5 Fun Activities for Children’s Dental Health Month
Did you know that February is Children’s Dental Health Month? With all the hype around Valentine’s Day, it can be easy to overlook! But, Children’s Dental Health Month lends you the perfect opportunity to integrate information about tooth health and hygiene into your curriculum!
I know what you are thinking. Another set of activities that take time away from the core curriculum. But, I’m here to tell you that dental health activities are easy to integrate into your reading, writing, and math instruction. Here are my top 5 favorite activities I use in my classroom to celebrate Children’s Dental Health Month!
Dental Health Word Search
Start with vocabulary
Combine literacy and dental health with an engaging word search that uses important dental health vocabulary. I like to begin by teaching important vocabulary to students that relate to dental health. In the Dental Health Math and Literacy pack, you can find vocabulary posters to help introduce these important words.
Some of the words I like to teach include:
- the parts of a tooth
- dentist
- hygenist
- flouride
- cavity
- dental health
Learning these vocabulary words is an important part of students learning about dental health. Once they have been introduced to the words, providing them with opportunities to use the words in various ways is really important.
Vocabulary Activity
Then, I like to follow it up with a vocabulary-based activity like a word search. I’ve found that these Dental Health Word Searches are perfect for morning work or literacy centers during the month of February!
In my classroom, students are given a list of words to find that is broken up into two sections. Each section is assigned a color. Students use the assigned color to highlight the word when they find it. I’ve found that this practice helps all students be successful when it comes to finding the words because the colors break up the word search.
Also, you can easily differentiate this activity by using a longer word list for your learners who are ready for more of a challenge!
Teeth We’ve Lost Graphing Activity
I bet your students have no idea that their teeth can become a math activity! We start this Teeth We’ve Lost activity with one simple question: How many teeth have you lost? Students record their answers, and then I allowed a little time for sharing because there were always lots of tooth fairy stories!
We would start by creating a tally chart of our class and the number of teeth each person has lost. Then we would create a picture graph together as a class. Students wrote their names on a tooth cutout or sticky note and then added them to our graph.
After we have completed the graph it is time to dig into the data. We would discuss the data by identifying which category has the most teeth under it, and which has the least. I also liked to weave in questions like “how many more people have lost 2 teeth than 1 tooth?”
Once the whole class graph is complete, I liked to reinforce the concept of graphing by having students complete their own bar graphs. They use the whole class picture graph to fill in their bar graph and answer a few more questions to help them practice reading graphs and analyzing data.
I would usually leave the whole class graph displayed for the whole month of February, and we even change it if students lose more teeth! It is a great living document to reference as we work on other dental health activities and even math activities!
Losing a Tooth Personal Narratives
Have you ever experienced a student losing their first tooth at school? If you have, you know the pure excitement and anticipation for the tooth fairy. So, I decided to harness these emotions to help students practice their narrative writing during Children’s Dental Health Month!
As always, I have my students start their Losing a Tooth Personal Narratives by planning their writing. You can either do this by having them sequence the events or jot down some keywords about losing a tooth.
We then jump into writing their narratives. I always make sure to include time for students to share their work. If you are like me, it will make your day to hear their tooth fairy stories!
For students who haven’t lost a tooth yet, I help guide them through imagining what the experience would be like. I usually pull this group together, have them close their eyes, and tell a story of losing a tooth and the tooth fairy. Then, at intervals, I stop and have them write down how they feel or what they pictured in their mind so that they can fully participate in the writing activity.
Tooth Fairy Bump
We can’t get through Children’s Dental Health Month without a fun math game! Because of this, the Tooth Fairy Bump is one of my favorite ways to practice addition during February.
You will need:
- 2 or 3 dice per group
- 10 counters per student
- Tooth Fairy Bump Board (game board with sums)
Students play this addition game in pairs. Each student takes a turn rolling the dice. They add up the numbers and then place one of their counters on the sum on the game board. The first person to use all of their counters is the winner.
Here is the catch though: If a student rolls a sum that is already on the board, they can bump the other student’s counter off and claim the space for their own! Don’t worry, I promise the game won’t last forever, because if a student puts two of their counters on the same sum, the space is locked, and they cannot be bumped.
Could you use more engaging math practice ideas? Check out this blog post for more fun math fact ideas!
Happy Tooth Craftivity
We can’t wrap up our study of dental health without a Tooth Craftivity! Throughout the month, students have been learning about how to keep their teeth healthy, so I use this craftivity as an informal assessment to see what stuck with them.
First, students get to color and decorate a cute tooth character. They add a face, arms, and legs to bring the tooth to life. Then I give each student a speech bubble. In the bubble, they write 1 fact about keeping their teeth healthy.
I can easily circulate and see what students have taken away from our study. It is amazing to see how many facts they pick up on over the course of the month! We then hang up our tooth characters on our hallway bulletin board to help show the whole school what we’ve learned and how to keep teeth healthy.
Children’s Dental Health Month Just Got Easier!
Can’t fathom adding anything else to your plate for February? No worries! If you want to celebrate Children’s Dental Health Month in your classroom, I have you covered with a comprehensive Dental Health Activities resource!
Grab all of the activities listed above PLUS MORE to integrate dental health into your math, writing, and reading instruction. You even have access to digital activities that allow you to integrate technology too! There are extra activities to take you above and beyond the core curriculum. The molar the merrier, right? (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)
Save these fun dental health activities for later
Be sure to save this pin to your favorite classroom Pinterest board, so you’ll be ready to rock Children’s Dental Health Month in your classroom!
