Today we talked about dental health. My kids love to brush their teeth, but brushing for them usually consists of them sucking the toothpaste off and then asking for more. Today I thought I'd teach them about why we brush our teeth
I first did an egg experiment with them. The egg had been hard boiled (well, boiled...I have yet to be able to hard boil an egg perfectly) and then soaked in a glass of pop for about an hour. The pop made the egg turn brown just as it does our teeth. You can also use coffee or colored fruit juice to get this effect.
I showed them the now brown egg and explained that one of the reasons we brush our teeth is so our teeth stay nice and white. We put toothpaste on a toothbrush and brushed our egg. You can see in the picture the white spot on the egg which is where we brushed ;)
Next, we took a laminated tooth cutout which I previously drew brown spots on using a dry erase marker. Using toothbrushes, the kids brushed away the brown spots.
I then gave them a little toothpaste (shaving cream) to brush all over their tooth to make it clean and white. They loved getting a great big glob of 'toothpaste' on their toothbush!
Next, we were on to flossing. I saw this idea online somewhere. Using giant legos we practiced flossing (yarn) the food (playdoh) out of lego teeth
I've always wanted to this snack idea I've seen everywhere. Apple smiles using apple slices, peanut butter and marshmallows for the teeth
CHEESE!
Teaching for the glory of God:
To include God in the lesson, we talked about who gave us our teeth and why (also had to include "did God give us teeth to bite our brother?" just for Emma). haha. I also incorporated that we are to take care of the things God gives us. The way we take care of our teeth are to eat foods that are good for our teeth and to brush twice a day.
