1-2-3 Come Do Some Tooth Activities With Me!

I never know when to start posting dental hygiene activities.  I always did our tooth unit the last week of February, simply because there was so much else to cover at the beginning of the month: Groundhog Day, 100 Day, Valentine's Day, (We also visited a post office), as well as  President's Day.  Anyone else's brain out there spinning?

"Everybody in this place, please put a smile on your face!"  is a just-for-fun poster that I designed.  I share it with my kiddos when I launch our dental hygiene activities.  Click on the link to grab the Smile Awhile FREEBIE.

My Y5's enjoyed our "Terrific Teeth" unit; I was always amazed that there was at least one child every year that had never visited a dentist!  Today's blog will feature some of my most popular dental hygiene activities.  Most of them are "print & go" to make it easy for you to toss a few tooth-themed activities into your busy day. 

For those of you who like to start your themed-units with a KWL, click on the link for a dental hygiene one you can do as a whole group, as well as a template your students can do in their writing journals.  Dental Hygiene KWL

Another great way to learn where your students stand on dental hygiene is to do some graphing activities. 

Have they lost a tooth?  Do they have a cavity?  Have they ever been to the dentist?  Would they like to be a dentist? What color is their  toothbrush and how many times do they brush a day? 

These are some of the eight tooth-related graphing questions you can ask your kiddos.   Click on the link to view/download the 8 Dental Hygiene Graphs.

Sending a brushing chart home with your students, is also a fun way for them to let you know that they are practicing good dental hygiene.  I've designed 4 toothbrushing charts that children can choose from. 

They can X off the chart, cover with stickers or color the various icons as they brush.  Click on the link to view/download the 4 Brushing Charts.

Studying dental hygiene provides a wonderful way to build vocabulary.  To help you, I made an alphabetical list of 101 words that are associated with dental hygiene. 

To reinforce these new words, I've included several word searches plus a dental hygiene word journal, where students can record vocabulary as well as definitions.

Click on the link to view/download the Dental Hygiene Word packet, which is great for your Daily 5 word work activities too.

After you've watched some dental hygiene videos and perhaps had a dentist visit your classroom, choose several of these graphic organizers to help reinforce the information that your students learned and practice their writing skills in a visual way.  Click on the link to view/download the dental hygiene graphic organizer packet. 

Another way for students to gain more dental hygiene knowledge, is by doing a Flip For Facts File Folder activity. 

Take your students to the computer lab, so they can look for information on teeth and how to take care of them. 

Students jot down their favorite dental hygiene facts and then write them on the template.  I've included tips and links of how to make citations for information found Online. 

This activity is a great precursor for writing a report, which even a kindergartener can do.  Click on the link to view/download the Dental Hygiene Flip For Facts File Folder packet. 

To incorporate some math skills with your dental hygiene activities, I also designed a Timothy Tooth Counting booklet with a matching center activity. 

Students trace and write the numbers and number words, and then draw the appropriate number of teeth in Timothy's mouth.  Click on the link to view/download Timothy Tooth's Counting Booklet.

The center activity has large tooth posters.  Using dry erase markers, children trace and write the numbers and number words and place that many tooth tiles inside the mouth. 

There's also templates for doing some subtraction activities as well.   Click on the link to view/download the Counting Teeth Center Packet.

Finally, the Dental Hygiene Number Puzzles are another way to integrate math, and help practice counting to ten, counting backwards, and skip counting by 10s to 100. Click on the link to grab these FREEBIES.

Thanks for visiting.  If you're still looking for more tooth-themed FREEBIES to round out your week, click on the link to check out my dental hygiene Pinterest board.

Since it's a wind-chill snow day, I have lots of time to play with my "to do" pile.  Hopefully besides sorting through my desk, I'll get to actually design a few things.  Wishing you an energy-filled day. 

 "I want to get close to you, like shoes with laces, teeth with braces, and words in sentences without spaces." -Unknown