Dentists

Personal Social and Emotional Development

Talk about who the dentist is and what they do for us. Ask if children have been to the dentist before and how they felt when they went, were they excited? Did they open wide!? Talk about what our teeth do and why we need to keep them healthy.

Communication and Language

Learn the song ‘This is the way we brush our teeth’ and encourage children to participate with actions. Talk about the uses of our teeth and which food we need to eat to keep them healthy. Discuss with children how the dentist fixes our teeth if we eat too much sugar.

Physical Development

Encourage children to participate in making their own toothbrush using pipe cleaner or wool for bristles. Talk about how to keep our mouth healthy.  Carefully clean the model teeth we have using back and forth and up and down motions and circular motions.

Literacy

Read a book about the dentist and our teeth and discuss children’s views and experiences.

Mathematics

Discuss how long we should brush our teeth for, use timers to help identify the 2 minutes it should take. Provide mirrors for children to count the amount of teeth they have and assess the size of their different teeth.

Understanding the World

Discuss types of teeth animals have and why their teeth are different to ours. Discuss the difference between milk teeth in children and teeth in adults. Talk about the types of tools the dentist uses compared to a doctor.

Expressive Art and Design

Set up a role play area as the dentist’s surgery, encourage children to participate. Use toothbrushes to paint your own picture.

Focused Vocabulary

Dentist, teeth, toothbrush, toothpaste, brushing, mirrors, healthy teeth, decay, milk teeth, adult teeth etc.