kids how important flossing is and gave them some really great practice.

All you need for this activity are some pieces of string, long white Mega Blocks and some playdough. I loved that we had some extra Chocolate Playdough left over from our Chocolate Playdough Valentines...it tied in perfectly and since it smelled like chocolate the kids could really understand what treats and sugar can do to your teeth.

You simply squish the playdough inbetween the spaces on the blocks and then show your kids the proper way to floss. They get to use the string to get out all the playdough and in the process learn a valuable lesson about the importance of flossing.

I really loved this activity. Again...you could see that they just got it. They were grossed out by all the brown stuff in the blocks, and definitely didn't want stuff like that inbetween their OWN teeth :)


So there you go! I hope you can use some of these quick, fun activities to teach your kids all about Dental Health! The timing for us was actually perfect since my daughter has a dentist appt today and has been quite nervous. It was great to talk about these things with her and help her feel a little more comfortable and show her how she can be in control of taking care of her teeth.

Have a great day!!



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19 comments:

Little City Farm

This is seriously brilliant. I love both of these crafts. There are some adults I know that could use the lesson, lol. Thanks for sharing at our party today.

Lindsay

This is so fun! What a great reminder for us as adults as well! So creative!

The Harding Family
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Cara :)

how fun!!! I wish I had soda on hand so I could do this with my wrestless kiddos! :) LOVE this idea!!

Love Sweet Love

At the risk of ME sounding like a broken record...you are the BEST mother ever!!! Seriously, after every post of yours I read I tell my husband...I want to be her. ha ha! Really though, you have such great ideas and I'm so grateful you share them because it makes less work for me to find fun things to do with my kids. I just know I can look at Toni's blog and see what she's doing this week!

Okay favorite thing ever...THEME's for the week?!?! Genius idea I tell you, Genius! Will you hate me forever if I 100% copy this idea? I've been trying to look for ways to better connect with my kids during the day (hence the reason I blog so much less) but it has just felt really chaotic. I think having a letter and theme of the week with dry erase notebooks would just bring so much order to it.

P.S. I wish you lived next door to me.

P.S.S. You probably already figured this, but I will also be stealing your St. Patrick's day breakfast idea- cinammon rolls are my weakness!!

P.S.S.S. Would you be interested at all in guest posting a fabulous kid craft/anything you want to share on my blog?? I would SO love to have you!!

Unknown

Fantastic ideas! I think these examples would really stick in a kids mind...or an adults for that matter!

Stephanie

What great ideas! I bet these totally helped to sink in the importance for brushing. I am definitely going to use this idea with my kiddos! Thanks!
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MiaB

What awesome activities for dental hygiene!! I love that it's so simple yet it teaches kids the importance of brushing & flossing :) Would like to invite you to share this with us here..

http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com/2012/02/sharing-saturday-8.html

Thanks so much,
MiaB

John Moran

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Unknown

Very cute! I'll try doing this activity with my niece and nephews if you don't mind. I heard from my Chandler dentist that it is important to teach kids about oral health; if they can make brushing and flossing a habit, the better. Learning about proper dental hygiene can help children grow up with confidence. Thank you for sharing this!

Unknown

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Unknown

Thanks for the ideas , i'd love to stick to your weblog as generally as i can.have a great day....
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Unknown

Next week, my nieces and nephews are going to be staying with me for a month, and I want to make their bedtime and morning routines fun. From what I've heard from the kids, they can't stand brushing their teeth, so I'm going to take your advice and make a game out of it. I've been thinking about all these different kinds of games that I could do, and I'm hoping they'll be as fun as I think they're going to be. Hopefully, I can make teeth brushing time more fun than they've ever experienced before!

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