Today's Classroom Activities :

Know Your Teeth Activities

smiling face

A Great Smile
Health/Science Since both eggshells and our teeth contain calcium, collect eggshells and experiment to find out how sugar affects our teeth. Place eggshells into three clear glasses. Cover one eggshell with water and one with soda. The third eggshell will be uncovered. Allow the shells to sit for 24 hours, then remove them from the liquids to compare. What observations are made? What conclusions can be drawn?

Those Pearly Whites
Science Your students might like to compare the ingredients found in toothpastes, tooth powders and gels. Ask the school nurse, dentist or dental hygienist to come and visit the class and tell your students about the ingredients in each of these teeth-cleaning items and to also explain the chemical reactions that occur when they brush their teeth.

teeth

Know Your Teeth
Health Provide a diagram of the teeth in the adult human mouth. Ask students to record on the diagram over the next 24 hours the foods they eat, next to the teeth they think mainly work to break down that food type. Is any one type of tooth – incisor, molar, bicuspid – more important than another? Why?

Seeing Is Believing
Health/Science Provide four hard-boiled eggs and four clear glass jars. Fill two jars 2/3 full with cola and two 2/3 full with fruit juice. Place one egg in each jar. After 24 hours, remove one egg from the cola and brush it with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Record the results. Do the same with one juice-soaked egg. Repeat daily for one week, resubmerging the same eggs in their corresponding liquids. Leave two of the eggs (one in cola, one in juice) untouched for one week, then brush them at the end of the week. Record the results. What connections can students make between the experimental eggs and their own teeth?

Dental Experiments
Health/Science Take your students to www.crestkids.com and go to the kids link to find the "eggsperiment" that compares teeth enamel with an eggshell. This is a good, clear representation what can happen to teeth if careful attention is not paid to diet and dental care.