Oral Hygiene Month

Among other important holidays in February was also the less recognized oral hygiene month. Lyla was busy with a week of activities learning about how and why we need to brush our teeth. It was very fun and also very helpful because now she seems to have a better appreciation for brushing her teeth. Here are a few of the activities we did that where fun easy and required little to no supplies.

Math & Snack Time:

We made these fun replicas of a mouth full of pearly white teeth using cut up apples, peanut butter and mini marshmallows. Lyla had to count out three marshmallows for each mouth and then once we had made all four sets of teeth she had to count how many teeth there were all together. great counting activity and using addition. Plus she really enjoyed eating them.

Discussion Time:

I told a story about how Tinkerbell had a sick tooth that was hurting her and what she had to do to make it feel better again. We spent time brushing Tinkerbells teeth to make them feel better.
Reading:

Some of the books we read during this week to learn more about our teeth and how we can take care of them were;

1. The Tooth Book, Edward Miller

2. How Many Teeth?, Paul Showers

3. Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth, Lugy Bate

4. The Bears Toothache, David McPhail (this was Lyla's favorite)

5. Rosie's Baby Tooth, Maryann Macdonald

6. Those Icky Sticky Smelly Cavity-Causing but...Invisible Germs, Judith Anne Rice (this is the book she is reading in the picture below.)

Science & Snack Time:

We conducted an experiment seeing what certain foods did to our teeth. We first ate an oreo cookie then looked in a mirror and I asked Lyla a series of questions about what her teeth looked/felt like. Then we ate some apple pieces and observed what happened to our teeth after eating the apple. She had a lot of fun looking at her teeth and what the effects were in the mirror.
Art:

We pretended the egg carton was our teeth and the paint was the tooth paste and Lyla need to brush the egg cartons teeth and see how "clean" she could get them. She attempted to brush her own teeth about 3 times during this project and I had to keep reminding her that the paint was yucky and that we were only pretending. So if you do try this craft with your little one you need to keep a close eye on them the whole time.