Last Minute Lesson Plans For Teachers | 3 Projects for Healthy Smiles

Posted Jan 2018
Revised January 2022

It happens even to outstanding teachers: The best-laid lesson plans go awry, and you find yourself scrambling to prepare tomorrow’s classroom project. 

Keep smiling because we’ve got you covered with these three oral health lesson plans. They’ll teach your students the importance of healthy eating, proper flossing techniques and the benefit of fluoride, all in fun, easy steps. We’ve even thrown in a smile smarts quiz.

Happy Tooth/Sad Tooth

 

Grade Level: K-1
National Health Education Standards: 1, 7

Materials:

• Happy Tooth template, 
• Sad Tooth template, 
• magazines,
• scissors
• glue

Overview

Students will identify nutritious foods and drinks that can keep their teeth healthy and foods and drinks that can hurt their teeth.

Steps

1. Lead the class in reviewing the importance of teeth. Explain that teeth help us chew healthy food, which keeps our bodies healthy and helps us learn. The choices we make in our foods and drinks can help or hurt our teeth.
2. Instruct students to brainstorm a list of foods and drinks that they think would be healthy for their teeth and why. Guide and correct as necessary.
3. Repeat with a list of foods and drinks that would be bad for their teeth and why. Guide and correct as necessary.
4. Give each student a Happy Tooth sheet and a Sad Tooth sheet.
5. Instruct students to cut out healthy foods and drinks from magazines and glue them to the Happy Tooth.
6. Instruct students to cut out unhealthy foods and drinks from magazines and glue them to the Sad Tooth.
7. Discuss the findings. Are the healthy/unhealthy foods and drinks among the students’ favorites? What are ways to enjoy unhealthy foods without risking tooth decay? Explain smart snacking. 

Marshmallow Teeth Model

Grade Level: K-2

Materials:

• Baby teeth outline pattern,
• 2 large bags of jumbo marshmallows or playdough,
• scissors,
• glue,
• construction paper,
• yarn.

Overview

Students make a set of teeth out of marshmallows or playdough to study the differences between molars, incisors and canines. They will also observe how food particles get stock in between teeth and practice “flossing” using yarn. 

Steps

1. Print out the teeth outline or use it as a sample to draw your own with a magic marker on construction paper.
2. Break students into three groups:
   1. one group will flatten marshmallows for incisors,
   2. another will flatten and clip corners of marshmallows for canines and
   3. the third group will press in the middle of marshmallows to make molars.
3. Instruct each group to glue marshmallows to the paper in the correct order:
   • three molars on each side, starting in the back and progressing toward the front
   • ·one canine next to the third molar from the back and
   • four incisors across the front.
4. Let dry and use the model to point out how food can get stuck in ridges and spaces between the teeth.
5. Practice “flossing” with yarn.
6. Show them this short video about proper flossing. 

Fabulous Fluoride

Grade Level: K-4 

Materials: 

1. 2 hard-boiled eggs,
2. fluoride gel, 4 oz. to 6 oz. (available from your dentist and some pharmacies),
3. 2 clean plastic containers,
4. several cans of dark soda

Overview

Conduct this science experiment class to study how fluoride protects teeth enamel against tooth decay. 

Steps

1. Place a hard-boiled egg in one of the plastic containers and cover it with the fluoride gel or solution. Let it soak for 24 hours.
2. Place the “untreated” egg in the other container. 
3. Cover both eggs with soda pop and let soak. Change the soda pop every twelve hours for two days.
4. Discuss observations each time the soda pop is changed. The untreated egg will begin to dissolve slightly, and the shell will become stained by the dark soda pop. The treated egg should not show a reaction until much later. 
5. Show them this short video about fluoride. 
6. Discuss how fluoride strengthens tooth enamel and acts as a barrier against cavity-causing acids.

How Are Your Smile Smarts?

Grade Level: 3 and up 

Quiz time! Challenge your students to this smile quiz to gauge their oral health habits and knowledge. 

More Teacher Resources

• Our 5-part series Are You Up to the Challenge offers free resources, tips and ideas to teach good oral health tips and resources. Topics include:
  1. Say No to Cavities, 
  2. Sugar Swaps, 
  3. Protect Your Mouth,
  4. Think About Your Drink, 
  5. Healthy Holidays,
• The Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation makes various cash grants available to support your eligible oral health classroom project. Awards start at several hundred dollars. Some applications are accepted year-round, others have annual deadlines. 
• In-kind donations of toothbrushes are available, although quantities are limited. Learn more and apply here. 
• Our free Grin Magazine is full of quirky characters, exciting experiments, creative crafts and more to help your students maintain healthy teeth that last a lifetime. Download your copy today. 
• Our free educational videos on YouTube.
• Our Delta Dental Smiles team is available to conduct in-classroom outreach presentations in schools with a student population of at least 50% F&RL eligible. Other eligibility criteria may apply. Email outreach@deltadentalar.com for details or request outreach materials here.