Healthy Kids Activities - Teeth #3

Today was all about the why.

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Why are teeth important?

Teeth bite and chew food so that it is small enough to be swallowed.

Teeth help you to form words so that you can speak properly.

Your first teeth are called deciduous teeth (dee-sid-you-us)
	They are called deciduous because like the leaves of a deciduous tree you lose them.
	You have 20 deciduous teeth and they start growing into your mouth from about 6 months of age.
	All 20 teeth have grown into your mouth by about two and a half years of age.
	From about 6 years of age until 12 years of age you start to lose them, BUT that doesn't mean you don't have to look after them.
	They are there to keep a space for your second lot of teeth (like saving a seat for someone – if they don't save the place the second teeth can't fit very well!). Your second teeth are called permanent teeth You will have 32 permanent teeth. They are called permanent teeth because if you look after them you can have them for all of your life. They begin growing through your gums from about 6 years and all 32 have finished growing into your mouth by about 18 – 25 years. The permanent teeth push out your deciduous teeth as they grow into your mouth. ******************************************************** Now to our Activity!  Different teeth do different jobs. Incisors (in-si-zors) are for cutting. Canines (cay-nines) are for tearing. Molars and pre-molars (say mow-lers) grind up food until it's small enough to swallow. Each type of tooth has a special shape so that it can do its job. Print THIS chart I drew what I thought to be each shape of the tooth. Then we made a chart and counted how many of each tooth we all had. This took about 10 minutes because they had mirrors and were really making sure thats what was in their mouth. Then you need to get an orange. Peel it and put one slice into each bag.  I have 2 kids so each kid got 3 slices, so 3 bags each. Give them a plastic spoon and tell them that is their teeth. so... Inscisor Cuts, so cut the orange with the "tooth" spoon. Next up Canine tears, so tear with "tooth" spoon or hands on the next bag. Then the Molar, which grinds and mashes, so use the "tooth" spoon to do it with the next bag. We were very into this activity. when we were done, we tried to eat orange slices only using our back teeth, then front teeth, then canines. Be careful, lots of juice drips from their mouths as they laugh from not being able to do it!  Hehehehe.