More Fun Children’s Dental Health Month Activities

Happy and Sad Teeth Poster

Draw a line down the center of a piece of posterboard. Draw a picture of a happy face tooth on the top left half and draw a picture of a sad face tooth on the top right half. Talk to the children about which foods help teeth and which ones hurt them. Look through old magazines together. Tear or cut out pictures of food and put them in a pile. Look at one picture at a time and decide together if it probably has a high or low sugar content. Glue pictures of food with high sugar content under the sad tooth drawing and glue pictures of food with low suger content under the happy tooth drawing.

Fold a small paper plate in half. This will be a mouth the kids can open and close with their hand like a puppet. Using mirrors, have the children inspect their teeth and glue in mini-marshmallows where they have teeth. Glue on a red tongue to the lower half. These are especially sweet when someone has lost a tooth and leaves an empty space.

Yellow construction paper teeth, white paint (“toothpaste” – I scented mine with mint extract) and toothbrushes. Have chidren brush the yellow teeth with the white paint. I framed the completed ‘smiles’ with red construction paper lips!

Group Collage

Magazine pictures of smiles. (Not whole faces, just mouths – any kind – human or animal!)

* For an art activity relating to the dentist, cut out a tooth shape from a piece of paper and do string painting using dental floss.
* Or cut a tooth shape out of yellow paper and painted them using white paint and toothbrushes.
* Cut out red smiles and have them sponge paint 10 upper teeth and 10 lower teeth. Cut sponges in little squares and attach to a clothespin.
* Cut out a tooth shape and cover with various white materials…i.e.rice, cotton balls, white puff cereal, etc.
* Cut a toothbrush shape for the children. Paint the handle with a toothbrush and use yarn for the bristles.
* On a paper plate write,”I eat healthy foods for my teeth” and have the children glue pictures of food from magazines.

Also, take a styrofoam plate and cut out a mouth shape. Then take a ballpoint pen and draw teeth on the styrofoam. Have the kids paint the “teeth” with yellow tempra paint. Let dry. The next day mix up a baking soda toothpaste (baking soda, water and salt – sorry don’t have measurements) and have the children “brush” their teeth.

Make a healthy mouth using red paper for the lips, and white paper for the teeth shapes. Children can practice “brushing” these mouths using paper brushes. They can “feed the mouth” healthy foods by gluing on pictures of healthy foods.

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