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
PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:
http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html
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3 comments:
I've known so many dentists in Scottsdale that I couldn't afford writing all their names here. But one thing is so common about them; they always recommend a home pre dental class to my kids. What I mean is they are asking me to do a self-made introduction of dentists and anything about it before sending them to them. By this, this will help them to subside their fears of dentists, and eventually, to have it all gone.
And just like you, I've done some "dentists play time at home". Sometimes I am the dentists and they are the patients, and sometimes vice-versa, or sometimes I ended up as the tooth and they're the dental tools. And it really helps! Fear gone, bond made stronger.
I really enjoyed reading this post, big fan. Keep up the good work andplease tell me when can you publish more articles or where can I read more on the subject? All on 4 Coventry
Your website is really cool and this is a great inspiring article. Thank you so much. All on 4 Coventry
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