Dental Health Preschool Activities - Pretend Dental Visit

I am always trying to include healthy lifestyle activities into my lesson plans. These dental health preschool activities are so much fun. Give this a try; your preschoolers will love it and start to learn how to start taking care of themselves.

I can't think of a better time to teach about and to continue dental care that their parents have begun at home.

This particular activity was sent to my by one of my readers who is a dental hygienist. I've tried it and what a hit!


Pretend Dental Visit

As a Dental Hygienist I love teaching my kids how to brush and floss! Have a talk about visiting the Dentist day.

Read a visiting the Dentist book to your class at circle time; you can get one at nearly any book store in the kid section or the local library. Talk about the proper way to brush and floss their teach.

HINT: Almost any Dentist, if you ask, will give you dental goody bags that have a toothbrush, floss, and toothpaste for kids, just let them know it is for a preschool lesson, I'm sure they'll be happy to donate-if not give you a good deal on purchasing the bags. I show my kids what's in the bag and how to use each item.

To help them understand how to use their goodies, I have 3-4 kids stand in a line and pretend they are teeth! You can get creative by making teeth out of pillow cases or just painting their faces. Next you place a long enough pink fabric ( I use a crib sheet cover that I had lying around) to go over their feet (for the bottom teeth). Have all the children stand really close to each other and use a giant toothbrush (I made one out of a card board box and construction paper) to brush the teeth.

Be sure to brush under the pink fabric which is the "gum tissue"; tooth bugs love hiding under the gum tissue.

Next you floss the teeth; I use a long white shoe lace and demonstrate flossing by taking the shoe lace between the children and flossing from their heads down to their feet, making sure the floss goes under the pink fabric/gum tissue-because again that's where the tooth bugs hide.

You'll probably get lots of giggles! I have a picture I drew of a tooth germ, I call a tooth bug, and we talk about how these little critters cause cavities if we don't brush and floss.


These wonderful ideas are coming to me all the time. Thanks so much for sharing this for all of us.

If you like these dental health preschool activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner a try.


http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


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Preschool Halloween Activities - Halloween Hunt and Bite the Ghost

I have received so many requests for preschool Halloween activities!This is such a fun time for children and preschoolers are part of the mix.

It is important to keep this fun and not too scary. Remember these are 3-5 year olds; try to keep the "scary" part to a minimum but add lots of fun to the event.

Here are a couple of fun ideas that you can use with your class. Preschoolers love treasure hunts and to search the sand table for the large Halloween confetti is so much fun. Then use the "treasure finds" for sorting, counting, color recognition, shapes, etc.

Sand Table Halloween Hunt
This idea is great for 3's-- In your rice or sand table, sprinkle some of that neat shiny confetti--for fall you can use leaves, for Halloween you can use pumpkins or bats, etc. Have children go on a "treasure hunt" in the rice or sand and find the little pumpkins, bats, etc. When they have found all the confetti, each child can count how many they found-- you can also give the kids magnifying glasses to help with their search--the rice table has never looked so neat!


Play Bite the Ghost
Hang string from ceiling attaching other end to a frosted ghost shaped sugar cookie (I write children's name's on them). Children locate their name, place their hands behind their back and bite their cookie until it is gone! This is another version of bobbing for apples but everyone's germs stay on their own cookie and all of the children can (if you want to) play at the same time. This works well with preschoolers that have difficulty waiting, especially on an exciting day of a Halloween party! I place tables below the hanging ghost cookies so that when they fall, the children can pick up the pieces and finish them. This avoids upset to cookies breaking on the floor.


If you like these preschool halloween activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com