Tug-a-tooth

Students will learn about dental hygiene and get a physical workout as well.

A lesson plan for grade 2 Healthful Living

By Annette Swanson

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Related topics

• Learn more about dental hygiene, disease prevention, flossing, hands-on, health, role playing, teeth, and tooth brushing.

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Learning outcomes

In two lessons students will:

• learn vowels and consonants
• count number of teeth for child and adult
• learn correct way to brush and floss
• learn steps to saving a tooth.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 hours

Materials/resources

• cones in different sizes to model teeth
• red mat
• ropes cut into three feet each (one for every two students)
• plastic cups in color of clear, black, gold or silver, and ball caps of any color
• large cards with letters, t (four cards), o (two cards), e (two cards), h(two cards) and numbers twenty-two and thirty-two
• your school nurse can help you get a lab coat and mask, giant toothbrush, and model of teeth.

Pre-activities

Discuss dental hygiene with students. Use number cards to stress number of teeth for a child and adult. Let students do math for number difference. Have two groups of students use cards to spell words “tooth” and “teeth.” Have students that have vowels do jumping jacks and consonants do power jumps. Let students identify each. Discuss singular and plural nouns and identify each.

Activities

1. Discuss brushing and have students show movements of up and down, across and sideways.
2. Have students pair up and sit between cones on floor. Cones should be set up in form of teeth in the mouth. You can use different sized cones to show tooth size.
3. Place red mat in middle of cones for the tongue. Place cups on mat.
4. Explain flossing and use cups to explain sealants, cavities, fillings, and caps.
5. Have students choose to be plaque and fluoride. Have plaque outside of cones and fluoride inside of cones.
6. Students will use ropes and tug-a-war between cones flossing teeth. If fluoride wins, plaque does an exercise decided by teacher while fluoride jumps around inside of mouth until plaque returns. If plaque wins, he must jump or skip to red mat to get a cup to place on the cone to their right. Fluoride must do exercise decided by teacher until plaque returns.
7. Each time plaque wins, a different colored cup is used to cover cone as follows: clear or white, sealant; black or blue, cavity; gold or silver, fillings; and ball caps for caps.
8. If fluoride loses the caps, that team must raise their hands so the dentist (teacher) can remove tooth (cone) and place a spacer. A spacer is placed with plaque and fluoride facing each other, arms extended, palms together and moving arms from side to over head and continue pattern until teacher stops game.
9. Have students sit down and look around at how many teeth are missing after the game.
10. For special effect you can cover cones with white paper for teeth and bottoms with pink paper for gums.

Assessment

Quiz students about dental care.

Supplemental information

Comments

This lesson was used with first and second graders. First graders received dental care packages from other sources before the lesson.